August 27, 2009 "Just two kids having a good time"

Well Familia- let me just tell you something. Today has been CRAZY!!!!!!!!! But SOOOOOOOOOO fun. We went to Hannibal MO with three of the senior couples. These senior couples are seriously my three favorites. Or I should say three of my favorites. But really- my three favorites:) Hannibal is Mark Twain's childhood home (his name is sam clemens you know! bodee ba john-o bodee bodee! --my girl hann;) ) It was pretty sweet. I made everyone hike up and see this lighthouse with me. We went and saw Mark's "childhood home." We saw a lot of touristy stuff. We went and ate out for lunch that was SOOOOOOOOOO tastay! I had the best salad. OH man. It was so good. Real food. SOOOOO good. And there was this cute little boutique/salon that I got to go in for like one second. But it was just fun to feel like maybe I was a girl again for just a minute:) Then..... we went to the Mark Twain caves! I have to admit- I didn't know how much I was about this whole cave business. I don't like the thought of being underground. It creeps me out when I think about being 30 miles under the ground or whatever we were. Actually maybe that was more like ft? Miles seems a little bit much now that I'm thinking about it:) ha! well! Yes. And my equilibrium was all off- like I was almost sea sick or something. My sense of direction was just all whacked out- even though I'm native:) And then! They did this thing where they turned off all the lights so we were in complete darkness blackness whatever and we first had to make the comparison to the gospel being a light in our lives - ha we're missionaries:)- but then! They were telling us that if you were to be in complete darkness for 6 weeks you would go blind. So then I started thinking about Gollum. And how he would have gone blind just chillin under that mountain for hundreds of years. But... then I also thought that was fictitious :) Anyways! So that was a neat experience. I'm SOOOO grateful for the senior couples here. It was such a fun day. All three couples are such an example to me. The elders are seriously just the funniest people ever. They know how to have fun and how to be serious. And the sisters are just amazing. I love them all so much! But! In other news- we've just been calling calling calling calling!!!!!!! I did have a way sweet tour the other day. I was tag teaming it with Sis Aston again for some reason. Good things happen when we do that though:) And we taught this guy from Fort Madison and his friend from NORWAY!!!!!! It was SO good. We didn't get them to fill out a referral here- but they did take cards. Which was an improvement. Because they were so hesistant at first to listen. OH YEAH! I had this SWEET tour yesterday with a mom and her son (who was like in his 40's) from NC. I love talking to people from the south:) And they were so good to talk to about the gospel. They were really good to hear me out- which I really appreciated. And I always try to be very respectful of other peoples religions as well. They were baptist. I always try to highlight more of our similarities than to focus on our differences. Like Pres Hinckley talked about- bring what good they have and let us add to it. I felt SOOOO close with getting to them to have missionaries over but they didn't feel that it was a good idea. They did say at the end of the tour that I was just the person they needed to talked to them and they were glad they talked to me. It was good because SO much of the time I just feel like I don't do anything here. And I keep trying and trying and trying and I always feel like I should be doing sooooo much better. At everything. And that I'm very inadequate. And I think I still am. But I was glad to have that tour. So yesterday I was in the Call Center for 6 stinkin hours. That is a looooooooooooooooong time. Especially if you know me well enough to know how much I love being on the phone :) But! THe work is good. I'm pretty sure we've passed the thousand mark for missionaries being sent. I know the other night we sent out over one hundred. It makes me feel good to know that even if I'm not the missionary getting to teach- I'm at least giving some other missionary the opportunity to. Which is a neat feeling. So! Just pray for me. Sometimes it's hard to keep calling. But I just have to psyche myself up "I love being in the call center I love talking on the phone I love talking to the people I love talking to the people I LOVE talking to the people" and then just do work. I have to be diligent. It's easy to get distracted. Sometimes when I start slurring my words or being incoherent I'll just go run around out in the hall for a couple minutes to make my head start thinking again :) Well! I have to go- sorry. We got back way late. And pday is over in 8 minutes! And then I'm going to go call for three hours:) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!! I'm SO proud of Daniel. He sounds like he's tearing it up in football. Well duh:) How's the eating? Thanks a bunch for the letters from Baby and Daniel. It made my day. The pics are awesome. The pic of baby doing her thinking pose I think one of the sisters saw and said "that's SO a sister picard thing to do:) " so they all think she's little mini-me. I also liked the pic of baby and daniel in the front of the boat "just two kids and they're having a good time" :) and dad in his superman cape!!!!!!!! it is... his superman cloak! I love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!