July 23, 2009 "I love to see the Temple!"

OK!!!!!!!!! Well. I am just loving to write this e-mail right now. Yes- yes I am. Pageant is just insane. That's pretty much all that is. I love it though. Staying busy is fun- but it will tire you out. I think a big part of that is that I literally don't even have like 5 seconds to myself. I haven't even really had time to eat in the past couple weeks. So I just thank Heavenly Father for keeping me going. Because I know that I could never keep up this pace without His help. And thanks to that help I'm still able to wake up and go every morning as tired as I may be:) Oh man. I have like two sweeeet sweet stories but then I need to go so we can get to the temple. It's funny how prep days are always just as busy as any other day. ha. oh well. gotta love it. And I'm SOOOOOO grateful to be able to go to the temple each week. What a blessing. I was talking to one of the Peoria elders last night and they only get to go once every 6 months! And he just lives like half an hour away. Crazy bidness. So I'm grateful we are supposed to go at LEAST once a week. We usually go twice though. Anyways. Stories. So! First of all I'll tell you about the pics that I sent. They are of my new comp Sis Lukens and I. We were assigned to work in the "pre-show" for Pageant which is this big huge field with tons of pioneer-ish type games/activities/FUNtivities:) going on and we were assigned to the children's crafts. So- maybe our station wasn't the coolest thing ever and maybe we were a little tired and we just said "hey! you know what!? we are going to make this place the coolest place to be in Nauvoo" so what did we do? We had braiding as part of our little station where all you do is just braid rags together. So we put them on as headbands and started yelling at people to come braid with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! funnest thing EVER!!!!! :) and it convinced them. And TOTALLY was the trend of the night. Pretty much everyone and their mom (literally) were wearing our headbands. It was sweet. So then we took pics when we got home. OH HAAAA!!!! and then when we were post-greeting we saw some of the Peoria elders and one of them said "what are you trying to be an indian?" and I was like "actually I am." and then just looked at him. I think he felt sheepish:) But then he just started spouting these weird facts about how I was actually wearing an irish bridal veil or something? whatever. He was weird. Is weird. Whatevs. SO! COOLEST THING EVER HAPPENED!!!!!!!! And I will just preface it with the fact that none of it was me. And I know that missionaries say lame stuff like that all the time and everyone thinks that they're just saying it to say it but I promise this time I am being for real- this experience had absolutely nothing to do with me. Heavenly Father just blessed me with it. So! I'm serving in the VC and in walks these 2 guys and their father. And they both had kind of scruffy beard things going on- so initially we all just assumed they were part of the Pageant family cast. Because a lot of them will grow beards. And those are the only bearded people you see here really :) So I went up to go and talk to them and Sis Aston came with since we're not allowed to talk to guys by ourselves (it just doesn't look good) and I totally assumed they were members of the Church. So we were going through the "where are you from?" "Alabama" etc etc and then I asked if they were here for Pageant. They had no idea what that was and said something like "is that put on by ya'lls Church of Christ?" or something like that and I was like "wait hold up!" and then we find out they know like nothing about our Church but had family who lived in Carthage and were on their way to some music festival in Minnesota or Michigan or something and just kind of stopped by. And oh my goodness. It was insane. Seriously best experience ever. So we were taking them through the tour and essentially got to teach the 1st and 2nd lesson and oh man. Their retention was just crazy. And they asked the best questions in the whole world. It was so insane. At first I was just convinced that they were RM's just pulling our legs or something because it was just way too perfect. They literally asked all the right questions. And the older brother is an archaelogist/anthropologist very educated person who really liked being told about the Book of Mormon. And the fact that I was Native:) ha! But what was SO cool was that he was telling me about how some of his professors have this theory that there was this huge "cradle of life" out here in the Americas and not just in mesopotamia and that everyone thinks they're crazy and I was like "HELLO! just get a Book of Mormon in their hands!" so he like asked us if he could get a copy and we're like "hello yes duh" but he was excited to read it. And then this is cool too! So they're southern, and have grown up around lots of religion but are probably the "most neutral catholics you'd ever find" so we're talking about Joseph Smith whom they hadn't really heard about and at first they're just following the story like "ok yeah he was born in 1805 so this vision had to happen in like the 1830's" and we're like "well actually he was 14" and then they just went crazy! "no way! he was only 14!" etc etc and then I was like "well are you very familiar with the Bible" and they're like "well kinda blah blah blah" and I said "well are you familiar with the story of Samuel?" and then the one goes "well yeah, because that is my name" DUH! so sweet. Well- first of all I probably should have known their names before I started the tour (my b) but so cool I just happened to pic the story that he knew! My point was in him hearing the voice of God as a child and that it wasn't unusual for God to appear to younger people but! he was able to relate. Heavenly Father is awesome. That experience just made my life. It is kind of hard, because we have experiences like that here and then just have to kind of pray that the missionaries where they are will be on the ball. But! Even if I never see or hear from the again, I am very grateful to have had that experience. Don't worry- we gave them the Book of Mormon and a bunch of commitments and they might be back through here on their way back? And referred them. But still. I just loved being able to teach someone like that. It doesn't happen often. And was such a tender mercy of the Lord. Because He knows how much I'd like to be doing that:) Oh I loved it. I LOVED it. So yeah. Sorry- now I'm way short on time. And I still need to write Pres and such. But!!!!!! I love you all. A lot a lot. Be excellent to each other. So I'm in charge of the t-shirts for the Sisters that they do every summer. And I think that happened because I was NOT planning on getting one:) oh how sentimental I am. But I'm thinking of putting this on them, ahem, "together we achieve more than not together" AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHA I don't know why- but Sis Lukens and I think it's hilarious. So- we'll see:) LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Picard