It's a long one!

So Monday I got to play basketball for awhile, but that's not that fun because the elders don't guard me and all the sisters in my zone are like 5 feet tall. And none of them want to play anyway. But anyway, we played volleyball for hours! That was so awesome. I was frustrated with my serves because they always went over and in, but I could tell I let myself get weak. Even my sets were off. Not bad, but off. I'm going to need to practice. I haven't really gotten to play volleyball for so many months. Too many months. I'm not even that good. I don't know why I like it so much. I just do. But since I played so hard in pday yesterday, it was the first time in a while that I simply rolled out of bed right at 6:30 said my prayers went to the restroom, got dressed and was waiting on my companion to go to the gym. We went and I actually ran the treadmill the entire 30 minutes we were there and was sweaty, exhausted, and hustling to the shower. I easily took a short shower and got ready for the day.

 Anyway I am so energized and ready to go. We left at 10 for a service activity at an assisted living, but it was cancelled when we got there. Apparently they are all in quarantine. So we contacted a less active who is best on Tuesday mornings. We hadn't met her yet. Sister Hilton the relief society president talked to her once and found out that she was a less active in our Ward. When we got there Tasha was sooo nice. She just seems like a solid person. She said that Tuesday mornings do usually work better for her, but today she is really busy with some MRI appointments and things. She was on her way out. We got her birthday so that we can get her records in our Ward and gave her our phone number. :D next I had to go to the restroom really bad (I drank 3 bottles of water already at 11) so we tried a member, but they weren't home so I ended up asking a nice lady we talked to when we got out of our car, Kate. Her husband is from the reorganized church. She's catholic. She's not interested. We knocked a door of another less active we've never met, Barbara. No answer. Then we tracted the rest of that half of the street. They tracted the other half last week.

We just had comp study and it was sooo good. It went a little longer than it probably should, but it was just so good. We got so deep. So refreshing. Sister Smith helped me understand some things I read in Matthew and then we talked about studies and what has worked for us in the past. We talked about pride and the different types of pride. We also talked about goals we set in life and just in general and I drew so many insights from this conversation. I realized that sometimes our lack of confidence is ironically caused by pride. Also, I learned this. Don't miss the mark with your goals. Think of who you want to become not what you want to do. I don't know if these things are powerful to anyone else, but they are pretty powerful to me. :) these are just thoughts I had as we were talking and they felt like mysteries unfolded.

We contacted the Newton family to see if they would like help moving into their new Ward. They are a part member family. We will probably get the missionaries from their new Ward to help them with us on Saturday morning. Then we tried to contact someone else who wasn't home. We went and met the Byrd family. They apparently "want to come back to church".  Then we went to meet the Hayes family. We found out that they are selling their house, but probably staying in the Ward according to the son, Dustin. His parents weren't home. We left our number and our offer to help them move. We'll try them again next week. Now I am home with whitener on my teeth and stressing about the fact that I haven't studied for interviews and district meeting tomorrow. But it's fine... also things that I didn't mention are... I was soooo sore today! I love being able to feel my muscles ache, but man the longer the day went the less able I was to get in and out of the car! Also. Our toilet paper is see through. The first day I used it I was like what is this?!?!? It is literally see through. I get that we're poor. But see through? Like that stuff would make great windows. Seriously. You don't skimp out on that stuff. That's just gross. Haha I'm getting used to it though I guess. Anyway good night! Fare well! Catch ya in the morning!

I had a GREAT day today! We got up and I ran the treadmill again. This time I went faster. Covered the same distance in less time. Because we were a little late getting up there. But I still got it in. It was a little tougher this time. The entire time I just thought I could do it. I could hit that cool down button or the stop button. I could just do it right now. I was hurting and it was probably near the beginning that I started thinking this. And I told myself I would go to 23 minutes and then I could stop. It seemed like forever at times. That reminded me about the mission. We have this 18 month time limit. The speed and distance we go are up to us. At any time we can hit that cool down button or even the stop button. It hurts. And we could just press the stop button and walk away. Maybe try dinking around on one of the other machines or just walk out of there completely. You know like we could just give up Religion completely. Get where I'm going here? We can hit the cool down button by not giving it out all. By laying around or sitting in the idle car talking. Catching wifi at the church for awhile. But even though it hurts - it will hurt - we must keep running and after a while even turn up the speed a little. Yeah it hurts. But it's the best feeling when you do finally get off that treadmill.

 District meeting was all about prayer.. So the training plan was all about prayer. And we also had interviews so I found the scripture that I wanted to share about peace with President Marston. That's the new Easter initiative. Prince of Peace. So we are supposed to be studying it. We had district meeting and interviews and both were just awesome! I love President and Sister Marston! They're so awesome! Also I love my district!!! It was a great morning. We had lunch at subway with everyone and then Sister Smith and I headed out to companionship study. It was really good too. I don't remember exactly what we talked about now, but it was really good. Then we headed out to do some finding. Nobody answered the door. NOBODY! I had to go to the restroom so bad so we switched to active members and still nobody was ever home! I was dying, I was going to pass out. Literally felt like I was going to pass out. Finally we found one home and after permission busted in there and used the restroom. That was the most dramatic thing of the entire day. Then we had dinner with the Orchard family. They're really cool and super healthy. I really enjoyed dinner with them, but we talked forever. I need to get better at one hour dinners. But sometimes once I'm in I don't want to go back out. It's not good. It's bad. After that we had a lesson with the Donnivans. Kirk is a recent convert that moved here right after his baptism. He used to be jehovah witness so his story is really interesting because they are not supposed to associate with people of other faiths. You don't see many of those converting. But he is sooo solid. It's fun to teach him and his wife Waverly is a great member present. Then we came home and I crashed.

This morning was really tough to get up. I didn't exercise very well. Or get ready very fast. Idk. I'm kind of in a funk today. But that's ok. I'll reset tonight. But I had a great study. I studied Matthew. I've started reading the New Testament every day. I really like what I read there. I looked for a talk about temples because both of my wards said that was their focus or goal for the ward right now. But I found this talk and started reading it and really really liked it. It was all about peace and how we can gain that. It's called a Pattern for Peace. I didn't finish it, but I really loved it. The Hank Smith talk we were listening to in the car started talking about the same scripture the talk was based off of. So that was cool!

I don't really really remember the rest of the day. I know we played kings in the corner and poker at a retirement facility with the old folks. That was really fun! They are a crack up!

Today was weekly planning day. We had a lesson with this lady named Kelli this morning. We read Mosiah 18 with her and talked about it. Wow. I don't remember a whole lot about the lesson, but I feel like she could be baptized within a little while. So that was cool! We did a lot of weekly planning. We had mcm with Brother and Sister Hilton. The wml and relief society Pres of 5th ward. Brother Hilton is the guy that announces on the price is right show. That's cool. I guess... it would be cooler if I'd seen the show.

We did this prayer roll thing as a zone. It is soooo cool! We all get on a conference call and have all put in who we want to pray for and a sentence of what for. And then one person says the prayer and incorporates every area and their people in it. I love this! It really builds the unity when you can hear and pray for each other and the people we are teaching. I'm excited to be able to talk to other missionaries about their people they are teaching because now I know a little bit about it. It's awesome! Best thought I've ever heard. Way to go zone leaders! 🙌🏼Anyway. Tomorrow is exact obedience day for the entire mission. It's a day where we know everyone is putting extra effort in to be doing what they are supposed to be doing anyway. It's good. We had one of these when I was in Gridley. G'night!

Uuuummm... Our day went well. We had a lesson with Mark Mondell. We call him Brother Mondell because he's been investigating for a year. And then a lesson with Sister Marti Mondell. Brother Mondell is this big man who wants to feel a change of heart, but doesn't feel like he has. He's pretty satisfied with his life. He's a very smart man and has worked hard to get where he's at. Except he feels he's missing something. He wants to feel the change of heart soooo bad. I don't know what to do with him. He reads like ten chapters a week. And fasts about twice a week. He wants it to be true so bad. He's so scared that he is going to put all this in and at the end it won't be true. He is trying and applying everything. In the middle of the lesson, he stops to tell us to not give up on him. He started to kind of cry. He wants to know soooo bad. I don't know what to do.....
Sister Mondell's lesson was ok. She almost dropped us. She was just like I'm not making time for my commitments. And she didn't want to waste our time because she knows she won't figure it out if she's not looking. We were like... uuummmm.. All truuuue. Then after talking to her we told her just 5 minutes every day before she job searches. And then we will reevaluate next Saturday. We'll see. I hope she can keep this. Then we did lunch and then tried Gabe who was busy so we did comp study and some finding and and then tracted around dinner and had dinner with the Prillwitz family. The Prillwitz family is really awesome! We left to update progress reports and then Karla wasn't home so we finished our reports up and sent them out.


Sooo... church is like from 8 to 3:30. Because double covering and Ward councils and also meeting with 1st Ward Ward missionaries.  Then we went and tried a bunch of people who weren't home.
Tonight we had a really good heart to heart about life. So many things came out of my mouth that I learned as I spoke. I can't remember everything to write, but I remember talking about teaching and how it's not about the missionary that is in the area as long as that missionary is worthy to and is bringing the spirit. The spirit teaches. It doesn't matter what we say in the lesson. As long as the spirit is there. I remember wondering this week in Brother Mondell's lesson what the spirit is telling him and hoping what i said brought the spirit instead of wondering if what i said was the right thing. That was the first time that I feel like I finally caught the vision that the Holy Ghost truly is the teacher. I am merely there to accompany and invite it. I really finally understand it so much I have looked back and seen it become a part of me. Another subject we got onto was that we have learned so much.

Love, Sister Crowther
#notinKansasanymore