This email might actually be a good one. You're welcome.

Grief!  Sister Rowley is leaving me and it's rude!

It's happening.

She's leaving me. My own mother is abandoning me. I can't believe it; I feel so betrayed. Tears of sorrow are running down my face as I type out these dreaded words. Just kidding. Transfer calls happened last night, and Sister Rowley is out of here. Which means I'll be

getting a stepmom to finish my training. Also, they’re taking away our most promising ward (we cover three) and I am sad.

Are you ready to hear about my adventure with food? Heck yeah, you are. Saturday night we were supposed to have dinner with one of our ward families, but due to a miscommunication about endowment session times, they had to cancel. The sister feeding us told us she had two missionaries out and insisted on providing food for us, so she left us a gift card under our names at the counter at Café Rio. We didn't have enough miles to get to Café Rio though so we snagged one of the older couples in one of our wards and they came with us (it was like we were having dinner with our grandparents). Café Rio is a pretty heavy meal (I buy one burrito and get three meals out of it). Really good, really heavy.

Once we were back home, we decided to check in on one of our part-member/less active families. They are the sweetest little Indian family, they have two kids (a boy who's six and a girl who's four), and his mom lives with them. We just so happened to stop by on the night that they were celebrating their son's birthday. As the day is the celebration of the son's birthday, guess what they have at their house? Friends, family, and food. So much food. So. Much. Food. This family is from India, and we do not know the details of their culture and what traditions they hold dear. So when they warmly invited us in like we were family and sat us down and asked us if we wanted anything to eat...we said yes. They then preceded to start us out with appetizers—smoked chicken drumsticks (so, so seriously good) and some sort of potato onion battered dish with slightly spicy green sauce.  They then handed us cake (it had minions on it), and then asked if we wanted to join them for dinner. We ate (really, really good Indian food (and yes I did cry a little it was spicy ok) with them for about an hour. After we had a super filling dinner from Café Rio, we entered into a continuous stream of politely proffered spiciness. We rolled out of that house. I was full from dinner going into the house, I left with a whole new definition of the word full. It actually means pain and pride that I managed to fit that much in me. The food was really good though, and the family so very sweet, they kept pulling us in for pictures with their family. Sister Rowley and I definitely bonded over this experience as we cast each other so many pleading looks of "please, think of a way to make it stop" and understanding looks of " I know exactly what you're feeling right now."

There's enough time today for a grand total of one spiritual experience to be shared. We have a less active family we've been working with; the mom wants to get her eight-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son baptized. We sat with them during Sacrament meeting and as it was Father's Day all of the primary children got up to sing. The little girl (we'll call her Anne) wanted to join them but as she had only been to primary once before her mom was concerned. But brave little Anne insisted on it, and up she walked to the stand. There's a lot of activity buzzing around as the children file their way up the steps. Unsure of what to do or where to go, Anne is left staring up at this small army of children. For a brief moment, I was concerned that no one would notice her, tiny as she is, and she would be left standing up front, accidentally excluded and alone. But then, a cute little ray of sunshine of a girl (we'll call this one Paige) locks eyes with Anne, offers her a smile, bounces a little, and extends a beckoning, welcoming hand. Anne, once hesitant, now happy as can be, skips up to the stairs to join her friend. Arms interlocked, they sing loudly and hug each other at the close of the song. A scene that could have been saddening was turned heart warming when a brave little girl was met by a friendly one. There is a lesson to be learned here. Those that are approaching a new experience or are involved with a foreign situation are often awkward and unsure. Perhaps they can sometimes come off as unapproachable. But all they really need is a friendly face, an extended hand, and a little love. If we can offer that to people, we can help a would be disheartening experience be instead a gem of a memory. Let's all be a little bit more like Paige, and reach out in love to someone today.

Aside from that, we played soccer as a zone and not only was I able to actually kick the ball like four times, but I also SCORED A GOAL!  YAY PROGRESS.  I AM BECOMING TALENTED.

My slightly dysfunctional, first ever, in the mission field, district plus Taylor featuring our super cool zone t-shirts.  They say Relief Society on the back because we have ten sisters in our zone and most zones don't have that many.  So we are nicknamed the relief society zone, and our zone leaders are actually the co-presidents of the Relief Society! Hahahahaha!!!

Next week I shall have a new companion to complain about (just kidding I love you Sister Rowley) and until then, stay cool folks, because I am not.  It's supposed to get up to 118 today (hahahaha crying, no wait it's sweat).

I love you all!