Maybe I’ll Write a Book….

 

I think I have somehow managed to step into some sort of fictional world. Half of the people I have met seem like characters from a book.  

 So far I have met:

 An old Turkish man named Fevzi who talks to his plants and insists that we enjoy their company. He dreams that his beloved orchid will one day be a pro basketball player. He also rides around on his bike with his dog Snuggles in the basket. 

 A 15-year-old girl with blue hair whose parents are never home so she adults by herself. She's one of our main investigators. 

 A newlywed couple; Ashley hides her tears through sarcasm and Colton purposely makes handshakes as awkward as he can. They live across the street from us and exchanged origami turtles for our thermometer.  

 A lady whose life is 50 First Dates. She had a brain surgery go wrong, and she can't remember huge chunks of recent life. 

 A Taiwanese relief society president who gives away potted plants to those who are grieving. 

 A rather short man named Richard who warns us of random drunks and insists that we carry pepper spray.

 A boy who is 6'10" and has yet to stop growing.

 A rich family who have a playground in their house.

 A sassy female who compared God to a black hole: "I know black holes exist, but I don't feel that they're all that relevant in my life."....Well. We can help with that.

 A really blunt war veteran with a teeny tiny dog.

 A crazy young adult female who talks a mile a minute and almost KILLED us a thousand times while she drove us and her friend to the Easter pageant. I kid you not, at one point while our driver was freaking out about something her friend in the passenger seat said, "Cami, open your eyes." She had her eyes closed as she was zooming on the interstate at 70 mph. No wonder we got lost three times.

 An exchange student from Thailand. Her nickname is Pare, and she laughs in response to everything. 

 A woman who misplaced her filter a while back and crossed the border of inappropriate about 5 minutes after us entering her home. She's hilarious. 

 And I'm sure the list will just grow and grow and grow. Needless to say, I'm really excited to work in this area and get to know all of these characters running around.  

 Aside from meeting all sorts of exciting people, I mostly just ran around trying to learn the area.

Here is a short list of our other activities since my arrival.

We went to the Easter pageant a couple more times.  

Sister C had a meltdown compromised of uncontrollable laughter during YSA ward correlation after we witnessed a couple making out in the church parking lot. 

We a taught a few lessons.

The old snowbirds that we live next to surrounded us when they realized I was new.

Our dryer tried to eat us.

We painted a house.

Strung up streamers.

And I experienced Texas Roadhouse for the first time. 

 My new companion is awesome, we relate on a number of points. Mostly in how much we hate district calls. Unfortunately, she dies in a week (goes home). And then I get a new companion. 

 General conference was rad. We ate a lot of food at members houses and gathered with our zone in a church building to watch it. 

 My feelings about all of the changes that came with general conference are much like yours I'm sure. Excitement, agreement, and trust. 

 The main thing that I took away from conference was how much our Savior wants us to trust President Nelson's calling as His prophet. Wow. I can feel the spirit even as I type these words. A couple of speakers listed and bore testimony of all of the ways President Nelson had been prepared to be our prophet. It's like Christ Himself wants to give us a starting point of personal belief in this man called of God. 

 Jesus Christ lives, this is His church, President Nelson is called of God, the work rolls forth, and we are indeed living out the last days. 

Love, 

Sister Barlow