Omaha, Nebraska Week 5

September 20, 2011

Hello familia!!

How's life for everyone? Things are going well here! It's starting to feel like Fall! The weather is all over the place though... one day it's way cold and rainy and the next it's warmer. I've been wearing scarfs and tights this week. I still feel a bit goofy wearing those particular items of clothing but whatever will keep me warm! lol!

This week was an exciting one!! It was Sister Hawkes' 22nd birthday this past week! We had a good time! My roommates and I woke up pretty early to decorate our apartment with balloons, streamers, sticky notes, and the works! (I had a blast because I LOVE doing that type of stuff for people!) We also made her a cake! I coordinated with our district leader and he made her brownies and brought ice cream to our district meeting that we had that day. She had a great day with LOTS of desserts! Since I'm her companion I can't leave her hanging so of course I had to eat right along with her. I believe we had 5 different desserts throughout the day. :)

Everybody in the whole mission had to take time this week to clean out their entire apartments. Since there are so many missioanries going in and out of the apartments they start to collect a lot of junk and randomness. Since we don't have much time on preparation day to clean they made everybody take time within two days to make sure it was spotless. We spend 7 hours total making a huge pile of things to donate, items to take back to the mission office, and scrubbing things that probably hadn't been cleaned in forever. haha! It actually was pretty fun and time flew by fast! Now the place actually feels like ours and is much more organized! I was finally able to get all my stuff situated in our room as well.

-Mom, the picture of the room is for you... do you like my sheets?? Sister Hawkes was cracking up when I took those out of the package that you sent me. What a lovely surprise! Her and my roommates think you are pretty funny for sending me those wonderful Spongebob sheets! I think they are fun though and how can you not be happy laying down on Spongebob's happy face! So thanks for the fun sheets to spice life up a bit.

On Friday our whole zone got to go to the Winter Quarters Temple!! That was such an amazing experience! The temple is so peaceful and amazing! This Sunday we had our Omaha stake conference! It was a really good meeting with a ton of different people. One of the talks was really good... about being consumers and contributers. That can be applied to life in general or applied to the gospel. Are we letting everybody do things for us and taking the passenger seat in life? Or are we making contributions to society and making it a bette place? Overall he related it to being active in church and doing service. This Sunday was my first day in the mission where we have had to meal appointments right after eachother!! NEVER AGAIN!!! We didn't mean for it to be scheduled that way but that's just how it worked out. We had lunch at 2 with a family and then early dinner at 4pm with another family. I was still full from the previous meal, where they had served my plate so I couldn't get a smaller portion. Then they served my plate at the other meal so I was literally shoving food down... one bite at a time. It was bad! My stomache was hurting but I didn't want to be mean and not eat or look whimpy. haha! I basically finished the whole meal. Parents, I'm sure you're very proud! Then each of the families sent us home with a plate of cookies. Then another family we visited gave us ice cream bars. I may be waddling out of Nebraska when the time comes. We don't eat with families much anymore so it's ok to stuff ourselves on Sunday.

So if you didn't know, everybody in Nebraska is obsessed with the Huskers. There are countless Huskers flags hanging from people's porches and even carved into people's trees. Pretty funny! It's football season and so on Saturday it was hilarious to see how quiet the streets were during the times of the game. We can still go around and visit people but normally we select those who aren't really into football. People here are a bit crazy about it though. Oh well, go Huskers!!!

We have been meeting some great families lately and teaching them about the gospel. The hardest part is meeting with people after our 1st lessons with them. People still say they want us to teach them but them don't have the time. So we are praying to have more 2nd lessons and that people are more availiable. One lady we met and talked to on her porch said she was having a super hard day was was singing a song saying, "Lord, send me an angel." and that we just happened to show up right after that. She wants us to come back and teach her more about the church. We get to have cool experiences like that pretty often. Another person said they were praying to be guided by the Lord and know what to do in their life and then we happened to show up on their door. We don't randomly knock doors too much because we have appointments with people but when we do take time to knock people's neighbor we sometimes will have neat experiences.

Well I have to go now! I love you all and hope you enjoy the pictures I attached! Also, my p-day will be Wednesday next week!

Dad, I hope you had a WONDERFUL birthday!!! :)

Lex, Can you email me my family chart that I made? It's either on my computer or in my email. You can just send me the chart in an email! Thanks!

I love you all! Have a wonderful day!! I get to go apple picking with a senior couple today! I'm excited! The senior couples are all so nice!!