Eating healthy

As in all areas of physical activity, it is absolutely essential for an individual to eat healthy. While it is true that physical activity is possible while not maintaining the best diet, but better eating habits you have, the better the outcome will be. For example, one of the best ballerinas I know is a girl named Katie. Not only is she a beautiful dancer, but she has the classic "ballerina physic" - long limbs, tall, and ultra-thin. But she doesn't starve herself to achieve this - she just is careful about what she eats. And it makes a difference.

This week has been characterized by food. We had a record number of meals provided by a member this past week - it has been so nice. Particularly because it has given us a greater opportunity to be in member's homes and bring the Spirit with us.
I, myself, have been food for mosquitoes this week... I have over 40 bites.

But this week has also been significant in a food related manner because we taught the long awaited lesson to M+P (twin investigators, women in their 30's): The Word of Wisdom. That has been long in coming, but we're glad that we finally taught it. It actually correlated perfectly with a priesthood blessing that P received at Bible Study on Wednesday - she has some health struggles for which she desired help.

The blessing was amazing. M cried all the way through it, and she wasn't even the one receiving the blessing. But P was counselled to eat healthy and exercise and care for her body, and those things with which she has been struggling would be resolved.

The next day we taught the word of wisdom. It actually turned into a two-part lesson, but they accepted the word of wisdom without too many difficulties. They have some things to work though, but they can absolutely do it! They didn't make it to church though - get this. They were on their way to church, running a little late and apparently speeding a little bit. They got pulled over by a cop, which normally wouldn't be a problem, but both their registration and inspection was out of date. The cop saw that they were going to church, and he said "I can tell you are going to church, but this vehicle cannot be on the roads. You are good people, so I won't give you a ticket, but you have to turn around right now and drive home or I will have your car towed." And he followed them all the way home!

We were flabbergasted when we heard that - Satan had to get a cop involved to stop them from going to church. We were still sad they didn't make it, but their commitment and desires are sure :)

We've had so many other miracles this week, I don't even know where to begin. But the Lord is definitely blessing us in our area.

We have a new investigator - T - who is engaged to a returning less active. He will be baptized very soon - he's so ready.

We have a less active family that are almost ready to come back to church. They love the gospel a lot - they just need the Lord's help to begin building new habits.

Thanks for all of the prayers for me, my companion and the area. Many good things are happening. We're moving to our new apartment tomorrow. I'll send the new address next week.

Slippery and slick

You know, it's really hard to dance when the floor is slippery. Strange huh? But seriously, sometimes in dance, the floor that we have to dance on is really slick to the type of shoes that we wear (ballet, jazz, pointe, etc.) It's really terrifying when I'm in my pointe shoes and the floor is slippery - I might slip, fall and die at any second. It's worse than ice skating (which is another thing I cannot do) or wet floors. Thank goodness for Rosin, a dancer's best friend. Basically it adds texture and friction to the bottom of our shoes so we don't slip as easily. It literally keeps our feet on the ground.

My "Rosin" this week has definitely been prayer. And the Jellybeans I've been getting left and right.

It's been an interesting week. We've had two exchanges, three vehicle problems, four food appointments (new record), and five "heavens torn open and attempting to drown us" rainstorms. Somehow, thankfully, we didn't end up biking through much more than light sprinkling. But it's felt so nice this week from the rain. Too bad it's hot again.

My exchanges this week were with the Armand Bayou Singles Branch Sister and the Galveston Sisters. So my first exchange was to an area that covered a third of the mission, but we ended up spending the day in Galveston, mostly on the Galveston A&M Campus and the UTMB campus. Then two days later I spent the entire day in Galveston again. It's like Heavenly Father wants me to get my fill of it before we move - which we have no idea if we are actually moving or not. We haven't heard back from the housing coordinator even though we've called him twice. We're calling again today.

But it's been an interesting week in other ways. The Elders got in more bike crashes and while I was on exchanges our District blitzed their area (a blitz is where we all go in, visit people, OYM like crazy, and they get everyone we find). We actually got in a minor crash this week too: we were trying to high five, but I ended up swerving and forming a right angle with our front tires. Miracle though - neither of us fell off our bikes :) I just got a few bruises.

I also found probably the only dish I've tried where I can willingly eat shrimp. Oddly, it was a spicier dish too. Our member called it Mexican style shrimp cocktail. She also taught us how to make it.

M+P are still doing well - they weren't able to come to church again though. Tonight we plan to teach them the Sabbath Day. We also have to move their date back - they have to come to church twice still.

We're seeing lots of other miracles and keeping busy. Each week is a wonderful new adventure!

Just go for it

Sometimes there are movements in dance that I am scared to do. Sometimes it's just because the move is new and I'm not sure how to do it. Sometimes I doubt that I am capable.  Whatever the reasoning behind my fear, it holds me back. And like other areas of life, it isn't comfortable to feel restricted. But my jazz teacher has a wonderful motto - Just go for it! If you fall, you fall - but at least you were trying! And whenever a dancer fell while trying, we would always applaud for her - she went for it! Even when I doubt I can do it, it feels a lot better to try anyway.

This week's motto has been "Just go for it." I'll explain how this became the motto farther down, but this week has been full of crazy, but cool adventures.

First off, biking adventures. Boy has it been fun. It's actually turning into enough of a routine that I only remember the harder stuff. We've had a couple more nights where we've had to book it back to the car. We also had another tire problem - still not on my bike! Sister McElroy has a loaner bike, so it's already been though at least one missionary's mission - now she's using it, but it's so old that it has a lot of problems. So another tire went flat. We were right near the library so we took the tube into the bathroom, plugged up the sink with paper towels, and stuck it in water to find the hole. It was itty bitty. We tried to fix it with duct tape - it's all we had. Fail. It kept going flat. We're buying a couple of new tubes today.

I also went on an exchange to a Spanish area and didn't end up speaking all that much Spanish. But the few appointments we had, I felt so incapacitated - there was so much I wanted to say - but couldn't. I went for it a couple of times - I was able to express some things - but I just can't speak enough yet to really teach the way I would want to. I did enjoy English class. They taught all about going to the doctor and so we role-played a doctors office. I wish normal role-playing was that fun.

Now, on to the background of the motto. We had zone conference this week. President Hall's theme for zone conference was "Fear Not". It was so cool - talked about so many different basics of missionary work - The Restoration, OYMS (Open Your Mouth s), teaching, finding (finding new investigators) - and how we have to be simple, powerful teachers, who do not fear man. So I came home and decided that I was going to have no fear. I still fear, but I'm going to give into it a whole lot less. 

That one decision has made a huge difference. Our work these past few days has changed dramatically - I'm excited to see the changes that continue to happen.

When stitching fails

Sewing my own pointe shoes has taught me something very important over the years - you have to make sure you have strong stitches. And to clarify, sewing your pointe shoes means that you sew on the elastic strap and ribbons. Those are necessary if you want the shoe to stay on your foot. So they have to be sewn on right. 

I learned the hard way that if they're not, dance doesn't work well. So when I sew a new pair of shoes, I go over my stitches multiple times and secure the thread. Because it sucks when the stitching fails and your shoe comes off.

We had a wonderful week. That's part sarcasm and part true. We had a lot of miracles happen. But it has also been less than wonderful in many ways that can all be summed up with two words: Bikes and hot. Seriously. 

We also have had many wonderful bike adventures - that one was pure sarcasm. Our bikes - Sister McElroy's in particular - have been on rebelling this week, but we've been forcing them to cooperate. Let me tell you about just 3 of our fun adventures:

1) Tuesday, we were running WAY late to our dinner appointment. Our whole day had gotten behind by our going up to Friendswood to pick up our new phone. Then the branch list wasn't updated, so we went to the old address of this family. Upon realizing that they no longer lived there, we got the new address and booked it over there. But on our way, one of the bike tires decided that it was done with the ride - it fell off. We had to backtrack to find the tire. We found it - but I had to go run out across the street to grab it. Not fun.

2) Time. We have been totally out of time a couple of evenings and had to book it back to our car to drive back to Galveston. We biked more than four miles in less that 20 minutes. New record. My legs weren't even this sore while I was dancing.

3) A picture is worth a thousand words. 

​That happened at about four in the afternoon, about four miles away from our car. But Heavenly Father is merciful and provides a way - the man who's home we were outside of just "happened" to be a biker and just "happened" to have the exact size of tube we needed and just "happened" to know exactly what he was doing. We only were there for about 20 minutes total.

But we've also had miracles with our teaching.

We talked to a lady on the street who happened to be the mother of a less active - they moved from their old home and apparently the membership records stayed there. We would have had no idea if we hadn't talked to the lady on the street.

We were also finally able to get back in contact with M+P. We had a wonderful Restoration lesson with them - they were asking spot on questions before we even started the lesson. We kept having to tell them to hang on because we would cover the question in a couple of minutes. In the end, even though there are still some minor doubts, they both accepted a date to be baptized!! They'll be preparing for September 5. Please pray for them - they both have to overcome some Word of Wisdom troubles.

I'm so excited for the work - I love being a missionary. Even biking here in Texas heat, there is nothing I would rather do more :)

P.S. Proof that I am actually drinking water :)

Missing

One of the worst things that can happen in dance is when a shoe goes missing. Many other things go missing - hair supplies, tights, costume pieces etc. For the most part, you can fudge through without them. It won't be fun, but you can make it. Most of the time, you can't fudge though a missing shoe. Especially not in pointe class, where the shoe makes the dance style. Thankfully most dance centers have a lost and found box, where you can sometimes find a shoe that fits and use it for the day. Still, it's better to just have your own.

It's been a bit of a harder week than most. There have still been more miracles than I can even begin to describe, but it's been harder. I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about it, but I will explain the reasoning behind the title Missing. We lost our phone this week. We're in the process of getting a new one.

But on to the miracles!

We have these amazing investigators M&P. They are twin sisters, and they are powerhouse! I love them so much! We've been teaching them for a few weeks, and we've been in the Plan of Salvation lately. Visit before last we left Elder Holland's talk from this last conference "Where Justice, Love and Mercy Meet" as their reading assignment. This last lesson was perhaps the most amazing one I've ever had - and I've had some really cool lessons with investigators. Not only did they read, they highlighted, and they had questions as well. But during our discussion on the Atonement, P not only answered her own questions, but taught us the rest of the lesson. It was sweet. We extended baptism to them at the end. P said yes right away, but expressed concerns that lead back to Priesthood authority, so we'll be reviewing that next. M took longer to say yes. But after that she kept repeating yes until she concluded with "I need it!" They also keep telling us how they feel warm inside while they do their readings, and M starts weeping literally every time we pray. My heart feels so full when I think about them. 

Satan is working hard on them though. We're praying hard for them.

I also got to go to Mission leadership Council again this week - I love MLC so much. We talked about OYMing (street contacting, "Open Your Mouth") and teaching in depth. I loved it - even though it's all basics, I learned so much. President Hall has already started making changes, and they're doing so much good. I'm so glad he's here!

Oh, look up the 14th article of faith. It's pretty funny :)