Hooray for the Work!

Happily for us, moves are now on Wednesday, which means we'll find out tomorrow whether we stay or go! Sister Housley thinks there'll be a change...I don't know, I want to stay here till I die (mission death, not real death), AND the Primary Program is this week! I can't miss that! That's pretty much our feelings summed up. Supposedly we get five new sisters this time, so there'll be plenty of training opportunities, especially for Kernek and Johnson. They need children badly :)

As far as this week goes, some big news: Portland's "hypnotist who fell over" and made international news with a phony concussion is, in fact, married to the Primary 1st counselor. David Days is not a member, but he runs all the Road Shows, hypnotized half the branch the night he fell over, and just let the press run with the story until telling them the next day it was just a setup! What if the hypnotizer was out of commission--would the people still be in a trance? Now we know. He's filming a reality show at the moment, a sort of mockumentary on hypnosis, featuring at least one lady turned Martian who went to bed and woke up in the same trance. Never a dull moment here in the Promised Land :)

Other news:

Naomi came to church and brought her 7 year old, who went to Primary, got a part in the Program, and promptly burst into tears when it was time to go home. Best Sunday yet.

Don't read the Book of Mormon, and DEFINITELY don't pray to find out if it's true. That's how they get you.

Sometimes I have Elder Holland moments where I want to bang my fist on the table and get my point across in very large words. For those who don't listen, the reason why they don't is because they haven't read and they haven't prayed. You have to do those things. If not, it's like Satan is sitting on your shoulder and will not let you go. Offend him first, and you'll be free to receive revelation.

We ran into a super racist lady who said that "yellow people are taking over the world,” and that "Muslims have a lot to answer for."

We also stopped this old guy who said that the American Tea Party is the next Nazi regime or something (Sister Housley had NO idea what he was talking about) and how he was atheist and started yelling at us for imposing our beliefs. We tried to walk away, but he tailed us, positively spitting with rage, saying, "You are going to hell!" Sister Housley was like, "You are following me." A bunch of teenagers busted out laughing behind us, and I cracked up all the way to the library. My biggest concern was how an atheist believes in hell. Confusion.

It's so fun to be a missionary. It's weird to think that we're approaching my 4th moves already. As a sister, you get about 12 moves? Is that right? Every month and a half...whatever, I was never good at math. The time you serve the Lord with all you've got is extremely short. I feel like time has really picked up these last weeks--my stack of filled planners will be pretty tall in no time. It's fun to get to the point when you know that your companion is furious when no one else can see it (typically during a teach with a waster), or when you know everyone's names in the branch, or when you've got your favorite TAs mapped out. I have a few favorite places I love to go for “tea,” and your whole day can be so much better when that happens. I know the Lord is in this work and He wants it to go forward even more than we do. He's doing a great job :)

Love from,

Sister Willard