This week was one of the grossest weeks of my life. I love service and all of that, but there has got to be a line at when it is not safe for us to be breathing in the air. I only have a little time, but we were the service queens this week!
Almost everyday we were doing some sort of service.
One of the days we cleaned this lady named Judy (she was born in a barn Sister Allen!) and it was disgusting! We walked in, and there was just dog hair everywhere! Our vacuum actually broke because of the hair. That wasn't even the worst part. Judy was throwing a party, so she needed her house cleaned. It didn't need to be cleaned. It needed to be bombed. There was just grossness all around! There was so much rat and mouse poop everywhere. I got assigned to dusting duty. It was more like sweeping poop duty! So gross. We had to go to the store to get more vacuum bags, and we saw dust masks on sale... So we may or may not have bought some. When we came back, she wasn't even offended that we wanted to wear them. We also cleaned out her kitchen cupboards. More poop! I was cleaning out a container, and it was SEALED, and there was still a nice present from the mice in there. How people live in these conditions, I will never understand... So that was the first day of gross service! Then we helped a woman paint and stain some wood. That was the cleanest service that we did all week. Then comes
Saturday... We were called and asked to come help a woman in the ward move. We got there, and I have never been more surprised by what I saw: members covering their face with masks... The missionaries all had them, and they were legitimately worried about us catching some kind of disease. You walked out of the car, and you could just smell rotten food and animal poop. We got right to work, and I was so grateful for the masks that we had. It didn't stop the smell completely, but it definitely helped. I was so grateful for them. When we were in the garage, one of the Elders told me to watch out for the mouse. He was kidding, and then I pulled out a box and more cockroaches than I thought was possible to see at once came running out. I was pretty grossed out, and then a mouse ran over my hand. Just thinking about it, grosses me out. Then like 10 minutes later, I was walking over this pile of junk and reached up pick up some things that needed to me in a box, when I felt this nice little prick in my foot... It was a nice little construction staple. It had gone through my shoe, and into my foot. Good thing I got my tetanus shot already! It was pretty gross! It didn't really bleed, so I just put my shoe back on. Things you learn on the mission: don't call attention to yourself, cause members freak out about the missionaries getting hurt. I learned that the hard way with getting stitches last year.
Even though all this gross stuff happened, so many cool miracles happened this week! I knew the Lord was watching over our areas, and seeing the hard work that we are putting into them.
Miracles- We had a lesson with Lila and Andrea, two of our investigators. They are neighbors so we usually teach them together. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Confirmation, and Enduring to the End. When we started talking about baptism Lila, who from the beginning told us she did NOT want to be pushed into baptism, started crying and told us she knew she had to be baptised. She felt the spirit so strongly and she realized that you don't have to know everything to be baptised. It finally made sense to her that baptism doesn't mean that you have to be perfect. It's just one of the first steps to follow Jesus Christ.
We are teaching two boys, Jordan and Jesse. One is 9 and the other is 10. The mom is active but when we first met them, they wanted
nothing to do with the church. Jesse especially was angry and didn't like anything church-related at all. Last night we had a lesson where both of them wanted so much to learn about how they could be baptised. It is so amazing to see the change in them! We are planning their baptism for the
21st of November! Then Lila is on date to be baptised on the
28th of November! We are so grateful that miracles happen when we deal with disgusting service.
I have learned that Serving others really helps you get to know them better. Even if it is gross.
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