The update:
Our friend Mary is on date to be baptized August 15th! She has an amazing testimony. The Bishop came and gave her (her first ever) blessing last Sunday because she was trying to quit smoking. Since then she has been smoke free!!! She was even in a car with someone else smoking and it didn't phase her at all. WE LOVE MARY.
Bikes. So we live with two other sisters and we all share a car, but we ran out of miles we could drive this month. So now we share the bikes! It's getting a little toasty here in Monmouth (today it got up to 100°F) so it's not entirely ideal, but honestly I love it. I love biking! One day we had so much going on we biked 12 miles (part of that was on a busy road where there was no bike lane, a drop with a ditch to the right of us and a busy high way to the left... impending doom on either side. But we are okay! Definitely will take another route next time around...) The only down side is now we have to wear masks when we bike so... hopefully we don't suffocate.
We were having a lesson with the Bishop's family (this actually was the same day we had biked 12 miles) when his three year old son ran out the front door and disappeared. Bishop's wife busted the back door open to tell us the child was gone and I swear I have never seen a man rip of a mask, empty his pockets and sprint to the front yard faster than this man did. I don't even think his wife finished the sentence before he was out in the street, running like an olympiad. So Sister Risenmay and I ran around the neighborhood as well in search for their son. We found him pretty quick and all is well.
WE CAN STREET CONTACT NOW with masks on. They told us that at Zone Conference last week (my first zone conference in person since I've been on my mission). It's been an adventure figuring that one out because way back in February I lived as a normal missionary for three weeks before being quarantine and since then we haven't talked to anyone on the streets haha. And now that I'm training Sister Risenmay we both are basically new to this BUT we are figuring it out. So far it has gone really well!!
We do LOTS of service. I've mowed lawns 4 times now and we also cleaned out a lady's house to prepare for her husband's memorial. Lots of weed pulling!
We live next to this man who has down syndrome named Jeremey and sometimes he is sitting outside when we get home from stuff. We played the ukelele and sang him a song because he loves music. He always asks us to buy him a tractor, take him to Hawaii, play the saxophone for him, and/or give him a hundred dollars. Haha we love Jeremey.
That's how the missionary life is going here in Monmouth! Transfers are next week but I'm pretty sure Sister Risenmay and I will stay here.
Here's a quote about faith we read for zone conference that I LOVE.
"Prayers that appear on the surface not to be answered, my brothers and sisters, are often the very ones that are answered most meaningfully, one ust double one's faith in these apparent trials lest it be lost."
Gene R Cook
I HIT SIX MONTHS OF BEING A MISSIONARY ON WEDNESDAY. 1/3 OF THE WAY DONE HOW CRAZY.
Sister Carlson
