FREE SHAVOCADO

So we had dinner at the Rains house last night and of course Abby was hilarious as always! She randomly looked up and yelled "FREE SHAVOCADO" and I LOST it I was laughing so hard! It's from a vine of a lady because the sign said "fresh avocado" but the spacing was weird so it says "free shavocado" and it was hilarious and I really needed a laugh so that was great!

Well this was a weird week. Definitely mixed feelings. 

Since we have bed bugs in our mission, we can't do overnight exchanges but we did blitz for the day in New Hartford with our STL's and it was so fun!! We went to dinner and got New York pizza and yes, it is as amazing as everyone says it is! While I was with Sister White we met this guy Tim who has a baptism date but needs to push it back and I just blurted out "what's your favorite part about this church?" not knowing where the heck that came from and before I got the question out o my mouth he was like "the people. and the love" Wow! What an awesome answer. Make sure you go out of your way to be nice because people notice! He also told us how sister missionaries have the "pregnancy glow" hahaha he said something about us just shines, it was so sweet. I love being a representative of my Savior. 

This week one thing I learned is there are absolutely no coincidences in life. We ate dinner at a members house on Saturday, the Gilchrists. After that we had a lesson with Lacey. Lacey is one of my best friends here! She's the sweetest 13 year old you'll ever meet. She lives with the gang (her uncle is the dad of the house and her mom is best friends with the mom of the house).  So we normally take her to the farm (the first house and first half of the family on the hill). So we were bringing her back to her house and we were dropping her off (Our mission president said it's okay to drive investigators to lessons, just fyi I promise I'm being obedient hah) and she was like "do you guys have to go somewhere or can you hang out? Can we read from the Book of Mormon?" So we were like "yeah we can read a chapter before we leave!" So majority of the gang is out of town, they went to Ohio for a trip so only a few people are home but we walk in and Lacey's mom was crying and Jeremy and Justin were on the back porch and literally right before we walked in the house Oreo, Jessica and Lacey and Justin's kitten had ran into the barn fan and cut her face open. Jessica and Lacey were A MESS. We were trying to figure out what to do and Sister Loveland looked at me and goes "Should we call Brother Gilchrist?" and i replied "that's what i was just thinking" so we frantically called him because he's a vet and he said he would come out of his way to help. He arrived and was able to take Oreo to his clinic (In the middle of a storm I might add) and fix her up free of charge because Jessica has no money. It's no coincidence that the Gilchrists signed us up for dinner that night. It's no coincidence that we had a lesson with Lacey. It's no coincidence that Lacey invited us in. It's no coincidence that we felt impressed to go inside. And it's definitely no coincidence that we both felt impressed to call brother Gilchrist. (He wrote a story about this experience on facebook, I shared it so you should all go read it). 

I love seeing the blessings that come from service! We ate dinner at a family's home this week and he told us that he's been feeding the missionaries for 20 years now. Well the next morning, he came in to get food from the food pantry that we volunteer at. My heart was so touched. He can barely provide for his family on his own and yet he still feeds the missionaries willingly. I know Heavenly Father is blessing him because of his dedication and service towards us. 

Well this week I had so much fun with the gang! I played basketball with Dakota and Nick, I threw a baseball with Trevor, and taught the boys and Lacey how to play 3-hit-kill! They LOVED it! Seriously they wouldn't leave me alone! Whenever we were just sitting and talking they'd run up to me and be like "can we play that game?!" Oh man I love the gang. 

Also this week I got the opportunity to speak in church! Hahah I've been to church 3 times and spoken in every single sacrament meeting! The first week they asked me to introduce myself, the second week I bore my testimony, and yesterday I gave a talk! I guess it's the curse of having a tiny branch. 

I definitely know that missionary work is hard. But it's also so worth it! I LOVE HAMILTON and i love New York! I love the people in my branch and I love my investigators! It's starting to feel like home which I'm so grateful for. 

Well keep writing and sending me letters, seriously it helps a ton and makes my day when I have mail! Love you all!

The Book is blue, the Church is true!

xoxo

Gospel Girl 

Funny story for this week is look up "flugtag" videos hahaha our investigators showed us it, it's hilarious. 

Pictures: 

1. HAMILTON MY LOVE

2. Killin' it with our Facebook lessons

3. I've never seen so many cemeteries in my life! They're all so old and soo cool. I'll have to take some better pics 

4. Hotel Maxwell is now an ice cream shop (SO GOOD) but there are so many old buildings that people have just turned into new businesses, it's probably my favorite part about Hamilton, besides the sunsets of course!

5. Little Rascals sign so obvi I had to take a pic

6. This is the view from Brother Gilchrist's lake house! SO PRETTY