I just want to say...

IT'S MY 6 MONTH MARK! YAY!

So... I totally forgot my planner today. So I'm shooting from the hip on this email.

But I'm not getting transferred. Sister Pritchard and I are both staying in Parma.

We had a lesson with Anne this last Friday. That was interesting. We felt that she was trying to convert US to HER religion... She told us about her mission trip to Honduras and read us the scriptures of salvation from the Bible and cried and cried. And we just sat there as she preached to us. It was interesting. Not that I didn't mind hearing about her religious background- I was just confused as to why she'd invite us over and then not even let us talk. Haha. But that's happened a few times on my mission. She's a very "born again Christian"- she told us that we don't need authority to baptize, that we don't need a prophet, we don't need a church, we don't need additional scripture, shared the typical scripture from Revelation, etc. But we testified, gave her a Book of Mormon, told her to ask God if it's true, and invited her to church again. Aaaand- she was at church again on Sunday. And she was taking a LOT of notes. We have another appointment with heron Friday.

We did service this week. And it was amazing. (Service is my favorite part of missionary work!)
We went up to the local Girls Camp and dug up weeds on Tuesday night for a 2 ward service project. It was great to see so many people there- and we got 2 fields cleaned up in an hour and a half. Boom! Quick work!
And on Saturday we went and helped Old Brother Reeder with his yard. Sister Reeder has MS, and so Brother Reeder has been sacrificing all of his time taking care of her and building a ramp from their front door so that she can get outside. Because of that, his yard has turned into weeds and dirt. Sister Pritchard (being from AZ) had never run a lawn mower before... so that job was delegated to myself. Like I said, the whole yard is dirt and weeds, so when I started the lawn mower the dirt turned into a dust cloud around me... and stayed that way until I was done. And rocks were flying out from the mower and hitting me (which hurt really bad). Brother Reeder gave me a dust mask- but that didn't help the amount of dirt that was flying into my nose. Bleh. We then dug out the weeds that I had mowed down and gotten the front of his house ready to plant flowers. We were there for about 2 hours. Sister Pritchard was making fun of me because you could barely even see my skin underneath all of the dirt... haha! I wish I had brought my camera to take a picture!
It was all made worth it when Brother Reeder brought his wife up to the window of their house so that she could watch us work. She was beaming from ear to ear and gave us a wave. It was awesome.

Remember Rocky? The guy who came to church last week? Well, we went back to invite him again (but he wasn't home) so we talked to his brother! And his brother Richard came to church! YAY!
Funny story about that though... Their crazy uncle was there... And he started telling us about how he's seen things that we wouldn't believe! He's even seen the Garden of Eden in a vision! It's in Southern Ukraine! And that we didn't have to believe him... That nobody did... But, if we wanted to come over later that week, he would tell us about all of the things he knows about the world. Meanwhile, Richard and his friend were CRACKING UP in the background... haha. Oh, the life of a missionary.

Man... I can't think of much else that happened this week... This is what happens when you don't plan ahead! Pictures to come!

Sister Gubler

 We went and got Parma hats... Yup. Our life is exciting.

 Hermana Turner, my first and best and closest friend here in the mission, has completed her 18 months and is returning home tomorrow. SAD DAY! It finally hit me that our missions really do come to an end... 

We met these guys yesterday. They bring every missionary that enters their home a "garment grooming device"... haha! (They've only ever had Elders over. We were the FIRST SISTERS to get one! I consider that an honor.) But they're not from ID, they were visiting from AZ. :)