Feeling LARGE at life!

For Andy:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!!! I love love love YOU.

I miss you so much.
I've been thinking a lot about you these past couple days. And ya know, I have missed about 5 of your birthdays! Band camp x 4 and now here & then next year! :( but I hope you know that I miss your hugs, your smile, your laugh/humor. You are the best! I remember the day you were born. I remember dad had me choose your middle name: between Grant and Houstan. I remember holding you in my 10 year old arms. I remember feeling so lucky to have you as my little brother, and I still am so so blessed! You've been a bright light through my life and have ALWAYS made me happy :) I hope you have the best day, bud. I'll be there for your 11th birthday :) LOVE YOU FOREVER! <3

P.S. Tell me what you did for your birthday! Looks like you had some yummy waffles in bed :) are you gonna have a birthday party? Tell me everything :)

For the fam and friends:

Hellooooo! I miss and love you all as usual. Dad: Hope you got my letter, I got yours. Loved it. Thanks for taking time to do that. What'd you do for your birthday? Mom: I got your letter, thank you for writing me as well, it really means a lot. Your cursive is lovely. :) Are you going to be at band camp for your birthday AGAIN??? Where is band camp this year by the way? Haha oh man. Wish Claire good luck. Has Buzz kissed Camilla yet? Are Jack and Spencer besties? What's Andy up to? AHHH I wanna be thoroughly updated!

Here's your update:

We've been so so so blessed to have nice weather here. It's been in the 70's/cloudy and there's been some big storms. Sister Szabo and I parked our car at a gas station one evening, and just walked and walked. We had no appointments, so we just contacted for the evening, and as life would have it, it just started pouringgg. One of those 'missionary moments' :)

Nothing really crazy or amazing happened this week, actually... yes, kind of.

So, Budda and Prinell, their mom, Janelle, accepted to meet with us this week, (I told you that, right?) well, we did. Sister Szabo and I are really scared of her for some reason. Haha... she's just so intimidating. I think it's because she's asian and gorgeous. Anyway, we put on our let's-fake-it-and-be-bold-even-though-this-is-completely-out-of-our-comfort-zone-face, and we taught her. We chatted about her boys, what we've been teaching them, then we taught her, and it went SO. WELL. It really really did. The Spirit was strong, and things ran smooth. We had another appointment scheduled with her, on Saturday, so we did all we could to find a solid joint teacher to come with us, and everything was working out perfectly, we texted Janelle the night before our appointment and she was good for us to come by! Well, I had a gut feeling that things would crash and burn, because this was just too good to be true. Well---my gut was right. Boo. Janelle texted us the morning of telling us she wasn't feeling well (believable because there's a nasty bug going around--which I'm pretty sure I've caught btw I'll explain later) DANG ITTT. We decided to make her some soup and take it to her. We did, she was appreciative, and then Sunday came. We were REALLY hoping the soup would help her feel better, but she wasn't able to come to church :( gahh. BUT BUT BUT! We texted her asking if there was another day we could come by and teach her, and she accepted and ALSO asked if 'there is any chapter in the Book of Mormon to read in the mean time' WHAAAAT. Golden. Sister Szabo and I have complete faith in her and are praying things will work out!!!

But guess what? Freaking transfers are next week!!! :( what am I gonna do without Szabo?!?!  ugh. I'm nervous I'm gonna train or white wash an area :/ So, I'll letcha know next week what's gonna happen! I wanna stay put with Szabo and this area! It's been AMAZING here!!!

I'll tell you 2 more funny things that happened this week:

1. Sister Szabo and I had an appointment with a gal named Carolyn, who of course, wasn't home. So, we went outside of her apartment, sighed, and looked to the right of us, which was a crazy ghetto trailer park, and the left which were nice condo's. We prayed, and chose the latter. We started off our tracting night by going to the condo at the very end. We walked up to a door that was wide open, with the screen door shut, and there was a brown man sitting right next to the door. When he saw us, he hopped off the chair, and with a big smile, opened the door and said 'Hello!!' --it was like we were old friends of his and he was waiting for us to show up. We told him we were representatives of Jesus Christ, and he immediately motioned us to come in. His house was very nice. He had two cuuuute kiddies, and his mom was cooking dinner and his wife welcomed us in too. It was really...weird... haha

Anyway, we found out they were Hindu... eek... I didn't really know how to deal with that one, but Sister Szabo and I managed to teach them, and they were very appreciative and wanted to learn more. We were about to head out, when they offered us both a Diet Coke. WEIRD. Nicest family, invites us in on FIRST visit, wants to learn more, and gives us a drink on the way out. wowowow. We'll be going back soon. Anyway. Funny, eh?

2. So, how I mentioned, there's like a nasty flu going around, and I have NOT been feeling myself. Poor Sister Szabo has to deal with me. She's a cutie though. Mothering me. Well, it's been hard for me to eat without my stomach just absolutely KILLING, so I've been trying to take it easy. Well, I didn't eat much yesterday morning, and when I got home from church I was real hungry, so I had some soup. We had dinner about an hour later at a members house and they fed us salad, steak, potatoes, veggies, and a huuuuge creamy strawberry pie. BLEEEHHH. I felt real gross after that. WELL. We had an appointment with one of our questionably 'progressing' investigators about an hour after dinner and we were just planning on reading Alma 40 with them. Welp. Plans changed. We walked in, and there was a table set. NOOOOO. She made ribs & fried chicken & veggies & potatoes & icecream for dessert. OH MY HECK. It was just one of those funny 'mission moments' where you have no choice but to stuff it down. Two HEFTY meals within like 2 hours. Oh my heck I'm done for.

So you don't have to worry about me being fed well down here! Sheesh. Make sure you still love me when I'm 500 llbs. see yaaaa.

Anyway, we have a tiny P-day today because we're going to the Twins game on Wednesday! What theeee. Normal life? This will be weird.

Thanks for all that you ALL do. I love love love you. Read your scriptures. Say your prayers. Go to the temple (which I did btw and I was AMAZED.) Have a lovely week! <3

xoxo Sister B