I lose stuff.
A lot on my mission. Like really a lot. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's this giant coat that I wear all day every day, maybe it's because I'm just a little distracted all the time (thinking about peoples' eternal salvation seems so much more important that making sure I put the keys back on their hook ;). Anyway, it happens a lot. And this last week things took a turn for the worse. I lost our phone. Here's the thing, I lose our phone all. the. time. I leave it in the snow. In our apartment. In our car. Lots of places. But we always find it - mostly because my companion usually realizes I don't have it soon after I lose it. But last week I reallly lost it. For the realz. And by the time we realized it was gone it was late. We had been in a lot of places. And...as missionaries, we don't even have another phone to call our lost phone. Or a computer. Or any important numbers! JUST KIDDING WE ALWAYS WRITE DOWN REALLY IMPORTANT NUMBERS BECAUSE WE'RE TOLD NOT TO RELY SOLELY ON THE MEMORY IN OUR PHONES.....what I just typed may or may not be true.
Aaaanyway, I lost the phone. It was late. And dark. And crazy windy, and frigid. Like -25. But we went to look. We retraced all of our steps. And went back to everyone's house. And used people's phones to call our phone. And nada. And then we digged (dug?) in the snow for a while. But nothing. So we went to bed. And I don't know why, but my mission seems to have sucked all of the anxiety that may have ever rested in my body out of me. Really. I can't get anxious about much of anything. It's awesome. I slept like a baby. And then, when we woke up, we realized we probably had to do something. So. We got dressed, and we prayed. And we both realized where it had been lost. We had picked up a member to come to a lesson with us and when I got out of the car to open the door the phone fell. So we went back to see if it was still there. But the snowplows had come, so our searching was a little wetter than we might have hoped. And we looked crazy. Like misled little squirrels digging for invisible and non-existent acorns in massive heaps of snow. And so we stopped. And we went to a member's house to call our District Leader. It was early (8:30am), so we were a little hesitant about knocking on this couple's door, but we didn't really have a choice (we didn't actually have the elder's number ourselves....). We knocked, and were welcomed in with more love than I knew what to do with. This couple is amazing. We've always loved them, but they were just so kind. They were so happy to see us - they made us breakfast, and set my companion up on the computer doing genealogy while I made the calls. And It was such an example pf Christlike love. We had made a mistake, we were bothering them early in the morning to help us fix the mistake, and they were thanking us for gracing them with our presence. It just made me think of how Christ and God are always waiting for us - with extended arms - no matter how surly or uncharitable or disobedient we are. Aaanyway, I called the elders, and then I called our phone. And someone answered! It was a woman - and she had found our phone exactly where we had thought it had fallen! And we met up with her and were so very grateful and then wrote down some numbers.... :)
In other news, I ate one entire fish. I almost died. For the realz. It was too much. There were eyes. And so many bones. And I didn't know what to do - or how to eat it, and I really felt like I was going to pass out. And then this sister took the head off - only to reveal all the meat I had been secreting inside so I wouldn't have to eat it. It was a very bad moment indeed. And then they expected me to finish it. And uughghghgh. Yerk. Yuck. I only like shrimps.
Smooches,
