2.24.14

You heard from me 6 days ago. I don't really have a lot to say... 

Not much has been going on... I've just been being
a missionary. It's pretty exciting. 

This Friday it rained really hard. We were doing weekly planning so we went out on the porch and watched it rain. It was so beautiful!! It was strangely fun.

THE RAIN!!!

We also had a Relief Society activity this week where they made healthy smoothies. They used a blendtech and all I could think of was those dorky YouTube videos that we used to watch all the time. I kept thinking, "Healthy Food dust. Yuck. Don't breathe that!" But really. The whole thing was like a call to repentance to not be addicted to sugar. I felt half bad, but not really. I like my sugar and my sugar likes me. Plus I tried that whole no sugar thing. It was like something straight out of a horror movie. Sister Perkes with no sugar= evil rage monster who just wants a cookie. 

This Sunday Sister Stockett and Sister Donohue had a baptism. Joanna was baptized and it was so wonderful! We sang two songs and they were great! We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount and then we sang I Am a Child of God. It was so Spirit filled. 

After that we went to this wonderful family's house named the Christophers. They have seriously the cutest kids I've ever seen. We walked in and their daughter had on pink Minnie Mouse jammies with a peter pan collar. I knew we were going to have a great time. The food was divine and those kids are hams. Emma, their daughter, just wanted to play with us and for us to hold her. Let me tell you, we wanted nothing more than to hold her. There was this point where we were sitting at the table and she started to crawl into Sister Stockett's lap. Sister Stockett had no idea what to do and I was sitting next to Sister Stockett and I had NO idea what to do. So Sister Stockett is just sitting there squirming and freaking out a bit and I start to try to grab Emma, but that's against the rules too. So we are just sitting there going, "ahhh ahh ahhahhhhahhh ahh" and being all awkward. I've got my arms out and Sister Stockett looks like someone is about to chop her arm off. Then I just start screaming, "RED ALERT!! RED ALERT!!" and Sister Christopher comes over and gets her. It was so awkwardly sad and terrible all at the same time. 

That is the excitement for my week. 

That is it. Have a good week!

love,

Sister Perkes 

I Have Once Again Dodged the Bullet 2.17.14

Well. I'm not getting transferred and neither is Sister Jeromchek! We will continue to serve in the Mandarin 2nd ward! Huzzah! We DID get another set of missionaries in our ward though. That makes FOUR full time missionaries and one senior couple in our ward. Yes, just one ward. It's crazy and terrifying. What is life right now.

This week was really great! It seems like it went by really quickly, but at the same time it seems so long. How we fit this much stuff in, I don't know. 

On Tuesday we went to a family's house and had a family home evening/mini talent show. It was really fun! Everyone (well mostly just the missionaries) had to come prepared with a talent. Sister Jeromchek did her ballerina thing and I sang a duet with Sister Donohue. Then it got to some ward members who had come, but had not brought a talent. The next thing we know we are ALL playing Little Sally Walker. If you are unfamiliar with this game it includes standing in a circle with one person in the middle walking around, clapping to a beat and singing/speaking, "little Sally Walker, walking down the street. Didn't have a partner so she stopped in front of me and said, 'Hey girl do that thing do that thing. Swap! Hey girl do that thing do that thing swap!'" And whoever little Sally Walker stops in front of has to dance and... YOU KNOW WHAT. Just YouTube it!  I'm sure there is some epic rendition of Little Sally Walker on there. Well anyways. We ended up playing this game and it was the funniest thing you've ever seen. Grown men and young women alike. They were all playing and it was darn tootin hilarious. 

Valentine's Day was super special. We woke up and did our weekly planning. Sister Jeromchek also had her last conference call!! It's crazy that I'm done training and so is she! What will I have to whine about now???? I'm sure I'll find something, don't worry. I made Sister Jeromchek this lovely Valentine that we actually acquired from Albert Sluus (the man who gave us all the candy and the singing Christmas socks). 

Saturday was probably the funnest day of my life. We threw a "surprise" birthday party for Sister Hairel!!! It was unicorn and Star Wars themed, which are her two favorite things. It was so much fun and we are all pretty crazy... well crazy for Sister Missionaries. We played charades and Sister Stockett and Sister Jeromchek are the funniest charaders I've ever seen. We had such a great time. Lot's of pictures will be included. Don't fret.

Sunday we had a really great fireside called, "Why I Believe" which was where some recent converts in our ward spoke and bore their testimonies and told their stories. It was wonderful and very much full of the Spirit. One man said, "Just because we have consequences doesn't mean that God loves us any less." I really loved that and it made me think of all the people that I have met out here that think God is vengeful and angry. They don't really see him as a Heavenly Father, and that makes me sad. God is loving. In fact, God IS love. I know that and I love that. 

I hope everyone has a good week!

love,

Sister Perkes 

We made her hide in her room while we decorated, so it WAS a surprise

me and Sister Hairel

We gave Sister Hairel her own tupperware for her birthday. She kept giving us food and we kept forgetting to give back the containers, so the only solution was to wrap them up and give them as a present. We also gave her a unicorn necklace too. Don't worry. 

Me and Sister Hairel's cat Indi. We had a moment. She usually hates me, so this was a miracle. 

Birthday fun!

The pollen in the pond outside our window where all of the duck rivalries go down. 

I've been waiting for this. For a LONG TIME. 2.12.14

Well y'all read it.

Sent from my iPad

Yes. Read it. We finally got our iPads. I love it, but at the same
time I don't. I love it because I'm sitting here, in the mall, eating
chic fil a, and typing up this email. I don't love it because now we
have to put our area book in here and we never have wifi, which is
highly inconvenient.
This week we had a zone conference to get out iPads and it helped me
see what an incredible tool we have just been given. These iPads
aren't to just have fun on, they are meant to hasten the work of
salvation. We have been given them because of the obedience of this
mission, and it is our responsibility to maintain that standard and
use these tools wisely so that The Lord can trust us.
This week we also had trade offs! It was wonderful and I got to go
with Sister Heslington in her area. It was great! Especially since I
didn't have to drive. I still don't like to drive and I like it even
less here in Florida. No one uses signals and not a soul in this good
state of Florida knows where the crosswalk starts. If I was walking or
riding a bike I would constantly fear for my life. They are no
respecters of crosswalks.
This week felt like it went on for an eternity. I swear it's been at
least a month. This is my last regular p day before transfers. We
shall see how that goes down.
This week we went to see the lady who couldn't open her door. Did I
tell you about this? I would like to think so since the story is darn
tootin hilarious. But anyways we went to go see this lady, who never
ever remembers us, and she couldn't get out of here door, like
legitimately locked in. I tried to help her, but efforts were futile.
She eventually walked away and we did too. Last time we went and
knocked on her neighbors door and she told us that the lady has really
bad Alzheimer's. That makes sense. Apparently her son locks her in her
apartment because she used to go outside and wander around. This story
just got really sad...... But now when we go visit her we see her
through the window. There's a good mental image for you! You're
welcome.

That's pretty much all the exciting things this week. I'm loving being
on a mission. It's the best decision I've ever made. I. Love. It.

OH YES. I FINISHED JESUS THE CHRIST. Holy cow, it was good. I loved it
and I'm going to read it again, but most likely when my brain calms
down. It needs a break after that.

Have a dapper dandy week!

Love,

Sister Perkes

P.s. Happy valentines day! I still haven't decided who is going to be
my valentine. It's between Sister Jeromchek and the squirrel in my
tree. It's a pretty tight race, but I think I'll take Sister
Jeromchek. She says some funny things and the language barrier between
me and the squirrel is pretty rough.... Still up in the air. Or should
I say, tree. ;) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. I'm so funny.

Sister Jeromchek is thrilled beyond words at having an ipad AND eating at Chick-Fil-a

OR

She's worried Laura will choose the squirrel....

2.3.13

This week was really fun! I can't quite remember what we did, but it sure started off with some very interesting things. 

I have a funny, yet rather sad story to tell you. This week we went and saw the man who gave us the singing Christmas socks again. It was very interesting. This time he showed us around his 1.3 acre lot, which has about 12,000 buildings on it that he has either built or reconstructed. He has acquired quite a few of them from other places. There were lots.. and lots of bugs. 

So we rounded up some lawn chairs and sat down to have a chat. This fellow is 82 and he brought is walker out. Apparently he meant to sit on that, but when he went to sit down his wheel was in a hole. He. Went. Sideways. There was no stopping it. He just went down. In rather slow motion. I tried to help him, but I DIDN'T KNOW HOW!!! Any who. There he was. I expected him to stay down. Maybe do a quick check of all his vital parts. You know, make sure they were still working and all. NO. That is not how he works. He barrel rolled right back up! He wasn't even on the ground for two seconds! In the midst of his literal down fall he lost his slipper and had to go back and retrieve it. As I type this I am laughing. I cannot even begin to tell you how funny it was and how much self control was it took to NOT laugh. It was a lot. Sister Jeromchek and I reinacted it when we were at Sister Hairel's house and it was still really funny. I thought Sister Hairel was going to pass out from lack of air. It was great, which leads me to my next point!!! 

BIRTHDAYS!!!! It was Sister Jeromchek's birthday on Thursday. She turned 20. Wow she is old!!! (wait.. that's how old I am) Sister Hairel threw her a princess themed birthday party! It was wonderful and there was cake. So I was tickled about that. Sister Hairel is the master party thrower. We had crowns, wands, AND rings! Watch out world. I am sooooo grateful for Sister Hairel. I love her A LOT. 

That's all I got. Zone conference is this week, which will contain a very special present for a very technology deprived Sister. She will be happy. This zone conference even has it's own theme song. More next week!

love,

Sister Perkes 

CAKE!!!  I LOVE CAKE!!!

This is MiMing. He is the fattest cat I've ever seen. His name means "cat" in Taglog, or whatever language they speak in the Philippines. The owners of this cat fed me this very yummy stuff. It was green and apparently had tuna in it. Whatever it was it was DELISH. I've come to the great conclusion that I love Filipino food.  

My brother John sent me 600 (!) crackers and Nutella!  What to do? First a photo op, then enjoy.

I LOVE this ward... I must be getting transferred soon.... NOOOOOO 1.20.14

This week was a great one! I'm not entirely sure what we did, but I know that we had a good time doing it!

This week we had dinner with members almost EVERY night. It was a dream come true! We have met some of the funniest people ever. I really love the members of our ward. They are such great, caring, loving people. Plus they are all pretty good chefs.

We also had a great Relief Society activity! It was called "Speed Friendshipping." It sounds daunting and a little bit overwhelming, but it was great fun!

This week we were walking around and literally ran into this lady. We have had the chance to teach her twice. She is great!!

We also visited this sister in our ward and her granddaughter has the most toys I have EVER seen. It's like Santa was shook down for everything he got. Wait, NO. It was like Santa gave her WALMART for Christmas. But I'm pretty sure she has more toys than Walmart. We have been over before, but this time she just focused on showing us all of her lalaLoopsies. I WANT ONE. I want one reaaaaal bad. So if anyone would like to send me one that would be great.      

I also discovered the most glorious thing. My camera has Photoshop. Now for fun I turn myself, and all those around me, into what I lovingly call "aliens." Some of them are real creepy. Really we just look like we should belong in a pageant... I've always wanted to be in a pageant. A high glitz one. 

Recently I've been studying the 13th Article of Faith and boy, I love it! Everything that we believe and everything that we need to do in our lives is in there. When we seek after the things listed in the article we recognize our divine nature and live up to our individual worth. We should Heavenly Father that we truly appreciate who we are. I LOVE it. 

I am so grateful to be out here in Florida serving God. I have been so blessed. Miracles are real and they happen every.single. day. We just have to have the eyes to see them. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

love,

Sister Perkes

This. Week. 1.13.14

I'm just going to start this off with probably some good news for everyone. This email is going to be rather short. I am very hungry. I didn't bring any snacks. Emailing takes about 2 hours, which is significantly longer than the time I should go without food. BUT I love you all very much so I shall now proceed to wax eloquent and tell you of my doings this week. 

I'm not even sure what we did this week. My key indicators indicate that we did a lot of things, but I don't seem to be able to remember any of them. 

Last night we had dinner at a family's house and it was like being home. There were people all over the place and we had a good southern meal. I should have known it was going to be fantastic when the pater famailia opened the door and he had on a FSU Seminoles bandanna wrapped around his head like the karate kid. It perfectly accentuated his long hair and fantastic goatee. This family just has great facial hair. His son-in-law has the beard of all beards. It is of epic proportions. People aspire to have Brother Leckie's beard. 

This week I experienced my first torrential downpour in Jacksonville. Boy, oh boy, was it raining. Right as we got out of the library. It wasn't very fun. Especially since we had contacting and tracting planned for the rest of the night. We squished through 2 neighborhoods. 

We also went to visit a man this week. He is a less active in our ward and we have been trying to meet with him since before Christmas. Last week he just told us to give up on him, so that meant one thing. Surprise attack. We went over there one day and had an interesting gospel discussion that ended with me rather confused. Right before we were going to leave he was like, "wait! When you first called me I got you some stocking and some candy and nuts! Let me go get it." So we stand there for a bit (we are outside) and then he reappears with these stocking. They aren't just your regular Joe stockings. They are singing Peanuts stockings. SINGING. Expensive SINGING stockings. Then he starts to laden us with candy and entire bags of nuts. He gives us about 2 grocery bags full of candy and it weighs purt near 10000 pounds (he also gave us fruitcake. I hear that stuff is pretty dense, so that probably added to the weight). ALL of this candy was from World Market, so it was all foreign. There is a whole BOX of British chocolates. I about died. Here is the kicker, my friends. Sister Jeromchek and I are sacrificing sugar for the month of January. Yes. This was the worst idea ever. I wish I could go back, but it's just too late. Plus it's a very, very serious sacrifice. So now we have a plethora of delicious, foreign, sugary confections waiting for us to eat them come February. Hurry. Please.

Well. That is all that I can extract from the depths of my brains. I hope everyone has a dandy week!  

love you and miss you,

Sister Perkes    

Hello Mother. Hello Father. Here I am in Florida. 1.7.14

So guess what ya'll. We moved!... AGAIN. I refuse to ever move again. They can try and transfer me, but I won't move. I just won't. They can't make me. I will just stay right here forever. I don't even care. I'm tired of moving. But by the time next transfers come I will probably be okay with moving. I've got six weeks to prepare myself. (Yes, transfers happened. I'm staying in Mandarin! WOOOHOO)

This week was really great! It was also really awkward... I have realized that a mission has made me such an awkward person but, as my companion constantly reminds me, if it's awkward then we are doing it right. I am doing a whole lot of right then.

So our new apartment is in our first complex. It's lovely and on the second floor. The stairs are at the most unbecomingly steep degree. They are like a death trap. Surprisingly no one has ate it yet. I can feel it coming though... Plus they are squeaky and pretty sketchy. 

Our new apartment is just dandy. It over looks this giant pond that all these ducks hang out in. It is quite entertaining to watch. I think they have a little West Side Story going on in this pond. You know, rival packs... flocks? Herds? Gaggles? Wait. No. They aren't geese. Well. A large group of ducks. But the downside of this is that we hear obnoxious duck noises all day long. They aren't just your normal duck quacks either. They are diabolical. They are like unto no duck quack that has been heard before. It's the perfect mixture of terrifying and obnoxious. I bet they spent years genetically perfecting this quack just to annoy me. They have found success.

Our apartment also has quite the interesting neighbor (we have no idea where this person actually lives, but we know it to be near by). EVERY morning this neighbor plays their music. Quite loudly. So loudly in fact that the ceiling, and everything else, rattles. It's wonderful. All his song is super bass-ey and it's mostly rap and dubstep. It's really a great background to our studies as we are trying to feel the Spirit. It usually lasts for about half an hour and then we are left to our peace. 

But it doesn't smell and that's all that matters.

This week we had a movie night for Family Home Evening. It was wonderful and we watched the long Restoration movie. It was a good activity and everyone there really enjoyed it. Brother Bishop/Branson came and so did Sister Hairel, so I had a great time.

This week we had dinner at Sister Hairel's and it was magical beyond belief. This lady CRACKS ME UP. She is just so sweet and so funny. She also sang with us in our musical number that we did at the baptism this week. We sang "I Will" by Hilary Weeks. It turned our really well especially since we had practiced it 3 times all together. 

So awkward story time. Last night we went to see a referral and when he opened the door this cute little dog ran out. We talked to the guy for a little bit and he wasn't interested so he shut the door and we turned around to leave. We got half way to the car and realized that this dog was still running around the driveway. They had forgotten their puffball! I know that dogs are okay outside, but this dog really wanted to go inside. It was pretty cold outside and I know that I wanted to go inside. This seems like a situation that shouldn't be that awkward. But it WAS and I will tell you why. 1)The guy wasn't interested and obviously didn't want us to come back 2)This really grumpy looking scary dude who was our referral's boss had shown up and gone in right before they shut the door. We had NO idea what to do with this dog. We tried to just leave it, but the blasted thing followed us to our car and looked like he wanted to get in. We sat there. We sat there and we festered in awkwardness. We like partly ran back and forth between the door and our car multiple times. We couldn't decide if we wanted to knock on the door or just leave it be. We decided to leave. Well the dog wasn't having that. He sat in front of our car so we couldn't move without hitting him. We sat there for about 2 minutes until the door opened and the guy's boss left and the dog ran inside. It was really awkward pulling away because that whole adventure took about 5 minutes and we should have been long gone by then. Awkward. Story of my life. 

That was only a taste of the awkwardness that permeated my week. 

Have a great week y'all! Try not to be awkward. I can't. 

love,

Sister Perkes