The scabes 9.29.14

Greetings from Gainesville. 

Now some of you might be wondering why on earth I am in Gainesville....again. You might ask, didn't you just get transferred from there? And I would say yes. But y'all, I'm back. 

Remember those scabies? Well they have brought me back here to gvegas. On Friday whilst we were power washing this lady's trailer we got a call from president Craig. He called and told us that they were moving us out of the trailer into some empty apartments in Gainesville IMMEDIATELY. All 4 of us. There had been 3 confirmed outbreaks, all of which traced back to our trailer. So they were quarantining all of us and fumigating our trailer. But before we left we had to wash every single piece of our clothing, so we used 2 different member's washers and we still got done and to Gainesville at 10.

 It was a crazy day. So much for a hasty exodus into the wilderness. 

So since then we have been stuck in Gainesville....literally doing nothing. We aren't allowed to go out since we could be contagious. None of us ACTUALLY have scabies, but we still have to be here. My lanta. We have nothing to do. But hey, we got to go to YSA yesterday! It was good to be back and see all of my friend. What a joyous time it was. President Craig was there and he spoke. Sister Conley and her companion, Sister Tsai, are quarantined too. They had a baptism yesterday and we got to go to that. It was wonderful. Oh Gainesville. 

Really other than that we didn't do much before we were sent here. WAIT. On Wednesday we went to Lake City to actually see if I have scabies. Well I don't. It's just poison ivy. The doctor told me to wash all my clothes to get the oils out and gave me some more pills. Huzzah. 

We did go to the school again and we had a great time. I made 3 copies of math text books. How invigorating. It took Sister Snelgrove 10 minutes to figure out the stapler. She thought I was straight magical when I opened it. 

 

Now for this weeks nasty animal encounter! Some nasty doodle frog jumped up inconveniently  at the time we were coming across the road, so he got stuck in our car vent and then he had the nerve to die there. Of course I wasn't going to to touch it. It made me want to vomit. So I politely asked the elders to remove it. They said that they would...and they did. But when we went to get it off our car the stupid frog was on my door handle. Um....YUCK. I about died. I had to move my side mirror so I couldn't see it, because every time I looked at it I wanted to vomit. 

So I spent the next day climbing in and out of the backseat or the passenger side in order to avoid Mr. Bean. That's what I named him. Mr. Bean. Finally Sister Davidson just moved him off the handle, but I made the elders scrub off all of the frog guts that were crusted onto my handle. YUCKERS. 

That's all from here... Wherever I am. 

Have a good week!

Love, 

Sister Perkes 

P.s.  Last night we got so bored that we made Sister Snelgrove chug kidney beans from the can. This is what my life has come to. 

Sent from my iPad

Fun at Target

I love spending all my money on prescriptions!

Sister Snelgrove taking a nap in her poncho from that nasty store
last week. We were at a members house doing laundry

What a golden day 9.23.14

This week was amazing! yesterday we met with elder golden and it
was....golden! I was so inspired and it was beautiful. His wife was
like a righteous Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter. I did not come up
with that. Props to sister Davidson, y'all.

Now for this weeks volleyball update. I hit it and did a good job,
y'all! It was beautiful. People cheered for me a whole lot.

I made fajitas this week and they were plum tasty. All I had was a
piece of steak and a some onions and green peppers. It turned out
delightful. I also made a darn tasty breakfast casserole with tater
tots, hamburger, bread, eggs, and cream of mushroom soup. It was
DEEEEELLIICIOUS. Yum. I guess maybe I can cook...

 Fajitas!

Sister Davidson with her homemade guac

We had some weird encounters this week with animals. We were wandering
around the country and saw a giant snake, then we shouted at some
goats. We also had a many a peacock encounter this week... At this
point I should really be used to weird animal stuff, shouldn't I?

Picture a Peacock

THE snake

My face when I saw THE snake

We also went to the library and helped make some decorations by
drawing stuff. I realize that I was pretty good at copying stuff.

Want to know what else I'm good at? DANCING. This week we had a dance
off for mutual and when we split up for teams no body wanted to be on
my team. Everyone wanted to be on elder deans team, since he is on the
ballroom team at BYU. Well guess what's up. WEEEEEE WONN!
YESSSSSS!! It was such a sweet victory. We even beat elder dean and
his Michael Jackson moves and his man split. Ha. STINKIN. Ha! Winning.

Well I hope that you have a good week!

Oh yeah, they think that my poison ivy is actually scabies. Bye!

Love,
Sister Perkes

p.s. We went to the only store in Lake Butler and they had some of the
ugliest shoes I've EVER seen. So of course we had to try them on. All
of them.

What a length of time 9.16.14

Hellur y'all!

What a week! I forgot to tell y'all, but the next p-day will be on a
Tuesday too. We are having a  mission tour next week. Elder Golden
from the Seventy will be coming. He has a really nifty accent since he
is from Southern Africa, so this is going to be real fun. I'm actually
pretty sure that he spoke at Stake Conference in Idaho Falls once.

But this week was chuck full of interesting things:

My arm is almost back to normal. Brother Matt gave me some medicine
and finally admitted it was poison ivy. It doesn't burn/itch/make
me want to die as much anymore.

This week I have also found that I have a strange obsession with
braid crowns. I figured out how to do a really good one and make it
look all fancy hipster like.

This week I also hit the volleyball over the net for the first time in
my life. It was shocking, impressive, and there WAS a massive round of
applause. Life conquered. I now know that I can go forth and do
anything! NAILED IT.

This week we went and helped with a funeral. It was like going home!
Which is actually kind of sad. But I have never seen such a spread of
food. There were 5 different churches involved and the Mormons provided
the food and building. It was an all day event full of southern
goodness. If there is one thing that Mormons know how to do, it's
throw a funeral luncheon. Yet another NAILED IT moment.

This week we met this ward member who is 95. He still remembers Heber
J.Grant, y'all! He was telling us about his meeting in 1924. What. On.
Earth. He is the neatest soul in the whole entire world. My goodness!

We also had the most disturbing experience of my life. We went to see
these people and their friendly dog dragged a headless furry creature
over to the door. It was either a puppy or a bunny. Both of those are
unacceptable. It was real smelly too. YUCKERS.

The mysterious fur creature

As you can guess this week is transfers. Sister Cline will be leaving
us, but Sister Donohue from Mandarin 2nd ward will be coming! She is
the new Lake City Sister Training Leader! Hooray! Sister Cline is
going to Georgia in Sister Conley's last area. Missionaries run in
small circles, y'all.

I made dinner for the trailer.  It was yummy!

masters of machetes

Me as a beauty queen

We had this dog that kept coming to visit us. Her name be Zipporah.

 

machetes - Sister missionaries tool of choice

The people at the library threw us a party and made us a cake as a
thank you for all of the service that we do for them.

Peacocks join us on our porch.

Hope you have a good week! Love you!

Love,
Sister Perkes

This week went on for ages 9.8.14

This week went on forever.... in a good way, but still forever. Hence forth this email will be a doozy, so buckle up. 

On Monday I got this weird looking thing on my arm. It sort of had a stinger in it, but we weren't really sure... well we got the stinger out and now weird things have happened. It pussed for literally 6 days... right through the bandaid. Our doctor/ward mission leader told me it was "contact dermatitis"... contact dermatitis, my bum. I know what a rash is and this aint one. It's still there.I think it could be poison Oak... but they are also telling me I'm a hypochondriac now... I have no clue where they get that idea. But the stinkin rashy thing is spreading and it is quite uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die. OH WELL! If I die my calling and election will be made sure. See y'all in the eternities! 

Bye.

Okay. End rant.

It rained for pretty much a decade here. I finally understand about "the rains coming down, and the floods coming up." By some sort of miracle we have made it out of our flooded dirt driveway every day. Wow... that would be embarrassing... getting stuck in your own driveway.... yikes.

Sister Snelgrove during studies. Note the torrential down pour. It
rained for literally 3 whole days.

But this week we chopped down some trees with a halfway broken ax and some machetes. It was great fun. I don't know how I ever lived without a machete before. Heads up, I'm asking for one for Christmas when I get home. I'm not sure how expensive they are, but we should take up a collection just to be safe.

Before we chopped down these trees the Elders decided that they were going to catch some pet geese that the people had. Well catch them they did! I was pretty sure that I was going to die. They came right at us like 5 times. It was terrrifying. They were angry. I don't like geese. 

This week we went and helped at the school again! We made a bulletin board to inspire 7th and 8th graders to read! We asked this girl in the library what she liked to read... well that was a bad question. We had like an hour long conversation about what she loved to read, but we did get a lot of useful information. So we took some of those books that she told us about and picked their locations and put them on a big world that we cut out and said, "Discover a new world... read a book!" It turned out really well. I think I see a future career path for me.. Thanks mission! 

Our awesome bulletin board that we made to inspire children to read.
(It has the book series under the location)

This week we had zone meeting and it was a good one. There were brownies and a game of Simon Says. Sister Cline and Sister Davidson also made the whole entire zone these mugs that we can put our mission motto on and that will help remind us of our goal for 1,000 baptism in the year 2014. Have I told y'all about that? It may seem like a HUGE and LOFTY goal, but I know we are going to reach it. President Craig kept feeling like we needed this goal, and so he set it. Then he went to a meeting for a ton of mission presidents with Elder Holland. President Craig was the only mission president that wasn't asked to reconsider his goal. BAM. Sustained by Jeffrey R. Holland, Apostle of the Lord. BAM. Also sustained by Sister Perkes, missionary of the Lord. BAM BAM BAM....bam. 

We also had stake conference this week. The stake president is in our ward and he is really young. I think their oldest kid is 9! But he is a fantastic stake president! Holy cow! So great.

So we were planning on going to the adult session, but then we got a text from the zone leaders saying that we needed to have an investigator about 2 hours before it started, but we are in Lake Butler so all hope of going shot out the window. But after the period of shock wore off we thought of someone we could invite. Not only did she come and drive herself an hour to Lake City, but she brought a friend! God is so real, y'all. He is a God of miracles and a merciful God. I cannot tell you how much I needed Stake Conference. Heavenly Father is so aware of our needs, and He always prepares a way to meet them. I know that He listens, I know that He cares. I know that He provides miracles and that He is willing to make them happen when put forth all of the effort that we have.

I hope y'all have a good week!

Rock on, big daddy!

love,

Sister Perkes

This little girl sat on the stand and wore gloves, a fur coat, and a
tiara. Best part is that I know her! We used to go visit her mom in
the hospital when I was with Sister Conley. These are the Beckhams.
Such grand souls.

A member bought this diet coke for Sister Davidson in memory of me.
How kind. Someone told me they were out there,but I hadn't seen one
until now.

Hellur! 9.1.14

Hellur! (That's apparently the southern way of saying hello. It
has something to do with madea...)

This week was a trip and a half. Today we went to Walmart and it was
beautiful. I have never been so happy to see such a blessed store. We
also went to a mall and I bought a lot of things that I don't need. My
closet already overfloweth. Oh well. The deed is done.

 This week we went to a wedding reception as a sort of finding
activity. Finding is slim pickings, so we take what we can get. It was
a beautiful reception! Twinkly lights included! They also had a
s'mores bar and her parents painted their house to match their wedding
colors. They had a fruit shrine that was rivaled by no other and like
3 different cakes, which were all delicious (this is why I've gotten
so tubby). It rained through most of it, but it all worked out. They
had honey as wedding favors and they told us to take a lot, so we
did... We stacked it all together and call it the Great Wall of honey.
It's great.

We went to Arby's this week when we went to starke for district
meeting. It was wonderful and not subway, so that's all that matters.
If I eat subway again when I come home from my mission it will be a
cold, cold day in a place that is meant to be quite hot.

We did a lot of service this week, which seems like a common
occurrence here in lake butler, so I should probably stop saying at...
But we weeded and raked till we about dropped dead!

We also met the most redneck individual of my life. He has a toothpick
in his mouth, a big hat on, no shirt, and was sunburnt. To top it off
he asked if we wanted a ride in his truck. We politely declined since
we valued our lives and kept walking. He was quite polite though, but
was an whole mess of stereotypes.

Thank you for all who participated in ifollowhim!

Hope you have a good week!

Love,
Sister Perkes

Service for (literally) days(3) 8.25.14

Hello family!

This week was quite eventful! It was chuck full of service.

This week we helped put up a roof! Missionaries! Building a roof! It
actually went pretty well. I didn't really do anything with the roof,
I mostly pulled weeds, but I was there for moral support and morally
support them I did!
We also spent a lot of time at the elementary school this week since
school was starting. We helped a lot in pre k and kindergarten. Boy oh
boy I am a master with scissors now. I can cut on a dime. I should get
an award for my precision and speed in cutting out monkeys for days.

We went out with a member this week and saw a billion people. It was
ex most productive we've ever been in Lake butler! AAAAND we got to
ride around in her Mercedes. It was delightful. She has to be the
classiest, boldest lady in the whole entire world. Everyone better
watch out for sister ginger and her ensigns (she likes to leave them
with people).

There was a ward activity this week too! It was minute to win it
themed and our team got second place. It was really well attended.
There were 10 non members there and 12 less actives. What a mighty
miracle! Huzzah! We somehow weaseled our way onto the teenager team,
so we didn't really have to do much. It was weird to feel so old. I
don't know how I feel about that.....

But we had zone conference this week and it was beautiful. We went up
to Gainesville and it was like coming home. Sister Conley is doing
well and sister Tsai is surviving the YSA. We talked a lot about
Christlike attributes and fortifying things in our lives, which leads
me to my spiritual message of the week: the title of liberty. Read
Alma 46! It's wonderful. It talks about the title of liberty. Moroni
hoisted the title of liberty and people ran to make the covenants that
were being set forth. Do we RUN to make our covenants? What do we hold
important? What would be on our title of liberty? I challenge you all
to think about what would be on your title of liberty and write it
down and put it somewhere where you can see it every day. Then pray
and covenant with God to always maintain those things, so that He may
bless you.

It was overall a delightful time. I hope everyone is doing well!

Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Perkes