The Swamp 5.26.14

This week. What a week. I feel like I start every email out like that,
but really. They're all their own sort of crazy.
We knocked on like 4 trillion doors and got dropped by every
investigator that we have ever had. It was great. Wheat and tares!
Wheat and tares! We got a drop text message from an investigator that
was 10 pages long. But it was the nicest drop I've ever experienced,
so that was a plus!
We are teaching this girl named Theresa though. She is a ballerina and
just so fantastic. The spirit is so strong when we teach her. She's
all we have at the moment.
We also went tracting on Saturday in 102 DEGREE WEATHER. It was so hot
I thought I was going to melt. I don't know how we made it all day.
Since we have no one to teach all we basically do is knock, knock,
knock and bike, bike, bike. Heavenly Father really does watch out for
us. Grace is real.
That's one thing I've really been studying recently, grace. It's the
power that comes through the atonement, not only to save us, but to
sustain us. We know that after ALL WE CAN DO we are saved by grace.
Even though we know that none of our works can ever amount to anything
close to being soul saving, we still have to do our best. Doing out
best requires a lot of effort, so how do we do that? Grace! Grace is
the daily divine help that we need to make it through. Grace makes it
possible for us to maintain those good works that we don't think we
can keep up on our own. Grace will never run out and grace will never
go away! It's always ready to help. It's just another thing where we
have to humble ourselves and ask.

This week we had zone conference and it was beautiful. We talked about
being a consecrated missionary and family history. Two things I love!
The Craig's are such angels. So fantastic.

Yesterday I made sister bowers make me a pie. 'Twas an apple pie. Our
neighbor also gave us barbecue chicken to make. So sister bowers made
it and then made some of it into a pot pie. It was beautiful and so
yummy. She is so talented. I will starve when she leaves.

Yesterday we had the most miracle of miracles! It was raining so badly
that we couldn't go out on our pedal-paddles/bikes. So we stayed home
and called every less active soul in our ward roster. We got some new
addresses, wrong numbers, and some quick hang ups. But the very first
number was AMAZING. So sister bowers Facebook stalked (we are such
good stalkers. I wonder if other people in the library know we are
this crazy. Really we should get an award) this less active. He had a
different number on Facebook than on the roster, so we called it. He
answered and we talked to him for a little bit and then he told us
that he lives in another part of Florida that's out of our mission. We
asked him if we could move his records. Turns out that he ISNT a
member of the church, but he want missionaries to come to his house.
So he gave us his address and we thoroughly enjoyed our little
miracle. It was amazing.

This week we also taught this man named Leonard, who has a family so
our teachings are now over. He apparently knows Tim tebow and is going
to set up a way for us to meet him. They played high school football
together! We will see what happens!

Well I hope you have a good week! We are trying to stay hydrated down
here in the swamp.... Literally.

Love,

Sister Perkes

Neehooooww Knee-Hi! 5.19.14

Since I wrote y'all roughly six days ago this email is going to consist of a lot of donkey pictures. 

 

So last P-day we went on a marvelous adventure. We went and met the world's smallest donkey. His name is Knee-Hi because he is roughly... knee high. Good job boys and girls! He is pretty short.

So we show up at this house in literally the middle of no where and the lady who owns said donkey (her name is Frankie and she is the sweetest lady ever. We talked her into letting us come back and do some service for her) led us back into her back yard. We see some donkeys in the distance and then the next thing we know we are surrounded by donkeys. They were mini-donkeys too, which makes this story even better. Anyways. These little (literally) donkeys are quite cute. They just want you to love them and pet them nonstop. They would get all up in your business until you paid attention to them. It was rather exhausting. Sister Phelon got bit by one! Not every person out there in the world can say that they've been bit on the leg by a donkey. But we met knee-hi and about 4 billion other donkeys. So nice thems is. Apparently Frankie has a fainting goat. I'm pretty excited for that... :)

me with Knee-Hi

Sister Bowers and the donkeys

                        Sister Bowers, me, Sister Phelon, Sister Dodd, and Grant with some donkeys

Grant loves him this donkey. her name is Xena. After the princess warrior.

 

The rest of the week we did a lot of finding. A LOT. We did this thing where we pretty much dropped every single person that we have...well had.. because they aren't progressing. Summer is hard in YSA. It's not worse. It's just hard.

One night we were driving into an apartment complex and all of the sudden we here this giant clunk and something falls onto our windshield. I, of course, scream and then Sister Bowers screams and stops in the entrance (no one was behind us. We lived). I looked up and there is a frog right above my head... on the windshield. Some weirdo frog had fallen from a tree and landed on our CARRRR!!! WHHHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. So I screamed some more and refused to get out of the car until the vile creature was removed. Yuck. Florida.

 

And now for our portion of YSA food adventures! This week I made Sister Bowers make me a pie (on dad's birthday. How appropriate). It was delicious and peach. It was YUMMY!! I've decided that our food situation is like chopped. I give Sister Bowers a bunch of random food ingredients and she makes them into something delicious. It's working out quite well, I may say. We are not starving and that's all that matters.

 Angel Biscuits and Pie!

Us with Nate Pence. He is in our Branch Presidency. This was his last Sunday since he is moving to San Francisco to join the Chantileers. He literally sings like an angel. He sang that Baptism song (the rainbow one) at a baptism (how appropriate) and it moved me to tears. It was beautiful and he sang it in the original key and original octave. He gives those primary kids a run for their money. He will be greatly missed. The other person in the presidency ages out TODAY and the branch president is gone, so us missionaries are going to have to hold down the fort.

This week I spoke in sacrament meeting. I forgot about it until 6PM the night before. Sounds like me! So I wrote it about an hour before church. Typical. My topic was "because of Him what is possible?" Hello. World's broadest topic. Also, giving that to a missionary is like telling them to breathe. There were so many routes so I went with, "The Atonement allows us to change." I talked about how we all have the ability to change and repent and become better because of Jesus Christ. The other new missionary in the branch was supposed to give a talk, but then he got transferred and forgot to tell someone in charge that he wasn't going to be able to speak. So Sister Bowers gave an impromptu talk. It was FANTASTIC. I also only left her 5 minutes.... whaaat? I'm a Perkes. I can ramble. ESPECIALLY about spiritual things.

 

So I think that's all of the crazy things I've got this week. I'd say that's pretty good for 6 days.

 

I love you and hope you have a great week!!!

 

love,

 

Sister Perkes

Some extra pictures from the week - don't miss the last one 

Some weird Florida bugs

           Me and Lauren Calton with one of our investigators snakes. 

            It was a weird lesson...... Us 3 out knocking some doors.

Smelly 5.13.14

Oh family!!!! It was so great to see you! I loved every minute of it! It was kind of surreal though...

 

This week was craziness in 8 days. I know that weeks are 7 days, but it's been 8 since my last P-Day. So this week has 8 days. Transfers are tomorrow. I'm staying. Big surprise. Wahoo.

 

This week it was hot. SO. HOT. I have never glistened/sweated so much in MY WHOLE LIFE. It was unbearable and entirely unattractive. It was like I had just jumped out of a pool that I wasn't allowed to be in. No one would ever be able to tell the difference. We were on bikes too, so I spent all week smelling like a raccoon crawled into a dumpster, ate too much, couldn't get out, and died. This is really not how a representative of Jesus Christ should smell. I need to fix this. Really. I'm rancid. I am just smelly Shelly over here. 

I have also come to the realization that Gainesville smells (worse than me). Bad. In some places it smells like mildew. I didn't even know the earth could mildew. This is news to me and it smells wretched. Just plain terrible. but sometimes it smells lovely! Like flowers! Then about two feet later it smells like cow poop. Love it. The very best part though is that every night, no fail, from about 7 PM on it smells like steak. Like a really nice piece of steak. Tis heavenly.

 

Since there is practically no one left in the fair city of Gainesville President Craig has told us to seek out service opportunities, and boy did we this week!

This week we were able to go do some service at this really amazing place called Grace Market. It's a one-stop, all inclusive homeless shelter that is built in the old prison here in Gainesville. It's absolutely incredible. They need a lot of help to get up and running, but thankfully we have a lot of help to give. We cleaned up some bathrooms and we organized a room that they are going to prep people for job interviews in. It was a wonderful experience and we hope to go back at least once a week! I loved it.

We were also able to help a YSA's mom build a chicken coop! It was quite the task. I painted and Sister Bowers sawed some stuff with her awesome farmer/handy-gal skills. It was going great until Sister Bowers broke the head off the hammer. Don't fret. They had another one. It was too funny. The look on both of their faces. I about died.

We also helped some lady that we were teaching pull a plastic back out of her ice machine... I have no IDEA how that got stuck in there. BUT IT WAS STUCK. Reallly stuck. We ended up using scissors to cut it out and through some miracle we got it all the way out. I really don't know what she would have done without us since the fridge was twice as tall as her. Really. How does this happen to some people?

 

This week we biked about 10000 miles. Not really, but it really felt like it. Every time I get on my bike I put my trust in God. Every time I get off I realized how much God loves me and how very real He is. Bikes are quite the testimony builder.

 

This week I learned that Heavenly Father really answers prayers. I knew this before but this week it was extra real. The past few weeks have been really difficult for me and I didn't know why. I was so tired and I could barely make it through the day. My attitude was suffering and I was just done. 100% DONE.

On Wednesday we were walking home for dinner and I prayed, "Heavenly Father please help me. I'm done. I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go home. I can't take it. Help me find the strength to be here and to want to find motivation." We ate dinner and I laid down to take a nap (that was nap 2 of the day. That was how bad it had gotten). As I got comfy in my bed I grabbed my pill bottle without even thinking about it and looked at it. It said that my pills had expired 3/2013. I didn't think anything of it and went to sleep.

When I woke up I realized what was wrong. I had been taking expired pills for about 2 weeks. I was not getting the medication I needed. Through a massive miracle I was able to get pills that were finally providing the correct dosage and I am now back at full speed. No more naps for me! I'm back to being happy!

 

This experience really proved to me that Heavenly Father listens. He does. He will also ALWAYS answer. We don't have to worry, the answer will come. Especially if we are doing what He wants us to do. He just wants to help us. We just have to ask. It's all up to us. I can promise you that He WILL answer. He will.

 

 

Hope you all have a good week!

 

love,

 

Sister Perkes

Ft. Lauderdale Temple Dedication 5.5.14

Hello all!

This week was the Ft. Lauderdale Temple dedication. It was so great! President Uchtdorf dedicated it and Elder Christofferson was there as well. It was such a great meeting. President Uchtdorf said, and I quote, "Church sleep is the healthiest sleep." Close quote. Straight out of the mouth of an apostle, everyone. So press forward with listening with your eyes shut! Just kidding, you should probably stay awake. It's pretty important stuff they are saying. Anywho. It was a lovely dedicaiton.

I can't really think of anything exciting that we did this week. We were in the car so I pretty much spent all week crying from excitement. I sat down in the car after we traded back and it was quite the odd experience. So comfy. So squishy. So.... niice. The seat is also significantly larger than my bum. That is something I frequently miss. Sometimes I look at the crosswalk and it says that we can walk so I think that it is time for the car to move. Thankfully I am not driving.

OH! This week we cooked a turkey. A full size turkey. By we I mean Sister Bowers. Our neighbor who is 75 gave us a whole turkey and told us that if we cooked it we could have half. We told him we didn't have a pan. He gave us a pan. We told him that we didn't have spices. He gave us spices. We told him we didn't know how. He told us how. We told him we didn't have time. He said fooey and we cooked him/us a turkey. It was...odd. BUT IT WAS SO GOOD. Sister Bowers has this strange talent of thinking of weird things, cooking them, and them turning out delicious. I guess that is what happens when you've been in YSA for 6 months. Our recent favorite is something we lovingly call "mint drank", which consists of Sister Bowers heating up some water and putting 10 Altoids in it. It's delicious. Yes, this is real life. Yes, this is YSA.

I think this is all that I can come up with for this week. I'll send some pictures! Have a good week!

Huzzah!

Sister Perkes

Sister Bowers and some mint drank in my special cup.

Sister Bowers trying to eat this really hard cookie. We get desperate.

Selfies!

My awesome bow that my mother would be proud of. I shall never untie it.

I like cats! I love every kind of cat. This cat loves me. 

He will follow me around.

Sister Bowers gave me a chocolate bunny!

Check out this awesome cat just hanging out in the back of this car
window. Poor cat. He was a scaredy.

What. A. Week. 4.28.2014

Oh boy. What a week. It ZOOMED by. I'm not even sure what we did. But don't worry. I'll still find something to rant about. I was made to rant.

 

Tuesday. Oh Tuesday. Tuesday was a great day. The whole day was led by the Spirit, it was the last day that we had the car for the week, ANNNNND we got to visit with Miss Gainesville. Yes. That is right. She is in our branch. We had tried to see her once before, but  she wasn't home and she lives pretty far out of the way. But on Tuesday I got this impression that we needed to go visit her. Lo and behold she was home! She is the most beautiful person I've ever met. Inside AND out. It was a magical day. Then we went to see this potential that I've never met, but I had a dream that she added me on Facebook. Yup! She was home too! My goodness me. We were blessed that day.

 

The next day we had a very interesting experience... we were teaching this lesson and we had a recent convert there. The lesson was going really well, but then all of the sudden the girl that we were teaching got up, told us to text her, and bolted out of the door! She apparently didn't realize what time it was and she had to be somewhere at 3. It was very interesting.... we sat there for a few seconds and let things digest, then we realized that we were in a room with just our male recent convert. Then there was mayhem and screaming and we all ran out the door. Missionaries. What is life. 

 

WE HAD A MEMBER FEED US THIS WEEK AND IT WAS DELICIOUS. That whole sentence deserves caps. It really does. We had a grand time and we got fed real food. Sweet, blessed day.

 

This week we had some transportation troubles. Well. We are back on the bikes (no blood yet) and we really should have know that riding home would be a problem when a bug flew into my eye and I had to stop because going downhill with only one eye really isn't the ideal situation. So we stopped and I had my inner turmoil as I gave myself eye drops. Who would have know that I'm still such a wuss? Oh, yeah. ME. Then after that curfuffle we were doodling along and Sister Bower's chain broke. Plain busted. We stopped to try and fix it but, alas, we had no success. So the other Sisters ended up coming to pick us up and the Elders came and got the bikes. It was quite the grease covered adventure. So much crazy. So the next day we walked everywhere until the Elders brought us the bikes back (don't worry. They brought a different one for Sister Bowers). But we walked for.... HOURS. It was pretty hot, but it helped my tan. Yes, I have a tan. Which just means that I look normal now. Progress. 

(see pics at bottom)

 

On Saturday there was a temple trip for the recent converts and we were able to help one of them find some names to take to the temple. I just LOVE family history. WHY DIDN'T I DO MORE OF IT BEFORE!!!!!? Oh, that's right. There's really nothing left. But thankfully we have recent converts who have NOTHING done! We were able to find him some names and we also found out that his grandpa had been married before. Public records. They'll get you every time.

 

On Sunday we had a baptism!! THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE THERE. There were 50 people there! That is really impressive considering that there were 65 people in sacrament meeting (which is also extremely impressive). But there was no an empty chair and we had to put more up. So Alex was baptized and he is the sweetest person ever. He is just so kind and I'm really glad that I got to teach him a few times before he goes home for the summer. He is one elect soul. 

Me and Sister Bowers at Alex's baptism

It was a great baptism and while we were waiting for him to change we showed Because of Him. If you haven't seen it by now, then it really is your loss because that video is fantastic and I've told you 12 billion times now to watch it. So just watch it. Again. Even if you've already seen it!

 

We also got a new branch mission leader this week! His name is Mitch, since Clayton is leaving us and heading to the Mandarin to live with Bishop Fowler and his awesome family.

 

Well I told you I would find something to rant about. I hope you all have a good week! Love you!

 

love,

 

Sister Perkes

 

 

Me on the night of the bike curfuffle. If this isn't a sister missionary in a nutshell then I don't know what is. I've got a flashlight, a skirt, a bike pump, a helmet, hand sanitizer, cheddar bunnies (my new favorite snack), and grease on my face.

Here are some selfies of a very sweaty Sister Perkes.  

This basically sums up all of my facial expressions whilst riding a bike.

bike stuff. again.

Jam Packed 4.21.14

Have you seen the new Easter video (Because of Him)? No?

THEN STOP RIGHT NOW AND GO WATCH IT. I have conveniently posted the link right here.

http://easter.mormon.org/

But that video. It is so great and I could watch it all day! That is actually what I did on Saturday. I watched it ALL. DAY. We showed it to 10 different people. We also had a day of just findingm which means that we went tracting for about 7 hours. We tend to do a lot of that in YSA since we don't really have a lot of appointments. Right now it is finals, so everyone has crawled into their little hole and is studying their little brains out. No one wants to talk to us, but that's okay. We will get them next week!! Mwahahaha.

But this week has been the best week EVER. It was full of some really strange finding activities!

On Tuesday we went down to Ocala (45 minute drive) to the college where our ward mission leader goes. They were having a "Faith-a-palooza" and invited us to attend. There were a bunch of booths set up around a courtyard with a different religion at each one. We were right next to the Satanism booth. It was quite fun! There was this one guy named Tom who found out that we were from the West coast and brought about 5 different friends over to meet us. I won't complain about the free publicity!! Then we went to Five Guys, which just made the day even better.

The next day we went to the free speech square on campus, called Turlington, and passed out some cards. We also acquired a wooden cutout of Jesus and invited people to take their picture with it. People LOVED it. It was a really good activity and just an all around great day to be a Turlington. The farmers were handing out free chocolate milk and ASOS had a booth there giving away free stuff. Needless to say I left Turlington with some of that. It was GREAT.

This week we also we went to our branch President's house and decorated 75 cupcakes with his wife. You can probably guess how long it took just by the sheer amount, but it was so much fun! We helped make ALLLLL of them! Here is one that I made!

Easter was also this week and it was AMAZING!!!!! Sacrament meeting was really great and the speakers did a fantastic job. I was surprised by how many people were still in our branch, even though a lot of them went home for the weekend.

We also had the chance to sing at an assisted living facility called Tocachale, which made this the best Easter I've ever had. Even though I am about a billion miles away from home I have never been so happy. This year I really felt what Easter is about. Every person that watched our little devotional was severely handicapped, both mentally and physically. The Spirit was so strong there. There was one point where a resident got up out of his chair and started singing along. It was so sweet! Lately with the Because of Him video (which has changed my life by the way, but really who hasn't been extremely touched by that inspired masterpiece) we have been focusing on the empowering side of the resurrection. But being at Tocachale helped me remember the restoring side of the resurrection and that everything that is unfair in life is made right through the Atonement. It wasn't fair that these sweet spirits are placed in these imperfect bodies, but that will all be made right through the Atonement. It was such a sweet experience that I will never forget.

Don't worry. I got fed! We had dinner at Elder and Sister Juett's house (the senior couple) and it was SO MUCH FUN. It was like one big family and the food was so yummy. She made this rainbow layered JELLO and it was like being at home. The love there is just overwhelming.

We also had a branch activity called Shaka Pau. It was pretty much a luau with a talent show and dance. We were not allowed to go to the dance.... BUT we did sing in the talent show as sister missionaries! We sang a song called "I Am A Missionary" that Sister Dodd wrote. It was such a great song. So adorable and so true! She played the uke for it.

This week the Sister Training Leader's car was in the shop so we have spent a lot of time together. It was so fun and I have really loved getting to spend more time with them. Oh, the adventures we have had!

Since today was P-day we went to Lake Alice with the rest of our zone. Lake Alice has alligators!!!!!!!! Don't worry. I took some pictures with them. :)

 

          

More alligators. They got awful close.

I love you and I hope you enjoy this week. I really love being a missionary and I can't believe that I have less that a year left. I'm grateful to be here in Jacksonville and meeting the great people of Gainesville.

love you all!!

Sister Perkes