(sorry, I missed posting this) Just in case I wasn't enough of a freak already, let's add a TIARA!! 11.26.13

Well. This week I got called to be trainer. That's right. A trainer. After 6 WEEKS. I don't know what's going on.... anyways. Awko. My poor new missionary probably won't turn out right, but that's the risk they're taking I guess. 

Sister Eddington is going to Julington Creek. That's not in my zone and I'm about to cry. She is SO. FAR. AWAY. BUT if things go south I can still walk there. It could take me hours, but it would be worth it. 

Moving on. This week was rather dull in comparison to the last few ones... I'm not actually entirely sure what I did this week.... I'm sure I can come up with something.

So. This week. I spent all week just having a fit about training. I'm just dying over here. Don't worry. On Thursday we had a train the trainers meeting. That was super fun. I was the only person who came from my group that is moving companions, let alone training.

We taught Branson again. HE'S STILL DOESN'T HAVE A BAPTISM DATE. I'm gonna rage.But he thought he had a blood clot, but in fact it was just a bruise. Long story. No fun. 

Oh! On Thursday we went to the neurologist. That was an adventure and a half! So fun.   

I really can't think of anything. I'm sorry...

WAAHHHH. TRAINING. DYING. BLEGH.

Love,

Sister Perkes

Mappy Birthmas To Me! 12.30.13

This week was wondiferous! Much better than the last two.. and quite possibly the last three put together! 

IT WAS CHRISTMAS. CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!!!! But it really didn't feel like Christmas. That's okay though because it is like Christmas every day here. 

So Christmas eve was a blast and a half. We had 3 dinner appointments right in a row. Each one was wonderful and delicious. I shall now elaborate upon them.

Our first one was with the most loving, giving woman I know. Her name is Tabatha, which makes it even better. Not everyone is blessed with such an awesome name. She had all of her family over and we had a fun time. 

The second house we went to was Sister Estoesta's house. I have learned one thing on my mission: I love me some Filipino food. It's divine. They had all of their family over, too. That was lots of fun.

The last house we stopped at was the Bennetts. We had BISON tacos. I don't get it. I live about an hour away from one trillion buffalo/bision for the bulk of my life and I never try any of the meat. NOW I move to the other side of the country, where there is not one to be seen, and partake of said meat. Funny and delicious. Anywho. The Bennetts are so lovely and are the funniest people ever. We had a grand time.

For Christmas Sister Jeromchek and I got up at 6 and opened our presents. It was strange. It didn't really feel like Christmas, but I enjoyed the presents! WOO HOO! 

For Christmas lunch we went to the Aniel's house and had a fantastic time with all the other missionaries in the area and the Aniel's family. LOVED IT.

For my birthday we a quite a day of adventures. My birthday dreams came true and we went to Panera for lunch. It was a little slice of the Celestial Kingdom. I had a bread bowl with my delicious soup. I was in hog heaven. Plus they have really yummy pastries and I love me a good dessert make up of bread. A ward member named Sister Hairel came to lunch with us (I don't know if I've said anything about Sister Hairel yet, but she is the neatest lady. She LOVES the civil war and Phantom of the Opera. Yes, please to both. She is just magical. Harry Potter is her ringtone. Needless to say she is my kind of person).

Post-Panera we went to our epic baptism. It was the mother load. We had FOUR baptisms. FOUR. None of them were mine, but I loved going and it was the best birthday present ever. It was so beautiful. Branson came and he really enjoyed it. He also came to church on Sunday. Since it was my birthday we sang "In Our Lovely Deseret", but no one knew how to play it so I had to. But we still sang it! What. A. Gem.

This week was wonderful and skyping home was just what I needed to pep me up. Thanks for being so great!   

Thanks to all the people who sent me packages and letters! It really meant a lot to me and made Christmas more homey. 

I hope you all had a lovely week and I hope you have a great one!

love,

Sister Perkes

12.23.13

So this week was pretty good. It started with a trade off! I was with Sister Parmer again, but this time we worked in my area. We got a lot of work done and I learned a ton of new things. While we were at a less actives house we were sitting there talking and having a good time. We were seated in a swively chair and I decided that I wanted to cross my legs. Next thing I knew I was tipping over and I thought I was going to die. Luckily Sister Parmer saved me and up righted me. I thought I was all good. Then I moved. The next thing I knew I was on the floor. A screw had come loose and the top of the chair was only being held on by one screw. That one screw was not enough. I was on the floor in all my shame. Sister Parmer didn't even try to save me that time. The lady we were visiting looked appalled and terrified at the same time. I laughed for about 10 minutes (I'm laughing writing this too, as well as every time I think about it) and then I fixed her chair for her. All is well now.

This week we met these people and they were kind of crazy... alright, mostly crazy. This lady has had all these visions. WEIRD visions of emerald and ruby people with golden hair singing praises and other strange things. Very strange. Very strange. 

This week we also have made a new tradition. Every week after district meeting we go to Steak and Shake. Yes. It is as delicious as it sounds and most of the menu is in the name. It sells hamburgers and shakes. YES. PLEASE. It's delicious and they have this whole entire menu of 4 dollar things. It's plenty reason to live in the south. 

So that's pretty much everything exciting that happened to me this week. Oh! Yes. We did meet this lady named Betty. She used to be a go-go/cage dancer in like the 60's. She showed us the picture... Yerp. She also made us watch these YouTube videos of her nephew who is in this band. She also has a book of poems that she wrote. 

They were great, but also contraband. You can't deny reading someone's poems. You just can't. 

But that was my week. We have a great ward and they are really treating us well this Christmas. I'm so grateful that they are! I hope y'all are having a great week!

love,

Sister Perkes

Wonky Week 12.16.13

What a wonky week. It was so strange. Somehow we managed to do absolutely nothing in a whole entire week. It really flew by. Missionary time is trippy y'all. It really is. 

This week we had our giant Christmas party with all of the missionaries! EVERY SINGLE missionary in the mission was there. It was great. I got to see Sister Blatter, which pretty much made that day the best ever. I missed her so much. I also got to see Sister Eddington. That was just lovely. Our separation was rather abrupt so it was nice to actually get to say a real see you later. 

Here's a bit of interesting for ya. On the way to said Christmas party we got rear ended! How exciting is that! I stopped at a yellow light and here in Florida that is basically synonymous with green, as is red. Do not even get me started on Florida drivers. They are no respecters of cross walks and that really gets my goat. THEY ARE THERE FOR A REASON. Ugh. Anyways. I stopped and the guy behind me did not. There wasn't a lot of damage. Just some paint chips. Everyone was okay.

The very same day Sister Jeromchek and I packed our whole entire apartment into our car and moved, Beverly Hillbillies style to our new apartment. It is the nicest apartment I've ever been to. It's the lap of luxury. Top notch. Cream of the crop. I miss my old stinky apartment. There is no storage in this place, which is rather difficult when you have acquired a multitude of wonderful gems. 

This week was a good week for Branson. He came to our Book of Mormon study on Wednesday, our ward Christmas party on Saturday, AND church on Sunday. Things are moving right along! I think he's really loving getting to know the people in the ward. They are all really nice. 

This week was pretty difficult, but this week is looking to be much better! 

I hope you are all have great weeks! Make it a good one!

Love,

Sister Perkes 

Stuff Like This Only Happens to Me. I Swear. 12.9.13

I'm a firm believer in bad news first, so here it goes. I just lost all of my picture. Yes. Yes, I did. There. Bad news over.

This week was pretty fun! We started the week by going to visit over 25 less-active Sister's and invite them to our Relief Society activity that was on Thursday. We made contact with quite a few of them and one sister actually came! It was so worth it just for one sister to come from all of our efforts. We made them cookies, so they had better of loved it. I'm sure they did. :)

So I think I'll fast forward to the activity. We went caroling at an old people house and then we had a white elephant thingerdo. Sister Jeromchek and I made "Missionary in a bag"s. We stuck some cookies in with a Book of Mormon, a Restoration DVD, some pass-a-long cards, and all of the pamphlets. They were liked the slow kids when picking teams for kickball. Plumb picked last. Last I say. Last. People chose the tin foil wrapping paper before our beautiful paper bags. We were ashame-ed. BUT a less active young woman and an investigator got them, so I guess all is well. Righto? 

Before we went to said activity we had dinner with the Walters. They are probably the best people in the whole entire world. When I grow up I want to be as neat as they are. Kid you not. They have the cutest little girl named Elsie. Her nickname is Boots, which is just EVEN better. She did a performance for us while dinner was getting ready. The first song was about princesses, the second song was a jazzed up rendition of what does the fox say, and the last song was about cats... jungle cats I think! She even had some pretty nifty dance moves. Very modern and very interpretative. It was like unto modern break dancing if there is such a thing. Halfway through her mom tried to come to the concert but she said, "No boys at the concert!" and wouldn't let her in... makes total sense, right? Then her dad promptly shouted from the kitchen, "That's sexist! I'm going to come to your concert... NO!! I'm not going to come to your concert! I'm boycotting it!"

They are seriously the best. Plus they gave us ice cream in waffle cones. Any family with waffle cones is my kind of family.

The next day we were driving into our apartment for lunch and there was a big flock of Canadian geese right in the middle of the road. It is unbelievable how many fowls of the air live in Florida. It truly baffles me. So these geese. They were in the middle of the road and would not move. So I honked the horn, rolled down the windows, and turned up the music. David Osmond practically screamed at them, but they still didn't move. So obviously the only solution was for ME to shout at them. I stuck my head out the window and shouted at them. I did not bargain, nor did I prepare, for the noise that erupted from my mouth. It was terrifying. It sounded like I had ran over one of the geese, which is quite a possibility. They were rather plentiful. Apparently my noise meant, "FLY AWAY!" in goose, because then they flew away. Sister Jeromchek and I were pretty excited that they had left. Then we looked up. There was a little girl standing on a rock about 10 feet away. She was shocked, disgusted, appalled, and terrified. Apparently she had been watching these geese and heard my.. noise. Needless to say we lost it and just about died laughing.

I must also bring up another family in our ward. The Smiths. They are pure magic. Both of them served missions and are from Utah. YES, PLEASE. We love them. They have the cutest little girl. Plus they are really great member missionaries and will help with anything. They held a little Christmas party on Saturday and had 7 non-members come. It was wonderful! We sang Christmas songs and then they had a little spiritual message. At the end they sang "Families Can Be Together Forever." There was not a dry eye in the room. It was just.... MAGIC.

This week something odd happened to us... but it was really a tender mercy. So here's how the story starts. Saturday night we came in at 8 for dinner. The next day we went out to go to coordination meeting at 8:45. Some how the car next to us has managed to park their tire in our wheel well. WHAT? YES. So we had no idea what to do. Sister Stockett and Sister Donohue came and got us and drove us around, which was just fine because they were going all the same places as us! In return we fed them dinner. Later that night we put a note on the car saying that he needed to move it by 9 AM or we would have it towed. Well 9 AM rolled around he didn't move it. Wah wah wah. So we called a tow truck and the po-lice. Then the guy came down to go to work. Just as he got to his truck the police officer showed up (MIRACLE!!!!). The police officer was not happy with this crazy man and told us that we should have called the police earlier. The man told the police officer that he did this all the time and if it ever happened again to just come upstairs and tell him to move... yeaaahh... Then the man just got in his truck pulled out and pulled away. The police officer was not amused. Miraculously our car was not damaged at all!  We have learned to never park on that side again, needless to say! 

This week was a good one and pretty productive! We had a great time and can't wait for next week!

Have a blessed day!

Love,

Sister Perkes

Welp 12.2.13

So. As you have probably guessed, I got a new companion. Her name is Sister Jeromchek! Yes, a name that makes mine look simple! Bless-ed. She went to BYU and lived in Helaman Halls in the Taylor building. YEAH. We both looked familiar to each other. Funny how life works out! She is from Spokane, Washington and has a super neato ballet scholarship. She's pretty fun and we get along really well together!

This week was more eventful than last week, that's for sure! This week WE COMMITTED BRANSON TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!! (While everyone celebrates I would just like to take a moment to express how upset I am that commit does not have two "t"s. Such tomfoolery. Such nonsense. This is a severe injustice. I believe that since there are two "m"s there should be two "t"s. It's only fair.) It was great! He really felt the Spirit and understood what we were saying!.. But he didn't come to church on Sunday.. I think his Doctor (of the mental sort) is anti-ing him, which makes me really mad/sad/angry/frustrated/depressed/mad again. We went to go make sure he was coming to church on Sunday and we got another Branson special. It is a note that is written on the back of an envelope held up by a band-aid. It is so great. It makes the fact that he isn't coming to church hurt just a little less. This is the 3rd one we've gotten.

For Thanksgiving we were invited to TWO places. I don't know how I did it. I'm sure I gained at least 40 pounds. We were invited to Lois's for lunch with her family (for more information on Lois please see previous post). It was great and so much fun! She is just a wonderful lady! After that we did some work and then went to the Queens! They are seriously the cutest family ever. They have this little boy named Ezra and his hair is just so awesome. There is no other word. It.. I just want it. But it was like a gourmet meal! Everything was beyond delicious. Plus they had razzleberry pie at the end. I am all about that pie.

Now I must tell you of a terrible mistake I made... well Sister Eddington started it. So we have this less active Sister named Sister Barnett that we see and her granddaughter is about to have (well just had) a baby. Sister Eddington thought she would be here for at least one more transfer so she volunteered to finish this blanket that Sister Barnett started crocheting. It looked to difficult for my companion so she started her own. About 10 minutes later we call the telling us that Sister Eddington would, in fact, NOT be staying. But she kept with the blasted blanked.. She crocheted like a mad woman and go pretty far, but now I'm left finishing it. I don't really know what I'm doing. I hope this kid likes it and drags it around like he's the kid on peanuts. As of right now it's about the size of a dishtowel.. just kidding.. it's bigger. It would be a good blanket for a large potato.

Training is hard. Like, really hard. I didn't realize how much I relied on Sister Eddington. She is amazing! I'm doing much better now than I was earlier this week though! I have come to realize that my new companion is not a Tomagatchi pet. I can't kill her. I think that's what I was afraid of. But I think we are doing pretty well considering the circumstances. I have learned that we can really do anything as long as we rely on the Lord. I have really felt the Spirit guide us this week has we have been doing work. We went to visit this less active Sister who opened the door and said, "who told you I was back?". Apparently her mother had recently died so she had just spend 3 months in Idaho and gotten back yesterday. She really needed us. If you don't think that is being led by the Spirit wait until you hear this one.

This lady was a lady who we have been trying to meet since the second day Sister Eddington and I got here. We have left cards, sticky notes, a family history pamphlet, and even wrote her a letter to try and reach her. Sister Jeromcheck and I were trying to visit a potential investigator, but he wasn't home so we had no idea what to do when I got the idea to go visit Maria. So we got in the car, went to her apartment complex, debated if we had gone in the right entrance for a while, and then decided if we hadn't we would walk. When we got out of the car we saw a pair of crutches sticking out of a gold car. Her neighbor (yes, we talked to her neighbor too) had told us that she has a gold car. I was guessing it was Maria, but even if it wasn't, this lady needed some help. We asked her if we could help her and she stuck her head out and said yes. Apparently the lady had fallen down the rickety stairs from her second floor apartment (which scare me every time I go down them) and she had landed on her shoulder/neck. She had been injured for about 3 months and she has been really struggling. We helped her carry her very heavy purse and some cakes up the stairs. She was so grateful! We gave her our phone number and she promised that she would call us when she needs help. Oh yeah, it was in fact Maria.

Boom. Those are the highlights of my week. I'm just hanging out here in Florida. You know, living the missionary life. Just working for daaays.

Hope everyone has a blessed week! I know I will!

love,

Sister Perkes