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