Nature 6.24.14

So it's transfers and guess what. Sister bowers is getting transferred
to mandarin 2nd ward. No joke. She will be living in MY apartment. I
am dead serious. Don't worry, I already made her a list of awesome
people to see. It will be GREAT.
My new companion is named sister Conley. She has been out for a year
now! I've met her before and she seems really nice. Everyone keeps
telling me that she is funny, so I think we will get along.

This week there was a lot of rain. So much rain. We biked through a
lot of it. Some of it was refreshing, some of it was painful. But we
made it! We lived!

This email will be pretty short since I'm on my iPad and typing on
this thing is a beast. I know. I'm complaining about typing on my free
iPad that I get to use on my mission. My problems are so real.

This week had a lot of nature in it...
Yesterday was the buggiest day of my life. I killed no less than 100
little gnats with my bare face. It was disgusting. They were stuck to
my clothes, in my eyes, and in a lot of places that it wasn't their
business to be in. I guess that's what happens when you ride like 15
miles in one day.
We did Wilmont gardens this week! Sister Bowers and I helped these men
chop down a tree. It was our job to break it into smaller pieces
and shove it into a dumpster. We did a pretty good job, I would say. I
did learn... Well remember, that I hate nature.

We also had the weirdest lesson of my life. It was crazy. I've never
been so confused and terrified in my life. It was....I don't even know
how to describe it... We will just leave it at that.

Oh goodness. I can't believe I almost forgot to write this. Let me
preface this with telling you that I've developed an unhealthy love
for cats since I've been here in Florida. I do not know how it's
happened, but it has. Don't worry. I've still retained my love for
bunnies, but the possibility of me being a crazy cat lady is pretty
high. It's a little more socially acceptable than a crazy bunny lady.
So. I've started a foundation here in Gainesville. It's for the
homeless felines of the area. It all started with this cat I met named
Fredrick vonHasel (sounds like Von hazel, but it's not spelled that
way because he's a cool cat). He's a very hungry cat that was so
desperate that I stuck my hand out and he came right to me. I didn't
have any food that he liked though. Apparently cats don't like fruit
snacks or chocolate. Sorry cat. That's all I like. But I did put some
water in my hand and he drank it. Victory for Sister Perkes! Then I
took some awesome selfies with Fredrick. That's really the only smart
thing to do.
I've also found another cat to come in my foundation. His name is
Melvin. He is significantly cuter and more well fed than Fredrick.
I drew sister bowers a poster for it. It was great. I shall call my
foundation. Feed the friendly felines. It will be very successful. So
far I'm the only one participating. Sister bowers refuses since she
doesn't like cats....well cats touching her.

Other than that I think that was about it for this week. Still haven't
found a bike. Oh well. I'll HAVE to get one next week, since they take
the car next week.... :) c'est la vie!

Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Perkes

Much Better Than Last Week 6.16.14

This week was a goodie. Oh boy, it was a goodie.

It started off with having a fantastic day with the beautiful Julie Castillo. She drove us all over kingdom come and even took us to WALMART. I was so excited. So excited. Then we had pizza. That was delicious. So delicious.

I should preface this story with some facts: Sister Bowers can't stay on the sidewalk. She has been falling off and tripping all week. It's been quite the entertaining struggle. So we were just doddle-bopping down the sidewalk walking to this complex where we were going to knock. We were on a main road in Gainesville and we got to an intersection and walked through it. We got to the other side and Sister Bowers fell off the sidewalk. I chucked a little bit, but by now this was a common occurrence  The next thing we know this white car, who was still stopped, edged over to the side of the road and this man, dying with laughter, jabs his finger at Sister Bowers mouthing," I SAW THAT!!! I SAW THAT!!!" and doing the whole fingers to the eyes and back at you maneuver. Then he went on his merry way. It was golden. I then proceeded to laugh the rest of the night.

On Tuesday we had a run in with the po-po. No, they were not there for me. There was some domestic violence occurring two doors down from us and this lady was screaming out the window, "somebody (bad word) call 911!' The next thing we know these creatures sneaked up the stairs and then we hear a big ol "*BOOM BOOM BOOM* POLICE, OPEN UP!!!!!" Then there was even more screaming and shouting, but they did not open up. Then we heard some even bigger booms as the police proceeded to knock down their door. Then they refused to get on the ground, but they did before they had to use the tazer the police had pulled out. I love thin walls. Due to thin walls we also heard that the fellow hit the TV with a bat. Never a dull moment where we live. :) Needless to say we will be moving soon, but we did solve the previous problem of our apartment reeking of pot. All it took was an arrest. 

When your bike gives you a flat tire, make a hula hoop. 

This week my bike also got a flat tire. Me and that stinking bike have had quite the interesting relationship. But I am human. I will win. No metal death contraption will overtake me!!!!! But it did keep us inside for the rest of the night making calls. That's okay though. It was rainy and lighningy and I didn't feel like dying anyways. It has been raining like crazy all week. It makes me that much happier that we got the car on Wednesday. 

This week was a great week to go galavanting around Gainesville with members! 

On Wednesday Julie came out with us again. We went and saw a bucket load of people and then we went to a lesson with a less active fellow. It turns out that the Elders had the idea to visit him at the same time, so we had a group lesson. That was interesting. SO MANY MISSIONARIES. Then Julie took us to Texas Roadhouse, since Sister Bowers had never been. How a soul grows up in Idaho and Utah and never ventures into a Texas Roadhouse and it takes coming to Florida to finally go to one baffles me. But we went. It was delicious. Needless to say, she loved it. 

Then Yesterday we went out with Vanessa, who is a recent convert who is from Brazil. She is just the most adorable person in the whole entire world. We saw someone who had a Brazilian flag in their window, so we knocked on their door and Vanessa just had a wonderful time speaking Portuguese with them. 

Now it's time for our weekly portion of "What Do you Eat in the YSA?" Well this week we had some goat. It was quite chewy....very chewy. If ever I became crazy poor I would buy goat meat. You could probably eat the same piece for a week. But Ken gave us this goat and we cooked it right up! It was tasty. Today he also gave us (literally) a platter full of food. Platter included. It is adorned with a turkey featured in a Thanksgiving spread. I will cherish it forever. He told us that we were his girls and that he had to watch out for his girls! It was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard. He makes living in the hood that much more bearable.

 Our goat meat all cooked up

Yesterday we also taught the lesson in Gospel Principles. It was on the gift of the Holy Ghost. It went really well! People enjoyed it, but it's really hard not to enjoy talking about a member of the Godhead. 

This week we have been working a lot on Sister Bower's family history. We have been putting in pictures and stories about her family. I know what I'm doing when I get home! 

ALSO. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Tomorrow is the next Facebook event. I see that none of you participated in the last one. I'm a little upset, but there is always redemption. Tomorrow's event is called "Search the Book" and you take a picture of you reading your scriptures in your favorite place and share an experience that you had whilst reading your scriptures. Please freely use the hashtags #searchthebook and #bookofmormon. We had a great turnout for the last one. Don't be one of those silly people who gets left out of something awesome. Discover the Book was covered by Mormon.org AND Deseret Book. IT WAS AWESOME!! 

I love you all and hope you have a good week! 

love,

Sister Perkes

6.9.14

This week does not have much. We spent a lot of time finding. A LOT.

 

It's also been REAL hot and SUPER humid. Sometimes I'm afraid my hands are going to slip off my bike handles because they are so sweaty and I will conk my head on the handle bars and pass out and then fall into traffic and get squished like a bug. These are my thoughts. Unrealistic, but thoughts none the less.

It's also been really rainey. It rains about every day.

 

We also had some wonderful Facebook miracles! Sister Bowers was so inspired to message some less active and we were able to meet with all of them and help them make the steps to come back to church. Heavenly Father is so mindful of us, no matter where we are. We are also never too far gone from Him. His love is always there.  That is such a miracle.

 

We had trade offs this week and I was with Sister Phelon here in our little part of the YSA. We had a great time! We rode our bikes and I only almost fell off once! That is good news for me since I was riding the bike that I wasn't used to and is like 4 times the size of the other one. I felt like I was on top of mt everest. I might as well have been.

 

Sunday/yesterday was quite the day. QUITE THE DAY. We got done with church and had a delightful appointment with a member and an investigator who owns a record label. It was like my dream come true. We did family history! More dreams come true!!! Loved it.

Then we went to singing practice since we are singing at Tocachale again! I was the Alto section. Loved that.

Then we got back to our bikes and Sister Bowers realized that I had a flat tire. So we walked our bikes back home. Then I tried to turn on the water at home and THERE WAS NO WATER. The water main in our building burst due to the massive amount of rain that came down while we were at singing practice. So now we had no water. Period.... well except for our bottled water and that can only go so far. So we called 1 billion people and no one answered. So we decided to just go on our merry way.

While we were leaving the house one of our neighbors told us that it was going to start raining again. Did we listen? No. Then it started to rain... and lightning. The fact that we are alive is living proof that God is good. Everything in my bag is STILL wet. Still wet.

So the Sisters came and got us and we spent the night at their house. It was wonderful.

 

So this was our life for the last week. We had zone meeting got super pumped to do missionary work, especially on Facebook. It really is a fantastic way to share the Gospel without feeling like you are being pushy. So genius. So inspired. So Heavenly Father. He just knows what is right.

 

I hope you have a good week!

 

Love,

 

Sister Perkes

A Week of Laughs 6.2.14

This week was full of laughs. Sister Bowers and I laugh a lot, but more so this week. Some were out of fear, some were out of happiness, and some were hysterical laughs. It was quite the toss up. Don't worry. I will get to them all.

 

                                                     street we saw at zone conference.

Hysterical Laughs:

This week we yet again were dropped by every soul that we have ever taught. We knocked and knocked, but no one wants to listen. This was difficult, but I know it's not the end of the world. People will want to listen eventually. We just have to keep working.

 

Fearful Laughs:

This week we met a very interesting person. He thinks he is a prophet and is quite... interesting.. Then he really put the cherry on top when he told me that he was, "very attracted to my soul." Then he told Sister Bowers that she had really intense eyes and that some people may even think she's crazy. It was really scary. We were very afraid. Needless to say we will never go back to that McDonalds.

 

Happy Laughs:

OH BOY. All of these funny stories occured around the same area.

On Tuesday we were knocking down by the University and we had just come out of this very nice complex when what to my wander eye did appear, but a really nice printer just sitting on this pile of junk waiting to get thrown out with the trash. Now I COULD NOT let that happen. This was a mighty fine, beautiful printer. So I carried it back to the institute with me, which was roughly 6 blocks down a very busy road. I only got a few weird looks, but judgers gonna judge. I got myself a nice printer. Then I realized that I had no use for this printer so I gave it to someone in the branch.

A few days later down the same street Sister Bowers pulled into this parallel parking spot and I swore up and down that she had enough room to just pull out, but she made me get out and back her up. For everyone that doesn't know, missionaries must be behind the car to help their companion back out. If it's in reverse there better be a companion standing outside of the car making sure that you don't hit nothin. It's a weird rule, but we also don't really have insurance so missionaries got to do what we got to do. So I was backing Sister Bowers out and not really paying attention to the task at hand. 1)Sister Bowers is a big girl and can back herself out 2)there were cars to be waved at. So I turned around to wave at this car that was turning at the corner. Said car starting freaking out, slammed on it's brakes, and rolled down the window shouting, "AHHHHHHHHHHWATCHOUTTTTTT!!!!!! AWWWW ****!!" Then I realized that he thought Sister Bowers was going to hit me and I had no clue that she was backing up and was warning me. I told him that I was supposed to be out here and then was like, "OH. YOU OKAY." and sped off. It was the darn tootin funniest thing I've ever seen. I thought we were going to die laughing.

 

We had a fantastic miracle baptism this week! This girl that the Elders have been teaching for a while decided to get baptized on yesterday. She decided this on Friday. It was a beautiful baptism and I heard the sweetest talk on baptism I have ever heard in my whole entire life. Us Sister Missionaries sang Come Thou Fount. It went pretty well.

 

This week we also did a TON of service. We did some more gardening at Wilmont Gardens on campus and then we helped paint a building at grace marketplace. It was so wonderful and I'm glad that it's getting up and running. Then we helped this older lady move and that was quite the adventure. She had these puzzle that if you touched it was the end of the world. If you want to live you best not touch her puzzles. But we DID get it all moved.

 

That's all folks! Hope you have a good week!

 

love,

 

Sister Perkes

                                                   Sister Bowers when she lost her shoe

Sister Bowers when she gets home

the apple pie I made Sister Bowers make me

                               Alison's baptism. Our little Asians. They are the best. Pan, Alison, and Sigrid

Sister Bowers

                                                                       Sister Perkes 

I finally got to use my rain bonnet

me and my printer

I made sister Bowers tater dogs.

This weird doggytreat-mobile we saw. It was weird and played strange
animal music. None of it involved a pan flute though, and that's all
that matters.