Gnats and buses and trenchcoats, oh my!

10/8/14
Hey Everybody!

This week has been crazy!

Monday we had a big mishap with the bus system and ended up an hour late for an appointment with the Mitmas and didn't end up getting to teach Coral. Little Coleia tried to give me a hug after the lesson and I was like AHHH I'm a missionary! I felt really bad though. She reminds me so much of Holly when she was 8. The Mitmas are so awesome! Love them so much! We also played marshmallow dodgeball for P-day, which made everyone really sore the rest of the week.

Tuesday it started to really get cold. Winter is definitely coming. We got Faustine the Gospel Library app and he was able to start reading the Book of Mormon to his family. I also started to rise in stress levels because things weren't going according to anything we had planned.

Wednesday, I had a major stress emergency that day and was really struggling with how things were going. However, the Mitmas had us over for dinner and they BBQ'd for us and the burgers were just like Dad used to make! They were so good! I also remodeled my desk and put out more pictures from home. That's been really nice.

Thursday, we had weekly planning as always. We were actually able to get most everything done and it was very productive. That evening when we were taking the bus we got to have an... interesting.... .... discussion with a very...

Gay. Guy. It was definitely one of the weirder conversations we've had as missionaries. Also, while we were walking these little gnats were everywhere all over town. It was disgusting! They landed all over us and it was like something out of the mummy! It was so nasty! They kept getting squished on us! It made our Sunday shirts covered in green splatters! It was so gross!

Friday, we had zone training, it was way awesome and I learned a lot and we even remembered to bring a lunch with us! We also got the teaching supplies in French and were able to start teaching Faustin and his family the discussions. It was crazy because we teach him, he translates to his family and then he translates their questions back to us. It's way cool to see!

We also started wearing our trench coats (thanks Stace Hall!!!) It's way nice having them! Its really starting to be chilly!

Saturday, we were able to help Sis. Mitma clean up the house she's moving into for inspection. It's way close to our apartment and we're going to be able to start teaching them more often! Then we

went to General Conference... sorta. So we got on the bus downtown, found out the bus that goes to the stake center doesn't run on Saturday, rode the bus back to our apartment, looked at a bus map (at 9:45) saw a bus that did go there, Rode our bikes downtown as fast as we could, got to the bus station, got on the bus and rode it for another hour. got to the end of the bus route -- it didn't go where we needed to and ended up at a park in Medical Lake, a good 40 minutes from the stake center. It was pretty ridiculous. We missed the entire first session. It was very frustrating at the time, but now it's pretty funny.

Sunday, General Conference was amazing and we got rides, so there wasn't another fun story about it.

But after the first session, a family from the Spanish Branch invited all of the missionaries to come and eat lunch with them and it was really good!  The afternoon session was really good and we just loved the messages shared! That evening we saw miracles as we decided to walk and just talk to everyone! The Lord blesses us when we follow the gentle promptings of the Spirit. It was amazing! I also have been sewing my gray suit a lot and I think it should be okay now. It's been trying to fall apart lately. I've gotten really good at sewing since I've had to mend most of my slacks from bike tears and such. Things have been awesome!

Love to everybody!

Talk to you next week!

Elder Bryce Griffin