July 1, 2013

HAPPY (almost) FOURTH OF JULY! I can't believe I missed Sun Valley AND Rammfest this year. Next year, Ill be there for both! Dont worry :) Man! another week! we are halfway through the transfer. Time is flying. This week we had a slower week. And I caught my first summer cold. I woke up on Tuesday with a scratchy throat and slowly but surely, runny nose, cough, fever and body aches all followed. Its been quite the fun expierence trying to manage while trying to still be effective missionaries. I've upped my water intake by at least double, hoping that will help. Im still coughing and sneezing a lot, but my throat is feeling better so thats a bonus. We had mission conference this week and President Topham updated us on the changes with missionary work from the broadcast. It doesnt look like anything will be happening anytime soon. He said that all the changes will happen "about 2 transfers after you all go home!" Too bad. There are a lot of things to still work through, so the soonest anything will start to change is mid 2014. Sad day for us :) We had a slower week, a lot of our appointments fell through this week. People in Pennsylvania dont really like to set appointments, I'm coming to find out. We always try to set return appointments and when we ask for a good time to come back, they just reply "Im home all the time" or "Stop by whenever." That makes it really hard for us to figure out our schedule and this week was a big example of that. We had a lot of people not home this week. And it was super rainy, so not a lot of people were outside. But we still were able to teach a few cute less-active sisters, and our investigator Gary. Gary still wont set a baptismal date, but he is close. During his lesson this week, he said he just wasnt quite ready. I felt the Spirit pretty strong and told Gary that I knew he was ready, and I knew he knew he was ready but I could just keep picturing him in white until he actually got in white and that softened his heart. He started crying and said that he would keep praying about it. But then he didnt show up to church. So Im not quite sure where he stands. I have faith that if he just decides to ACT that things will work out. He just doesnt seem like he wants to act. And thats a big step in faith, is taking a leap into the dark. We will see. This weekend a cute family in our ward had a "Firefly Party" and invited us because a lot of non-members were there. It was the cutest thing. They had a giant firepit and we all roasted smores and when it started to get a little darker and the fireflies came out, the kids all got jars and caught fireflies! It was so adorable! We had to leave pretty early into the firefly catching phase becasue the Spirit goes to bed at 9 :), but it was a lot of fun. Sienna, the little girl in the picture, is the daughter of a lady we are working with right now. She has been less-active a majority of her life, but has come to church for the past 4 weeks! Sienna is a cutie! She reminds me a lot of Meg actually. She just kid of does her own thing but when I asked her to help me roast a starburst, she jumped at the chance! It started to rain, so Sienna flipped out, but like any prepared misisonary, I grabbed my umbrella out of my backpack and we were good to roast! It was pretty fun! I've been thinking for the past few weeks about how long my hair has been and how hot i've been and asked around to find a place to get my haircut. We measured my hair and it was pleanty long to donate some hair and still have it long enough to pull into a ponytail and such. So this morning I went to get my haircut and gave the lady rather specific instructions as to how I would like my haircut. After throughly explaining how I want my hair below my shoulders, we measured it out and cut off the amount of hair to donate. My hair was still below my shoulders but she got a little ahead of herself and took a hunk out of the back, way shorter than I wanted. She then proceeded to have to partially make the rest of my hair that length. Long story short, my hair is waaaay shorter than I wanted and the haircut could be the worst i've ever had. The left side is longer than the right, random parts are just way shorter than the rest. It seems like everyone has a story about getting a hackjob haircut on their mission and i dont know why i thought i would be the exception. I'm not to the point of laughing, but i think it will be a good story. One day. I got to the car and had a bit of a melt down to Sister maddox and came to the library. Hopefully it will grow out before I get home. It took like 5 years to get it as long as it was, so Im not holding my breath for it to be fixed in a year. But miracles happen all the time on missions, right?? :) I hope everyone has a great week! Have fun celebrating the 4th of July. Tell all the Andresen clan that I love them! I wish I could be there beadin right along side Aunt kari, but alas I'm in Pennsylvania. Save my spot for next year Tanta Kari :) I also want to give a shout out to Riley. I am so so grateful for his example and his service in serving our country. I am so proud to call you my brother! And I am so lucky to have so many cousins serving in the armed forces too. We live in a great country becasue of great men and women who serve to keep us safe! Happy 4th of July! I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Andresen