Just Eat It

Hello, All!

I don't usually take pictures of flowers but this
looks like the one from Tangled, so
how could I not?

It looks like it's that time of week again, where I get to spend a bit of time figuring out what exactly I want to share with everyone...lucky for you guys, this one should have some good stuff in it...!

Had to take a picture that
Sister Hood has never taken before

First letter wedding invitation I get is while
I'm on my mission! How ironic...(as part of our
service hours, we helped them set up for
the wedding reception)

EATING WHAT? I'll start with the title: we all know of two different types of "Eating It." This email has both. The first, and less entertaining of the two, was Saturday. Sister Hood and I got special permission to leave the house early, to attend our ward (congregation) breakfast! Pancakes, fruit, 20 lbs of bacon -- lots of good stuff we don't usually get. And of course, talking with the friends who came, who weren't members of our church!

On Pioneer Day (July 24th, it's a Utah thing) our
Mission President gave the Chico missionaries
permission to go to a baseball game! It was so
weird to be at a sporting event, but just fun to be
there. We left before it ended: still 9 p.m. back
in our apartment!

Not many empty dinner days in July.
That's pretty normal for around here.

Real live Ratatouille! Sometimes people
get good ideas from movies.

Okay, here's the more entertaining "eating it." I used to have a little joke, where with every 100 bad ideas I had, I'd get one good one. Thankfully since the mission, those numbers have changed a bit, but that doesn't mean I'm always coming up with good ideas. So here's my worst one yet!

Linda texted us, letting us know she'd be late for our service appointment with her (we always do yard work, or work on a house, for her), but she wanted us to get started without her, by cutting "suckers" on her apricot tree. We have no idea what these are, so when we got there we thought maybe she meant cutting off the dead branches from the tree.

Hood thought the peach tree was the apricot tree, and I trusted her, so I started trimming.

Linda showed up and just laughed at us, asking what the heck we were doing! She took us to the other tree and told us to cut off the suckers while she changed. We figured it was dead branches again. We figured with how the tree grew, Sister Hood was too short. I was figuring out how to cut these branches with the long pruners.

I am the dog food chef again for the
weekend! Love Kaia!

BRIGHT IDEAS. My next train of thought was jumping...genius. I'd jump up, grab a branch with the pruners, and my weight would break off the branches as I came down. We got to a branch that was a bit thicker than the others so of course: Challenge Accepted! You can see where this is heading.

I jumped up and caught the branch, but it didn't immediately break. I hung there for half a second, long enough for my legs to swing out a little bit, and THEN the branch broke. It was almost slow motion: I knew I had botched it.

Sorensons! Some of my favorite ward members.
Had to get a pic because 1) his BYU shirt, and
2) she looks like she could be in my family on
the Downey side. She acts the same as family
members on that side, and she has freckled
skin...then of course the flag shirt made it feel
like she was family! :)

Suddenly I was on my back, staring up at the tree, with the clean broken branch almost taunting me. I started cracking up, and Sister Hood was already almost rolling on the ground laughing at me. Moral of the story: missionaries aren't always magically smart. Wishful thinking!

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT. So aside from doing dumb things, I also learned a few new things, to feed my spiritual appetite more this week! First, I mentioned last time that I started week 11 early. I want to point out that every Greenie (new missionary) can start week 11 early, because it's really just a change in attitude. But once you make that switch, you see so many amazing miracles and personal growth!

I also wanted to share a wonderful experience involving "comp unity," which is thinking on the same plane as your companion, so you truly work together. This was a result of inspiration and it was very impactful.

Yes, that's a dead chicken in the road
(note from Mom: really, Teresa?!)

FORGIVING YOURSELF. We've had this family of investigators for awhile, but we haven't been able to teach them since they just had a new baby. We went Saturday, though, and that morning Sister Hood felt that we should share a video called "Reclaimed" with them. (It's a "Mormon Message" -- you should check it out!)

Tiwi broke on us so alas, we had to
unplug him. Clearly heartbroken,
Sister Hood almost couldn't do it!
Kidding. Tiwi is never to be
unplugged, so we were disobedient,
only because the Tiwi company and
our mission office car overseer
told us to :)

When we got there, Erica (the mom) was asleep with the newborn, so we just taught Reed. After he finished watching the video and we asked him about it, he just said, "I feel like I needed to see this."

Then he told us about things that he's done in the past, which have put him in a kind of negative state of mind. When he ever gets hurt or really sick, he doesn't think, "God give me strength," but instead he thinks "I probably deserve this," which breaks my heart. He's still beating himself up over old sins, that he's done his best to fix and change himself, so he doesn't ever do those things again, but he can't forgive himself.

Service Day: windows with
2 clean panels of the 6!

I asked him if we could read a story from the Book of Mormon with him, and Sister Hood, without me specifying the story, flipped open to Alma the Younger. We read with him, and one of his first questions after was, "Why did you read this with me? Are you saying I should be in a coma or something for stuff I've done?" He wasn't confronting in his tone; just accepting, and looking for a confirmation that yes, he deserves to suffer, which then broke my heart even more.

There are times when I struggle with
simple things...Hood got a kick out of it

We talked to him about repentance, and the spirit told me to mention baptism. The logical part of me argued against it, because he's not there yet but of course, never argue with a prompting so I voiced baptism and immediately the rest of what I was supposed to say came to mind. It was so cool how I had to take that first step before Heavenly Father gave me the rest! But before I even finished the question of "Do you want to come to a baptism next weekend?" Reed said yes! It is amazing to see the gospel work in people's lives and soften people, as well as give them hope! Definitely a learning moment for me.

Window on the left is cleaned,
right is what it looked like before

I want to end with a quote from an article my adopted Grandma, Peanut, sent me!

The water marks were so stuck
on there, we literally used a sander
to get some of it off! It's dumb but
it works--it's not dumb

"INSTRUMENTS." The metaphor is nearly perfect as a description of our part in the work of salvation. There are dozens of varieties of surgical instruments, each with a specific purpose: everything from retractors to scalpels to surgical scissors. But they all have at least one thing in common. It is an absolute imperative that surgical instruments be clean. It is unthinkable that a surgeon trying to heal someone who was sick or injured would afflict them with additional problems by the use of instruments that were not pure.

There is another way in which all instruments are similar. None of them ever gets credit for their spectacular service in a medical procedure. Can you imagine the instruments, after a successful surgery, boasting about how well they performed?"

Have to get our service picture each time,
for Linda. Clearly, I wanted the photo taken

This was an eye opener for me! I hope all of you guys can strive to be pure, (I'm working on it), just so you can also fulfil your purposes in your own way, even by just extending a hand of friendship or giving someone a few kind words.

I'll catch up with everyone next week!

Sister Whitesell

We got a free car wash! And it was
colored foam. So exciting for
missionaries!

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

244 B West 20th St.
Chico, CA 95928

Knock Knock, Who's There?

Hello, All

Looks like it's that time of week again! I hope everyone is doing fine and dandy as it continues to get warmer...LOVE IT. Seriously, I can only sweat so much, it's getting rough sometimes but I think I'm adjusting a bit, which is nice. At least it's not humid!

Aloe, how are you? I'm good, thanks

GREAT ONE-LINERS. Provided by some Florida representatives (grandparents):
1) The will of God will not take you to where the Grace of God will not protect you.
(This one's just funny :D)
2) He who is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

I'll start with the more entertaining stories. No, I didn't do too many dumb things this week. It was more of a busy week, so we didn't have time for me doing dumb things unfortunately. I did continue to get covered in dog hair though, since who can resist all the animals when you teach someone? No "chased-by-dog" stories yet. Give it time; everyone in CA has a dog. It's bound to happen.

the most American handicap pkg spot
I've ever seen (from Mom: not exactly sure
what she means but it's huge, and you
can't really see the painted handicap
sign very well...)

LISTEN CLOSELY. Aah, this was a good one. They have a group of Relief Society women called "Nighttimers" here, where the sisters in the ward (congregation) get together. We only went because we had to talk to our ward mission leader and give him an update, but of course we had to socialize after.

Yes this was staged, but we were
actually doing it before, kind of
exhausted after church!

The sisters were all in the middle of their dessert break with pies and cakes, but Sister Hood and I had 2 super-heavy meals that day, because members tend to feed us well. We were in no way feeling up to eating PIE, after having a huge meal and ginormous desserts from a member family!

I was explaining this to the women at one table, talking about the previous dinner's dessert, describing the size and type and everything. After a sentence or two, the whole group of four tables went silent to listen in.

Of course I got slightly uncomfortable, and in the middle of my explaining, said, "and now everyone went quiet, and is listening to me."

A particularly sassy sister decided to pitch in after that with "That's because everyone wants to listen to your monotone voice!" We all cracked up at that.

This was the dessert
that broke us

I did get to use both mowers...doesn't mean
I don't still struggle!

So that was the "Poking Fun at Sister Whitesell" moment of the evening. The sister that gave her two cents worth is a grandma, maybe 5 feet tall. Smaller Size to Sass ratio, so it comes out in stronger doses. Gotta Love It!

KIND OF SLOW. Anyways, this week started off a little rough, because I just felt like I was plugging along, stuck as to how I could progress as a missionary with recognizing promptings and such. (The next part may sound kinda crazy, to any people reading who did not serve a mission. Maybe humor me :) ) Often times, when missionaries get "stuck," the answer is "I don't know" for awhile, until something clicks. It's kind of frustrating in the moment, honestly. But after many "how can I change, what can I do to improve" and "I don't know" answers, I got a terrible idea. (It was good; I just thought it was terrifying at the time, hence terrible.)

Welcome to Chico
(California State University, Chico:
mascot Willie the Wildcat!)

PRETEND WEEK ELEVEN. I thought that I should start week 11, in training, early. It's barely week 8 for me, just so you know. And when I voiced my idea, Sister Hood said she'd been thinking the same thing. Companion Unity! ha. It also felt like a clear prompting from the Holy Ghost, since we both had the same idea.

To explain, missionaries have a 12-week training "program," once they get out into the mission they've been assigned to. It helps them practice different teaching techniques, and learn specific things from different church books and other sources, to better learn and teach what we need to. Each week has assignments, like: "New missionary takes lead in teaching such-and-such lesson," or "New missionary invites investigator to do this."

Pam and Thelma -- she
got her temple recommend!

Week 11 is when the new missionary takes the lead with all the planning and teaching situations. So basically we were being told that for me to progress as I'm supposed to as a missionary, I need to be dumped into the work! Isn't that just so comforting! ha. I wasn't terrified at all, I'm fine. It's fine. But really, it's exactly what I needed, and the miracles and progression I've seen in just these past few days has been astonishing.

This sprinkler was just
so sad looking

The day we started week eleven I felt the pressure. Sister Hood described it that her spiritual dial had been turned down, so that mine could be cranked up and allow me to learn and grow and recognize promptings. I knew an important lesson was coming up, so during personal study I tried hard to find the right scripture for the investigator, and I actually got one! I was able to teach in the lesson with that scripture. My initial invitation was asking her to pray with a question in mind that night, and see if she felt the spirit after. But I was prompted to specify, and ask her to pray for forgiveness. It was really cool to have that direct thought come to mind; with the way she reacted, she needed that! And that wasn't the only time I had some clearer inspirations as I taught, or was trying to find people during "week 11." It's like I flipped a switch mentally, and it's been amazing to see the changes.

Always something new
on doorsteps

UNLOCKED DOORS. To explain the title, I want to preface this with "This Is Not Normal." We don't do this, EVER. So, we went to a "less active's" apartment (someone who hasn't been to church in awhile). Both Hood and I had been "poked" (the feeling/prompting from the Holy Ghost) that we should go there. Well, we knocked on her door and she didn't answer, knocked again, no answer. And when one companion gets inspiration it usually means something, so if BOTH of us felt like we needed to, then why wasn't she home? Then the most absurd image came to mind, of me opening the door.

Welcome to Durham

What?! That was crazy...it confused me so much, I kind of stood there for a sec as Hood was walking down the stairs. But she turned around (about to mention that she felt we still needed to see her), and saw me just standing there. I slowly said that I felt we should open the door. She was shocked for like .2 seconds, until she recognized the prompting. So we got to open a door! Surprise, it was unlocked. I slowly cracked it open and kept pushing it open, revealing a darkly lit living room, blinds shut, smell of cigarette smoke, and the creepiest feeling overwhelmed me. Hood and I felt like we were going to find a murder scene or something. But then finally the door opened enough to see Rebecca and she was surprised, but more seemed to be hiding something than questioning why we were there.

Scripture study with Jesse (101, left) and
Ivon (96, right)! They're great!

I've never felt a dark presence like that in a home, so obviously we were supposed to be there, to at least bring some good spirit with us. She said she was busy so we stopped by later with some Elders, since I'm not about that creepy dark feeling, scares the heck out of me. She didn't answer, so we'll have to try her again later and figure out what's going on. No, we didn't open the door again because that's weird, but we'll keep trying to reach her. So yeah, that was a blast and a half! Hood said it made top 3 boldest things she's seen on her mission, haha! I doubt I'll have another experience like that!

We got tired of getting yelled at by Tiwald
(he's featured in the upper left corner), so
Sister Hood got creative

HOLY GHOST ANALOGY. To end, I'll share an analogy of the spirit that I learned yesterday, that I really liked. The Holy Ghost is part of the Godhead, the only one without a physical body. One of his missions is to be a messenger for us, so we can receive answers from God. Basically, our Heavenly Father writes us little notes and gives them to the spirit (Holy Ghost), and the spirit rushes to us and passes them along, always happy to give us a message! Without the spirit, we can't know of a surety when things we teach or learn are true, so I'm very grateful he's there to act as a guide and a messenger!

It's been surprising to see progress in my capabilities of recognizing when I receive those messages. I encourage all of you to try and learn to recognize the messages too :)

As always, I love hearing from everyone -- you're basically my only link to the outside world, ha!

Keep it Real,
Sister Whitesell

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

244 B West 20th St.
Chico, CA 95928

Tis the Season

Durham sign, since we get to go there
a few times a week. It's a town of
orchards!

Look at that, it's P-day again--
Weeks out here are funny, where they simultaneously fly by and drag on for eternities!

We see these birds on the pole all the time, so we
made up gatherings for each day.
Mon-Pday, Tue-mutual, Wed-District Meeting
Thu-Arp but for aiming for cars from their perch
Fri-Weekly planning, Sat-?, Sun-Relief Society

having photo fun with stuff in trunk

Durham

But, I wanted to start out with a Linda Appreciation paragraph. Everyone needs a Linda. She's the missionary angel out here in Chico 5th. First, she feeds us every Tuesday, and on top of that, we get to do amazing service activities with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays! Like tearing down walls, ripping up rooftops, yardwork...I used a handsaw this week. Crazy things like that, never the same. Aahh, she's the best!

Knocking a hole in Linda's wall!

Gardening and hand sanitizer don't mix well, let me tell you. We pulled up half of Linda's yard Thursday and I got a nice cut about half an inch long. I rubbed some dirt in it (because I didn't notice it was there until later), and continued pulling weeds. I washed my hands later -- it is so satisfying to wash your hands and see the dirty water coming off your hands -- it means you actually worked! Later I decided to sanitize my hands again after using a gross laptop, and then I discovered my cut. The cut can hold a lot of sanitizer, and I've never been in so much pain suddenly, from such a tiny thing! Sister Hood laughed at me. Moral of the story: pour sanitizer on all your cuts, they will heal faster (joke, joke: don't do it :0 :0)

Our dinky phones still have
autocorrect...

Also we had a pet again: Debra was out of town for a whole week this time! We got to feed Kaia, and let her in and out. One of her friends came over to walk her, since as missionaries we don't have time for that, unfortunately. But I got to be Dog Food Chef again! Memory flashbacks, of when I worked at the dog shelter. Sister Hood let me do all the dog food prep, since it grossed her out a little. I've mixed a lot grosser dog food than that! It was a good job for me.

Dinner Party! Hood, me, S. Bohan, S. Davis,
S. Ward, S. Lorber: Huge Otter Pops again!

This week has been crazy, with finding people, non-coincidental encounters (I think there's a reason behind most encounters), working with less active people, and the like. We found a new best way to find people, and that's taking lists of "less actives" (people who haven't been to church in awhile) and visiting them. If they don't answer the door, we knock on a few neighboring doors. We actually found 3 people that way, in 1 day! It's so crazy how missionary work works out like that.

This is Linda: can't remember why the
napkins like that

One cool experience this week. We were planning on going to the house of one of our investigators, whose mom has not been to church in over a decade. We walk up to the house and B (just using initials for people we teach) is there, and welcomes us, and sits us down in a corner of her front yard (her house is on a sort of busy street, and it gets loud sometimes).

me backing, in the car's backup cam

She had been having a rough past few days, which had led her to question whether God is there. She'd never questioned that before. We talked with her, and suggested that praying about it might be good. We've all wondered things before, and that she shouldn't feel bad about that. We convinced her to actually ask that question in the prayer. Then we showed her the Prince of Peace (such a great video, from Easter time this year, you should really watch it!) and she started crying. She expressed her gratitude, telling us that we helped answer the question about God, and that our timing was perfect to come visit her. And as I watched her heart re-open during that video, it hit me that this is why we are here. This is why I am here as a missionary, to bring joy to people by reminding them of Christ. It was an amazing experience, and she even committed to coming to church again, for the first time in a decade. What a neat lady and experience.

Tis the season to take down
Christmas Lights!! In July??

My biggest lesson this week was about Hard Work. When we do what we're supposed to, and put in the effort and do the work, we will be blessed for it. On Friday we had Weekly Planning. It's basically a huge chunk of time we take, to plan lessons for the people we'll teach the next week. We also fill in the empty spaces where we can, in our area book calendars. It takes more time than you think it would, like hours. It's kind of long and drags on, but it's necessary, and it makes the next week so much easier.

Hood is now all the colors you can be!
We were in the sun for like 15 min!
Neapolitan, anyone?

During this planning time, neither Sister Hood nor I were feeling motivated at all, but we were plugging along anyway. A little before we finished, we got a text from a new investigator: "When and where are your services on Sunday?" (WHAT??!) And, as we were hyped about that, someone we were trying to contact since I got here 7 weeks ago sent a big paragraph text asking when and where church was, and if there were lessons at the church that she could take! Blessings for diligence. In case you didn't know, we NEVER get direct texts like that!

finding a nice spot to lay in

figured we'd "park some other
missionaries in"

J actually came to church and we had an amazing lesson with him. He's already had times where he knows his life was directed down a different path, because he prayed to know if his current direction was what God wanted for him. So cool!

Final cool story: sometimes we read some from the Book of Mormon, with people who haven't come to church in awhile. Today we visited an older lady member in a care facility. She's pretty sharp, mentally, and she invited her Mormon friend across the hall (what are the odds that there would be 2 Mormons in the same small facility?) to join us. We got to read with them. Guess what, she is 95 and he's 101! Reading like pros and still loving it. It was wonderful to feel the strong and peaceful spirit as we read. There's no age limit on feeling the spirit, guys: they're still going strong!

we never park in actual spots, when we know
we'll be the only ones there...what's
the fun in staying in the lines?

Stay cool, wherever you are! It's been over 100 almost every day since our week of the Heat Wave, about a month ago when I mentioned that. I'm melting, it's fine. I'm fine. But stay positive! That's called Smile Therapy, as I've learned from a good friend :) Just smile through the gritted teeth, until you're actually enjoying what you do. It works...it's hard, but it works.

The bush is still dented where Sister Hood sat...
whoops

And as always, I love hearing from people! Be smart, be happy, be lieve! (or something along those lines)

Sister Whitesell

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

244 West 20th St. Apt. B
Chico, CA  95928

Newest Weight Loss Program!

Hey Everyone!
This past week has been a roller coaster as they usually are, no normal weeks here. Last P-Day we had a 3rd of July celebration where we did slip in a side game of kickball with the Zone, and had a BBQ and everything. It was great.

I tried not to get soaked, but as any water (or as wet as we're allowed to get on a mission) activities go, I did end up dripping. Because some people enjoy playing with the hose a bit much. It was very fun, though :)

Rooftop working (service day)

4th of July was a relatively normal day, besides heading in early for the night. Instead of staying out til 9, we were out til 7. A nice member family let us crash their dinner, so we got lots of good (sort of. I'll get back to that) food and company! Then, rough life, we aren't supposed to do or watch fireworks stuff, because it's a safety hazard, etc. It's all good.

Sister Hood and I were going to party it up later anyways, so we were out trying to find sparklers. Cause why not? But guess what we learned? Sparklers are illegal in Chico...what kind of city...? It was ridiculous, we literally couldn't even do sparklers! I was a bit irked by that. So we got some amazingly fun poppers! Yeah, I know, it was lame ok, but we tried!

dinner at a member's house with
some of the elders

So protect your wives and children from sparklers on the 4th. They're dangerous! If I had one of those frowny-face-looking-to-the-side-emojis, I'd use it here...

Now the part you've all been weighting for (haha, see what I did there?) I figured I'd start my own weight loss program with this grand idea. It just takes a few hours, guaranteed few pounds lost, and it will get your heart rate up. I call it: Food Poisoning!! Some of you may have heard of something similar, but I'm going to copyright mine. Kidding.

companions are there to pick you up
when you're down! Just kidding, I thought
it was a good picture, though :)

Even though I'm in a U.S. mission, we still get food poisoning sometimes! So I was up all night on the 4th, hoping Sister Hood would at least get SOME sleep. No worries...she did. But yeah, be careful what you eat. A miracle happened after that, though.

The Zone leaders came around 7:30 and gave me a healing blessing, because I was determined to make it to Zone Conference: we were meeting the new mission president! I took a nap for a few hours, then got up and was ready, albeit a little iffy still, for conference. We made it there, and all was going well. I also found out that I was the chorister so that was ironic, but I made it through that. We finished the day doing regular missionary things, and came in a bit early because I was dead by the end of the day. Imagine that. But yeah--fun post-4th-of-July-party for me! I know that without that priesthood blessing I would have been way more affected negatively. Because the next day was a regular day, and my previous food poisoning experience tells me it should have been worse.

Because we had to

A few miracles from this week! Considering we see, and don't see miracles every day, sometimes we're lucky enough to get those that are so obvious we can't miss them. For instance, we have an investigator (interested in the church) in her 40s who is mentally disabled. We questioned her accountability level, to be at the level of baptism (the age of accountability for children is 8 years old, when they know right from wrong, and we weren't sure if she was that age mentally). We've learned that she is, but she speaks very slowly and can't read well. She just absorbs everything we teach her, though!

Out of This World District pic?
we were the only district in the zone
NOT to be changed this transfer

So we taught her about the Book of Mormon, since her baptismal date is coming up. We read the intro with her, and asked her to pray about it. Sister Hood was prompted to ask her to pray right there. Her prayer, with pauses, was, "Heavenly Father, is this book true, Jesus name." I didn't even realize it was a prayer until the end. BUT, then Sister Hood asked her if she felt any different? And she looked at us, smiled, and said "Yeah...I feel different." Sister Hood asked different how? And she just says, "like...it's true." (MY JAW ALMOST DROPPED...her heart is so pure, she just got an answer like that! That doesn't happen to almost anyone. Aahh, it was so cool!)

Another cool thing. I mentioned a guy we talked to last week who hung around even though a crazy guy was yelling at us. We met with him, and he's the most prepared person Sister Hood has ever met! I have zero experience still. But it says something, when a missionary who has been out over a year says that!

He's struggled in his life, but all of his morals match the church's, and he's even done historical research on Brigham Young and Joseph Smith! And when he told a friend of his interest in the church, she started treating him differently. Instead of ditching out on the church, he told us he'd be dropping her soon. Miracles! Aah, it was so good :)

More Roofing

Final thing: Fasting. The power of fasting is miraculous, and can lead to amazing things happening! Even if you're not in the best mental state while you fast. We fasted again Sunday, for an investigator to be able to set a date for baptism. She had to postpone it because she's living with her ex-boyfriend's (father of her daughter) family but doesn't have an income...is in school...father had no interest in getting married for forever...just a hard situation. But we fasted with her, and her ex-boyfriend's heart was softened! They are planning on getting married! We texted her minutes before ending our fast, and that's what she told us. The power of fasting is so strong!

Considering this is long enough, I wish everyone well! And if you're in a hot state like me, stay cool! 100+ temps isn't ideal, but we'll survive, right? I usually list off a few big miracles that happen, but try to see the little ones!

Good luck this week, and be wary of any leftover sparklers that might endanger you or your loved ones.

Sister Whitesell

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

244 West 20th St. Apt. B
Chico, CA 95928

Check Your Speed

A church member gave us
ridiculously long Otter Pops for dessert

Hello again--



It's come around to another P-Day! At this point I can't tell if the weeks go by quickly or slowly, but they do go by! So I figure I'll start with some of the funnier things that happened. Sister Hood and I are always making new jokes or just doing ridiculous things to help make everything less stressful, so it's fun :)

Twinning on P-day

"Tag Pictures" instead of selfies,
since I'm terrible at selfies...

Party on the dam

The views on the hike were amazing!
It was so good just to be outside, and it
was a great day for it, too: not too hot!
Sister Hood got lobster red, though!

Party on the dam closer up

Mom: Elder Goodman found me at
the last Zone Conference! Totally
didn't recognize him at first. Haha,
crazy how my second cousin is in
the same mission!

And the Buttes: this is the smallest mountain range
in the world. It's not even a few miles long,
plopped in the middle of Northern California.
It's funny, but also sad how small they are.
They tried!

Crazy Cool Book of Mormon
a member's neighbor had!

A member family took us out to Olive Garden for dinner. After awhile of exchanging stories and getting to know the family/still introduce myself (I've talked so much more than Sister Hood has, because I'm the new greenie), the daughter wanted to know more about us. She started with the usual comment of "I want to know more about you guys," followed by her looking at Sister Hood, and waving her hand towards me and saying, "She's the interesting one; tell me about YOU" and I died laughing. Hood got fake offended, and the daughter got super embarrassed. But it's okay, we're all still friends, and I'm content being the Interesting One!

Me having fun with the underwater
aspect of the camera

Believe it or not, missions are hard. I put in a lot of the funny stuff that happens, but really, my American Heritage class that I almost failed, was easier than the mission is at times. These past few weeks, I actually had a bit of a hiccup in my ability to be inspired by the spirit, and really know what to teach or do. I was just following along with whatever Sister Hood did, not really getting much out of it. But, I am learning the power of prayer, and asking Heavenly Father for help, which I haven't done super well with in the past. Never too late to start, though! I am learning that He does answer prayers, because the miracles we saw the next day were mind-blowing!

Goofing around last P-day on our hike

I was able to feel the spirit a lot of the day, and some really cool things happened. First, the lady we were supposed to teach in the morning decided against opening her door, so we planned to return later. Then, our usual Friday afternoon lesson also got cancelled, so we had some extra time to try to contact a few people during her time slot.

We went to a laundromat to find a lady we teach, and she wasn't there. But as we were walking out the door, Sister Hood told me, "Give that woman your book." I hadn't even noticed her, but she was sitting on the bench with her own book.

I made a friend while weeding; he danced a little
for us too, by swaying  back and forth on my hand
because of course I picked him up!

I turned around and said, "Hey, I see you're reading a cool book. Can we give you another one to add to your material?" And let me tell you, the Lord prepares people because what kind of a terrible pickup line is that? But she was very open, and more than willing to take it! We talked for a minute or two and left, but it was amazing to give her the book! And I'm still not wonderful at just talking to people, but at least I know I'm not doing everything alone.

Second miracle: we were going to try and contact another lady, and through her intercom she expressed very clearly that she didn't want anything to do with us. There was a man (call him Jeff) sitting on the bench nearby, and I felt like we needed to talk to him. Sister Hood and I walked over and we got to know him a bit. Just as we were getting ready to introduce the Book of Mormon, a crazy old guy walked out and started bashing on Mormons and our beliefs, and saying the Book of Mormon wasn't true.

After being Cinderella for a few hours, and
scrubbing a floor (prep) for it to be waxed later

Jeff walked away, but still hovered a ways away down the sidewalk. We did our best to make our conversation with the old man short, because I swear if Jeff walked off, I wasn't going to be happy with Crazy Dude over here. But JEFF STAYED, and kept talking to us! And he was totally looking for a church to help figure his life out! So, we'll meet with him this week. So cool.

Same hike as earlier picture

Third that I'll talk about (but definitely not the last) was we went back to the lady's house that didn't show that morning, and knocked, and her daughter answered. She's totally trying to find a church too, that isn't judgmental, since she's got purple and green hair, and some tattoos. So, we're teaching her and her mom this week, as well! Side note: all of you know that I'm not the kind of person to greet someone with: "I love your shoes!" or "Your outfit looks amazing today!" kind of thing, because that's just not me. But for some reason, a few minutes in, I told her that I really liked her hair. She mentioned later that her church judges her for stuff like her hair. Mini miracle within the greater miracle there.

A huge tree fell in a church member's backyard so
we got to help clean it up! Cool story: the guy brushed
off anyone using the chainsaw, because neither of the
Elders really had used one before. I got to speak up
and mention that I was Chainsaw Certified, from my
class at BYU, and I was the only one who got to
use it! Kinda fun to rub it in the Elders' faces. The
member said he trusted me, so I got to cut a few
things up :D (I was careful, Mom -- used my
sunglasses as goggles -- don't worry!

I'm still surviving, grateful to be an instrument in the Lord's hand, and totally couldn't do any of this without Him.

Check Your Speed. In our car, we have a system called TIWI (Twald is the full name we gave him), and it makes sure we don't go too fast or drive too aggressively. It sends "violations" to the mission office if you are not a good driver, and it's funny because we constantly hear him saying "Check your speed" in the robot voice. The other meaning there: my big lesson this week was patience.

Everything happens on Heavenly Father's time table, including the obstacles/blocks that you have. If we trust Him, we can make it through anything! We have to be patient, not only with others, but also with ourselves. Don't beat yourself up if you mess up. You wouldn't yell at a child for falling after his first steps, so don't yell at yourself for making a mistake. Patience.

more cool underwater camera fun

Final story: in the middle of Miracle Friday, we knocked on a door looking for someone. This big bald guy opened the door, glaring, and immediately started yelling at us, and cussing us out. He even told us "kick rocks," then proceeded to slam the door and hit it after it was shut. Sister Hood and I struggled to hold back laughter...what makes someone so angry that two 20-ish year old girls intimidate them? I'll never know.

(Side note from Mom: I had to look up "kick rocks," having never heard it before. It is urban slang, a dismissal meaning "leave," "go away," or "take a hike." When people walk down a gravel path, they might kick the rocks in the path.)

Good luck with everyone's week!
More adventures to come, and I love hearing what's going on in your lives!
And letters...never opposed to those...just sayin' :) Hang loose!

teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

Sister Whitesell
244 West 20th St. #B
Chico, CA  95928