I'M A FLEA BITTEN VARMiNT!!

Hey Family & Friends!!

Yes, I am a flea bitten Varmint... I will explain later. 😊 but this week has been really good. It's your typical week, but there are always exciting things that happen during a typical week here in North Calfornia! I don't need anything that y'all can send me except the amazing love and support. Y'all do a great job at the by the way! 

So our 'gators are dwindling. We need to find new ones to add to our pool. But as for those that we have, Ron FINALLY called us back and informed us that his mother in-law passed away and he had been working outta town. So it's been busy for him. And, he didn't say it, he's just super flaky. But we talked with him on the phone for almost half hour and set up a time for to teach him. But he must've forgotten because we showed up and he wasn't there. His wife, Bonnie said he had gone somewhere.. But we just stayed and talked with her for a little. She isn't really interested right now but I don't think she really knows what we have to offer. Ron hasn't really shared anything with her, apparently. But ya know. 

MaryAnn. We are probably going to end up dropping her sometime soon-ish. She just won't come to church, read or even meet with us sometimes. She is just in a ton of pain. So I'm sure it's rough but we promise her blessings but she is so stubborn. Man, that lady has a hard head!! 

We met with Adam this week. That was really good. He is just way too smart for me. He using really big words and rants for a long time so I can't take everything he says in.. Haha. So that makes things interesting. But we had really good chat with him. He said he read the Book Of Mormon but not with an open heart. He read it more critically like a philosophy major would. So, obviously he's not really gonna find truth if he is criticizing it. And that's kinda what we talked about. We told him he had to have an open heart and really pray about it. It was good. He said he would do that. It's probably too soon to know if he is ready yet. But we are helping the process along. The spirit is working on him. He is super lonely and looking for something. So!! Maybe he will open his eyes and see what's right in front of him. 😊 

We met Tianna this week. She is 21 and super funny. She has some kind of disability but she is such a sweetheart! We aren't totally sure if she is accountable... BUT we invited her to church. No harm in that, right? 😊 She said she would this coming week because she had a football game with her dad last Sunday. But when we met her we just invited her to read the Introduction to the Book Of Mormon. Well, she was SO excited that it was more scripture! Haha. She said she was gonna read it and have a page of notes and then invited us back the next day! So we went back, there was no page of notes but! This girl kinda blew my socks off. Haha. She read ALL THE WAY TO ENOS in one day!! Crazy... Haha. She said she felt good when she read it but some of it was hard to understand. Very common. So, yeah! That's her! She is awesome and we will probably see her again his week! 

We met with Angelica and that was great! It's Emily's cousin! Emily is the one that is always in our pictures! She is our 3rd companion! 😊 love her!! Anyway!! We had been trying to meet with Angelica for a couple weeks but work and family stuff made it hard. But we talked with her and read 3 Nephi 17 with her. Which talks about Jesus blessing the children and how He cried with the people because He just loved them so much. So we talked about His love for her and if she could feel it. She said she couldn't really because she wasn't really putting in the effort. But she said she wanted a relationship with Heavenly Father. We showed her the video titled 'Our True Identity'. She really liked it. Then she prayed at the end and she thanked Heavenly Father that she was able to feel His love. It was SOOO great!! Ahh!!! I love 'gator prayers!! I love helping people feel that they are loved by the Almighty God because He is our Father which makes us ALL Gods! Well, not yet. But at least have that potential to be! 😇 

Then we met with Michelle. But just her, not her parents... 😒 she doesn't really remember a ton and has a childlike understanding. So we taught her very simply. It went well. But she told us that she is moving to Nevada because she wants to move in with her Boyfriend/Fiancé... 😒 BAHHHH!!!! I HATE SATAN!! He always ruins things... But anyway.. So she said she is going to do that in July... But we told her about the law of Chastity and how that is NO Bueno. But she still doesn't really understand, I don't think. Her parents have met the guy but they already don't like him.. So that will be a big explosion.... Aye yey yey!! Then they came home while we were getting ready to head out. We asked how they liked church... His face told all.. 😝 they probably won't be coming back. They are really stuck in their ways. He drinks a ton, apparently and we smelled smoke on her.. So! The planting of the seeds will continue! But please pray that Michelle will wise up.. It's a Bad idea.. But ya know. Agency. It's a blessing and a curse sometimes so ya, but she did come to all of church yesterday. So that was great!! I still love the Wallaces
but they just aren't quite "ripe" yet. 

So. We were knocking this house. It's the turkey house, if you remember the pictures I sent to y'all of the turkeys! Don't let them fool you... THEY ARE KILLER TURKEYS!!! Who needs a guard dog when you have 3 massive turkeys... Not pleasant! But makes for a good adventure!! Haha. They literally trapped us on the porch and we couldn't go anywhere!! Then I got up the courage to go around them then the scrawny one started squawking and coming at me so I plowed over Sister Seely to get back behind the fence.. Haha. Then after like 5 minutes she had to run for it and they started chasing her!! But luckily, human legs are much longer than turkey legs! Haha. Heavenly Father was smart with that one!! 😂 then I made it out. Sprinting/screaming for my life... How embarrassing.. They were probably watching out the window. "Crazy Mormons.." Haha. I have a video of it. I'll send it to y'alls haha. 

Then we had exchanges!! That's always an adventure! We met a family this week before exchanges happened... I was prompted to put them on our "Others" list.. BAAAAD DECISION!! Well. Let me tell ya. Todd opened the door and was like "Ohhh!!! Hello!!! Come in, come in!! Onya, look who's here! Mormon Missionaries!" My thoughts: "oh no...".
Then Onya came over and was WAAYY too nice.. She said she wanted us to come back another time because they were just heading out to church.. So we set a time for the next week. It was the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced... The feeling in their home, they were way too friendly! No one is ever that nice to us unless they're active members... It was super weird. We had decided the were J-dubs (Jehovah Witness)... Which they turned out to be... BAHHH!!! My last encounter with a J-dub was awful.... Such frustration. The spirit was not there. This one was similar... 😒 It started out really good. She listened to us and we listened to her and she wasn't passive aggressive at all. Then when it got to her comparing Heavenly Fathers title, Elohim, to a pagan god that's when I shut down or I would've blown up... She also was almost "in the attitude of mocking" Moroni... It really burned me up ... I haven't been that mad for quite awhile... The spirit was not there.. Only when Sister Saxey bore her powerful testimony, but then Onya opened her mouth... Sister Saxey, in her testimony told her that we will be judged upon the things in the Book of Mormon. So she felt like she kind of condemned her... But ya know. The lady was also getting all up in our grill about something else and Sister Saxey was SOOO blunt and was like "pray about it.." With that annoyed tone and expression. It was just so frustrating because all she wanted to do was be passive aggressive and rip the Book of Mormon apart. It was the most infuriating thing of my life.. Man... Nothing she even said made sense. She just kept contradicting herself.. Another thing she was picking at was when we bore our testimonies we both included that we had a feeling of some sort. She said that feelings can be of the devil too. "They just aren't a reliable source." BAHHH!!!!! Stupid... I don't even know.. I think that experience was supposed to be just a huge testimony builder about how lost people are and how huge of a job members have in spreading the truth. I need more charity.. 

But another thing that happened on exchanges. So the Burrells. They have promised they will be at church 3 TIMES now!! And have they.. Negatory captain!! So we had a little bit of a spiritual smack down. We shared with them Jacob 3:10-- "Wherefore, ye shall remember your children, how that ye have grieved their hearts because of the example
that ye have set before them; and also, remember that ye may, because of your filthiness, bring your children unto destruction, and their sins be heaped upon your heads at the last day.".. Hence the smack down.. It is them holding Lily back from being baptized and blocking their family from blessings.. It's so frustrating... But yeah. It was good but they still didn't come to church... 😫😳😝 STINKIN Satan!! Speaking of the Burrells.. This is where the flea bitten varmint comes in.. They have a little bit of a sketchy place and their dog was COVERED in fleas... And she wouldn't stay off my lap.... Hence the flea bites.. It's common though. Almost every dog I have come across has fleas. Except the spoiled ones. 😊 but yeah.. So I washed everything today because they started showing up the next morning... So hopefully I got rid of them. FREAKS ME OUT!! 

Also!! Austin is really struggling... His dad decked him in the face and now he has a black eye and can't be in the house on the weekends when his dad is home... Then to top all this persecution off... Courtnee broke up with him that same night..... So he is really struggling. We had a really powerful lesson last night. He was crying the entire time. We just shared a bunch of scriptures with him. But I shared with him D&C 121:7-8. And inserted his name and read it to him and it was the first time I had ever felt the spirit as a burning sensation. It was amazing!!!!! Usually I get tingles but never a burning. It was really powerful. Then we gave him a little booklet. At his baptism we just had everybody write a little note to him and then finally got it to him. Aww... You should've seen him light up. It meant so much to him. Ahh!! Just so awesome!! 

A couple more things. So we came home the other night and there were 20 FLIES IN OUR HOUSE!!! We counted as we played fly assassins.. Haha. They keep getting in somehow and its dumb! I have killed 10 more in like 3 days. It's driving me crazy because flies are so cocky!! 

Funny story from today!! So in the morning we clean. And I had the potty scrubber and Sister Seely had the windex. I knew she needed mine and I was going to find the windex because I didn't know she had it. Haha. But I get to her bathroom, she's holding the windex and we just switch and walk away. Haha. It was just weird! Then!! We were driving in the car and we hadn't even talked about groceries except for an hour before. I pulled out my iPad to add something to my list and she was like oh. We need beans and corn. Will you put that in your list? I hadn't said anything... or anything...it was just one of the companion unity moments. Haha. Super weird but that's how it is!! 😊 transfers are next week so that will be sad..... 

But yeah, for the spiritual thought!! Here! I was just reading in Alma 42, where it's takes about justice and mercy. 

Boyd K. Packer said this: 
“Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us. “And, by eternal law, mercy cannot be extended save there be one who arrange the terms for our redemption. “Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untempered, unsympathetic, must, positively must fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing. “But know this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator. “‘For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’ (1 Tim. 2:5.) “Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. “This truth is the very root of Christian doctrine. … “The extension of mercy will not be automatic. It will be through covenant with Him. It will be on His terms, His generous terms, which include, as an absolute essential, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. “All mankind can be protected by the law of justice, and at once each of us individually may be extended the redeeming and healing blessing of mercy” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1977, 80; or Ensign, May 1977, 55–56). 

I love you guys a lot. Sorry this is so ginormous. I guess I just needed to vent to y'all! 😊 but I love you guys and I hope you are all doing great! I pray for each of you at least twice a day! Have great week!! 

Love, Sister Hood 

PS... If you are ever wondering what my favorite church cd is, well! I am obliged to tell ya it's anything by Daniel Beck! He has a pretty voice.. 😊