Just Hold it Together

We literally wore pants
almost all day on Saturday
we moved so much dirt
and cleaned so much house.
Way happy. 

This week was alllll about service man. We helped a couple in our ward pack up there house (I'd like you all to know I'm basically a professional bubble wrapper at this point), we helped Kemi pack all her stuff to move into another member's house, we helped the couple clean their house a few days later and on Saturday we were in the middle of weekly planning when a less-active called us to come help her sister move a giant pile of dirt. I had forgotten how awesome it is to wear pants haha

Kemi was called as a ward missionary last week so we talked about callings with her this week. We showed her a video about a lady that was frustrated with her day because it didn't go the way she planned, but she had ended up helping other people all along the way. We asked Kemi what she thought about it and at first she talked about how sometimes you give your best effort and it doesn't matter and I was kind of worried we'd just made her a little bitter against callings, but she ended up working it around to an awesome testimony about how God has a bigger plan for things than we do. She's awesome.

Our district went bowling last p-day,
but to make it exciting we had to throw it weird every time,
like granny-style or backwards or left-handed.
I am awful at regular bowling
but apparently I'm pretty good at weird bowling
cause I ended up with the highest score haha

We spent a long time in district meeting trying to make some district goals. It was really just a big discussion about why we even make goals. Goals are super important in helping us recognize what we want to accomplish and then providing the drive to do it. My favorite thought on goals though is from Elder Ballard: "What is most important in our church (missionary) responsibilities is not the statistics that are reported or the meetings that are held but whether or not individual people - ministered to one at a time just as the Savior did - have been lifted and encouraged and ultimately changed."

The quad-pan. Ice cream is kind of becoming a weekly thing.
I don't mind.

Dene's out of town for a while and everyone else we tried to get a hold of was either sick or just didn't repsond, but yesterday we saw Manpreet again and oh my heavens she is amazing. We asked her how things had been going and she said that since last time when we talked about prayer she's prayed everyday. She actually read the reading assignment we gave her. She said she "felt" something again in our lesson. She said that baptism is totally something she's willing to work towards. She said she'd keep reading the Book of Mormon. Literally. She is incredible.

This coming week we have a lot (I should say more than usual not a lot haha) of appointments set up with former and potential investigators though so good things are a'brewin.

Sunday a couple that lives out in the country signed up to feed us and I didn't realize how much I missed open fields and big trees and little towns with 4 stoplights. It was glorious.

Puddle jumpin'

Sunday night marked the beginning of the craziest exchange I've ever been apart of and probably ever will be apart of haha We met up with out Sister Arnold and Sister Torsak at the church and it was POURING rain. Not a problem, we just hopped in our cars and started driving away. Sister Arnold and I made it about 10 feet away from our parking spot when the car started flashing that it was overheated. We stopped right away and tried to call Sister Van Vleet and Torsak who were still in the parking lot, but their phone was on silent so we were very soon stranded. We passed the time with rain dancing and puddle jumping until an older couple came and helped us out and eventually some Elders showed up and also helped us out.

We went and took a temple picture
while we waited in the rain.
Cause why not?

We eventually got back to the Belmead area's apartment around 10:00. The next morning we had to take the car in to be fixed, so Sister Arnold and I sat in the Chevy dealership for a few hours. They told us we weren't going to get the car back that day so we had Sister Van and Torsak pick us up and we became a quad-pan. Oh man. If a tri-pan's a party, a quad-pans is a flipping rave or something. We all came back to our apartment and we still have the sisters with us until their car is finished being fixed some time today. (Since I typed that we've dropped them off and they have their car again)

The pile of dirt we moved on Saturday ended up teaching me a lot about how I work. When I'm attacking dirt with a shovel, I can see the progress I'm making. I can see with every scoop that I'm shrinking the pile, so I work as hard as I can to get rid of said pile. With most things in life though, we don't have a pile of dirt to measure against, so it's hard to keep working. We feel like we're scooping and scooping and someone's on the other side throwing dirt back on. We just gotta keep scooping man. The pile is getting smaller. Even if it seems like we're moving it one tiny little spoonful at a time, the pile's getting smaller. If changes you're trying to make seem like they're not happening or people you're trying to help aren't budging, just keep scoopin. It'll get there.

Peace and Blessings
Sister Hepworth

Gluein' the flaps.
If you look close you can see 'em flappin'.

P.S. So Sister Van's little brother ripped her earring our of her ear right before she came on a mission; she literally has two flaps instead of a regular earlobe. She wants to be able to wear earrings again, so she borrowed some super glue from our district leader to have ME super glue her ear back together. Listen. I'm not good at this stuff. When my kids get a cut someday I'll have to go to the ER cause I can't do gross things. But ya know, I'm tough. I'm a good companion. I did it. I super glued those two flaps like you wouldn't believe. When I was finished Sister Van was worried it wouldn't hold while it dried so she kept trying to get me to "Just hold it together." I wasn't exactly keen on having my fingers super glued to her newly rejoined lobe, so I refused. We then had one of the most ridiculous conversations thus far in our companionship. She was trying to convince me to hold her flaps together by repeating, "just hold it together" about 50 times and I was trying to explain why I thought it probably wasn't the best idea. In the end, she showered and the flaps came apart, so we'll have to do it again next week.

P.P.S. We're going to Jasper next p-day which is a flippin awesome national park a few hours west. Moral of the story emails are gonna be quite a bit later than usual next week. Just so's y'all know 👍