In the Dirt

Oct 19-25th

 No Pday out here is ever the same. We had a super chill day which was nice to have a bit of a break. We got permission to go to the "mall" in Laughlin. It was so nice to actually go shopping but the mall was tiny! There was literally a store just for grandmas to shop at and it had bedazzled sweat suits and what not! I wish I would have taken a picture. I finally got a picture of the giant tortoise. The city is so proud of it.

Here's a thought: If you own a chihuahua you should not be able to have a "Beware of Dog" sign on your fence. Everyone has a dog here! And we'll be walking down the street and they will bark at us until they pass out.

One day while we were street contacting Sister Kaufusi and I were talking about how the sun dries us out and makes us look old. And then the very next guy we were talking to said "I thought missionaries were supposed to be young". Haha we are blending in with this town so well people think that we are older than we actually are! When we met with this kid, Hunter, Sister Kaufusi told him that she was 43 years old and asked him to guess my age... He said about 50. He was joking though- I think. I really do enjoy being in this town. It feels like I've adopted a bushel full of grandparents. One of my favorites is Brother Christen he's probably in his late 70s but I don't think he realizes his age cause he's a hoot and a half. He doesn't have hearing aids but he cups his hand around his ears and always has stories to tell. While talking with some other members he said "you know I like these sisters. This one has beautiful eyes (pointing to Sister Kaufusi) and this one has a beautiful smile (pointing to me)." The surgery paid off. He then continued by telling me that I have the harder job cause all Sister Kaufusi has to do is open her eyes but I have to put effort into my gift. Another favorite member of mine is Sister Fults. She does the meal calendar and she is a great cook. The other night she made us roast beef, mash potatoes, homemade bread which is like the best meal I could imagine! It reminded me of home. At night while we were getting ready for bed Sister Kaufusi was like, "sister Fults' friend kept eyeballing us... Looking and you, looking at me... I think she's never seen young girls eat so much!" Then I said, "that would explain why Sister Fults told us that we were going to be fat when we leave this ward." But I promise I will not come home fat.

Our investigators are doing great. One of our investigators with a smoking problem bought us doughnuts and told us that she payed for them with the money she would have normally used for cigarettes. So that was neat. While teaching Laura about the Ten Commandments and she said, "well isn't coveting your neighbors ass part of committing adultery?" Sister Kaufusi and I were like "well..." And then Laura couldn't keep a straight face any longer and we caught on to the joke. We were just a little slow that day! Haha The Bombino family is awesome I love them so much! Rhythm their son waits by the door for us to come and draws pictures for us. It's awesome. I can't wait for them to be baptized and see how they grow in the gospel cause they have so much potential.

We finally got to meet with an old guy, Bruce. He apologized for being rude (even though he wasn't that rude) and told us how he almost fought a guy the size of Paul Bunyan the other day. He cried in front of us and really opened up. He says he's not afraid of death, but I do think he might be afraid to see God. We started teaching him the plan of salvation.

Bruce asked us to come by on again on Saturday because some guy and his wife was going to come over. (It's sometimes hard to understand him but I guess his wife is friends with the lady but he doesn't really like her husband so we came over to "scare them off" cause I guess there had been some trouble in the past with them.) So like clockwork we came at 4 rang the door bell and Bruce said the guy wouldn't even step outside to introduce himself. I don't think Bruce's wife is very fond of us either so they went to the opposite side of the house while Bruce was laughing at the expressions on their face.He also agreed to listen to us again and we finished teaching him the plan of salvation, especially hitting on the atonement, eternal families and forgiveness. Bruce is constantly drunk but he wants to come to church so he said that he would come and sit in the back row and eventually make his way to the front. It is so powerful seeing someone's potential. No matter what their past is. God doesn't look at your past but your future and your divine nature. I hope Bruce will be

able to be baptized someday and hopefully that day will be soon cause he's pretty frail.

I'm still working on my Spanish and so far the lessons are going well. I'm trying to teach the basics to sister Kaufusi so she at least can kinda understand what we're saying. Haha I really thought being stateside and speaking English I would have a semi normal mission but not here! I get to learn a new language and have all foreign companions. It's a blast. I'm my homecoming talk I'll have to bare my testimony in Spanish or something.

Every week sister kaufusi and I make it our goal to ponderize (ponder/memorize) a scripture, and every week we forget to chose one. So finally we sat down and picked them. I wanted to do John 11:35 but sister Kaufusi told me I needed to chose a different one. So I randomly picked mine but I like it and it really applies to my life right now. It's Words of Mormon chapter 1 verse 8 and it reads:

"And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people." I think it's cool cause everyone I talk to, once knew about God and

the redemption of Christ and we're happy when we were all living with Gods as spirits before we came to earth. But now while in this earthy state we have to walk but faith and not by sight and some people don't know the fullness of the gospel of Christ. So I pray that my brethren (everyone I come in contact with) will be able to accept this knowledge of the restored gospel and again be a delightsome people by partaking of the gospel of Jesus Christ and following his example and eventually live with our Heavenly Father which will bring us eternal happiness.

The church is true. I love you!

Sister Gier

Go Hunter!