WEEK 6 - Gluttony

AHHHHHHH I LOVE P DAY. I also just love my mission this is so awesome. At first I was having like actually a really hard time with this whole mission thing, and it didn't help that people every five seconds would tell me: "I don't know if you have ever heard the lesser known quote by Gordan B Hinckley *ahem* But it states: "Forget yourself and go to work."" Yes I have heard that phrase like idk a billion times in the last week. But its true. It actually is. For everyone reading this who is going to the field soon it is going to be so hard the first couple of days, I wanted to come home. But it gets so much better, soooooo much. Anyways time to hear all of the great things that have happened to me this week: - Okkkk so on Tuesday we did some service at this place called Hope's Door, It is this place that helped like women that have had hard things happen, idk there was a ton of cool stuff there and I was kinda looking around while they were explaining what they do. But they help women. And I love women. So it was great. But anyways we got immediately sent to the back to work in a room with this lady named Karnen. And she was anything but a Karen. She was this 70 year old volunteer who was soooo nice. Elder Campbell is not much of a talker (unless you happen to be on the topic of puzzles or league of legends) but me and Karen definitely were. So me and her just chatted up a storm for like an hour and a half. She was asking a lot about Utah and I eventually got on the topic of snow, and she genuinely just could not fathom that it snowed more than six inches there. I would be talking to her about skiing and like some funny skiing stories and she would interrupt me in the middle and ask clarifying questions such as: "So your telling me you it snows a whole bunch in your canyons? Wowza!" Anyways I loved Karen, after we were seperated from my dearest friend Karen we were sent to go work with the Bank of America volunteers. We got way tight working together until I informed them that I am a happy wells fargo user. Then we left. - That night for dinner Ma Jie Mei took us to an insanely nice korean BBQ place. It was her and her 3 year old son christian . Me and Christian instantly vibed over our similar chinese proficiency levels. Christian is the cutest child I have ever seen, and I love hanging out with him. I wanted to figure out how Ma Jie Mei had all of this money because she always takes missionaries to nice places. I asked her what she did that day assuming she would tell me about her job. She was like "ummmm, I dropped off Christian at school, had a spa day, and now I am here!" Ma Jie Mei is sooooo dope, I have no idea where her money supply comes from, I don't think she is drowning in like credit card debt, but we all have our hidden trials. - So the next super cool service we got to do like two days later was at a place called Hope Restored. We got there and Tammy Rashanda and Becky trained us on what to do. This is a place that helps homeless people get clothes, food, water, IDs, Jobs, Housing ect. I was basically serving as the receptionist of this place, so I thought it would be like a cool relaxing job where I got to meet a bunch of people. Actually no, it was not. As soon as we opened at 10, floodgates of hungry/high people just asking me a million questions. One of the most stressful things I have ever done. So much smoke, my poor lungs. But these people were actually super nice people. It was super cool to see how respectful and nice most of them were, they had just made some wrong decisions in the past. So I did my best to help them. We are now volunteers every week and I pretty much just now consider myself one of the girls in the back. Me and Rashanda were getting so much done up front and all of the ladies that worked here were so nice and thankful. Just such good people here in Texas. - Ok nothing that interesting ever happens till thursday but once it hits, oh boy, it hits. I had an exchange with Elder Jacobs and he is dope. He is this guy who lives on a farm back home and is QB, student body president, and like Elder Montague, he goes on like 100,000 dates a week. I usually don't get along that well with the rural people, but me and this guy do. So it was fun to be with him. Brother Stringham picked us up for dinner. This guy is so dope. He took us to this nice tex mex place and he said if the bill is not over 100 dollars he would be mad. The waiter came around and he asked what we want to drink, elder jacobs said sprite and I said water. And then Brother Strigham politely told him I'll actually be having a dr. pepper. Idk how he knew I loved dr. Pepper but that is just the type of guy this guy was. Then he saw I was looking at the menu at this one item called the grande. Now not in my wildest dreams would I have ever ordered this 2200 calorie of a plate. Which leads me to the title of this email. Brother Stringham made me order it. It was 3 enchiladas, a chimichanga, a taco, a burrito, and 2 other things I did not know the names of. To every decision there is a consequence (I know you know what I am saying @Nick Gordon , @Lance Andrewsen). So that was awesome, Brother Stringham dropped us off and we went and knocked doors, had a close call with a satanist, and met a super cool lady name Peggy. Awesome Exchange. - The next night we had dinner with the Wangs. At a super authentic Taiwanese place. I ate some weird food, but honestly my palet didn't care at that point. I was still suffering from the Grande and I had lost my liking for any food. Sister Wang loved speaking in chinese, Brother Wang loved English. So we would speak chinese until brother wang would ask me a question in english. I would answer and would then get in trouble with the misses. This pattern continued for most of the night and it was quite stressful. I opened my chopsticks before the food came out and that was also not the move. She did not like that. So she got me new chopsticks. It was a good meal though. Elder Campbell had Sister Wang distracted for a second so Brother Wang asked me what I want to do when I am older. I told him I want to be a stand up comedian and an entrepreneur. He happily skipped over the stand up comedian part ( maybe i take it as a sign idk) and started talking about starting a company. He is a super smart successful computer science guy and he basically offered himself up if we ever needed a CTO, so Elder Shallenberger we are using this guy. He is so dope and so smart. Super good meal I love the Wangs. - This was maybe my favorite part of the mission yet. So on Saturday night we had a fun excursion. We went to the stake center and elder Campbell had informed me that there was a Hispanic celebration at the stake center on Saturday night and one of our friends might be there. So I was like ya cool, I can have a couple of enchiladas, some chit chat then head out. Bro we walked in and it was like the movie coco. But like the part where they die and everyone is so happy. ( I miss Disney movies so much @elder molen, especially the princess and the frog 😢) It was so fun, infinite amounts of food as well. (I was still suffering from the grande at this time, but it was cool anyways). I sat down by my new friends Yash, Omar, Rodrigo, and TED. They were all so dope, but Ted is one of the coolest people I've ever met. Ted was jacked and sounded like Kevin hart. We got on the topic of LeBron v Micheal Jordan. And than Messi v Ronaldo, then the princess and the frog. Me and this man were just arguing but in a hilarious way. We had actual spectators just listening to us. We then decided when I'm done with my mission we are gonna start a podcast and name it Contention. It would actually be hilarious. So that happened then the guy in charge started speaking on the microphone in Spanish so me and my Indian friend yash (who is also hilarious) had no idea what was happening. Everyone started cheering then the curtains opened. And brother, this placed turned into spanish Coachella. People were singing and everyone was dancing and clapping and singing along. I had no clue what was happening, but I was hoping I might be in a spanish area at some point. It was soooo dope. - Church was epic this week. I had estimated 3 friends coming, but 7 came. That's like a record here so that was awesome. We have a new friend named Layla who is 15 and got a book of Mormon and is like studying it and wants to learn more. Oh my heavens she came from heaven. She is so mature for her age, and reminds me not even a little of myself when I was younger. But Layla and her mom were introducing themselves to me before church, and then in walk our other friends. This was so stressful. Layla was telling me about her favorite verse, polly (layla's mom) was asking me if mormonism conflicts with schooling, Zhang fan was telling me about the Dallas Mavericks, chu Yang was asking about english class, crystal wanted to know if we were for sure baptizing her on October 7th, fish was asking about my weekend, MO MO was asking about our dinner with ma na, Eric (first counselor) was trying to convince me and Elder Campbell to separate so I could go to young women's with Layla, and Jeff was asking me where Bella was. Judas. Elder Campbell did not feel it was necessary to help out during all of this so that was double stressful. But it all worked out, and we have so many lessons this week and I am excited. - I love elder Campbell, so many funny stories, but this email is to long, maybe next week. - sorry once again for this long email, idk I'll probably keep them long I love talking. Anyways I have seen so many little miracles now and before from just talking and being a friend to everyone, it's so easy, I challenge everyone back home to do it. It will not only benefit others, but it will benefit you.❤️ - THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who reads my emails and reaches out to me it makes me so happy, I'd love to keep hearing from u so keep me updated! Anyways have a fantastic week and know that I love you and I am your biggest cheerleader and supporter! I have about 8x the pictures on this thing so join if you want my exclusive content: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 Pictures: 1. Korean BBQ with Ma Na and Christian 2. Rain 3. Chickens 4. Grande (picture does not do it justice) 5. Comp study 6. New favorite mission picture 7. Dinner with the Wangs 8. Fiesta 9. My boy chu yang 10. Hanging out