Week 2 in Prairie

Prairie life is good. 

It's been a struggle to feel like I fit in and have a place here, but it's coming. We have seen lots of miracles this week and I have started to build trust and relationships with investigators and branch members.

On Tuesday we drove with the Parkinsons (the senior couple here in Prairie) for an hour and a half to go to Richland Center for District Meeting. AN HOUR AND A HALF. Each way. Ridiculous. Anywho, that was fun. There are 2 other sets of elders in our district. They are hilariously weird. But awesome. I made a cake at the request of Elder Rudarmel (DL) for Elder Schenk's birthday. It was great. Instant brownie points to Sister Butler. Our district seems pretty fun. It's weird that we are all spaced out so much, but it seems like we are all working hard. 

It was freezing that evening, but we went out walking to contact some people. While we were out, everything happened just perfectly that we would pass a guy twice. The first time we just smiled and said hello cause it was dark and he had headphones on and we were in a creepier part of town. But. Like an hour later, we crossed the street at the EXACT right time to run into him again. God was like, HERE HE IS! TALK TO HIM! So we did. And. Got a return appointment. It was great. There is no doubt that everything that happened that whole evening happened the way it did so that we would run into him right at that second. #miracles

Wisconsin is so beautiful. We drove out to Boscobel (which is Wisconsin's' wild turkey hunting capitol, donchaknow?) Holy beautiful drive! The things I see here remind me of a travel magazine of some place that is woodsy and rustic and beautiful that you never think you are actually ever going to see. It is breathtaking like every single day of my life. And! The trees dont even have leaves and the grass is all dead. I cant even imagine summer or spring or fall here. I think I'd die.

We've had a lot of appointments fall through. Well, first we got a lot of return appointments to begin with. We were so excited. We've seen miracle after miracle, and then no one is home when they say they would be :/ It's been a little tough, but I know that everything happens for a reason. So. We will just keep trying all those people until they are home and let us in. 

Oh! We did get a new investigator though! We were looking for a potential investigator named Isaac, but found Robert instead. We have an appointment with him tonight and it is going to be sweeeeeeet.

We went out to visit a less active sister out in the middle of nowhere. They have the cutest little farm out there. Like. Legit, middle of nowhere, old little farmhouse, farm. AND. The best part was that she had kittens! KITTENS. I love kittens. I just had to hug them and give them all the love I could cause who knows when I'll see another? haha. 

We taught a family. It was great. I got to teach the 8 year old boy about the Restoration and I just loved it. I feel like teaching children is so much easier. They have such a natural understanding of the nature of God and such innocent desire to do what is right. He kept asking if NOW he could get baptized. I had to explain to him that he still needed to learn the other lessons, and all that. He was like, "Teach me now!" haha I love it!  I really feel like I am sent here to help this family. Actually, I KNOW that I am here to help them. I'm excited. 

Yesterday we had a Linger-Longer after church with the branch. It was awesome. The branch out here is great. Theres a pretty good mix of younger families and older people. But. There are so many kids. And they are all so close and everything we do together is just so fun. They've gone through a lot to get a building to meet it. Some even still have to drive for hours to come. And everyone makes really good food. hahaha.

Prairie is a lot different because I dont have a lot of fun stories to tell. haha. We work HARD here. We walk a lot and I love it. Walking is so relaxing and it gives us the opportunity to talk with a lot more people. And it makes me happy. Even though its cold. We drive a lot too because the towns we are over are so spread out, but thats nice too because its beautiful. The other day we saw a cute little 3 point buck in the road. Sister Asper is pro at driving, cause she saw him way ahead of time. 

I love working this hard. I've seen a change in myself as I've just hit the pavement. I am exhausted, that's for sure. 6:30am comes earlier and earlier every day. But its just plain AWESOME. The Lord has blessed me so much. My studies have been getting better and better. I am rereading the Book of Mormon while cross referencing it to Preach My Gospel. Holy cow. Gold mine! Who knew that the Book of Mormon teaches so much about how to be a good missionary? Its awesome. I'm seeing things I've never seen before.

All in all, life is good. Just working hard and loving the people. I have yet to eat Mississippi catfish or see a river otter, but it will come. I'm probably gonna be here for another 5 months or so, so I have a lot of time to get a lot of work done and do lots of things. It's gonna be great.