#blessed

Hi, Fam. 

Mom- You're not a lame mom. I still like you. You will, however, be officially lame if you don't send anything this week. ;) Just kidding, you wouldn't have to send anything to me the rest of my mission, and you would still be the best mom ever. Thanks for everything you do for me. I love you. Dad- Good luck on your race this week. I'll pray that you neither have a fountain coming out your butt or your mouth. I sure love you.

Quotes of the week:

1.) "I have the spiritual gift of being able to read people's spirits. You two have a very pure and gentle spirit." -Sharon Sharon is a crazy black lady we met when we were walking to a potential investigators home. After she told us this quote, we figured that was her approval for us to share the first lesson. The whole lesson went awesome until we got to Joseph Smith. Then she brought up the whole polygamy thing and the lesson turned all poopy. We told her that if the Book of Mormon is true then the church is true even if we have doubts. That seemed to sit right with her, but then she went on for another hour about times that she's seen ghosties. Where'd that come from? We have a phrase in the mish "44 out the door" and if we're at a house for more than 44 minutes, all focus is gone. Good news though, I planned what I was going to buy for grocery shopping in the extra 20 minutes we had there AND we have a return appointment with her because she likes "our spirits" and she wants us to come back and "bless her day". We can fit that in our schedg, Sharon, BUT this time it's gotta be under 44 minutes.

2.) "I was chatting with people over Xbox and they told me to go to your church, so I did." -Joshua Wow. I had never appreciated anything to do with Xbox until that moment. Sweet. Joshua became a new investigator after attending 3 full hours of church, and he's got a baptism date for July. Heavenly Father knows we struggle finding mentally stable to teach the old fashion way (tracting) here in Youngstown so he has OTHER people find them for us, and then we get to see the gospel change their lives. This whole missionary thing is a piece of cake... JK, it's not, but I'm grateful that finding Joshua was.  

3.) "What do you call two people in a car?... MISSIONARIES!" -Carl Carl is the only recent convert in our area. He got baptized last August. As Amanda would put it, he's not very high on the "spectrum" if ya catch my drift. BUT I love him so much. I don't know why I love him.. He's pretty disgusting and doesn't really pay attention to anything we teach him, but I legit have a small obsession with cute, chubby Carl. Anyways, when he told us this joke, he could stop laughing. I began to laugh because he thought that joke was comedy gold. Sister Bullock didn't laugh because the joke wasn't comedy gold. He pointed at me in the midst of his laughter and said "See, Sister Reddish gets it." Then in the midst of my laughter all I said was "No I don't, Carl." We laughed roughly another minute and then we taught him about the priesthood. Ohhh Carl. Whatta fun guy. 

4.) "Six months to sexy starts today." "National doughnut day is next Friday." "Sexy people can eat doughnuts..." -Sister Bullock and I  May 30th was my official "6 months until I come home" day, and you know what that means.... SIX MONTHS TA SEXY!  Diets aren't really my thing is the problem. I have this theory that if I mentally tell myself that doughnuts are healthy then my body will believe it. Six months to sexy is easy if you have the mental capacity of a champ (which I do).  I ALSO have a theory that the chubbier I get the more sexy I become. Either way this goes, I'm going to end up attractive. #blessed 

5.) "Does June 10th still feel good?" "Yeah, I'm ready. I know it's true." -Jennell THIS IS NOT A JOKE GUYS. I THINK I FINALLY GET TO SEE SOMEONE GET BAPTIZED. IT ONLY TOOK A SOLID YEAR. 🎉🎈Jennell is awesome! She recently married a member in the Youngstown ward, Bill Chapman, and wants that marriage to last forever. It's been an absolute privilege to watch her testimony grow. As we've been teaching her, my gratitude for our forever family has grown tons. Jennell's eyes lit up when we told her about temple sealings. I'm so happy that the gospel has been restored, and because of the restoration, families really can be together forever. 

I sure love all of you. Have a great week. 

Love, 

Sister Reddish 

"I'm not angry"

Mom- THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE CUTE SHOES. You are the best mom ever. Good luck with your root canal today. I love you. Emily- Congrats on the license. You'll have to take me for a ride when I get home. Also, I'm not even a little surprised, but half of your outfit in the picture Mom sent use to belong to me in my past life. You're welcome. ;) I love you!!! Dad- Random question: Have you had the chance to try the chicken nugs at Taco Bell? Sounds like your staying pretty busy with running and bishoping. I sure love you!

Quotes of the week: 

1.) "Can you help me put this shelf thing together?" -Barbara (lady in Warren) I got to go on exchanges with Sister Jenkins this week! It was marvelous. Did we do very much missionary work? No. I'm going to blame this on Barbara because I'm too prideful to blame it on the fact that Sister Jenkins and I might have spent 90% of the exchange talking about things that don't have anything to do with missionary work. ANYWAYS,  Barbara had this stupid shelf thing that she wanted to put plants on. When she asked if we could help her, in my head I was like "Psh, I can put a shelf together. Easy peasy lemon squeezy." Uh, nooo. This shelf was so dumb. After TWO HOURS (two hours of kneeling on concrete with a skirt is awful. It's so awful, folks.) of trying to figure out this devil shelf, we came to the realization that parts were missing. When we tried to tell Barbara this, we then had to take an additional FIFTEEN MINUTES to explain to her that her shelf thing was crap. AND THEN she wanted to sing us a Christian song. That took another FIFTEEN MINUTES because she couldn't get the right pitch for about TEN MINUTES. TWO AND A HALF HOURS of my life were spent with this random woman, but somehow it was one of the funnest days ever. I love Sister Jenkins. 

2.) "Will you lead the music at Brother Bob Stewarts funeral?" -Sister Whitfield (Relief Society President) So, this man in the Youngstown Ward died my first week here. Never met him, but I hear he was a delight. We asked Sister Whitfield if we could help her with anything at the funeral, and she asked me to lead. I can't lead music, guys. I really can't. I've tried and I've tried and I've tried and it never turns out good. SO, there I was, standing next to this random man's casket, trying to lead to "Be Still my Soul".  One of Brother Stewarts daughters could tell I was struggling and she started to ever so slightly lead to the music by her knee in the front row. THIS WOMAN WAS GREIVING THE DEATH OF HER FATHER, AND SHE HAD TO WORRY ABOUT ME BECAUSE I WAS MAKING A FOOL OF MYSELF UP THERE. After 3 more songs, we silently slipped the heck outta there. I was really embarrassed. So, yeah, I might have ruined ole Bobby's funeral. Sorry, Stewart family. 

3.) "Maybe we could pray for the garden before we start planting.." "Like dedicate it?" "Yeah." "Sister Reddish, will you say it?" -Braiser Family (less actives) I kinda dedicated a garden this week. Was it weird? Yes. Did I feel apostate? A little bit. But I did it. In the prayer I was like "Please bless this garden. Please bless that it will....grow a lot of plants... " and then I kind of just ended it. They said thank you, but I think everyone by that patch of dirt could feel the awkward. What the heck was I supposed to say? Oh well, it's always a good day when I get to exercise my Priesthood...oh wait...

4.) "Maybe you could work on not getting angry when things fall through." -Sister Bullock during comp inventory I know this might come as a shock to a lot of you, but I'm not perfect. I have this really bad tendency to get angry when our plans fall through. This isn't a good quality to have as a missionary because things fall through literally all the time. Sister Young thought it was funny, but Sister Bullock has no idea how to respond to my anger, so I'm trying to work on it. Something that's been helping is every time something falls through, I say "Wow, I'm not angry. I still love this person. Think of all the possibilities we now have to find new people to teach." I might say it in an angry voice, but I think the more I say it, the more genuine it will become. That's, at least, what Sister Bullock and I are hoping.

5.) "God will take you as you are at this very moment and begin to work with you. All you need is a willing heart, a desire to believe, and trust in the Lord." -President Uchtdorf This quote kind of goes along with #4, but it's super true. I've seen it on my mission. Not only in myself, but in some of the people I've had the privilege of teaching. If you have a desire to change and become better, Heavenly Father helps you. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to fail; He wants to help us succeed. The more my testimony grows, the more I realize why we call Him our Father. He sure does love each one of His children. 

I love each of you tons and tons. Have the best week. 

Love, 

Sister Reddish

"Saving Souls and Baby Birds"

Hi, fam. My time is a little limited this week. BUT, I hope you all have awesome weeks. Also, I can't even tell you how much I loved Skyping. We have the coolest family. I love all of you a ton. 

Quotes of the week:

1.) "He's an *peep*. I hope he dies." -Sister Pander We visit Sister Pander once a week and help her with family history. She's in a wheelchair and she's in her late 80s. She's a really sweet lady. She was watching the news and they started talking about Trump. That's when she said this quote. I started laughing because this sweet old lady just said a bad word. She looked at me with a straight face and said, "I'm serious." Then things got awkward, and I went back to doing family history. Sorry, Sister Pander. 

2.) "Did you know that Jesus is black?" -Sabre's (investigator) Mom We were teaching one of our investigators, Sabre, at the library the other day and he walked  in the library talking to his mom on Facetime. He handed me the phone and his mom went off on me about how Jesus was black. I'm pretty sure it's against the rules for me to talk to someone on someone else's phone, so I handed it back to him and said in a loud voice, "I can't remember what race Jesus Christ was, but I know He died for all of us, so I really don't care what His race is." I wanted someone to say "AMEN!" or something like that, but I only got a couple of blank stares and a glare from the librarian. Awko-taco. The rest of the time I was really embarrassed and kind of wanted to die. BUT, we did teach a stinkin' awesome lesson. Up top!

3.) "I have a picture of Jesus in my room. Could I give him one of these cookies?" -Nora Sister Bullock and I made cookies the other night just for funsies. I don't really know why we did that because we're both trying to stay away from things that make ya fat. So, obviously, we were going to give the cookies to Ellie the bearded woman who loves cookies. There was tons of cookies so we thought that we could give half to her and half to the people in her group home. Nora was sitting on the front porch so we handed the cookies  to her and told her to share. We stayed a total of 10 minutes talking to Ellie, and when we walked back outside, Nora had eaten at least half the cookies. What the heck, Nora, we told you to share.  THEN she asked if she could give one of the cookies to Jesus. Obviously we didn't say no. You can't deny Jesus Christ cookies. So, I guess we made cookies for Ellie and Nora and Jesus and no one else. Here's a fun twist to the story: Ellie shaved her beard. It was starting to grow back a little, but she almost looked clean shaven. The miracles that you see on a mission, am I right? 

4.) "I can't just leave these birds here to die..." -Sister Bullock Here's a story: So, yesterday, Sister Bullock and I were walking to a potential's house. On the side walk, there were two baby birds that had fallen from there nest and were wandering around. In my head I was like "Awe man, sucks for those birds. They're going to die." This was not what was going through Sister Bullocks head. Sister Bullock LOVES animals so she picked up the birds and PUT THEM IN HER BAG! I looked at her and said, "You're not going to bring those into the Perez's home." SO, we had to walk to the Burger King down the street and get a box to put the stinkin' birds in. I was so mad. SO mad. I coulda said SO many slang words. Then we stuffed the box of birds in the bush at the Perez's apartment complex and knocked on the door. They moved. :| So, I took a seat on the bench at their apartment complex with a grumpy face holding the box of birds while Sister Bullock called a member to see if they could take the birds somewhere. The member told us that we should leave them in the bushes and let them die. Sister Bullock was so sad. She had so much love for these birds. Then a lady came walking around the building with her son. Sister Bullock, went up to them and asked if they would be interested in taking care of some baby birds. The lady was like "OH MYGOSH, OF COURSE. We would absolutely love to watch over them." Then we got her number and she told us that we could call her. Ha, WHAT? We got a potential outta all of this. Sister Bullocks massive heart comes in handy with missionary work, I suppose. I told her I was sorry for being grumpy, but that if we ever spend another hour trying to save 2 baby birds again that I would most definitely be grumpy again. We both came to the agreement that it wouldn't happen again.  Haha, I love her. Such a cutie. 

5.) “Don’t give up. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead." -Elder Holland There was a few rough days this past week. We've been doing a lot of finding, and it seems that all we can find are people with the mental capacity of a 6 year old. I was being a wanny the other night and I was telling Heavenly Father about how frustrated I was. The next morning I was watching a Mormon Message while eating breakfast and this quote was in it.  Was that day any better than the day before? Nah. BUT, I know that good things are coming. Blessings come from working hard. Regardless of when the blessings come, I know Heavenly Father is aware of us and the people in this area.

I love all of you tons!

Love, 

Sister Reddish

YOUNGSTOWN!!!

Not sure how I feel about her getting transferred to the "ghetto" of the mission. From what I've heard and seen on the mission moms FB page, Youngstown is where everyone wants to serve. Until now I figured it was because it was such a nice, safe place. Now I'm starting to wonder if it's because that's where all the action and excitement is (wikipedia says it has the 9th highest crime rate in the country)....Good thing I know the Lord will watch over her and that she will love it. Part of this area is in Pennsylvania, just an hour from Pittsburgh. It is directly between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

 

Hiiiii, fam. I don't have much time, so no personal little notesies. I'm sorry. I hope you all know how much I LOVE hearing about your weeks and reading your emails! :)  

Quotes of the week: 

1.) "She can't take the shoes with her, buddy. Get something for your dad; he's going to be mourning. Jesus doesn't care what your mom has on her feet." -Sister Young This week I was singing Christmas Shoes because I missed Dad a little bit.Sister Young said this after I sang the whole chorus to her. I know what you are all thinking...how dare she disrespect the best Christmas song ever written. She obviously doesn't have a heart. Don't worry, Dad, I taught her the importance of the little boy buying shoes for his mom. I testify that Jesus DID care what his mom had on her feet when she met Jesus that night. I bet she looked beautiful. 

2.) "I would do some serious researching on what your church believes before you share it with other people." -Andy We met Andy this week. Andy is "a real piece", as Trevor would say. When we knocked on Andy's door, it was my turn to do the door approach. There was a little kids bike in the front yard, so obvi I told him about how the gospel could bless his family. Well, guess what? Andy's the devil and didn't believe me at all. He was pretty mean to us. I told him that we wouldn't be on missions, serving for 18 months of our lives, if we hadn't "researched" our religion and prayed about it. Long story short, we left his door step with 0 success and SUPER grouchy. We then finished up his street and started walking to our car. When we got in the car I saw Andy coming out running towards our car. Sister Young thought he was going to apologize for being a butt head, so she opened her window. HE HANDED US LIKE 10 PAGES OF ANTI. She took it, threw it to the backseat of the car, and said "Thanks, Andy". Sister Young is so patient and nice. After she shut the window, I yelled really loud towards his house "I DON'T LIKE YOU, SISTER YOUNG DOESN'T LIKE YOU, AND I PROMISE YOU THAT MY MOM WOULDN'T LIKE YOU EITHER!"

3.) "What's our neighbor's kid name again? Chaz, Chauser...?" "It's Jaden.." -Sister Young and I Sister Young is SO bad at remembering names. A conversation like this happens at least once a day. This one made it in my list of quotes because she guessed that a 5 year old boy's name is "Chauser". Chauser isn't a name. It's never been a name. The unfortunate thing is that sometimes she guesses peoples names in front of them. So, the the other day we were talking to a man named Eric. After we were done talking to him she said "Well, you have a good day, Doug." The man was like "Where did that name even come from? My name is Eric." I'm going to miss hearing her mess up everyone's name. I love her so much. 

4.) "Sister Reddish, you're getting transferred to Youngstown." -Elder Brown (district leader)  I have loved serving in Wadsworth, I love the ward, I love the people we teach, and I love Sister Young. My heart is going to break a little bit when I have to leave tomorrow. So many tears these past few days have been shed. I will be FOREVER grateful that Heavenly Father let me serve here. On a happier note... I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED TO THE GHETTO OF THE OHIO CLEVELAND MISSION! Isn't that amazing? I'm so excited! Along with being transferred, I have also been released as an STL. I absolutely LOVED serving as an STL, but no more weekly exchanges sounds glorious. Sister Jenkins is one of my new STL's, so I get to go on exchanges with her every once and a while; that'll be the funnest thing of my whole life.

5.) "Forget yourself and go to work." -Gordon B. Hinckley After we got the call that I was being transferred, I was pretty sad. I woke up yesterday wanting to stay inside and feel sorry for myself. After praying for a long time, I read the letter Mom and Dad sent me right when I got to Ohio. Dad said this quote in his note. I know that I'm supposed to go to Youngstown and I know that I'm going to love it. It doesn't matter where I'm at or who I'm with, every one needs this gospel, and I'm going to work by buns off this next 6 months regardless of where I'm at because I know that what we teach as missionaries is the most important thing that anyone could ever hear. Can I get an amen? 

I love all of you tons and tons. Have the best week! 

Love, 

Sister Reddish