I love your.....

Hiiii!!

Mom- Thank you for all the juicy gossip(lots of weddings and mission returns to report to her this week). I love emails like that. Sorry for not coming home in October. I guess I got things tah do in Ohio until November 30th. ;) Thank you for the package! I love getting new clothes! Sister Grant actually had a dress with the same fabric as the skirt, so we twinned hard core yesterday; it was awesome. I'm her and her twin's triplet (Sarah's companion has a identical twin serving in New Zealand). ALSO, happy, happy, happy birthday! You are the best mom ever. I love you tons and tons. Dad- I know I talk about Taco Bell in basically every email I send you, but I tried a Meal Deal C this week it was delish. I recommend it. Thanks for being the best dad in the whole world. I love you so much! 

Quote of the week (sorry there's only 4, it's been a very bland week):

1.) "Hey, girls! I need you to come over! I need a favor!" -Ellie the bearded woman You guys remember Ellie, right? The one with the beard? Yeah, well, she texted this to us the other day. Every time Ellie texts us something like this, she just wants us to go to the store with her money and buy her cookies. Well, we hadn't been over to see good ole Ellie in a while, so we texted her and told her we could come in about 30 minutes. She texted back "okay". We got there and she gave us a blank expression as if she had never seen us before... THEN she said "Oh, I thought you two weren't coming." WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT, ELLIE? Did she need us? No. She already had a treat that someone else got for her. BUT, was her beard as thick as ever? Yes. And for some reason, seeing that cute, bearded lady sitting on her porch made the whole trip worth it. Sometimes I can't even believe the life I live right now, but I sure do love living it.  

2.) "What's missing in 'ch--ch'? Ur." -Church sign We saw this at a J-dubs church the other day. I laughed and laughed and laughed...I'm still laughing about it. All I could think of is Amanda and Emily saying "I love your". The sign ALMOST converted me to becoming a Jehovah's Witness because I thought it was so good. ;) Just keeding. They might have a good sign, but what they're really missing from their church is the Priesthood and a lot of lost truths as a result of the Great Apostasy. ALSO,  they don't celebrate holidays and I would just absolutely hate that.  

3.) "I'm just really angry today." -Me This quote was actually said today during grocery shopping. I woke up this morning really angry at everything. We were in the bread isle, and I picked up a loaf and said "I just want to squeeze this bread as hard as I can and then throw it across Wal-Mart." Sister Grant just laughed, but I was very serious. I think my anger is from a dream I had last night where I needed to run fast and I just couldn't. I was so frustrated. BUT, I think it's affecting my email. Sorry for the lack of pep and funny comments. I'm tellin' ya, I really did think missionaries were always happy and perfect. They're not. Well...at least I'm not. 

4.) Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” -D&C 59:7 Guess what? Even though I was in a bad mood this morning, I'm still really grateful for everything Heavenly Father has given me. I thank Him every night for letting me  serve a mission, for my awesome companion, and for my eternal family. I live a wonderful life. 

I love all of your.

Love, 

Sister Reddish

Would you rather....

Hiiii.

Family: I'm really rushed today, so I'm really sorry for no personal little notsies. BUT trek sounded awesome and all of you looked so cute in your little pioneer clothes. Best looking pioneers this world has ever seen, no doubt. I hope all of  you know how much I love you.

Quotes of the week: 

1.) "Is that a raccoon?" "Yes, her name is Sanora." -Us and Mike Sister Grant and I were struttin' our stuff around the streets of Sharon, PA the other day trying to find someone to teach. In the distance, we could see a man walking towards us with something on his shoulder. At first we thought it was a huge bird...then we thought it was a cat....then it turned out to be a raccoon which was an excellent conversation starter. Mike had long, curly hair and was wearing a nasty tank top. The fact that he was wearing a tank top was actually really unfortunate because Sanora was scratching all over his body (Why wasn't he wearing more clothing to prevent this from happening? Because Mike is a crazy man). Anyways, after talking to him for a few minutes we found out that Mike has not one, not two, but three raccoons. We also found out that he didn't want to hear a message about Jesus Christ (I was pretty sad. I wanted to teach him so badly.) BUT there is a happy ending to this story: Mike allowed us to take a picture with him and I will forever treasure my picture with Mike and Sanora. 

2.) "I like how you have cheetah print shoes. Do you like to live on the wild side?" "Ha...ha...no." -Me and Robert We met Robert at the park the other day. We were trying to start casual conversation with him, and the all of a sudden he was like "You two don't remember me, do you?" We were like "Uhhh...of course we do..." I had never in my life seen this man. Then he started telling us about how he still lives with his mom and that he gets annoyed with her. That's fascinating, Robert. Our conversation ended with this quote. It was pretty awkward. ANNNNND this was a really boring story but I was awful at writing in my journal this week, so sorry. I'll do better next week.  

3.) "Hey, you can't leave without a kiss!" -Denny Do you remember last week how I talked about Denny giving us a kiss on the cheek? Well, guess what? We saw him again this week in the parking lot. We were like "Hi, Denny! Have a good day!" Then he said this quote. I was perfectly fine without a kiss, so I literally sped walked to our car and got in the drivers seat. Not tah-day, Denny. Guess who couldn't speed walk to the car and get in? Sister Grant. She had to back me because she's co-driver. Haha, I left her out there alone with Denny. Poor thing got another kiss. I told her it builds character, and she just glared. I would say that she'll thank me later, but she probably won't. That man is creepy deeky. 

4.) Me: "Would you rather live in the Youngstown Stake for the rest of your life, or have a stump leg?" STL's and Sister Grant in unison:"Stump leg." Me: "Okay... Would you rather have to live in the Youngstown Stake for the rest of your life, or have TWO stump legs?" STL's and Sister Grant in unison: "Two stump legs." Me: "Yeah, same." The other day we went on exchanges with the STL's and we all got to sleep in the same room. This quote was said in the dark at around midnight. Do we all love being missionaries in the Youngstown Stake? Yes x1000. Will we ever live here after our missions? Never ever. BUT if we're being honest, we would fit in pretty good around these parts if we had two stump legs. The body parts missing on people here is really concerning.
5.) "Remember who you are and what God expects you to become.” —President Thomas S. Monson This week I've been reflecting on everything that I've learned since being on a mission. A lot of times instead of thinking on all of the positive changes that I've made since being a missionary, I tend to think of all the things I could do better. We were teaching someone the other day and the lady said "Heavenly Father doesn't expect perfection." I wish that I was the perfect missionary; that would be awesome. However, I know that Heavenly Father is proud of my efforts. I know that He's proud of each of us when we're striving to become like Him.

I love all of you a ton. Have the best week.

Love, 

Sister Reddish 

Very very Awkward....

Mom- I did get to see Julia this week! I saw her in the parking lot of the temple in Columbus. Was I awkward? Yes. Yes x100. That's okay, it was still cool. Have fun on trek this week! I sure love and miss you, Mom. More than I can say. Emily- When I read your emails you seem so cool. Like, you kind of intimidate me. I hope we can continue to be friends when I'm home even though I'm the lamest now-a-days. ;) Have a blast on trek. I love you! Dad- thanks for being the best dad ever. Your email made my eyes a little teary. I can't wait to hug you again. I love you!

Quotes of the week: 

1.) "Am I allowed to hug you girls?" "Uhhh...." -Denny (our upstairs neighbor) and us So, we have this neighbor in apartment 94 named Denny Jones. We met him in the parking lot a few weeks back and he casually started telling us that he was going to be the father of the next virgin Mary. Didn't know there was going to be ANOTHER virgin Mary, did ya? HA, that's because there isn't. BUT, Denny believes that there will be and that is how Christ will come during the 2nd coming. ANYWAYS, we try and steer clear of Denny because he's crazy and talks for 10 years straight. The other day, we happened to be walking in the building the same time as him. After talking to him for a few minutes, Sister Grant and I told me we had to get going. That's when he said this quote.. Here's some bad news: he said this quote as he was going in to hug Sister Grant. THEN he planted a nice, juicy kiss on her cheek. I started laughing a little bit because I thought it was kind of funny. He then came towards me and I stopped laughing. I stopped laughing real quick. I guess I did something right that day because I got TWO kisses. Two wet, old man kisses. I hadn't been that close to a male in a very long time and I didn't enjoy it one bit. It was very gross. Luckily, Denny moves out this coming week, so that's a blessing from heaven. 

2.) " Don't let me forget to take car sick medicine!" -Me to Sister Grant We got to go to the temple with Jennell on Saturday! It was SO awesome! She loved it! The Columbus temple is about 3 hours away from Youngstown, so we spent a total of 6 hours driving that day. 6 hours of driving is totally worth getting to go into the temple. 6 hours of driving WHILE BEING CAR SICK BECAUSE SISTER GRANT FORGOT TO REMIND ME (ha, jk, it's not her fault) is still worth it, but it's a little iffy. I was SO sick, guys. It got to the point where I was about to take out everything in my temple bag so I could throw up in it, but after saying a couple prayers, I made it without puking once. Good times. In all seriousness, being able to see Jennell in the temple was worth every bit of car sickness. It was an awesome day on the mish. 

3.) "You looked awful yesterday, Sis.  I hope you took a 5 hour nap." -Brother Betts On Sundays we have to get up really early for meetings. This last Sunday, I woke up super tired, so like any normal human, I didn't put any make up on. Brother Betts told me that I looked sick not once, not twice, but three times. We had dinner with the Betts the next day and I made sure to spend some extra time on my mascara that day. I was expecting him to say how good I looked... nope. Alright, Brother Betts, I get it, I looked awful. ;) Now, I'm not writing this in my email to get pity, mom compliments about how I'm "beautiful with or without makeup", I'm writing this so I can always remember Brother Betts and how I somehow loved him even though he's the grumpiest and has no filter when it comes to talking to women.  

4.) "OH MY, YOU SMELL SO GOOD. WHAT DO YOU HAVE ON?" "Sweat." "WHAT?" "NOTHING!" -Sister McMurry and me Wow, sorry about all the quotes from members. OBVIOUSLY our teaching pool could use a few more people. On the plus side, the Youngstown ward members are really good at providing quotes for my journal when we tract all day and nothing happens. Sister McMurry told me this after she dug her face in my neck when I was hugging her goodbye. Sister McMurry can't hear anything: her ears are 103 years old. SO, this whole conversation was yelled (except for when I said "sweat" because I didn't want to disgust the poor lady who dug her face into my nasty neck).  It was a lovely compliment though. I guess my sweat smells good. That's probably why I got two kisses from Denny. My natural musk is irresistible. 

5.) "Everyday can be Independence Day when we use the Atonement of Jesus Christ." -President Uchtdorf Sooo, President Uchtdorf came to Kirtland the other day AND HE TOTALLY TALKED TO THE WHOLE MISSION. It was so, so cool. He talked a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know what President Uchtdorf told us was true. Not just true for the missionaries in the Ohio Cleveland Mission, but for everybody. Jesus Christ died for everybody. And because of that infinite sacrifice, all of us can become like Him; completely clean from sin. It doesn't matter who we are or what we've done, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help us change and be "free".

I love all of you tons. Thanks for being the best family. 

Love, 

Sister Reddish  

Single and ready to...share the gospel

 

Family, I love each of you a lot. I'm really sorry that I don't have individual notes this week, but honestly, I'm just really lazy this week. I'll write the best dang individual notes next week. I promise. :) 

Quotes of the week: 

1.) "I like all veggies.. Except for corn; that gives me the runs." -Carl (recent convert) So, I've talked about Carl before. He's my fav. I love him so much. Usually he doesn't show up to church. but this week HE TOTALLY DID. He had someone pick him up and everything. I woulda hugged him but he's pretty disgusting and hugging a male is basically breaking the law of chastity as a sister missionary. Anyways, I gave him a firm handshake with tears in my eyes, and asked him how he was. He said "I'm doing good. We're having 'Chicken Divine' tonight at my house so I'm pretty excited about that." Then because he's Carl. he somehow started talking about how corn gives him diarrhea. As most of you know, I'm pretty comfortable talking about bowel movements. We all poop, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. BUT when the bowel movement someone is talking about is not solid, I get pretty awkward. I don't know why, it just makes me feel weird inside. SO, when he said this quote I got super red, Sister Grant started laughing really hard, and we walked away from him. Oh and guess what? We were SURROUNDED by people. SO many people heard him say this quote to us. Oh Carl; we can't take you anywhere, buddy. I still love him.  

2.) "Is your wife going to be singing with him?" -Sister DiVeto We had an appointment with this old guy named Roger this week. We found him contacting and started crying because his wife had just died. We were like "We share a message that teaches you how you can be with your wife forever.", he was like "Wow, please come.", and we were like "Aight." (things might have gone a little different then that, but it's pretty accurate) We brought a member, Sister DiVeto, with us to the appointment because he lives alone and lessons with members present are the best, When we got in the house he was like "Do you want to hear my wife singing?" We told him that we would love it and he came out with a CD. He put it in and guess what song started playing....GOD BLESS THE USA. Tender mercy from the Lord. Anyway, his wife began singing the Lee Greenwood classic and she totally sounded like a man. Not feminine at all. I knew it was his wife, Sister Grant knew it was his wife, Sister DiVeto did not know it was his wife and thought it was a man singing. When she asked this question, I wanted to die. I wanted to die so hard. Roger took the question like a champ though. All he said was "Oh, no, this is her singing. She just sounds like a man."  He was so casual about it. He then closed his eyes and just cried through the whole song. He loved her manly voice so much. I still wanted to die a little so I didn't even really enjoy the song. Gosh dang it, Sister DiVeto. 

3.) "I was only going to join your religion so I could get married." -Joshua  Here's a really, really crazy story. SO, we were SUPPOSED to have a baptism this past weekend. We were teaching this 25 year old named Joshua and he was doing awesome. Reading, praying, living the Word of Wisdom, all that jazz. We were pretty excited. Wednesday night he didn't show up to his interview. We called 10,000 times and no answer. We eventually ended up going to his work on Saturday to try and figure out what was up. He was delivering something, so we gave one of his co-workers a note to give him. 30 minutes we got a text from good ole Joshua telling us that he was only learning about the church so that he could get married to a Mormon. He had asked me a couple times before all this went down  if I wanted to go bowling, feed some fish, stuff like that (I didn't go btw haha)... I thought he was just lonely and had no friends...nope...HE WAS TRYING TO MARRY SISTER MISSIONARIES. SICK NASTY. After crying for a little while and calling our zone leaders, Sister Grant and I came to the conclusion that Joshua is a weenie and that we weren't going to be sad about it. Now, we're tracting all the day long for someone who wants the gospel, not marriage. Youngstown, man....it's a crazy place. Crazy, crazy place.  

4.)"Bill, lets think of things the sisters can do for us. If they do service for us, they won't have to tract for 6 hours." -Sister Betts Here's a fun fact for ya: No one wants to talk to missionaries on America's birthday. I guess that's not a fun fact, but it is a fact. The only appointment we had yesterday was a 4th of July BBQ at the Betts. They asked us what our plans for the rest of the day were. By this time it was about 2 in the afternoon, and we had tracting/contacting down until 8. Sister Betts felt bad for us, so she tried to think of something we could do for service. All she could think of was for us to pick the raspberries in their garden. That took a total of 20 minutes and Sister Grant and I ate basically ate everything we picked (so basically we just took an extra 20 minute lunch and called it service).  BUT because of sweet Sister Betts, we only had to tract/contact for 5 hours and 40 minutes. Not gonna lie, Sister Grant and I wanted to die a little, but it was still an alright day. We came out of the experience better people and really sunburned. 

5.) "Our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward." -President Uchtdorf  This week has been a toughy. Before I came out on my mission, I imagined missions being this spiritual adventure full of happiness. I'm not saying it isn't a spiritual adventure full of happiness (because it totally is) but it's not happiness all the time. There's disappointments. There's actually a lot of disappointments. I often wonder why I like my life so much. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I sure love being on a mission. I really do. I even love the days where we just go finding for 5 hours and 40 minutes. I thank Heavenly Father every night for this opportunity. SO, even though it was a hard week, Sister Grant and I are going to keep moving forward. Miracles don't happen when you give up. 

I love all of you a lot. Have the best week. 

Love, 

Sister Reddish