The Great Gatsby.

Friday, May 24, 2013

We decided that we were tired of sitting around. We were trying to think of things to do and I suggested that maybe we should go see a movie? So we DID! We drove to Burlington and went to see The Great Gatsby. Which was AMAZING, by the way. Most of it. Parts of it were a little weird, in that I didn't know what was going on (if it was real, if he was imagining/dreaming it, etc.) but it had a really good plot twist at the end and now I just want to read the book.
So on our way back from Burlington we saw a Walmart. We decided to make a quick stop there and grab a few things so we wouldn't have to go to Keokuk until next week. We get there around 10:45, yeah? CREEPIEST THING OF MY LIFE. I am so not used to Walmarts being so scary! As we go walking in the doors, there was this group of guys standing right outside the doors staring us down like they wanted to rape us. I just felt like everyone was watching us, because I admit we looked a little out of place. Everyone looked kinda white trash/ thug life and here's these two pretty, nicely dressed Mormon girls bouncing in. Yeesh. It was creepy. So we got our stuff as fast as we could and GOT. OUT. It just never was like that in Logan! We could go at 1 in the morning and be completely fine! Ugh. Bless Utah. My parents are right, I am never marrying someone from outside of Idaho or Utah cause I'm never leaving Idaho or Utah. Unless they sign a contract or something saying they're cool with living there forever.

Saturday, May 25, 2013
Holy Moses. So. Welcome to the worst day I've had while being in Nauvoo. We come walking in at about 8:58. Usually all the housekeepers are in there waiting for their daily assignments from the manager, Peggy. We walk in and all the housekeepers are in there, but they're being yelled at by our manager. So we're like trying to figure out what's going on and I guess she went in and checked a bunch of rooms that had been cleaned as check outs and there was a lot of stuff wrong with the rooms. After she gets done, she goes "Oh. And Peggy isn't with us anymore."
Yeah. They fired Peggy.
I was shocked.
And really upset. So on top of that, they have one of the new girls work with me. And she. Is. A bee-otch. She kept trying to boss me around and then she wouldn't even do anything to help. We had one room that we had to go back and fix, and everything we had to fix were things she swore she did or that I had asked her to do. It was funny though cause after all day of her snarky comments, one lady came in and was helping us. While she was sweeping, this other rude girl was like "you missed some dirt right there." And this other (super awesome) lady says "Well ya better get down there and pick it up then!" What was it, brat? Oh. Just a scratch in the floor. Shoot, looks like she didn't miss it.
I also got to talk to both my parents Saturday. Which is really what I needed, after that stupid day. After I got off the phone with my dad I just sat and cried. I miss my family a lot.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Sacrament meeting was INCREDIBLY full. It was all the way back to the back of the gym. They had to have another sacrament table in the gym to get everyone back there. There are just so many visitors!
We got to teach primary. We were with the CTR 4 and CTR 5 classes. They just combined them for that Sunday. That class was SO. DANG. CUTE. And they were surprisingly well-behaved? I hardly had to get after them for things. There was this little boy from South Africa there who was... Oh my gosh. A doll. He was absolutely darling. He had this black pinstripe suit on... Oh. Get on youtube and search a pep talk from Kid President. I swear, that kid from that video looked exactly like this one that was in our class. Anyways. It was fun, we got to talk to them about how you can communicate with Heavenly Father through prayer and how he'll always answer them. It was cute cause we were talking about Nephi after Laman and Lemuel let him go on the boat and he thanks Heavenly Father for everything he has. I said "What do you think Nephi prayed about after they untied him?" and silence. "Do you think he prayed for..... A million dollars?" The whole class "NO!"
"Do you think he prayed for a mansion?"
"NO!"
"A bunch of toys?"
"Sister Perrenoud. No."
I told them they were right, and when I asked if Heavenly Father would give those things to us if we asked for them they all said "No! We should only ask for things that He would want us to have and He knows we don't need those things."
SO. Cute.
There was one little boy there named Tanner. He had hearing aids, but besides that seemed fairly normal. I asked everyone in the class to tell me something really cool that happened to them that week, and when I got to him he kind of seemed really upset and frustrated so I figured he had a hard time with being put on the spot. So I said "That's okay, you don't have to say anything!" And moved on. A couple kids later I saw Tanner raising his hand and when I called on him he kind of quietly tells me that his grandma and grandpa came out to visit.
I don't know why, but that made me really love this little boy.
The bishopbric came over after church. Which was weird, we're not used to having people over... Also, we had both just woken up from naps so we're all groggy. Also, our apartment was kind of a disaster haha. Whoops.
That night, we went to the Sociable that the sister missionaries put on. It was amazing. I'm really starting to love the pioneers. Those sister missionaries have such a sweet spirit to them! And I love them because all the ones we've met saw us while they were performing and came running up to us afterwards and were just so excited to see us. Gosh, it's nice to know people!

Monday, May 27, 2013

My day begins at around 2:35 AM. I'm not really sure why, but I woke up thinking I heard a knock at the door. I sat there for a second, and then thought "I MUST BE LATE FOR WORK!" So I go flying out of bed and then I check my phone to see how bad it was. Yeah, it was only 2:35. I was like "Great. I've been asleep for like three hours." Then I remembered the knocking. I can't even describe how creeped out I was all of a sudden. I thought, "maybe someone was just coming to warn us about the weather." I check online and sure enough we're under a flash flood watch, but a watch isn't severe enough to come knocking on our door at 2:30... So I'm terrified. Partly because I thought someone was knocking at my door at 2:30 in the morning. Partly because I'm afraid I'm going to drown because I live in a basement apartment that's apparently known for it's flooding capacity. And partly because I got a SnapChat from Jake reenacting an episode of Wild Boyz that we watched together before we left Logan haha. The scene itself is just weird, they're sacrificing a wallaby to some Tazmanian Devils so they dress up like devil worshippers and stuff.
So I'm so scared that I can't get to sleep. Then I remembered Nephi, and what I had just taught my primary kids about prayer. I prayed that Heavenly Father would stop the storm and give me peace of mind. When I woke up the next morning, the storm was over and looked like it had been for quite a while. I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father.
As we're eating breakfast, I heard the knock again. I jump and go "Kenz! Did you hear that!" and she was like "hear what?"
Yeah. She didn't hear it.
I'm losin it.
I got to start cleaning rooms at the manor today. There's a group of youth in it right now, which would be more cool if they were closer to my age. They all just graduated high school.... Duuhhhmmmmbbb.
But as I'm cleaning, I was standing in the hall by my cart looking for something I needed and this kid goes walking by. I just said "Hi, how are you?" and we kinda started chatting. I said something about how I was just cleaning and how that's as exciting as my life was right then. He goes "Good job!" and I said "Yeah, well, I'm just a professional. So it's whatever." And he goes "Are you cleaning 519?" and I said Yeah, and he goes "Well are you cleaning it tomorrow?" and I said I wasn't sure but probably so he goes "okay! Well I'll be sure to leave you a thank you note!"
This conversation sounds so much more friend-ish than it actually was.
I mean, this kid was flirting with me. Bad.
So I get to his room and, lo and behold, it was NASTY. There was underwear on the floor, clothes everywhere, POOP ON THE TOILET, (Yeah. On the toilet. I don't know how the crap poop got on the outside of this kids toilet) and garbage. I was like "Yeah dude. That's super hot." So we'll see what tomorrow brings for me, ten bucks says he leaves his number.
After wiping poop of his toilet, no thank you. Before, maybe but still probably not.

The rest of the day wasn't too bad. They just had a ton of checkouts at the main hotel so I helped them finish those and got off at about 4:45. We got paid time and a half today! Woo!