Finally! Men!!

Sunday, after I posted that last one, we went to Sister Smith's house and had dinner. They were having breakfast for dinner, which would make the second time in a row that Kenz has been able to down her favorite dish! Woo! We had dinner with her, her husband, and her daughter and son-in-law. During the prayer, her daughter said "We're thankful that the sisters could be with us today..." And after the prayer her mom goes "You know these aren't sister missionaries, right?" Haha. It was funny. We might as well be.
After dinner we played a game called Dominion. It was kind of a nerdy game, but they were really into it so obviously we were really into it too... Once we got it figured out. At first I felt like being like "uhh... So you guys have like, Phase 10 or Uno or something?" But I stopped myself, realized I was in someone else's home in another part of the country, so I might as well experience something new instead of sticking to the same old.
This family was awesome. It sounds like they've had some hardships in their lives! But they're so positive and they all love each other so much! Sister Smith is in a wheelchair (I think she got paralyzed?) and Brother Smith just had brain surgery like two weeks ago. They don't even act like it's a bother at all. And they call each other babe, baby, sweetie, all this cute stuff. They were really a huge example to me. All the members of our ward have been. They are all very... quirky. I guess would be a good word. But, at the same time, I have never met a more honest, humble, and selfless group of people in my life.

Monday night, I really started to respect my manager. She needed our help getting things ready for an EFY group that is coming in this week so we all stayed like an hour late to help. One kid kept complaining, and once it hit 4:30 he was all "Alright! 4:30 time to get out of here!" And the manager heard him say it. So she comes out of one of the rooms and is like "Who said that?" And we all point to him cause he was making us so mad. She chews him OUT. Haha it was hilarious! Take that, sucker!! That night,  one of my friends from high school and her friend came to stay with us. It was so exciting! We hauled some rollaway beds over, cleaned up our apartment, and waited patiently for our guests to arrive. The next day, we were able to get off at lunch and spend the rest of the day with them. We went to a bunch of the sites and had a blast, Marlayna and her friend Marissa were awesome. They're hilarious, and so much fun to be around. That night, we went to Sunset by the Mississippi and Vocal Point. I also met up with Jake and his family, and... Eh. You all know how that went down.

That night, we went to Annie's with his family for custard. Before we got sat down, the owner asked if we had found any bikes yet. We said that we hadn't yet, and that we were still looking. She told us that she had two of them available; a white one and a red one! And that we could come and pick them up whenever to borrow them. When we got there Wednesday night though, the white bike was not as pretty and Helen did say that the tire had to be replaced on it. Right after, another one called us saying that they had one we could use. We went out to look at it, and it turned out to also be red with a basket on it! So it was kind of meant to be. We took a quick ride around town on them, both of us shouting and flying down hills and laughing and.... Just being excited. I wish I could capture the emotion of that hour or so. Like, if you took a picture and it replayed the memory like a video in your head. I was so completely content in that moment. In that moment, life was perfect.

The next day, Thursday, we got off at like 11:30 and we were able to go on a real bike ride around town. We were attempting to find lake Horton via backroads, but we ended up at this beautiful little creek right outside of town instead. How we got there, I don't know... We were just riding along and then all of a sudden Kenzie veers to the right and starts flying down the hill saying "Kaitie there's a CREEK!" Anyways, we followed the creek for a while upstream. It had a few waterfalls, one really big one and a couple smaller ones. There was one point where we were just surrounded by green on all sides. This was another one of those "If I could capture everything" moments. It was such a joyful, peaceful, contentful, and humbling moment.

Friday we got off early again, but not as early as we had been. However, Kenz didn't have to work front desk that night so we went to Vocal Point! Again! This time, we got up closer to the front and we were sitting on the edge. Towards the end of their performance, they did a song that they invited everyone to get up and dance to. Obviously, being the insecure human beings that we are, we didn't dare move. Then a few girls got up and kind of started dancing, and the guys were like "come on! Everyone get up!" so some more people got up and I yanked Kenz up there and we started dancing. Vocal point came out into the audience and the one that I had casually "dibs"ed as my husband came and started dancing with me haha. After the show, I was walking past him and told him that he did really well and he was like "Thanks... Oh wait! You're the girls that I danced with huh!" and we stopped and talked to him for a bit. Seems like a pretty nice kid!

So Saturday we went to Lake Horton and sat on the dock. We were there for like, an hour and a half? I AM FRIED. It takes me like a whole day to get this burnt at home! What in the world, Nauvoo! It almost scares me, like I legitimately believe I might get skin cancer just from that one sitting. Kenzie had to work at the front desk at 3 (I know it sounds like I never do that, but really I do.) so I was unproductive. Well, I kind of tidied up. I skyped Kam for a bit. Talked to Mary, and her sister Hannah, and while I was talking to Hannah Kenzie messaged me on facebook and said she needed my help at the front desk for a second. I thought I'd be there like, fifteen minutes, so I just kept my hair in the french braid it was in and went in looking the way I did. After she cleaned the room that wasn't clean for a guest to check into (ugh), I was talking to Mike the maintenance guy and it started getting really busy again. After that wave got done, we had like five minutes and then all the counselors for the EFY that's coming in this week came to check in. So we were pretty busy with that, with there being only two of us and apparently the hotel hadn't planned on that many counselors coming so a good three-fourths of the keys weren't even made. THEN. As I'm checking all these people in, in walks a guy that was in one of my classes last semester. I had a HUGE crush on this guy and I hoped like every day that he would notice my existence and sit by me and talk to me but he never did. But, me being the creep I am, after he told me his name I was like "Okay. Uh, did you go to Utah State?" and he was kind of like "Uh, yeah..." and I'm realizing that that sentence came out of my mouth and I was trying to smooth it over with a "You look vaguely familiar, did we have a class together?" instead of saying whatever my head was thinking. Anyways, he seemed pretty cool with it. I was like "I think you were in one of my classes last semester." and he goes "Really? Which one?" And I was like "I don't know... I had like Physics 1200, FCHD-" And he's like "YEAH! I was in two FCHD classes! Were you in 1500 or 2400?" and I said I was in 2400 and he was like "Yeah cool! Wow, that's way cool that you recognized me! You have such a good memory, how weird is it that we had a class together and now we're randomly at Nauvoo together? Weird!" But I kind of stopped paying attention at that point and shooed him away because there was a gigantor line of people behind him waiting to be checked in and I'm just drooling over their co-counselor. I was way excited, except I felt like I looked like crap cause I hadn't showered all day and I was sure my makeup was running and I look like a baldie cause my hair is french braided back. So I was a little discouraged about that, and then a couple hours later my manager came in and was like "Wow, you look really pretty!" So I felt a lot better about that.

Today was amazing. There were so many good things about it! First of all, Kenz and I got to church and sat on the metal chairs at the front of the gym, back of the overflow. After a while, a girl came up and sat next to me and started talking to me. I asked if she was a counselor and she was like "yeah!" and I was like "Oh! I'm one of the girls that was at the front desk last night." She totally thought we were just some more counselors. She was way nice though. Then, that kid came and sat in the row in front of us but a few seats down. After sacrament meeting the guy sitting next to him turned around to us, introduced himself, and was like "Man you girls could fit right in! Might as well come over and help us out!" And I was like "Yeah! Just get us some red shirts and we'll be over as soon as we're off work!" Just joking around, and then that kid from USU turns around and is like "Hey! So good to see you again! You better be coming back to Utah State next year, now that we know each other we have to hang out!" And I was like "uhhh.... I don't know if I'm coming back yet..." Which, yeah it's a lie, but I want SOME chance of getting his number. Anyways. He was like "Well why not?! You have to come back! We need to hang out!" And started accusing me of betraying USU and I was like "Whoa whoa! If I leave, it's because I'm going on a mission! I would never transfer from USU!!" And him and another guy who is also going to Utah State were like "Ohh. Well if you're going on a mission then that's okay." But it was kind of funny cause then there were like three other guys after the really cute one that were like "Oh hi, I'm ______ what's your name?" Proooobably just cause they knew we were available. I don't think they can hit on the co-counselors.

Later that afternoon, there was a huge broadcast on missionary work by the first presidency. It was amazing! I cried like nine times! It's just so overwhelming to realize that the Lord has something so great in store for me in a few months. I'm really very excited to get out there and teach the gospel!

After that broadcast, Vocal Point did a big devotional. Which was also amazing. They said at the beginning "I know you're not here to see Vocal Point, you're here to be fed by the spirit." And I realized that they were right. I showed up that afternoon, not just to see Vocal Point and be able to talk to them, but to hear something that I felt like I needed to hear. And I did!
Earlier that very same day I had been scared about missionary work. This is a year and a half commitment! I'm putting my friends, family, and education on hold so that I can go live some place I don't know with people I've never met all by myself. It's scary! Plus, what if I'm not a good missionary? What if I do more damage than good, or what if I do nothing at all? What if I just "hide my light under a bushel" instead of "displaying it on a candlestick"? I was so overwhelmed with these fears during the broadcast. I couldn't shake it, this mission thing is kind of a big deal. But during the Vocal Point devotional, they said a lot of things and sang a lot of songs that really touched my heart and made me recommitted to going.
First of all, I'm pretty sure the theme of my mission is going to be a line from Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

"Here's my heart; oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above."

I really want this time of my life - and every time of my life, really - to be dedicated to the Lord and His work. Because lately, I've been gaining a testimony of just how important this work is. I even think about Christ, and I become so overwhelmed with Heavenly Father's love and His plan that He has for us. I can't even express how I feel about the importance of the Gospel, there's just no overstating how paramount it is. I've said "it's a big deal" three different ways now and I STILL don't feel like I have sufficiently expressed my point.

Second, and somewhat along the lines, my time is RIGHT NOW. It is no coincidence that the age was changed when it did. One of the guys was talking about how at the MTC they sing Army of Helamen, but they change the words to "We ARE NOW the Lord's missionaries to bring the world his truth" instead of "we WILL BE." How amazing is that! It's my time to get out there and Heavenly Father has given me that opportunity.

Finally, and the best part, the last speaker talked about how sometimes we get amazing opportunities that we may feel weird doing or we feel like we're not doing well at. He likened it to getting fitted for a tux that everyone has to wear to this amazing thing they're going to. Mind you, this guy is like 6'10" so he probably has a lot of issues when it comes to clothing. He's like "And every measurement they take they're like, 'ohh...' 'uhh...' 'eeeehhh...' and then you come out of there with the sleeves too short, the bust too wide because they had to try and make the sleeves fit, and then you're wearing different pants than everyone else's... And you start comparing. Because 'wow. I look so dumb in this, and that guy looks amazing, and that suit fits him perfectly, and that other guy looks BETTER oh no...'" He then said "You've forgotten something though. You're at this amazing occasion! You're dressed to be there! You were invited to come and you're so busy comparing yourself to others that you forgot you're at this party!" He said that it doesn't matter how the suit fits, as long as we're wearing it. Likewise, it doesn't matter if you don't feel completely comfortable being a missionary. You're there. You're serving the Lord. And, most likely, the people around you are looking at you and saying "Man, that skirt looks perfect on her... Why doesn't mine fit like that..." or "Jeez, she's such a good missionary. I wish I could talk to people as easily as she does" And I'm looking back at that missionary like "Dang, she is so perceptive. How is she so perceptive to those members and investigators and everything that everyone ever needs?"
Do you get my point yet?
I'll be fine out on a mission. I'm representing my Savior in a good cause and in a good way with His name pinned to my chest.
I'll be okay.