I hope everyone had a FUN holiday weekend! We definitely had a lot of fun here- I can't wait to tell you all about it!
This week we had lots of cancellations... it seemed like almost every lesson, whether with members or the people we are teaching, every service project, and all our dinners cancelled on us this week! Always disappointing but all is well! Missionary work always tends to be a little difficult around holidays.
We also had our fair share of awkward/weird experiences this week. We have been going down our ward lists with all the names of the member's in each of our wards and calling 2 each day, from each ward. We are just trying to introduce ourselves and share a spiritual message to get them more comfortable with us! Well, we got a little bit ahead of ourselves and didn't check our records of the people we contacted the day before, so we accidentally contacted a lady twice in a row. She answered and we gave her the whole, exact same spiel as the day before, and she very awkwardly told us that we had already called and had an appointment set up for the weekend.. OOPS. We were so embarrassed, hahaha! Rookie mistake.
Another lady that we called from our ward member lists had told us that she actually moved to a different state, so she was no longer in our ward. She then, however, proceeded to call us, text us, and leave us multiple messages over the next couple days, just being absolutely hysterical- sobbing, yelling, and telling us all kinds of craziness. She was definitely not in a healthy or good mindset, and so we had to be firm and remove ourselves from the situation. Kind of crazy!! Nothing like that has ever happened before on my mission.
We got to have such a FUN 4th of July!! We started off the day running a 5K with our district, the sisters we live with, and our Zone Leader! It was SO much fun!! It was put on by the city of Kuna so we got to see and talk with lots of different members and families, and they played music the whole time so we as missionaries got to listen to some "normal" music for a day- which was definitely a blessing, haha! After that, us and that same group that ran the 5K went to a party that a member family was having and had invited us to! It was so fun! We ate lunch, played volleyball and cornhole, talked to people, and had a good time! We then came home and did some regular missionary stuff like studying and reading. We got to talk to our families for a bit, too! Then we went and had a bbq at a member's home and played some cornhole with them. THEN we went with our district to ANOTHER member's home and had ANOTHER cornhole tournament, hung out, and watched fireworks!! President gave us all permission to stay out until 11pm to watch fireworks (since it doesn't get dark here until like 10:30pm for some reason). It was SO much fun! All in all, I am very sore and tired, and am now a pro at playing cornhole.
I hope amide all the barbeques, fireworks, and parties, that you were able to reflect on how incredibly blessed we are to live in this country! This verse, though about the Nephites and their battle against the Lamanites, is relevant to the cause of this country. "...for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church," (Alma 43:45). I am grateful for those that served, and continue to serve, so that we may always have the freedoms that were promised to us so long ago! I am grateful to live in a country that allows for disciples of Jesus Christ to stand tall and preach the gospel, instead of being forced to hide it away. We are very blessed.
Sending all my love from Kuna, Idaho! Talk to you next week :))
Hermana Rawlins
Address:
1742 N Madderlake Ave
Apt. 3
Kuna, ID 83634
Pictures:
1. Our cute little district on 4th of July getting ready to watch fireworks (*side note, Idaho has the prettiest sunsets)
2. Me and Hermana Smith <3
3. Me and Hermana Smith pt 2!
4. Post 5k stretches
5. Me and Hermana Smith pt 3
6. We also had zone conference this week! So we got a cute pic of all the sisters in our zone
7. 5K GROUP WOOOOO (post run)
