What's going on chicka?

 

We got another 20 pound box of apples this week from Uncle Bob. I honestly do not have any idea what to do with all of these apples. If you know anyone in the western Reno Sparks area that needs a ton of apples just let me know. It's a really cool story with Uncle Bob. The city named the street he lives on after him, Robert Quilici. He's been fighting tooth and nail to get it paved so,"his family can come visit him more often". He finally got approval from the city so pretty soon I'm going to be rolling into Verdi and hitting Quilici Street in style. Well actually not because we had to exchange our Rav4 for a piece of garbage. We have a rental car from Enterprise, so whenever something is wrong with our car we have to change it in for something else. Our tire was flat, we turned it in, and now we have a Nissan Rogue that smells like smoke. I'm also really bummed because they offered us a Camaro but the APs said we couldn't get it. I don't even have my driving privileges yet but that would have been so cool. One of my friends from UC, Isaac, had a Camaro and he let me drive it all the time. It feels like you're driving a spaceship. Oh well, I guess it's the smokey Rogue for now. 

We recently had a huge group chat for our whole Mission and for some strange reason this one Elder, Elder Sana, had the bright idea to leave a voice message in the chat.  He said, "What's going on Chica?" in this weird deep voice. Keep in mind, President Dunn is in this chat. I'm not sure what prompted Elder Sana to do this but now whenever I walk into a room I always say, "What's going on chica?" I would love you all to hear it but I'm sure it will get taken off by President. What a legend.

We found the bakery of this guy we are teaching. It's actually right next to our apartment.  It's just kind of a bummer that we are getting kicked out (officially) by the end of the month. When we went into the bakery we were just planning on maybe buying a few things.  But our guy loads us up with a full bag of pastries and loaves of bread. Came in clutch because I ran out of bread this week. They were soooooo good. If you ever come across a Guatemalan bakery. Just saying. 

Not related to the bakery story but Thursday morning I woke with a terrible stomach cramp. Absolutely terrible. Luckily I had some Tums chilling in my bag and those came in CLUTCH. I thought I was dying but literally like 5 minutes later I was completely fine. I'm not really sure why I am writing this here but I just thought you might like to know. Send me more Tums those things smack.

I can't talk about this week without bringing up a service opportunity that I had. We called this lady out of our area book and before we could even say anything she said she needed our help. She had a very thick Polish accent and was pretty new to the ward, but we hadn't seen her at Church. Well we got to a really nice looking house just at the north side of our area near the Temple. We knocked on the door and there was no answer so we looked around for a way in. Out of nowhere a door opens up to the house on the side. Scared the lollipops off of me. We thought this would just be a normal service project, like maybe some yard work. Boy was I wrong! Inside, the house was in shambles. Broken windows, broken lights, tools and screws all over the floor, no furniture save a couple of foam pads (they were sleeping on the floor). Absolute chaos. Oh yeah and rats. She said she needed help with a ceiling fan that had broken lights. I was more concerned with the lack of dish soap and trash cans in the house. Before we knew it, I was trying my hand at being an electrician for the day, also a plumber, and a door installer. In return we were fed with some of the nastiest pizza I've ever earned. When our 2 and a half hours were up I was relieved we could finally go home but no, there's more. We decided it would be best to give a blessing to her and to her father-in-law. The father-in-law is probably 90 years old and is mentally gone. He sat in his wheelchair the whole time and would only grumble in Polish every 5 minutes or so. We gave him a blessing too but it was difficult. Three seconds in and he starts hitting us and screaming, totally out of it. During the blessing I began to feel the Spirit manifest that this man was a child of God. Tears filled my eyes as I fought through his weak punches. Just like how Liberty Jail was a holy place for the Prophet Joseph Smith, this lady's broken house, in that moment, seemed like a sanctuary. I got home and stared at the wall that night just before going to bed just thankful I had a chair and a desk. I'm not living large by any means but I'm not sleeping on the floor with a broken fridge. As much as I resisted it I knew we had to go back. After 3 visits of working, laughing, crying, screaming, screaming and crying, her attitude and countenance began to change. Even the house looks brighter. It turns out she doesn't live there full time (thank goodness) but she was renting it and her tenants absolutely destroyed it. She told us how they didn't wash their clothes and just bought new ones. She said when she first saw it there was an entire upstairs floor just covered with piles if clothes and rags. All the lights were broken. Plumbing was a mess. Rats. Probably more but it was hard to understand with her thick accent. Now we are fixing her driveway. I still get anxiety just thinking about being there but I'm happy to go back. 

Last night we had a member meal that was literally a blessing from Heaven. I was really craving some waffles, and guess what happened?  He decided to make Blueberry waffles. Super clutch. Not to mention some of the best hashbrowns too. He's one of those fathers who doesn't care who you are, you are his honored guest. Reminds me a lot of my future sister-in-law's family. Quality people can be found anywhere. You just need to look.