What a beautiful day for a bike ride!

Last Monday we had dinner with the Ennis family, and we definitely got lost on the way to their house. 😁 They are super sweet and it was fun. After dinner, we had a phone call lesson with our friend Ron. It was a super confusing lesson, he kept going on tangents, but hopefully he got something out of it. After that we drove back to the apartment and did some social media.

On Tuesday we had our mission-wide Zoom call. My favorite quote from the call was, “That was a duck, and there are more ducks to be found.” President McGinn used the analogy of their children hiding ducks when they came to visit and him searching for ducks to us seeking miracles in the work. After the call we had a lesson with our friend Pam. She is amazing and I am pretty sure I could spend the entire day talking to her… After her lesson we went door knocking. It was a pretty good day of knocking. We handed out two Books of Mormon and got someone's phone number to set up a return appointment, so hopefully they become new friends. That night we had our first STL call of the transfer and they are so sweet.

On Wednesday we started the 12 days of Christmas challenges. We get a social media challenge and a zone challenge to complete everyday until Christmas. The first two were to make a treat for someone and make a Christmas Facebook post. Wednesday we had lunch with the Leezers. They are an older couple in the ward and they are so funny. They told us about their conversion story and it was amazing. We went to leave their house and got stuck behind the Propane truck that came to refill their tank. It was super funny. We had some contacts after that and then we had a lesson with our friend Jackie. I love Jackie. She just really wants to learn the truth and has so many questions.

On Thursday we had interviews with President. We decided to bike to district council, because why not? (It is only 4 miles each way). That was definitely a highlight of the week because I love biking! The McGinns thought it was awesome…little did they know that I have wanted to bike to district council most of my mission and was finally close enough! After District council, we did weekly planning. It definitely does not take as long when you are not teaching that many people. We went door knocking and then had dinner with the Picketts. They are a sweet older couple that told us we should stop by their house anytime we want. Too bad they are 15 miles away!

On Friday we went to visit some people. The challenges for the day were to talk to three people about Christmas traditions and to join three new Facebook groups. We had a super interesting conversation with a grey dot. We set up a lesson with him, so now he is green, but we will see how long that lasts… He is definitely a character :) After that contact we had lunch with the Wagners. They had both us and the Hermanas over and it was so much fun! After lunch they showed us their barn. It was more like a glorified work shop, but it was definitely cool. After that we visited more people and went door knocking. We met a new potential friend named James. He gave us his number to set something and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon. He told us about how he needs to get back to church. We also were supposed to have a lesson with another friend, but she has been super sick so she canceled. After that we had a slower evening of learning our areabook.

On Saturday we did A LOT of door knocking. Sadly we did not find any new friends that day. We also had the ward Christmas party and that was really fun. It is super fun to start getting to know the ward members better.

On Sunday we had ward council and church. At church I am finally starting to put names with faces, so that is nice. In Sacrament meeting the topic was emotional resilience. One of the speakers rode his bike across America last year. In his talk he shared a journal entry he had written on the ride. It starts with him talking about how awful of a day it is for a bike ride, but half way through he flips his view and talks about all the wonderful things that are happening. It ends with the line, "What a beautiful day for a bike ride." I love that thought about the power that our attitude has on the joy we feel. We also went to primary because Sister Flake subbed for the pianist. After that we visited some people and went door knocking. We met a super sweet grey dot and ended up talking to her for a long time. She told us about some of the hard things that have happened in her life. On Sunday night we had our DL call. On the call one of the Elders prayed for protection from the witches. I have so many questions.....

Pictures:

• Biking to DC
• Cute bench in our area
• Nightly Check in Photos
• Christmas tree I made