My Birthday!!

Happy 21st Birthday!

This week was a pretty good one!  It is funny, I am almost at my 5 month mark and now I am starting to feel the days going by faster.  The days are still pretty long, and we work hard.  But when it comes to 9pm at night and we are planning for the next day I find myself thinking, 'Wow, it is already bed time again.'  So in that regard, time seems to be going more quickly.  However, I think the mission has made me less of a morning person.  Because every time my alarm goes off, my heart sinks, I get a pit in my stomach, and I cover my eyes so the light doesn't blind me when Sister Jones turns the lamp on.  I have caught myself giving an audible groan as I hit my alarm (to turn it off of course.)  But after our workout, breakfast, and study time, I find myself saying I like waking up early because I've already done a ton and it is only 10:15.  Haha.  

So last Monday I was able to get my hair trimmed!  There is a young wife in our ward who is a cosmetologist, so she offered to feed us dinner then do our hair.  I was super excited.  Well, that 'trim' turned into a hair-CUT.  She straightened my hair for me afterwards so I didn't really notice the length until I showered and wore it natural.  Oh my, It is just under my shoulders.  I think it was this short in 5th grade when I cut all my hair off!  I cried a little..haha.  I am just telling myself it is healthy and easier to take care of as a busy missionary.  Pray for me that it grows!

Tuesday we had Zone Conference.  The President and his wife came and instructed us as well as our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders.  MY companion and I were in charge of making some role plays, demonstrating them, and then having the Zone do them.  It was fine, but we were both nervous- especially with our Mission President being there! 

Mission President's Wife ~ Sister Bernhisel

Wednesday morning when our alarm went off Sister Jones asked me if it was 6:30.  She has been doing this every day, haha.  I think we both have hopes it is going off early so we can hit the snooze and get some more sleep.  Sadly it is never the case. Today was also the day that we were supposed to go out on exchanges with two ladies in our Relief Society, but they CANCELLED.  Both of them.  When we go out with members it really helps because it saves our miles on the car.  But we have enough for this month so we drove around and visited people ourselves.  We saw all the young wives this day, all 19-21 years old.

The Young Marine Wives

They have to stay home all day because their husbands are at work and they only have 1 car.  (It is actually really boring sounding.)  But we went over to see them at the perfect time!  The first girl is pregnant and is my age, and we were able to help her clean her whole kitchen, and cut out letters for her son's nursery.  The second girl had been having a hard day and was feeling really lonely, so when we showed up she got really excited and thanked us for coming to see her.  She never comes to church because her husband is a non-member and she has been struggling with her testimony her whole life.  It makes me so grateful for my testimony and being able to learn more and grow every day.  The next girl we saw had JUST gotten back from dropping off her husband at the air port.  He is going to Japan for a deployment and will be gone for 9-12 months.  She cried a little bit to us and said it was a tender mercy we stopped by because she really didn't want to be alone.  So I know that even though our previous plans fell through (all of them) we were supposed to go and see those sweet girls and be there for them.  The Lord knows best!

That night ended up being so good though!  We taught the Elisara family, who are friends with someone in the ward and are interested in the church.  We had taught them the restoration, and were going to teach them the Plan of Salvation.  We had the usual amazing Samoan meal, and then had our lesson.  We were given some laminated visual aids to use, that made it so much easier to teach because it kept it simple, and understandable.  They loved it and had so many questions about the Celestial Kingdom.  After we were done, the father said he wanted to be with his family forever and didn't want to do anything to ruin that.  They are SO ready for this gospel and asked us to keep teaching them every week and that they would feed us dinner beforehand.  They are so amazing.  I have only been with them twice, but I already love them so much.  Christlike love and charity is a real thing!  I didn't think I would be able to break those thick walls down that I had put up because of previous heart break, but when you rely on the Savior and allow His enabling power to influence your life, you truly can be healed and changed.  

Thursday morning....oh boy.  That morning was SO thrown off for us!  Both the alarm clock and the phone didn't go off!  So at 7:15 I woke up to my companion flying out of bed and saying, "Sister Golden! It's 7:15!!!"  I responded in a weird way- I was still pretty groggy and tired, and I ended up laughing after she said that.  I thought it was the funniest thing that she called me Sister Golden and not Mallory. Because that is what I was so used to.  Anyways, we got up and got ready and didn't get to work out that day.  BUMMER.  That day was kind of just a haze for us, but that's fine.  That night when we were going over to see our investigator Gabby, at like 8pm, Sister Jones was craving pizza really bad and stopped at Michaelangelo's and got a thin crust, HUGE slice of pizza!  It was as big as her head.  Oh the missionary life.

Saturday was my BIRTHDAY!  The big 21.  Wow, I feel so old!  No, not really ;)

I got some packages, letters, cards and candies from family, friends, and loved ones:)  YAY <3

My companion sang me happy birthday and made me a protein shake (we are so weird...).  

We got some amazing news right after study time.  The Mission president sent out a voicemail to all the Zones announcing that Elder D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON would be coming to speak to our mission February 20th!  Sister Jones and I were jumping around the room screaming and laughing!  We are SO excited!!!

That afternoon was spent visiting less actives on our ward roster (like usual) and going on an exchange with a few ladies in the ward.  That night we went to Sister Abasta's for dinner and she made us fish and veggies because she remembered me saying I loved seafood!  How sweet is that?!  Then she gave me a little present and card that ended up being a watch!  One that I can work out in!  It was something I have actually been wanting, so she was happy when she saw how happy I was:) It was the perfect gift.  Instead of going to go and visit the family we had an appointment with, we randomly showed up to the Frozen Yogurt place.  I was so confused, but they made me go inside.  There were about 5 of my favorite families in the ward that were there along with the young wives that I'm friends with!  They all planned to surprise me and have a little party at the Forzen Yogurt place since I love that stuff.  It was so sweet of them!  It made my day:)

I hope you are doing well and know how much I love you and miss you!  Thank you for everything you have done for me:)

Have such a good week!  Love you so much <3

Sister Mallory Golden