Cockroaches, Y'all, and a Confrontation

My trailer has cockroaches sometimes. I'm trying really hard to be alright with that and get over it. I still haven't worked up the courage to kill one. I make my companion do it. We will see how I do. If I call you up and tell you I'm coming home, just know it was because of the cockroaches. One was climbing on the ceiling this morning... What if it had fallen onto my face?!? Yeah I don't like cockroaches.

 

Anyway onto more positive things, thanks for the emails everyone!! I was feeling seriously loved this week! Plus hearing about all of you being together was pretty rough. But then I comfort myself with the fact that you obviously all just sat around talking about how much you missed me and I feel better :) And I do like hearing about dance mom. Those girls are still in my heart and I hope they are working hard for you and Courtney. And thanks for the golfing pictures dad. I'm glad you had a good time.

 

I might start using y'all in my emails and I just want to warn you all that you will have to accept that that beautiful word is a part of my life now. In fact, tons of times I find myself thinking my thoughts in a southern accent. And sometimes when I teach and I'm really feeling something, I'm totally using a southern accent. It's pretty weird but I'm embracing it.

 

I met this family the Mallets who have a son, Jeremy Mallet, and he is heading out to serve a mission in St. George June 25th. So I told him to keep an eye out for the name Papenfuss. Haha he said he was pretty sure he'd remember that name.

 

I haven't fallen in any ditches or been bitten by anything this week so it's been a pretty good week! Oh wait, I did get yelled at this week. My companion drives and she was turning around in a neighborhood. When she does that she drives up on people's grass a bit. She said everyone in Louisiana does that. But she didn't quite make the turn and I had to get out to help her back up the car and as I did, there was suddenly this man there yelling at us for not seeing that there was grass there and how rude it was and all that jazz. I just told him that I was so sorry over and over again as I quickly got into the car and we drove away... Probably not my best moment I know. As we visited the house we actually wanted to go see, we could still see him out on his yard watching us which was pretty scary but we just drove away. So anyway we try not to drive on grass anymore. Lesson learned!

 

Other than that we've had a good week just visiting people and trying to teach them something. It's an interesting work trying to share the Gospel. I still don't know if I really have figured it out just yet but I'm trying. Here's a picture of our trailer, a pinapple bush that somebody planted in a tree stump, and my companion Sister Haskell. She's super cool. And she thinks I'm funny so we get along great!

 

I love you all so much!

Sister Kendall Earl

A Trailer, Some Handlebars, and Jambalaya

First story happened while I was still at the MTC. The three sisters I had been staying with all left for New York City mission early Monday morning so I had to sleep in a room with different sisters but I was allowed to keep my stuff in my old room. So after I wake up, I head upstairs to my room, get my makeup bag and start brushing my teeth in the bathroom and then as I go to walk back into my room I realized I had locked myself out... I was so mad at myself for making such a foolish mistake. So then I hurry to go find the sisters I had been sleeping with so that I could get one of them to come to the front desk with me to get a new key. As soon as I entered the stairwell to go to the first floor to find them I remembered that you need your MTC ID card to get through doorways. So then I was trapped inside the stairwell! You can start face palming now or just wait until later... It's all face palm-worthy. Anyway, I had to sit there knocking on doors over and over again until a girl finally opened it, I had to borrow her ID card to open the stairwell I needed, I grabbed one of the sisters whose room I was staying in, returned the ID card I had borrowed, then walked with this sister to the front desk in my pajamas. Luckily it was at 6:40 in the morning so there weren't too many people out and it wasn't cold. So yeah that was a little embarrassing.

Ok now we are officially into Louisiana. I met Elder Smiley! He knew who I was because his mom and told him to look out for me. What a small world, that was pretty cool. 

Next fun story is that I live in a trailer now. Seriously, it's just a trailer. I meant to send a picture, but forgot my camera cord. It's not so bad inside but the flooring is wood panels that someone put over carpet so... Maybe it's a little bad. So I step outside of the car looking at this ugly trailer I'm going to be living in for a while and I look down to see that I've got fire ants covering my feet. Seriously, my first day in the mission and I'm already getting attacked by bugs. That same day we went to Walmart to get me some bedding and I picked up a watch as well because I needed a new one and as we were walking out I realized that I had completely forgotten about the watch! So we had to go back in and pay for that. Yeah my companion must have been shaking her head the whole day wondering how she got paired with me and wondering how she was ever going to train me properly... Haha by the way my companion is super nice and very pretty. I think all the Elders secretly love her and it makes me laugh. No worries I'm acting like my usual standoffish "'m too good for you all" manner to make sure none of them fall in love with me.

Ok next funny story is that we had to ride our bikes one day. They made our bikes for us which was super nice! And my bike was looking so pretty I was actually somewhat looking forward to riding it and having a bit of exercise. I will never think such a foolish thought again. Haha ok riding bikes really wasn't that bad. Or at least looking back on it now it doesn't seem like it was that bad. But my bike ride was really rough because my handlebars hadn't been screwed in properly so they slid around the whole time. It was hard to control it, but I thought it would be fine as long as I held them steady. Well they kept sliding worse and worse no matter what I did, and there are no edges to the road sides here. So I kept going in very crooked paths with cars really close to me so it was actually a little scary. But finally it happened. My handlebars slid out all the way and I lost control of the bike and I fell over into a ditch on the side of the road. It had a little bit of water in it but I didn't get to wet. As soon as it happened, I thought I was going to cry. But a second later I just had to laugh. Of course I would fall into a ditch the first day I try to ride a bike! Haha that is just my luck. God is really trying make me prove that I'm a positive person in all situations... So anyway my companion and I had to walk the rest of the way to our destination, but once we got there they had the tools we needed to fix my bike. After that riding was much easier, although I'm still not very good at it. And I just wore leggings and knotted my my skirt so that it wouldn't get caught in the gears. It worked out alright.

Those are my great stories for the week. Oh we also talked with this older member who said some funny things. At one point he said "I'm humble and proud of it." It's my new favorite quote. And he also was talking about how people go up at testimony meeting and don't really share testimonies and he said "When somebody starts by saying 'I was thinking about what I should say as I got up here' you know it's not a testimony." We also had an odd conversation with a lady who thinks global warming is going to cause another Noah-like flood and how test tube babies is not a new thing and that Zeus and Noah were born or had babies that way they think. I chose not to mention to her that Zeus is fictional... 

Anyway, that's my lovely week in Louisiana. I've only had Jambalaya so far, but it wasn't very good. Other than that I haven't had to eat anything too weird.

I met a Susan Cox who knew dad because she was a patient of his when she lived in Moses Lake! People have all kinds of random connections to Washington. It's pretty fun.

Oh and you can for sure send pictures! I'd love to see the pictures from recital! I'm glad the shows went well at least! I still don't have all the family members emails so you better make sure that happens!

Love,

Sister Kendall Earl

Oh and I forgot to mention some things: 

I'm in Denham Springs and it is smallish. There are only two wards and they meet in the same church building. We work with both wards which can feel like a lot. The church isn't very far away and it's a good building. Average church building I'd say. One ward is very active and strong and the other is the opposite. But both do a lot of work with the missionaries. It's only now that I'm a missionary that I wish I had helped out the missionaries more. My companion is from Payson, Utah and came out right when the age change happened so we're the same age. The mission president is so fantastic and awesome. We get new ones in July so hopefully they're just as good. His wife collects aprons and it's super adorable and now I want to collect aprons too. I stayed in the mission home the first night and that was amazing because I was the only sister, I got my own room, and it is a beautiful house. I loved it! We eat with the members for almost every dinner but other than that we feed ourselves. My companion is good at cooking so she sometimes makes things or we just eat leftovers. We've been out to eat a lot already. My companion loves Canes which is that chicken wings place that we went to once. I hadn't remembered that we'd eaten there but once I saw it I remembered. It's all delicious but my portion control is staying strong so far! Sorry I forget about these little details!