Sister Applegate: Cockroaches and Lizards and Mice, Oh My!

Hi everyone!

So glad to see the cutest nephew in the world!!! Ha ha, Carter is stinkin' adorable I love him already :) Being an Aunt is a fun role!

Remember how I said living in a trailer was kind of cool and I liked it? Yeah. Not so much anymore. The cockroaches haven't been too big this week but I have killed a good handful. And we were still keeping an eye out for our little mouse friend and I came out of my bathroom into the spare bedroom and I saw something quickly run under the door into the living room where Sister Jeppson was and I was on a chair in a hurry and I yelled to her that I thought I saw the mouse so she jumped on the couch and then was like "Are you lying? I think you're lying." She didn't want to believe it. But then she called to me and told me it wasn't a mouse at all, but a big LIZARD! Oh my gosh. So gross. So we watched it slither/run all over the kitchen (while we stood on our kitchen chairs, haha) and then it went under the dryer and we haven't seen it since. Nor do we want to see it. We're just pretending it did get out of the trailer and we are home free. Ha ha. Free from the lizard. The mouse, not so much.... Stinkin' mouse got all the peanut butter and cheese off our traps and is STILL ALIVE! I hate mice. Then last night, it was totally in our room. Guess who didn't sleep?!? Just kidding we actually slept pretty well. But we were freaked hearing it somewhere close by so we turned on music loud enough to drown out the mouse noise and tried to fall asleep that way. We did not want to get out of bed this morning, that's for sure. Oh the joys of living in a trailer with all of the holes and cracks in the wall... We will be so happy when this mouse is dead. We told President Cottle we're breaking the rule of having no pets because apparently we just keep feeding this mouse cheese and peanut butter and it's just living the life somewhere in our trailer.

Alright so this week, a lot happened. Tuesday we had Zone Conference and it was AMAZING! So worthwhile, we loved it! After all the wonderful trainings we received President Cottle ended and said if he had to choose a title for the Conference it would have been "Why Not Here? Why Not Now?" PERFECT title. We have all these goals and things we want to experience and accomplish on our missions, so, why NOT here and why NOT now?? If you are always waiting for conditions to be perfect or saying things will be so great at this time or in this area or with that companion, you will never be happy or satisfied. We are the doers of the work and we can make miracles happen right HERE and right NOW! Wow, that sounds like a really motivational speech, huh? Ha ha, it was really good though. Got all of us going and even more excited for the work :)

Oh my goodness gracious this weekend was cRaZy! So we've been teaching a man (who I have named but won't name in this email) and his wife a little and we had just started really teaching his cousin. Well the one guy (guy #1) asks a lot of really deep questions that just don't matter right now. One day, we will have the answers to everything but we don't need to know everything at this point in time and he was so concerned with stuff that really didn't matter and didn't pertain to his relationship with Jesus Christ or anything. We were trying to get him to focus on the basics of the gospel, the only things we really need to know. But anyway, his wife chewed us out a couple weeks ago for not inviting her to be baptized, but she doesn't believe in God... now she says she believes in multiple gods, but still...she doesn't believe the same things we do so the Spirit has never prompted us to invite her to be baptized. She was upset and offended, I think because this turned into more of her "husband's thing" and I think she felt left out, which is definitely not what we wanted to happen, but unfortunately it did. But we went to talk to the guy's cousin (guy #2) about meeting separately, just because they are on such different levels and again, all we need right now are the basics. Guy #2 agreed and said that his cousin and all his questions really were confusing and he said he would like to meet separately. So everything should be hunky-dory, right? Wrong. This conversation happened Fridayafternoon and Friday night after we got home we got a call from Guy #1's wife and she was sooo mad. She chewed and cussed us out for "going behind her back and disrespecting her and her husband and family" and said Guy #2 told him everything we said and oh my they must have really misinterpreted if he told the truth... so this lady chewed us out and then said she would be at the Pioneer Day church activity the next night to let us know how offended and upset she was to our faces. She is definitely the type to want to cause a scene and oh man were we nervous. We waited a little bit and then called her husband to apologize to him since she didn't want to hear anything from us and he answered but then his cousin, the one who wanted to be taught and the one we wanted to teach, took the phone and did a 180 from the person we thought he was and he flipped at us too. We have been getting chewed out a lot lately, but man he chewed us out and cussed us out like no other. I don't think I've ever had the F word directed at me so many times... a lot of vulgarity and calling us the devil and stuff. He did not seem like that kind of person so that was a shock to us. After that fiasco we called Brother Cartmell because he and his wife have been teaching these individuals with us and Brother Cartmell couldn't believe it. He told us to stay away and cut off contact and that he and other priesthood leaders would be keeping an eye out for them at the church activity Saturday night. He said if we see them there, get by a priesthood leader quick. Brother Cartmell did text the guy though and tell him to stop doggin' us, that we were young and away from our homes and families and all we were trying to do is share the truth we know. I love the Cartells SO much! They are definitely like our parents here, I feel like they took on the roles of being our mom and dad. They're a huge help and blessing to us every day here. But how much crazier could things get with this situation? The good news is is that they didn't show up to the activitySaturday or to church Sunday. I still think they want to make a scene so I don't feel like we're off the hook yet, but we hopefully won't be seeing them anytime soon. Nothing better happen though, if we have to be part of an emergency transfer and they pull sisters out of this area, I will be soooo mad!

That all happened Friday night, then on Saturday we went to teach another one of our Investigators and for the first time her husband sat in and said he had some questions for us. That's great, we love questions! That is, until they pull out some book they've been reading written by scholars that tries to teach people about our religion. How is it that people can claim to know so much about a religion they aren't even a part of? How about you just ask someone who is a part of it and let them tell you truth? Well anyway, a lot of it was about Joseph Smith and just like every other person who wants to bash with us he wouldn't allow us to teach anything but only threw out false stuff and then proceeded to tell us our religion was built on lies and I think he just found joy in denying everything we believe. Like others though, he said one day we'll all know the truth and if we are right, he'll have to face that fact and us in the next life. Whelp, see you there buddy. The whole time our [former] investigator just sat there. I think she was amused too, she was a little bashful the last time we met with her as well. But yeah. We lost three investigators in less than 24 hours. How about that. The cool thing about missionary work is that even though this week was so down in the dumps, our spirits are still high. It really didn't get us down, we still want to go out and work even harder. We know there are people that are earnestly seeking the truth and we're determined to find them. We lost investigators who were weak and not quite ready so I know Heavenly Father will make up for that with individuals who are ready to be taught.

That was depressing to end on. Ha ha. Don't be down, Sister Jeppson and I are still soooo excited to be here and work in this area, we love it! We'll find great success, I know it. I want to leave y'all with a couple of quotes:

"The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible." -Russell M. Nelson

"God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called."

I am so grateful to be here, and to have the knowledge of the gospel. I will stand true, because I know how important the gospel really is. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer, and I will do everything asked of me to show that I know that to be true. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Romans 1:16

"Never let your faith be difficult to detect." -Elder Oaks or Elder Holland, that came from a talk I read this week.

Have a wonderful week everyone, stay true to the faith! Thank you for your prayers and support, y'all are amazing and I love you.

All my love,

Sister Applegate

Zone Conference! Reunited with Sister Turner, and me and Sister Jeppson

Sister Jeppson and I matched when we walked out on Wednesday, and Sister Piazzi joined our club!

Sister J and I with Brother Elliot. He was like "I hope I'm not breaking any laws by holding your hands!" hahaha. Then he said it was ok, we wouldn't tell anybody :) We just laughed

We tried so hard to get a picture that looked like I was holding Carter, but the phone glared so bad every time! This was the best we could do. Cutest nephew award goes to Mr. Carter! :)

Dinner break in the car... we had just come out of a super long appointment and my back was KILLING me! Weird because we were on a fairly comfy couch, but wow we were both in pain. That position relieved some pain, just needed to get it stretched out I guess!

Oreo pie, thanks mom! It was delicious!

Nasty lizard on the run. It's bigger in person... :)