Pumpkins and Pain!

What an insane week! Monday we hung around with the other missionaries and played soccer! But it was intense... and there were a few injuries... including one that left Sister Blake with a dead leg, so I got to drive this week. Don't worry, she's better now!

On Tuesday, it was my halfway mark! We didn't really do much though... we did go see Ricky! He's great. He is working on quitting smoking! We taught the plan of salvation, and he told us he was going to propose to his girlfriend so that they could be together forever! It was way cool!

On Wednesday, we did a blitz! So, the STLs, Sister Harmon and Hermana Davis, and our zone leaders, Elder Rivera and Elder Barney! It was so fun. We did it in the Morton area... So the Elders were in Washington, Sisters Blake and Harmon were in Morton, and Hermana Davis and I were in East Peoria! And we each found someone... We found Yvy! She is super cute. said if she were going to join any church, it'd be ours! And she was super excited to read the Book of Mormon!

The other sisters found Katelyn, who literally already lives by all of ours standards, and really wants a good church that teaches the things of God! Whelp, here we are!

And the Elders found Cheyenne! We have yet to meet her, but they said she was totally solid and awesome!

Then, the best day of every transfer... ZONE CONFERENCE! We woke up super early and drove the 2 hours to Davenport, but it was worth it!

Selfie with President badger XD

it was a fun meeting! Afterwards, we went to lunch with the zone at Red Robin, and Elder Wood and Elder Schoenfeld (The APs) joined in!

And took some zone pictures! Having the nicest phone of the sisters, my phone was chosen as tribute... And therefore was at the mercy of the APs... #moreselfies !

Then we drove home, and got back at about 9:45, and went to bed!

On Friday, we had our favorite... WEEKLY PLANNING! We also were supposed to have a lesson, and on our way there, we saw a guy sitting on his porch, smoking. We felt like we should stop, so we did! His name is Will, and he was currently in the process of deciding whether God exists. Definitely a miracle! We talked to him for about an hour, and we are planning on going back this week! Sadly though, because we had talked with him for so long, our appointment got cancelled. But, we will see her again, and we got to meet Will :)

On Saturday, it was... THE PUMPKIN FESTIVAL! actually, it was Wednesday through Saturday, but we didn't go until Saturday, where we volunteered to work the grill! It was so fun!

We even got pumpkin flavored ice cream as a treat! Sadly, here is the pain part... For anyone who knows me, I burn REALLY easy! But, I hadn't gotten burned yet this summer! Well, that changed...

I guess I should have worn sunscreen. I'm still super burned! It is super funny though.

On Sunday, we went to church! And Barb came! It was awesome and she loved it! She is still planning on being baptized on January 12th, which is awesome! But that is most of the fun things that happened this week! And this transfer has just flown on by... This is my last full week with Sister Blake! It's crazy! I'm going to miss her!

Rain Rain and more Rain!

What a week! This transfer has just seemed to fly by! And the mission! My halfway mark is TOMORROW!! Insane! I feel like I am still brand new!

So, on Tuesday after emailing, we went on exchanges with our lovely STLs, Hermana Davis and Sister Harmon! And, I told y'all before that Morton is the pumpkin capital of the nation... So I finally got some pictures to prove it! Here is a pumpkin field!

I was with Sister Harmon, and we spent most of our day in East Peoria. We got to see Ricky, who is doing great! He missed church on Sunday, but he loves meeting with us and learning more! 

On Wednesday, we had district council! And then we had a fun potluck lunch afterwards and ate french toast, which was fantastic! Then, Sister Blake and I went knocking, and suddenly, IT HIT! It as in a giant rainstorm that ended up continuing to Saturday! We had just knocked on a door when a tiny sprinkle went to full on downpour. So, we talked to the girl in the pouring rain, gave her a Book of Mormon, and ran with all our might back to the car to get an umbrella. But, there was none, and we were already soaked, so we just continued finding. We ran into Angie, who was trying to run inside with her 2 month old baby and 8 year old daughter, so we helped them out and now they are potentials! Super excited to continue working with them.

On Thursday, we got colds XD Obviously. But, we had appointments, so we went out anyway! And we saw Ricky again, which was awesome! And he set his own date for October 27th! He is SOO done smoking, and is getting help from his doctor to quit along with us! We also went and saw a couple more families before going to dinner with a lovely family! They have the cutest family! Then, we decided to go tracting again and found John! He was taught previously by missionaries, and has no true interest in converting, but he has questions, and we have answers! So we will continue meeting with him!

On Friday, we stopped by Angie again, but her baby was sick so we had to reschedule... And it was still raining, but this time we had an umbrella, so we took some funny pics!

AKA I couldn't do a normal face XD  And then went tracting again and found Steve! He was so funny. He said he never talks to 'you Mormon people', but he had recently gotten into a fight with his old pastor because he didn't believe that Jesus Christ would only see the Jews, when there were so many other people in the world! And, well, we knew the answer to that! 

Then we did some weekly planning!

On Saturday, our colds took over our lives. We legit couldn't move cuz weakness... So we stayed in. 

On Sunday, no one came to church :( It happens sometimes. But we had fun talking to people and we taught a last minute lesson on missionary work, which turned out pretty good! And we went to the Face to Face Broadcast from Nauvoo, which was also awesome! Then we went home and sat on top of our car and star gazed!

And kinda fell asleep! But over all, a fantastic week doing the fantastic work of the Lord!

Hog Capital of the World!

Man, it feels weird to email on Tuesday! But yesterday was labor day, so libraries were closed, and last time I emailed from my phone it didn't go to well... LOL! But here is our adventurous week...

So on Monday, we were dead out of miles! So, we were unable to go hang with the other missionaries in Peoria... :/ instead, we slept! Basically all day. It was awesome!

On Tuesday, we spent most of our day in Washington, Illinois, visiting members and trying to find people. We met Nani, the granddaughter of a member! She was so cute! It's times like those that I am really bitter that we cannot hold children!

On Wednesday, we went to Morton! Also did some finding there! And we had a lesson with Paul! Paul is awesome! We arranged to meet at the church, and then had a couple of youth come. We were visiting with someone, when we realized that we were late! So, we rushed to the church, and found that our trusty youth were already talking to Paul, and they are now best buds! Then, we taught a lesson that totally and completely had the Spirit in it! He is still trying to convince his parents to let him be baptized, but he accepted the date of October 20th to work towards! He is just the most solid person on the planet!

On Thursday, we had the most looked forward to day of the transfer... INTERVIEWS! And the Peoria zone is so big, that we started at 8 in the morning, and we didn't get home till about 7 that night! It was a long day, but it was fun! Afterwards, our District went out to lunch, so that was a blast!

Starting from the left, Elders Butler, Blau, Rivera, Hermana Davis, me, and Elder Meador. Other side, Elders Keller and Lamborn, Sister Harmon, Sister Blake, and Elders Barney and Shields.

On Friday, we filled the day with weekly planning! And we had to go to Peoria for something, so that was fun! After we got home, we decided that we are going to go a different direction from most missionaries in our mission... We have something called the 'Iowa 40'. Basically, it is our mission's average weight gain. So, we decided to LOSE weight this transfer! Starting yesterday! So, we had to get rid of all the junk food in our house! And we also wanted 'before and after' pictures like they do on TV and social media.

It ended up turning into a wacky photo shoot!

On Saturday, we went and saw Ricky! We talked about trusting God, and we felt like we needed to just be super blunt with him. So, we told him that he needed to stop smoking. He was kind of on the fence at first, and we were like 'it ruins your lungs! Why are you doing this to yourself! And it makes you apartment smell!' He was like, really? And then he was like, oh yeah, I need to quit! So that's awesome! Then we went to Meagan and Rusty's! They are other people we are teaching. We helped Meagan clean out her closet! We got pictures with their giant dog! He is bigger than us LOL!

On Sunday, we went and visited people. Nothing all too exciting LOL! We got a couple potentials who we are excited about tho!

And yesterday was a party! So, Kewanee, IL is the hog capital of the nation! So they have a carnival called Hog Days! So, our zone drove there yesterday and had a party! I went with a couple other missionaries to play games while everyone else went to go get food. And I am now the proud owner of a stuffed giraffe and a purple ninja! And we got some pictures!

me and Sister Butcher! Got some pics by this handsome guy with my giraffe and her unicorn!

Our little piggy zone!!

Pretend this says something creative...

So, I am loving Morton so far! Illinois is a crazy adventure!

So, on Monday we went to Peoria to hang with our zone! We played some basketball and volleyball, which is always great! We woke up on Tuesday super sore though LOL!

So, the Peoria Stake was once part of the Illinois Chicago West Mission. But, in July that mission got dissolved and Peoria was put into the Iowa Des Moines Mission, along with 26 missionaries. So, over the last few months of knowing these people, it has become obvious that some rules and ways of seeing things are really different... For example, knocking. Being raised Iowan, we are taught the sketchier the better! Those are the people that are going to be the most humble. Apartments, trailer parks, sketchy neighborhoods, etc were my mission childhood! The thought process of the Illinois folk was quite different... Sketchy=BAD! The nicer the neighborhood, the better! So, on Tuesday Sister Blake and I took advantage of this and we knocked some pretty sketchy places! 

First, we met Jamie! She is awesome! She didn't seem all too interested at first, but then we noticed that she had a lot of awards hanging on the wall! So, we talked about horses for a while, and then she was all for talking about Jesus!

Next we met Lindsey! Her and her husband just moved to Morton, and they are looking for a church! And we have a church! So we will see where that one goes...

Then we met Sarah. She is cute! Right now, she is good in her own church, but she is willing and happy to talk about ours!

And Ricky! Ricky looked into the church before, but ended up deciding that it wasn't for him because we don't believe in doing drugs and smoking... But, after missionaries stopped coming, and he stopped going to church and reading the Book of Mormon, he noticed that he no longer had peace. Then, he moved. And he was thinking about us one day when he got home, and he noticed a paper on the ground... We had left it, and it had our phone number on it. So, he texted us! We came over and talked about God and Jesus Christ, and he is clean from drugs and trying to get rid of smoking and wants to enter the waters of baptism and I AM SO EXCITED! 

Then, another miracle! Our dinner cancelled, but we were like, that's okay! More knocking and finding! And then, Bishop Mehr texted... And invited us over! Perfect timing. And their family is so cute and we talked about missionary work. So that was a great day!

On Wednesday, We went and stopped by a potential named Grandma Jean. She is so cute! We were talking for about 30 minutes when her granddaughter and her partner came with their dog. So, we had a party talking and getting to know them while a super happy puppy jumped all over us and covered us in dog slobber! We were there for a while, but that's okay. They were awesome people :) Then we went and visited a part member family! Talked about life with her as well, and made a best friend! That is always the best! 

On Thursday we... Accidentally slept in LOL! It had been an insane week and we slept through the alarm until about 9am... So that was crazy! We hurried and got ready and ran to District Council! Always love being with other missionaries! It is when you feel the most normal... Then, we went to stop by the most SOLID referral on the planet! His name is Paul and he is 16. And he is awesome! He investigated the church a while back, but stuff happened and he ended up going through a lot of health problems... So, he picked up his Bible and read. And then he read the Book of Mormon and took Moroni's advice to pray about it... So he did! And received the answer from God that it is true! And so he went on LDS.org and did a lot of research and all that. He wants to get baptized, but his parents want him to wait until he is 18. And, he is working right now and saving money to go on a mission! Because, on Monday he fasted and prayed! And he felt like God was telling him to share the Gospel! This kid is awesome!!

On Friday we did... WEEKLY PLANNING! Love that stuff... LOL we ended up getting off topic, and talked about all the places we want to serve in Iowa! We decided that Davenport, Iowa City, and Des Moines are the most poppin places to serve. Hopefully soon!

After that, we went to Eureka! We stopped by an awesome part member family who is obsessed with... Legos. Lol. It was INSANE in their house. Then we went back home and ate some pizza!

On Saturday, we had a LOT planned! But, we walked out the door, and noticed that our neighbor's car trunk was open! So we decided to go see how she is doing because she is the cutest member who does so much for missionaries! For instance, she has a freezer outside full of pizza and pies and frozen food that she gets just for the missionaries! So we went to say hi, and we were there for about two hours! She is cleaning out her house, and noticed that she had sooo much stuff that she didn't need! So we left with new water bottles, a brand new skillet (she had like 3, and was planning on giving them to good will) an uno card game, lots of crackers, cheese to go with the crackers, gatorade, and even matching blankets LOL! They are orange and black that she made for us, because fun fact, Morton is the pumpkin capital of the world. There's a huge festival next week!

then we went out and tried to see some formers and potentials, but not many people were home! Someone who was tho, was Megan. We are teaching their family. We had a bean boozled game sitting in our car, and Austin, one of her kids saw it. So, we played that. It was disgusting. A few people started throwing up LOL! Quite funny!

Then we went and street contacted by the Illinois river

We met a lot of potentials! But no one super solid yet! Then, we went home because Sister Blake was feeling a bit queesy..

On Sunday, it was awesome! We are teaching someone named Barb! She is the cutest old grandma! Sadly though, we think she has dementia! So, we are just reading the Book of Mormon with her and not pushing towards baptism. She wants to be baptized on January 12th tho, so stay tuned! Anyway, she came to church! it was awesome :) Then we had a linger longer, and we went and visited some of the older ladies in the ward :) They are also so cute! 

Someone we found that is really looking promising! ;)

We had a PARTY!

August 13, 2018 

So, this was my last full week with Sister Dalton! I'm devastated, really! Even though we just met 3 months ago, we have become like best friends and it feels like I have known her forever! It'll be hard to say goodbye... Transfers are on Thursday, and we find out where we are going tomorrow! So exciting! I think I will be leaving Story Street and either going to North Liberty to be with Sister Butcher, or going to Kewanee, Illinois to be with Sister Syverson! Y'all have no idea who are the, but they are awesome. My hints this time were...

-Former U of U Rugby coach (Anyone a U of U rugby fan?)

-topsider (Anyone know what this is LOL!)

But I am certain that I will be going to the Iowa City side of the mission because I am halfway through, and haven't left the Des Moines area! Wow!

Anyway, this week! On Monday, our fears were confirmed... WE HAVE BED BUGS! Again! Yay! So we spent most of our p-day washing all of our laundry and spraying down our apartment and all that fun stuff, and we have been camping out in the living room! How fun!

On Tuesday we went to DES MOINES!! We love Des Moines. We stopped at the mission office to grab some supplies, and then went to the dentist for stuff, and then we hit a small town called Gilbert on our way home. We went to stop by a potential from years ago, but turns out he had moved... So we met Jeff! He's cool, and we will be seeing him again today!

Wednesday was an uber full day LOL! We went and did service for an awesome Part member family. We helped them clean their basement and shovel their garbage pile, which was gross, but we had loads of fun! We ended up being there for about 3 hours, so they went and bought us lunch too! Then we went home and showered, because hygiene, and then we went tracting, where we met the adorable Joanna and William! They are super cute! And we will be teaching them some more as well! Then, the fun part... Let me fan girl a bit LOL!! B IS ADORABLE!!! We love her so much! We went and talked to her and now we are basically best friends and she offered to feed us dinner on Friday. And then we invited her to p-day on Wednesday, and we really hope she comes because she is the BOMB.COM!!!

 Anyway, then we went to our lesson with Mike! He has been sick for the last few weeks, but is finally feeling better! So we talked about prophets, because we love prophets, and he told us that he is too old to convert to any religion, so he doesn't want to be baptized... But, we are still going to go see him because that is no excuse cuz he isn't even that old! And he is finally going to be able to go on his trip to Utah, where he is going to TEMPLE SQUARE!! And then he will feel the Spirit like a ton and then come back and beg us to be baptized! That is the hope anyway LOL!

On Thursday we had our last district council, which is sad. It's always hard to say goodbye to friends! We don't know who is leaving yet tho, so yeah LOL!

On Friday we were also pretty busy! We did service at a couple of places, and then went to out dinner with B! We had tacos, and shotgunned sprite! (Video on Facebook LOL!)  And had a party! We absolutely love her!

On Saturday, we noticed that Sister Dalton's bed bug bites were getting really swollen, which doesn't usually happen, so we went...

Back to the Urgent Care!

And we got that taken care of! Then we went and helped our branch president move, which was super sad! Lots of people are moving out, and no one is moving in.

Us with B!

Goodbye Iowa, Hello Illinois!

Hey hey hey! Happy Monday to everyone! This week was insane!

On Monday, Sister Dalton and I went back down to Gilbert to visit Jeff! It is always scary to go to the second appointment, because you still don't know the people... But he was waiting for us! Was even starting to get concerned because we were five minutes late LOL! And we had an awesome lesson with him. We talked about receiving personal revelation through the Book of Mormon, and later that night, he messaged us... He was reading, then he prayed, and HE GOT AN ANSWER Y'ALL!!! We are so excited for him!

Then, Tuesday. Transfer Doctrine day... So, we anxiously waited until about noon for our call... Sister Dalton was the lucky duck who stayed in Story City, and she got a sister named Sister Burnham. And I am now in Morton, Illinois with the lovely Sister Blake! She is so cute! The rest of Tuesday was spent saying goodbye to all the lovely people of Story City.

Because the midwest can't say 'speed bump'... We be more classy LOL!

Brother Swalla! The Swallas are the best! It was his birthday on Monday, and then Sister Dalton's on Wednesday, so we had some cake and ice cream :)

Grayson! He is the adorable 4 year old of our branch mission leader. 

Then on Wednesday we had super p-day! And B came to that, which was awesome! And she brought her 2 year old, Michael. He kept trying to sit in my lap, which isn't allowed, sadly! In the pic, he is sitting in front of me LOL! best we could get haha!

And then we made t-shirts that say how awkward we are! They were so funny... Then to make the picture more awkward, we stayed straight faced LOL!

Elder Meneses found all the extra party hats... LOL!

Last picture with Sister Dalton!!

On Thursday we woke up at 5:30, nice and early, and we got on the road at 6 and drove to Des Moines. Got there at about 7:15, and talked to people until probs about 8. Then, the sister in charge of driving the transfer van forgot her TIWI card! And crazy enough, I was the next oldest sister heading to Iowa City. That's so weird cuz I still feel brand new LOL! So, I got to drive this huge van for about 3 hours to Iowa City, where I saw my most favorite person ever, Sister Short!! It was so busy that I didn't get a picture haha, but it was so fun! No one knows who I am still because I am so awkward and quiet, and so they would introduce themselves, and I'd be like "I'm Sister Girvin. I'm Sister Short's baby!" And they'd be like, "Sister Short, I didn't know you were training!" And she'd be like, it was 7 months ago haha! It was fun, and now she is heading to Des Moines! Crazy that I may never see her again before she goes home! We left there aound noon and drove 3 more hours to Peoria, Illinois! It was there that I met the gorgeous Sister Blake, and we went off to Morton! Long day haha!

Then on Friday, we did some weekly planning, and we are working with some awesome people here! I'm excited. So, first we went to go visit Barb. She is so awesome! She is on date for January 12th! Forever away, but she is older, and so it is taking her a bit longer. Then, we went to dinner with a recent convert family! This is Brother Goard and his grandson, Royce. They put on a concert for us!

Then on Saturday, we volunteered at an art festival! Mainly just handed out maps haha! Then we went to District council where we met our new district! It was crazy... Whole new people! 

On Sunday we went to Church! And good news - I AM BACK IN A WARD!! It was so crazy... Story City has an average of 45 people every week, and Morton feels like I am back in Utah... We actually get fed every night! That never happens, so I am excited haha!

And then Sister Blake wanted to take some impromptu pictures with corn before it dies...

One cool thing about Illinois, they have outdoor plumbing! This is like the third toilet I have seen outside... So I finally decided to just take pictures of them all!

Also, my new address is

209 1/2 Court Drive

Washington, IL 61571