Week 14 #MissionaryMeetingsTake5EVER

Hello darlings! :D

I. Am. SO VERY SORRY! Please don't kill me for the radio silence! The last few weeks have been the definition of "cray-cray". But it has been the good kind of manic so no worries, my lovelies! I'm gonna do my best to get you all caught up on the last few weeks, so we'll see how this goes! xP

So, since before my mission I have been searching for a CTR ring *whispers to mom to put a picture of what it looks like* CTR stands for Choose The Right and it is a very popular saying within the church and everyone in the church has had a CTR ring at some point in their lives. I have been on a quest to find a ring that was unique enough and "me" enough in order to justify buying it (because I'm cheap). A couple weeks ago we went to Seagull Books (a LDS bookstore) and we went over to look at the jewelry section to look at their rings. And then I saw it. Instead of a CTR ring like everyone ads person and their dog has, I got a "Tree of Life" ring. In some of my previous letters I've talked about the vision of

Tree of Life Ring

the Tree of Life that the prophet Lehi had (See: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/8?lang=eng). Any who, I was super, super excited! My companion simply laughed at me and called me a hipster. Which deeply affronted me because I am NOT a hipster, hipsters are "in" right now so I cannot be a hipster. When I told her as much she just started laughing harder for some reason.

The reason for the # for this week's letter is because missionary meeting take 5ever, not 4ever, but 5-freaking-ever. They will say when they're going to end the meeting so we plan accordingly and then, without fail, it runs at least an hour late if not longer. And then we have to reschedule lessons with investigators and re-plan the day and... I'm going to stop now, because I could go on forever about this but I won't do that to anyone else. Sister Foulke still hasn't recovered from my last rant about punctuality and timeliness. The reason for this frustration is that we have had a meetings every week these past few weeks. Zone Training Council, Zone Conference, etc...

On a much different and much happier note, I ADORE personal study! Something that I have been doing recently is that I read a chapter from the New Testament and The Book of Mormon each along with the Institute manuals (Institute is a religious education program organized by the church). Holy. Cow. There are SO many nuggets of golden wisdom and pieces of understanding in those inspired books! They quote from the prophets and apostles as well as from other religious authorities. It has been a joy to study the words of the scriptures, both ancient and latter-day! In addition to that I have also been reading one General Conference talk everyday (usually pulled from a quote that was in the institute manual). One of them was so amazing that you all HAVE to read it! :D It is by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the current 12 Apostles and it is titled "The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent" (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/10/the-only-true-god-and-jesus-christ-whom-he-hath-sent?lang=eng). It is an incredible piece of scripture!

The past few weeks have been gorgeous as far as the weather is concerned. Honestly anything under 95 degrees is beautiful, but for the last couple weeks have been in the 80s! Heavenly Father loves me so very much! x)

On a hysterical note, I love teasing my poor companion! XD So a little background to this situation is that Sister Foulke... doesn't enjoy the company of our District Leader in the slightest. But he has to call us every week in order to get the information he needs for his report. But he take foreverly long and he calls us at 10 at night and we are exhausted and our daily allotment of patience it nearing the end. He asked us last week what the colors of our toothbrushes are. Yes. He did. No, I am not lying. Believe me, Sister Foulke and I wish that I was lying to you right now. Anywho... We were talking about how we had district council and how she had to give a training (which was inspired btw! My companion is so awesome!) and I teased her and told her that the reason that our DL takes so long on the phone and why he asks Sister Foulke to train so often is because he is desperately in love with her... The look on her face was priceless perfection!!!!! Oh my goodness!!! I doubled over in laughter and from the pain that the laser beams emanating from her eyes were inflicting upon me! XD Her face was a look of shock, indescribable horror, and an expression that conveyed her deep desire to shoot something. I was dying!!! The next day was District Council and whenever our DL looked at her or said something to her or interacted with her in ANY way I would send her a note telling her that he just couldn't contain his love for her... I am very grateful that there were witnesses otherwise I would be writing this email from the other side.

Amazing news! One of our investigators, Kelly is getting baptized this Saturday the 15th! This is the first investigator that I have been with from start to baptism! I'm so pumped! :D *fireworks and canons go boom!*

That's all I've got for the last few weeks, please read the links and tell me what your thoughts and impressions are! :)


I love you all!
Sister Longo