Missionaries: Friends of the Crazy and the Elderly

This week we STILL did not have a car. STILL! They said it would take 5 days when we first dropped it off, and now we are up to 16. So now I have the calf muscles of a goddess because we've been walking so much. Just kidding, I wish that was the result. Mostly I just have a few blisters and a lot of sweat. There are 2 types of weather here: sweaty and sticky. I haven't quite decided which one I loathe - I mean LOVE more. But Wednesday is the blessed day when we will get Esmeralda (the car) back! And we will be so so so appreciative and grateful.

Because we have been walking, we get to meet a lot of people of the streets! However, the majority of people that talk to us are certifiably insane. But crazy people LOVE missionaries. Also really old people. Like, crazy old people. It rules. We did talk to a really friendly young Wicken the other day, so we will see where that goes. Hopefully he doesn't curse us or something. I've also been able to memorize the 13 articles of faith in our walking time! So, really between the sweat, the crazies, the wicken, and the memorization, the walking has really paid off.

Since coming on my mission, I have easily doubled my normal food intake. I'm starting to feel weirdly ... solid. We seriously eat ALL. THE. TIME. I think people feel more comfortable having us over if they are feeding us. This is nice, but also worrisome. I have begun to scale-stalk (get on any scale in any home I see) and depending on the scale, I have gained anywhere from 2 to 10 pounds. So ... I guess we will just have to wait and see if I start splitting seams anytime soon. Also, it probably doesn't help that we keep a stash of at least 3 pints of Ben & Jerry's in the apartment at all times. What evs. #icecream4lyf

In addition to the Mailbox Mystery of last week, another strange phenomena has been occurring. About half of the people who try to text us reach some random Bostonian man. Our YM president has been in particularly regular contact with this guy. Get this, WE HAVE THE EXACT SAME PHONE NUMBER. Uh... okay? This is rather unfortunate because we actually would like for people to be able to get a hold of us. However, We are also fairly certain that this man is DESTINED to be baptized. We need to find a Sprint store to work things out, but the closest one is like an 8 hour walk. So ... maybe next week. In the mean time, we have instructed the YM president to invite him to church.

This week we get to watch fireworks!!! I guess the 4th of July is a pretty big deal over here. Something about the birthplace of freedom and important historical stuff, yada yada yada. (Just kidding. It really is awesome.) So I will let you know if the fireworks here blow Utah fireworks out of the watah (Boston accent.)

The work is incredible. After a few slow weeks, we really felt like we had some breakthroughs this week. For some people it is so apparent that they are ready for the gospel and I'm so humbled to be a part of building Heavenly Father's kingdom. It is easy to see that He is doing all of the big stuff and we are just tiny cogs in the machine - but it's super gratifying. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and I just want to shout about it! So I do. Because I'm a missionary and we can do things like that.

Try not to melt out there! 100 degrees? #nutz.

I love you guys!

Sister Gledhill