"Ainsley!!!" ---- Oh wait...that's me!

Hi hi hi! I'm still alive, I'm still on a mission and YES I'm still me :)

Thursday: EAST HIGH was the bomb.com!!!! Yes we did (amazingly enough) make it to the oh-so-famous East High! What's amazing about it, is that these were the only directions we had to go off of: "We were on our way back from Heritage & it was on the left next to these ghetto apartments." A miracle indeed :) It was the funnest thing ever - we parked in their ridiculously small lack of a parking lot & automatically felt like we were in a movie! I know it sounds kinda stupid but the cafeteria looks just like the movie!!!!!!!! Who'da thunk? We found Troy's locker & I had to explain why that was so significant to Sisters Garbett & Williams -- Sister Gilbert followed my explanation with "I love you Sister Despain!" It's nice when someone appreciates the little things as much as you.

I drove! We got there & back in 5 different pieces...the four of us & the van :) No worries!

Friday: Choir practice didn't make me want to kill myself! In case I didn't mention it, the cosmos united and I have been volunteered to accompany the SisMishXmasChoir on four numbers. Yup. The two I can actually play have been changed to acapella. I'm serious. But the POINT is that now I can play Angels We Have Heard on High --when I couldn't just a week ago! Awesome, right?

President was out of town for a Mission President seminar....so he bought us pizza!!! He just loves us :) I took two minutes to soak in a few moments during the day. The trees, the flowers, the cool Utah breeze on Temple Square....so nice :) I love my "I'm a TMSQ SISTER MISSIONARY!??!?!?!?!" moments -- they're my favs!

I got a referral from RC calls! Yay! Sister Gilbert & I decided that we're going to be roommates back at BYU-I April of 2012. We're pretty stoked. And 100% focused :)

Saturday: Walking home we saw a horse-drawn carriage with a "Just Married" sign on the back. Sis Garbett: "That's gotta be like, $30!!! It's your wedding day, you could use that to get your nails done. Or on your hair!" Sister Despain: "Or on candy!?!?!?!" Sis Garbett:"I'm glad I can always count on you Sister Despain :)"

Alex Carroll was in the Family History center?!? In town for a bit....randomly ran into the great, the wonderful, the oh-so enthusiastic Sister Despain. Great way to end a road trip I think, don't you? We went to The Garden for lunch :) I got the Club sandwich. What's better than buying a meal that lasts you for 24 hrs??? Uhh....hmm...well....nothing comes to mind. So it must be the fact that I got 3 meals for the price of ONE!

Sunday: We passed a lady at the Cristus as she said to her friend, "Oh look at those cute Sisters!" We smiled :)

We took Pittsburgh native, Mark through the South Visitors Center. We showed him the construction of the Temple, the video about John Moyle who lost his leg but STILL managed to carve out "Holiness to The Lord -- House of the Lord". He's in Real Estate(great business right now, I'm sure) and isn't home much, so he didn't refer for more information. We were sad but we know that everyone will have the chance to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We then dropped him off at the display to let him go through the super-cool-awesome-rad touch screen videos. So fun.

I ran into my MTC teacher Sister Metzger! She's still teaching, loving the MTC & doing great! We got to go to Music & the Spoken Word!!! Alex Boye's birthday was this week and his mother came all the way from Rwanda to surprise him!!!! She was there! Isn't that awesome!?!??

We took a family through God's Plan! The father(sorry I didn't get the name) knew Robert & Peggy Lee from their USU CES days! Small world!

I had a fantastic chat with a lady named Irene. She loved everything we talked about & agreed with it all. Her issue? Organized religion. Ya...sad day when that happens.

Sister Garbett was getting stressed out & was about to bust when we got home. So I stuck her HUGE box of junk on my bed & started sorting through it. I know, I'm a problem solver...tends to work though! We sorted through all her junk & figured out what she wanted, what was trash & what she wanted to give away. It was great! The room was so clean & everything was organized :) I'm a sucker for a super clean room...just...so...everyone knows....ya. Then she started complaining that I was just trying to kill her off faster! Hahahahahaha I didn't know what to do at that point. So we went to bed!

Monday: I got a bunch of letters! Totally made my day! Elder Lee, Mom, Elder Edwards, Elder Bake & Justin Borden all in ONE day! I LOVE MAIL :)

In case you were thinking,"Hmm...seems like there's not a lot of missionary work in this update?" It's because all 5,000 of our appointments fell through this week! Ya! I'm not even kidding, it's depressing. But we're still trying! We had to drop a lot of our formers because they weren't keeping their appointments so that kinda bummed us out. And then it doesn't help that we're struggling to find people to replace them. It'll all work out.

Sister Garbett spent a solid 5 minutes trying to persuade a teeny-tiny little mouse to stop running around & get up on the planters where its family lives. It was only mildly ridiculous but completely enjoyable :) Last comment of the day in the Tabernacle: "Are you two sisters?" "Ya!" "Oh, yes -- you look alike!" "hahaha oh...uhh...." We let it go.

Tuesday: I got up & decided to hop in the shower before the other Sisters could beat me to it. Before I actually got in though, I decided to check the time. I then proceeded to get dressed again & head back to bed. I figured 1:00 AM may not be the best time to shower :)

We went to Provo! What's that, Ainsley? Your mission doesn't cover Provo! I know! We took a bus down to Provo for the Carl Bloch & James Tissot art exhibition!!! Exciting, right!?! It was really neat! They borrowed a mess load of original Carl Bloch altar pieces from different cathedrals in Denmark. I definitely favored Bloch more than Tissot. Unfortunately for Tissot his attention to detail didn't outweigh his attention to very...unpleasant aspects of the Savior's last hours. But I still enjoyed it! We were waiting for our bus when someone shouted, "Ainsley!" What went through my mind, you might ask? "Ainsley...hmm nice name -- wait -- whoa! that's me! quick! look around who said that!??!" It was none other than THE Jessica Day!!! It was so good to see her! I don't even remember the last time we got to talk in person. She's doing GREAT & is so cute & married :) She highly recommend the whole marriage thing....I just might write that one down :)

We talked to Arizona Jessica, she is doing great! We discussed the importance of reading our scriptures EVERY day & had a very nice conversation with her. She's sweet, I miss calling her. We also got a hold of Florida Jessica! She is, of course, doing FANTASTIC!!! She was about to go into Institute but she talked to us for just a few minutes to inform us that her birth father(she's adopted) is getting baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know, right?!?!?!??! So exciting! She's already a missionary and she's only been a member for 2 weeks. We're so proud :)

We took a family of four through God's Plan. The little 2 year old got a little turned-around in the last room, but once it clicked that we were going to be staying in the "Kitchen" room, he was like "oooh!" and made his way up to the display *BAM* ....there's glass in front of the display :) hahahaha it was so funny! he got stunned for a second but was totally fine. His Dad then put him on the bench, at which point he decided he wanted to sit further back on the other bench that he thought it was connected to. It's not. DOWN he went -- head first onto the floor! It was amazing really! He, again was fine! But who knew God's Plan could be such a rough ride!

Sister Garbett had a black skirt that had an iron print on the back [ :D] that she was going to get rid of but I suggested that she let me hem it instead. So I did! She's worn it every day since :) [Only two days...no worries.] She was also going to pass on this brown Missionary Mall skirt to me but when I mentioned that I could make it into a just-below-the-knee pencil skirt -- she kinda changed her mind. I wonder why that would effect her opinion at all.....weird, huh? Hahaha so last night I played seamstress & fitted it to her, cut the hem & re-sewed the sides! We've got one more fitting session to go; after which I'll hem it & it should be done! She's going to wear it on the plane ride home :) She LOVES it! Thanks Mom for teaching me how to sew! Oh...by the way this is all being done sans sewing machine. I'm so proud.

Quote of the day: "Good it's you. Hi. Do you know how we can send a Book of Mormon to someone in jail???" ~ Sister Garbett

Wednesday: Weekly planning went quickly. Due to our extreme lack of investigators. No one answered their phone during our RC time & none of our almost-investigators picked up when we called. Choir practice went well though! We get to play BELLS! We're pretty stoked for that! Not too many people on the Square these days. Things slow down pretty much to a stop until the lights go on. That day is November 24 btw :) We took 8:00 dinner so we could spend some time with our friends Sisters Gilbert & Williams. I worked on Sister Garbett's skirt, Sister Gilbert made rice pudding & Garbett & Williams sang random songs :) It was great!

Thursday: I got in a bit of practice time on the piano. I'm making progress, so that's great. I got Court's announcement!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhh! So exciting! I also got a letter from the Lees! Always a good read. Very thought-provoking. Speaking of which, Brother Lee's book is helping Sister Garbett SO MUCH! It's great! I love it!

We're going to get Sister Garbett's hair cut later today, then we're headed to Cafe Rio with some bud-buds and THEN *drum roll* we're heading back home to make a FORT! Yup! That's right! A good old fashioned sheets-over-chairs/couches fort; under which we shall then write letters :)

I was watching a talk by Elder Holland where he said, "True love must include an idea of permanence." This is something we try to hammer into people we talk to on Chat, some just don't get why we have the values we do. This idea of permanence should permeate every aspect of our lives! Everything we do here has eternal significance! Don't let one moment pass you by! Enjoy it while you've got it ;)

Thanks for the letters! Have a fantastic week! Love you all!

Sister Ainsley Marie