We, Who Combat Trolls Like Pros

November 26, 2010

Happy Christmahanakwanzikuh!!!

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, I hereby deem it acceptable to play Christmas music! I hope everyone enjoyed a day to focus on family & the wonderful lives we've been blessed with. We had a fantastic week here on Temple Square...

Friday: Zone Conference at 8:20 AM early -- but good & very much needed. I learned that I need to work on being brief. Story of my life. But guess where we had it??? Go on! Guess! You never will....and if you did I'd never know - so I'll tell ya! The Devereaux Mansion! It's a restored mansion from way back when -- right before the Taco Stand. It my friends, is pretty legit(the mansion...haven't ventured to the Taco Stand yet). We did 5,000 role plays or "real plays" as things are leaning towards nowadays which were only slightly painful because SOME people can't *pretend* -- which in my opinion parallels with not having a childhood. I got to talk with Sister Hansen (MTC) for a bit at the end. She is at Welfare Square this transfer & loves it! She recently "Dear John"-ed her guy back home...but she says she's never felt better! One of the reasons why I love her :) After our conference we had lunch in the basement of the JSMB --- pizza from President! Afterwards, we still had some time to kill, so we went up to Nauvoo Cafe & drank hot chocolate with Sisters Gilbert & Williams. So delicious! If you're coming to town for the lights, stop in at Nauvoo Cafe for their hot chocolate.

Choir practice went well & I did not feel like committing suicide. Which makes any day great, right? What else makes any day great? A package from home!!! I got a clean journal(JUST in time), a scarf, gloves, caramels & mints. Mom: I appreciate your effort to assist me in maintaining my figure :)

All of our appointments fell through. THIS does not make any day great. But what else helped was that I finally bought boots! Now my feet are toasty warm on the oh-so-cold & snowy days here in the beautiful Salt Lake City.

Saturday: We had another early meeting. Yay...lots of enthusiasm here. Safety training, FLEET information etc. but then things really got exciting. Are you sitting down? (Sure hope so, don't know too many normal people who stand up while they read stuff on a computer...) Ok, here it is. We went over the the Conference Center for a testimony meeting! We got to sit where all the important wives sit! In our little Sister missionary hearts we're all hoping to actually sit there one day, married to a General Authority or an Apostle or someone super important. In my mind I'm thinking "Heck! I wanna be the one sitting up there!" In all shades of humility :) And if you think it couldn't get better just you wait ["Henry Higgins just you wait!"] it gets better. In silence, we went backstage & up some crazytown stairs to the CHOIR SEATS! That's right. THE choir seats. I'm talking MOTAB kinda choir seats. If there were ever a thing to be legit -- it would be those seats. And no we didn't just stare at them, we got to for realsies SIT in them!!!!! I know!!!! And THEN (Oh stop it Sister Despain it just can't possibly get better?!?) we got to sing "Called to Serve" -- Temple Square style :) Now, for those of you who aren't privy to the gloriocity that is Temple Square styled Called To Serve --- it's ok. Maybe one day I'll grace you with a small rendition of how amazing this mission is. That's right, we have our own hymn :)

After conference Sister Garbett & I made a stop at Nauvoo Cafe for breakfast. I got an orange & a muffintop :) We were followed in later by none other than President & Sister Holmes along with the AP's [Sister Lamprecht & Sister Inoue]. They invited us over to their table -- which you can't decline, so we relocated! It was a very entertaining & historical breakfast. Or, at least it would have been if we didn't see President Holmes almost every single day. It was still great. President started talking about how they came out with seals for food because of some nut who decided it was a brilliant idea to poison food before it was even purchased & you'd never know even nowadays -- someone could inject something into a piece of fruit!!! ....right as I take a bite into a slice of my orange :)

I ran into Cailey & Stuart Morgan! It was so good to see them! I love seeing people I know, it's a nice reminder that the world doesn't stop just because I'm on a mission! We went to Kodiak Cookies for lunch with Williams & Gilbert(whom btw we just call "friends" now...because it takes way too long to call them by their names) and no you're not crazy I said Kodiak Cookies & yes all they sell are cookies & yes I said lunch. But get this, we didn't even have to pay for our unhealthiness! We went in right in front of the kindest soul in all of Salt Lake -- she bought each of us a cookie :) She's got a son on a mission -- MissionaryMoms are the best! She is officially a saint. I got the peanut butter chocolate cookie. Then we went back to work & I had an apple for lunch. We forgot to bring dinner...so we went to The Garden! (You guys sure know how to budget there in SLC) No worries! We ended up not paying for any of our outings!!! Yup! Someone paid for our dinner too!!! We split the club sandwich & saved the rest for lunch the next day. We had a bit of an adventure by trying the "fried pickles" --we thought they were going to be disgusting but you would not believe how good they are! Climbed my "Top 10 Foods" list super fast.

Quote of the day. Guest: "Do you have to be a model to get called to Temple Square?"

Sure, why not.

Sunday: Church went well! We heard from President Sepi & President Harman as a continuation of Zone Conference. Gratitude. Good topic for the upcoming week! I officially broke-in my boots! Sweet, huh? Break-in time: ONE day. Missions rock. My feet did not get soaked :) Despite their getting squashed during the rest of the day :(

We had one go-see the whole day. It was really good, even though he didn't refer. Paul has all-member kids & it sounds like they've been trying to teach him for the last few years but he's not ready right now. Around 3:00 we met up with a group coming out of the Singles Stake Conference. One guy who passed us was kind enough to point out exactly WHO was invited to that meeting. We're missionaries, we KNOW we're single - thanks for pointing that out buddy! So, we met up with this group who were all really nice. We talked with them for a bit, this one guy Preston digging himself deeper & deeper into the "let's insult the sister missionaries" whole, unintentionally. But it was all good - he gave us a friend to call! We got his number too so we can report back. As we went our separate ways he said "Call me!".....*insert ridiculously awkward silence that penetrated all of Temple Square, here* "About your friend - ya - we'll let you know how that goes!"

1st Quote of the day. Troller: "Wow! You guys combat trolls like a pro!"
2nd Quote of the day. Sister Gilbert during Chat: "Dang my life Alberto -- Immabouta fight you!" If only they knew what we were really like on the other side :)

Monday: I finished Sister Garbett's new pencil skirt! She loves it! It's super cute, approved & yet so fashionable!

We found Michael on Chat. He stays at home with his two kids, taking online classes & really wants to learn more about the church. He wants missionaries to come visit him in his area. I just love when that happens. We've got an appointment set up to teach him on Wednesday! We're so excited! Some formers emailed us back! We were excited to hear from them! Nothing has happened yet...but maybe something new will come up.

Tuesday: Surprise surprise who woulda guessed it. But turns out I am MUCH more enthusiastic on the days I exercise in the mornings! It's amazing! So I'm definitely going to be keeping up that habit. This week was rough because we had early mornings EVERY morning. So no exercising.

We role played during District Meeting...yes we love role playing, could you tell? I need to pause more. It's so hard to say what you want in short, powerful statements while making sure that you pause. It's complicated but not impossible. Huzzah for new goals.

I got a package....folder...manila envelope thingy from Sister Thomas! Inside was a tri-fold nativity!!! It's all set up on my desk :) Thank you so much! I love it! It also included a family update & Elder Thomas' letter from that week. I love knowing what everyone is up to, so nice being in the loop.

A blizzard was apparently coming our way, so we got sent home around 2:00 PM!!! And what do you do when you all of a sudden have hours of free time? That's right! You build a fort in the living room & take a nap in it! We brought sheets & blankets up to Gil/Wil's apartment & built a fort! It was down right amazing. A work of art. The 8th world wonder. The envy of the 2nd floor :) We made hot chocolate, cookies, smoothies, pizza & popcorn! [We're usually really healthy, I promise! Healthy food just doesn't make for a good blog update!] And what else do you have to do in a spectacular fort? Yup! Tell ghost stories :) Ahhhh!!!! I favored everyone with what I could remember out of Grandma & Pop's "Scary Stories" book [which, by the way was banned from certain school libraries due to graphic/scary pictures...in case....you were wondering that randomly...] and also with my own rendition of the incident at Acid Park in NC. Ooooooh!!!! hahahahaha I was telling "The Green Ribbon" and Sister Williams was about to check out. It was hilarious. Then we talked about.... You knew it was coming & yes, I confess -- we descended to such levels as to talk about b-o-y-s. So glad we did though, otherwise we would have had no quotes of the day! Sister Garbett was telling us about this one situation where she was trying to date two boys at once. We said it was kind of like that music video with the treadmills & each guy has a treadmill. So dating two guys is complicated. Then Sister Gilbert was talking about how when she was dating this guy, she actually had a crush on her best guy friend & how he really, really liked her. So that's where the following quotes come from.

1st Quote of the day. Sister Despain: "Too many treadmills!" Sister Gilbert: "Can't jog that fast!"
2nd Quote of the day. Sister Gilbert: "I wanna date him too! But we're at a Singles ward party -- I can't break up with my boyfriend NOW?!?!"

This whole time it was snowing outside! So around 8:00 PM we ran outside & made snow angels, threw some very powdery snowballs at other sisters' windows :) yes, we're those missionaries :) and we even had a roll-down-the-snow-covered-hill race between me & Sister Gilbert. We had a great day off.

Wednesday: I started a new journal! We had weekly planning, which went pretty quick seeing as how all of our investigators are either baptized or formers! So our goal is simple: FIND! We got trained on driving 12 Passenger Vans!!!! Why Ainsley? I mean...Sister Despain? Why not! We'll need them randomly throughout the mission & I figured I'd never get this chance again...I mean seriously, how many people drive those monsters anymore? We will! I even have a certificate :)

Our performances are coming up! First one is on Saturday for the kickoff concert in the Assembly Hall (no pressure, it's not like...historic or anything) so practices are getting more stressful. But we're improving! We have 12 songs. One is a capella & I play piano for four of the other eleven. We even have bells just like MOTAB! We will perform every Monday night of December in the North Visitors' Center.

The computers were down, so we tried calling potentials we've received [I realized that when I read "received" what goes through my mind is this: "I was so happy to receive (i before e except after c) your letter the other day." weird...huh?]. The one I could get a hold of didn't know who the person was who referred him. He was really nice & actually tried to place the name -- but to no avail. So it was a tricky job to explain my purpose & why this apparently not-so-close friend wanted him to have the missionaries visit. Whew! He ended up not referring but he was really nice and we had a wonderful conversation.

Because of the inclement weather we had to cancel our appointment with Michael. We got an email from some other sisters saying that he came online earlier asking for us. We checked our emails & he replied that he was fine with the time we had set up for our postponed appointment. We're glad he's legit.

So you know in "Jimmy Neutron" when the parents have been abducted by aliens & the kids go wild having all sorts of fun without their parents. And then they start to freak out because they see how much they need their parents and the one kid runs out of the house yelling, "I don't know how to make lunch!!!" Well, turns out that quote can be applied in more than one situation -- none of them having to do with food. Because I've been pulling that one out SO much lately & it's hilarious!

Thursday: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! We had computers from 10:00 to 11:30 so we emailed a spiritual message to most of our formers. Emphasizing how everything we have is because God loves us & is eager to bless us with more when we do what is right. It was cute. We changed into our casual clothes for lunch & a meeting, which was weird because we only see each other in jeans for service at Heritage Park! President told us last week we were going to Chuckarama, then he told us a stake was providing dinner & a talent show for us in Sandy. Then we got on the bus & he told us he had lied [which everyone already knew] he then informed us that he wasn't going to tell us where we were going. We ended up in Sandy at a place called Noah's. It was the coolest place ever! After looking through the rooms for all of 3.2 seconds we decided we were going to live there for the rest of our lives :) There was a theatre with the BEST chairs known to the laziest man on Earth, a pool table, a ping pong table, one arcade game...thingy hahaha I don't know what it's called, a table with Scrabble/Guesstures etc., a racquetball room! with a volleyball net, another huge movie screen in the pool/ping pong room & then a gigantoid room with tables & chairs & a stage for karaoke along with two very large overhead screens where we later projected Beauty & the Beast. So yes, we were well taken care of for Thanksgiving!!! In the first theatre mentioned, we watched Toy Story 3. It even had Sister Garbett crying -- and she doesn't cry! It was even more hilarious watching it the third time with a bunch of movie-deprived 20-something sister missionaries :) Best ever! We also watched 15 minutes of UP but we decided that playing games would be more entertaining.

Dinner was catered by Spiced Apple...or Pumpkin...or something like that! Apart from the ham-tasting what we think was turkey...? it was really good! Of course, NOTHING like being at home with family -- can I RE-emphasize the NOTHING part -- but it was still really great. The food was good, the company was interesting to say the least & Sister Gilbert singing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" on karaoke made the night very memorable.

As we rode back to SLC the city lights in the window reflection mixed with the actual city I could see, looked just like Rexburg. Especially when we passed the Jordan River Temple -- then it looked JUST like Rexburg sitting outside my window! I miss school and I miss home. But I know that the work I'm doing here is eternally significant for me, my family & everyone I come in contact with here on Temple Square. This week I'm working on "Hope" as my Christlike Attribute. Part of being hopeful is patiently persevering -- oh how uncanny is the timing of certain things :)

The Lights come on tonight! We're excited! If you're coming -- bring potentials! We want everyone to have the BEST gift this Christmas season :)

Love you all & thanks for the letters!!!
Sister Ainsley Marie

P.S. It just now occurred to me that I've never included this in an update! I have had several sisters at different times, tell me that my humor reminds them of Kronk (Emperor's New Groove) or Johnny Bravo. Just to clarify -- they said my HUMOR not my intelligence level.

Happy Holidays!