Last Monday we had a June Christmas party as a mission. It was on the beach and a ton of fun. Sister Huber and Sister Olson made a sandcastle, and I found a TON of sea shells. Did you know that there's areas here where they use sea shells instead of gravel? I didn't either, but it's really cool and really pretty. We didn't get to go in the water, since that's against mission rules, but we still had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing everyone there. I met a girl named Sister Johnson, and she taught me a new game called "What if...?" It's an interesting game. Everyone writes down a "What if" question and puts them in a pile. You pick out a question, not your own, and answer it- then put it back. You pick a paper again, not your answer, and go around. One person starts and reads their question, the next person reads their answer and then their question, and so on until you get to the end.
Sometimes there are really funny things that are said because all the questions are different and the answers sometimes have nothing to do with the question that was read before it. It sounds weird in explaining it, but it's actually a pretty simple and fun game. The mission presidency fed us pizza and salad for dinner, and we had rootbeer floats right before we left.
The rest of the week wasn't nearly as fun, but I still enjoyed myself. We ended up doing a lot of driving this week (compared to normal) because we had appointments that were nowhere near each other and wouldn't be able to bike to each of them. It was strange to be in a car, and kind of made me feel a little lazy. My week was also thrown off because we didn't have district meeting in order to make up for the lost time from the Christmas party. Tuesday we got caught in the rain, on our bikes, and ended up sitting under a tree in the rain for a lesson about the Restoration with a contact we had found.
Last night we made Banana Pancakes. They were really good, and made me think of home. But it was a fun thing to do, especially because we watched Mormon Messages as we did so. Yesterday we also had the chance to go tracting near a recent convert's home and set up three appointments for this week. We left one family with a prayer, which was a really cool experience to have. The Spirit was so strong and it was so peaceful when we left.
We developed a new way to get members to come to lessons with us, or at least we're trying something new. Maybe, if the missionaries in your wards are struggle with having members at lessons, they could try it as well. We have a calendar we're sending around during Relief Society and Priesthood so the member can sign up on the days and at the times they have available to come out with us, and we're putting appointments during those time slots and before we schedule them for other times. This way we hope to increase our members present lessons, which I'm hoping actually works. I'll have to let you know how it goes :)
I hope your week goes well, and I miss you all. Keep the faith.
Sister Rivers
P.S. here's some pictures of the sand castle and my awesome tan line from my sandals