Sincerely, Sister Matheson : Week #17

This week was craaaaaaazy!!!
Or as Sister Nimer would say,
"Crap happened."

Last P-DAY we came home from emailing and ran through the rain while carrying our groceries. When we opened our apartment door we felt like we were walking into a winter wonderland. Not because our AC is awesome, but because the Elders in our district are crazy sneaky! They had sneaked in through our porch door (on the second floor) and left snowflakes galore. There was a TON of other scraps of paper and crumpled up pieces to resemble snow all over our carpet. They had set up a Christmas tree as well and placed pictures of them in Christmas sweaters everywhere!

Just imagine the toy store in the movie ELF...that's what it looked like.

Wednesday I was with Sister Chiou for a 2 hour exchange. We were Harvesting and it started pouring. We ran back to our car to get our umbrellas, but by that point we were already soaked. We decided to go talk to two women standing on their front porch. Before we could say anything one of the women said, "What do you think you're doing in the rain?" I said, "We're representatives of Jesus Christ. We're here to say a prayer with you." She shakes her head and said, "I can't believe you're in this rain. I'm a Jew so you're not going to convert me, but come inside right now!!!" (In a rather harsh tone). She made us leave our umbrellas outside, take our shoes off, wipe our feet, and follow her to the kitchen. Then she says with disgust, "I can't believe they make you work when it's like this." We assured her that we choose to do it and we didn't mind. She then starts patting down Sister Chiou and told her to take her clothes off so that she could put them in the dryer. She handed her a blanket and Sister Chiou sat there in her undershirt and a blanket. I hoped she wouldn't notice how wet I was, but then she came over and patted me down as well and ordered me to take my clothes of haha! She goes, "come on girls, I don't have all day!" She then took a selfie with us and gave us graham crackers and chamomile tea. She taught us what Kosher meant and complained about her future son-in-law. It was an experience.

And that is how I got strip searched by a Jew...

yes, Sister Nimer did point out that I'm German hahaha!!

Warning: these next couple paragraphs are not me complaining. They are me explaining what we've gone through this last week to show how merciful and good God really is.

--We have a set amount of miles that we can drive each month. We were getting really close to the limit so we have had to ride our bikes a lot this past week. We rode about 30+ miles on Friday. I've never sweated so much in my life. I'm surprised people still talked to us. Sister Nimer said that sweat is weakness leaving your body. She got that right!!! There are gnats everywhere and you bet we some in our eyes. Good stuff.

--The cockroaches in our apartment have decided to multiply and replenish our Kitchen. When we get home each night and turn on the light they scatter to every nook and cranny and all out of the sink. If only we could sing a song like on Enchanted and have them clean for us.

--Sister Nimer and I are both out of money and low on food until the beginning of next month. We weren't sure how we would make it...BUT!

God is so good and always takes care of us.

Each day we see how he really is our Father and has our back.

Yesterday in Relief Society we were sitting in the front when one of the sisters comes up and sits next to me. She slips me a lot of money and then sneaks off. ??? I don't know how she knew, but that was a tender mercy! We also had multiple members sign up to feed us so we're good! We've had members offer to pick us up and give us rides because we're low on miles. Friday night we were so weak and tired. We usually have to park far away from our apartment, but God gave us the closest parking spot possible and we didn't have to carry our bikes very far.

I FEEL SO BLESSED!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even write all of the tender mercies that happened this week.

That's how many there were.

We prayed with an adorable Haitian family this week. The mom was on the phone while we prayed with her children, so we decided to go back and pray with her. We went back and met her brother Sadrac. He was sitting at the table and we invited him over to read a scripture and pray with us. He was golden!!! While I entertained the three little children Sister Nimer taught him and invited him to be baptized. He accepted and when we went back the next day he said he read the Book of Mormon and loved it. He came to church on Sunday and felt the spirit so strongly. He's preparing for baptism next Sunday.

Last night while Harvesting we saw an old lady rolling a trash bag to the curb. She seemed to be struggling so we offered to help. We told her we could help her with the other bags and carried them to the curb. She told us that her husband was ill and couldn't believe how nice we were to offer to help her. She accepted a prayer and told us that she was Jewish but would pray for us as well. After our prayer she prayed for us in Hebrew/Yiddish/English and said that we were

"some of the nicest people she had ever met".

She was almost in tears and invited us back to visit her.

I love being a missionary!!!

I love you all!!

Read Alma 37:44-45

I'll end with my new favorite quote by Elder Uchtdorf:

"How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain."

Sincerely,

Sister Matheson

pic 1:Mine & Sister Nimer's face during our 30 mile bike ride around our area.

pic 2: Our amazing STL's! (Sister Trainer Leader's)

pic 3: What we walked into last p-day