Wise Old Leaf Says...

Wise old leaf says….

......when you go to Washington in the winter, buy really good boots!

Leafy proverbs aside, I hope that everyone is doing well! It is
definitely fall/winter here. The cold isn't so bad, except we're
always wet! Even my rain coat has started soaking through at the
shoulders! And I'm likely going to invest in rubber rain boots since
just waterproofing my brown boots isn't quite cutting it. Sister
Slattery (since she's awesome) helped me blow dry my toes last night
after we got home! (I'll attach the video too :)) It's definitely a
new experience but it's been a lot of fun.

We went on exchanges on Tuesday! We found out maybe two or three days
before, so it was a little crazy. Sister De Leon and I had fun walking
around talking to people, especially since the weather was pretty
nice! We had dinner and a lesson with Bailey right after we exchanged
back- since Sister De Leon was one of the sisters who first started
teaching Bailey, they gave us a ride over and they had to drop in and
say hello! Little baby Julian is getting bigger! And Bailey is doing
so awesome. She is getting baptized on Saturday! So we're just
finishing up the lessons and getting everything set up. It's so
exciting!!! I can't believe how fast time goes- seems like just
yesterday, we were asking her to pick a date even though it was a
month ago. She's ready though, and I don't think anything can stop
her!

We actually had quite a few people cancel on us this week- mostly for
sickness. With the sudden change in seasons, everyone's catching
something!

Cool story time- so we were walking to an appointment and we'd just
knocked a few doors nearby. So as we're walking away, someone comes
out of one of the houses and yells after us. It went something like
this:
"Heeyyyy!!! Hey!!"
"Yes?" (That's us)
"Are you missionaries??"
"Yeah....!"
"Do you want some decaf tea??"

It was so funny. We were worried (or Sister Slattery was) because she
thought someone was just going to yell at us or something. We had our
lesson to go to, but afterwards we went back and we had a great
conversation with her! And we're going back to see her next week! We
did give her a Book of Mormon and so we'll follow up. We're not sure
how interested she is, but sometimes it's just nice to know someone
wants you around! We've had a lot of that this week- lots of members
honking, stopping to say hi and thanks for all we do. It's been nice.

Oh! Another cool story! So we're walking to Cortina's because she's
giving us a ride home, it's like 8:45 at night, and this lady stops
and asks if we're missionaries and if we need a ride home. And then
she says "I was a missionary once!" So it turns out she's this less
active member who served her mission in Australia (how cool is that?)
and just had a really hard time when she came back from her mission.
She pulled over and we talked for a good fifteen minutes! We gave her
our number and she said normally she wouldn't call is, but she had a
good feeling about the two of us! We're still waiting on her to call,
but it was an awesome experience!

We had a stake breakfast on Saturday with the missionaries in our
zone, which was pretty fun! We had French toast! And Sister Slattery
decided that she and Elder Robbins are best friends. Actually, it
might have been last Monday- Sister Slattery, Elder Robbins, Elder
Smith, Elder Partis, and I spent a good chunk of time playing card
games- Scum and Karma! We were just having so much fun. So our zone is
still awesome! Last P-day, we went shopping with Sister Willits (she
gave us a ride) and then she drove us to the stake center and we were
having so much fun just talking and laughing that we got lost! And
then the GPS was taking us in circles...we were dying. Sister Willits
is awesome. She and her husband are a younger couple in our ward. They
moved here from BYU-I, and they have the cutest four year old girl,
and a little one on the way! Brother Willits just got called as the
Gospel Principles teacher. It's a lot of fun, especially since one
member of our ward is married to a man who is Muslim, and he comes to
church as if he were an active member. And sometimes he makes comments
in Sunday School that just aren't quite what we believe...he is
expressing his belief, but not in quite the right setting. Brother
Willits did a good job though- it's an art, letting him have his turn
to express himself but also keeping the class on topic and in
accordance with what is church doctrine.

Anyway, after the breakfast, the other sisters asked us to sub in for
them- they volunteered to help their ward clean the church but then
had an appointment come up. So we covered for them!


Oh, and on Friday, Sister Baldwin was nice enough to invite us to
"Time Out for Lunch" with the ward! She was hosting it. So that's what
we did with our lunchtime. It was so fun! The theme was comfort food,
so everyone brought their comfort foods and we ate and talked. It was
so fun, and also it's helping us build a good relationship with our
ward! That's actually where we found out that the Internet was blowing
up over the handbook changes. Our news is interesting- all we get is
word of mouth and whatever is on LDS.org. (And that didn't pop up til
Sunday- I was watching!) So it's a good thing no one tried to talk to
us about it before then! We live in a missionary bubble, which is
kinda nice, actually.

Sorry it's so scattered! Those are all the major things that happened
this week. Sister Slattery and I have had a lot of fun getting to know
each other and walking and figuring out the best way to get rides,
etc, especially in the rain! It's a blast! And missionary life is
finally starting to feel normal- it's not something strange or new
anymore. That's been really nice!

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Sister Jacobs