The Abominable Zipper

Hi family!

well, this week was a lot more eventful because i was let out of the house!! it was awesome to get out and work again :) and, as always, whenever there is missionary work - there are crazy stories. i seriously love my life. i love the crazy people that you meet when you are so tired that you honestly don't think you can walk to the next house :) story to come i swear.

so it's kinda cool to hear people say they read the blog - i feel so loved!!!!!! and i love your letters and appreciate them a bunch!!!!!!!

so last monday the elders in my district (who are all AWESOME) came over and made us lunch. not only did they make us lunch though, Elder Morelli (who is ITALIAN) made us pasta. which is a really big deal because he doesn't do that for hardly anyone i guess. yep, we're that cool. and then we must have done something right because he wants to make us real pizza next monday. oh yeah!!!!!!! and yeah. we had a lot of fun. today we are going to the brooklyn bridge so i'm REALLY REALLY excited about it.

tuesday we were walking to our first appointment and lo and behold, we look up and there were not kidding you 20 PARROTS in some random tree in the neighborhood. what?! and later that day we were walking onto the subway and some man had a parrot on his shoulder that just said hello to sister de la mare - whatever. we met with washington kim again on tuesday because he is kinda freaking out about starting his eternal family and we have to keep explaining a lot about the gospel. well, we meet and it went well, he decided he was moving to washington d.c. - well anyway, he said the closing prayer and started to bless sis. de la mare and i and our parents and our brothers and our sisters and then he threw in our dogs too. i had to bite my lip so that i wouldn't laugh. so washington moves on wednesday and wednesday night we get a call from the washington d.c. temple visitors center telling us that washington marched right in and went up to a sister missionary and told her that he needed help finding an eternal companion. and that she needed to be american - then he pulled out a picture of his baptism and showed me and sis. de la mare to her and told her that she needed to be like his american sisters (us). we called the sister back and both of us busted up. dear, dear washington. some girl is going to make him VERY happy.

we met with winford on thursday which was way sweet. he is the one we met on the bus that said his soul was drawn to me (it was actually not even creepy) and then he came to church. well, we have tried to meet with him three different times and the first time was when he couldn't meet but we ran into him on the street (after chasing a bunch of bigger black men around the library yelling winford :) ) and the second time he wrote down the wrong day and wasn't there and then thursday we got on the subway to get there and realized after we were really close to being in manhattan (which is out of the mission) that we got on the wrong train. and then as soon as we realized that, the train got stuck. for thirty minutes. then we got on the right train but it was stuck too. but never fear - we found winford. we may or may not have been over an hour late but we got there. and then he told us that he had been doing a bunch of research on the mormons and he taught us - almost word for word - the joseph smith story. it was SWEET!!! that man is going to get baptized :)

then saturday we met with this guy abraham. it was pretty sweet too. he is MUSLIM (i have taught two just this week by the way) and we met him on the street a couple weeks ago. way good guy. he works for the ny post and talked to the religious editor about us and she wants to meet with us to write an article. YEAH!!!!!!!!! so i will send you all a copy of my face plastered all over the new york post :)

oh i keep forgetting to tell you all -- buckle up. i never EVER thought i would say this. i am learning how to play the piano! sister de la mare can play and we were waiting for about twenty minutes for an investigator and she taught me how to play sweet hour of prayer and from that i just started picking out the notes and now i can play as sisters in zion and he is risen. they are all incredibly easy i know, but what?! i'm playing the piano!

some other cool things that happened this week - we went up to the roof at night. in celebration of my 1/4 birthday by the way :) and the view is even sweeter at night. but pictures don't turn out. sorry. we were talking to a guy and the marshal came up the stairs and knocked on a door and yelled "marshal" and then gave whoever it was ten seconds before he started drilling into the door. the guy we were talking to said that crazy people live there. apparently! we were teaching a lady and a mouse started running around and came right up to us, looked at us and left. and i didnt even care because it wasn't a swarm of cockroaches. never thought i would say that either. and the bed bugs.... yep. they're back. and for some really awesome reason i'm the only one that gets bites. BUT, the office got an eviction notice from our apt. so we are moving :) and honestly, the bites aren't bad. REALLY nasty, but not bad. i went on exchanges with one of the hermanas this week to a dinner appointment.... holy cow. the hispanic people get REALLY mad if you don't eat their food and i guess that the ward got offended by the sisters a while ago because they didn't eat enough and sisters had to get pulled out of the area for 6 months. so we went to the appointment and this lady is known by everyone for how much food she gives you. i ate more in that meal than i have in the entire week at alturaz. me and sister reed had plastic bags to shove food into when the woman wasn't in the room and after two huge portions of lasagna, three pieces of chicken, two helpings of salad, a bowl of soup, a strawberry milkshake, AND a huge plate of fruit -- i was shoving in as much food into those plastic bags that i could. and i busted up laughing. i couldn't contain myself anymore because it really was a funny site to see the both of us gripping the table and breathing deeply and then turning and throwing food into our ziplocs. :) it was a good memory.

and the last good story of the week - yesterday we met this guy who stopped us on the street and told us that we were an abomination (that's not so new or surprising) but he told us that we were an abomination because we wear pants and they have zippers. he said it was the equivalent of two men kissing..... what?! i almost cracked up several times but yeah. it was a good memory too.

family! i am SO excited that baby coleman is coming soon! PLEASE send pictures on e-mail and print them off and send them too. and i'm quite serious about this one. no pictures = me not calling home for christmas. :) but i know you would send pictures anyway. feel free to send as many as you want. dall, i am SO STINKING PROUD OF YOU FOR FINISHING YOUR PORTFOLIO!!!!!!!!!! you are great. chels, hang in there buddy. just a little while longer. court and chad - you better have been good at warped tour. cory - tackle people. or whatever is motivating for football besides go fight win. mom - thank you for staying up so late to write me and i love you. dad - i love you too! i have the best parents ever!!!!

thanks guys. spiritual uplifting thought or whatever i'm supposed to be learning out here for the week - the book of mormon is the keystone of our religion. in 2 nephi 29 it says wo be unto those who try to fight against the church. most of the time when people try to fight the church, they attack the book of mormon. well, in an arch, when the keystone has weight put on it, it makes the arch stronger. so the more people attack the book of mormon, the stronger our arch (the church) gets. wo unto you (you dorks in my own words) that try to fight the church and the book of mormon. you are actually making us as the Lord's army stronger.

take that satan.

God is real. Miracles happen. The church is true.

Love you all,
Sister Mich