April 13, 2015

I went into the MTC 8 months ago today. That went by fast eh? 

Now a lot of people ask, Sister Cook, what do you do on p-day? Today I had another first, fortunately it had nothing to do with eating but it was entertaining none the less. So Grandma Rekow has a wood burning stove that occasionally gets clogged. When said stove gets clogged, the house gets covered in this crazy cool blue haze. We had such a morning and while Grandma was at the chiropractor, we decided to take apart the pipes with the help of Dennis and Pat (Grandma's kids) and were banging and scraping those things til they were slightly less caked in coal and goo. We sounded like the worlds worst drum core but we had a blast. We also cleaned out all the ash in the stove and it was my job to go spread the ashes in the garden. I enjoyed this because it was gorgeous outside. But the Rekow's have this devil rooster named Rocko that occasionally attacks people. He was casually strolling through the garden so I started spreading faster and ran inside like a chicken. 

We went into Green Bay twice last week for training with the Zone and District. It's another miracle, haven't crashed yet and our Ford Fusion is in tact. Plus we had interviews with our President and I always love that. Something that made me laugh was in order to help us take the commitment of baptism more seriously, our Zone Leaders came up with a little skit. They came out dressed in all Green Bay Packer Gear and started saying, "Man I've always loved the Packers and they were always in my home growing up. I mean they were always in my home but it wasn't until I was 17 that I really knew. You know? I started reading the stats at least 10 minutes a day, started watching the games and even bought the gear. And now I know, that the Packers are right for me. I'm embarrassed to say I even dabbled in baseball. Sometimes I was in the wrong end zone, but you can change." It was pretty funny but at the end they pointed out, going into people's home and not telling them about baptism, is like telling people how much you love to watch football and never inviting them to a game. They then said baptism is like the super bowl which I'm half way on board with. It's more a super font. My favorite thing that was said though had to be, "That was a Corihor-ible decision." 

While sharing our notes and thoughts from conference I mentioned how I struggle using the word I too much and was glad to hear so many talks that help us turn outward and not inward. After our ZL came up and said, you know it's interesting Sister Cook. When Satan is tempting Christ it's cool to see how many times he uses the word I." My companion looks at me as he walks away and says, "I think he just called you Satan." I laughed pretty hard at that. Repentance is real.

We got to meet with a lot of people this week and we even had time to go to Bowler and see one of my favorite people to teach, Bonnie. She is a returning less active member and it's so cool to talk with her. Whenever I leave her home I feel so pumped about the gospel. We were able to connect with an investigators daughter in Shawano who also wants to investigate, so we are going to start teaching them together. I'm a big fan of this.

We are teaching a family with an 11 year old daughter who is so funny. Her dad really wants her to marry the Bishops son who is also 11 and in the same class. We wrote on our notes to Bishop that her dad said she could come to church if she went with Bishops son so lo and behold Bishop immediately texts his wife and has his son call up our investigator at 8:45 that morning and she came to primary and loved it. We have an awesome ward. 

It's been a great week and I'm excited that the weather is warming up. Gresham has a little ice cream and burger shop they open up in the spring that we have eaten way too many times considering it's only been open a week but those milk shakes bring all the missionaries to the yard. I love you I love you and am glad to hear everyone is doing well. 

From your chicken,

Kaytie

Ps- a quote I liked from mission conference "Humility is knowing who you are and who God is. Then recognizing your complete dependency on Him." also "Sometimes I tick off Satan and I'm alright with that."