the final ride

Hey Family!

Aw man, thanks so much for the birthday wishes.  I'd say it was definitely a good one, specifically for three main reasons.  Alright so here they are:

First being, no one at church knew it was my birthday.  I just didn't tell anyone, plain as that.  So in ward council after church Brother LaBorde turns to the Elders and says, "Well, are y'all gonna tell everyone else the news?"  (the real news was that Elder Gillen is being transferred this week which is two weeks before transfers)  But one of the Elders says, "Oh yeah!  It's Sister Schmutz's birthday!!"  Then everyone turns to me and asks me if it's really my birthday.  So I say yes and the whole ward council starts singing happy birthday to me.  Aw man, it was priceless.

The second being, we had this appointment with the LSU Sisters to meet this potential investigator they want to give to us.  So we get there and the lady isn't home.  You have to understand we're in the ghetto and the LSU sisters don't go to the ghetto very often and from past conversations you can tell they're kinda freaked out about it.  So Sister Wolf turns to me and says, "Let's go contact those two guys." (two black guys.  maybe in their twenties or so.  just chilling on the ground.) while the Sisters are getting back in their car to drive away.  Haha I think she wanted to kinda show off to the Sisters.  But I was like, "hey!  might as well."  So we just go up and talk to them and they're super funny.  They said we were brave for just coming up like that and talking to them and what not.  Oh my and here's the best part.  They're talking about how God is like a gangster for all these silly things.  And one of them turns to me and says, "You're a gangster.  You can see it in your eyes."  And then he turns to Sister Wolf and says, "You aren't one quite yet.  You've got a little more to learn."  Haha oh man.  It made my day.  Dream come true to be called a gangster by some ghetto black guys. 

Third reason being, the office elders came over for dinner.  We can't go in their apartment and they can't come in ours so we were just eating on the porch when low and behold it just started pouring.  Haha just being funny I said, "We should all go stand in the rain and get drenched."  So yep, you guessed it.  We all went and stood in the rain and played around in the giant puddles.  The spanish elders drove up too so we convinced them to come join us.  Aw man it was too good.  Definitely a good birthday.  :)

Thanks for the package too!  The skirt and one of the shirts is too small though, so do you want me to send those back to you? 

Oh my goodness.  Before I forget here's the absolute best moment from the whole week.  Wednesday we were at bible study and Elder Gillen and Elder Navitikula were teaching about Faith.  So Elder Gillen turns to Johnathan and asks, "how can you increase your faith?"  To which he replies, "keep the law of chastity!"  Oh my, it was the best moment ever.  We all just busted up laughing.  And then Elder Gillen says, "Well, we know what the Sisters have been teaching you lately."  Oh man, we taught him the law of chastity last week.  And Chandra said ever since then he mentions it everyday.  Eleven year olds say the best things.

Anyways, I'm gonna keep this email short so I can send y'all some pictures.  :)  the bike ride today was awesome.  Well...we were all supposed to ride as a district on the levee but half of them were really late and lots of confusion.  But still it was very fun.  We ended up just riding around with half our district and half the spanish district.  And then we all went to get some pizza.  The weather was perfect today too. :)  Oh and the t-shirts say "the final ride"  on the front.  And "bringing hope to the world one mile at a time"  on the back.  Just incase you couldn't read it. 

Love y'all so much!!

Love Always, Sister Schmutz