Dearest Family of the Universe!!!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PICTURES!!!!! They made my day... no week... no entire mission!!! haha!!! I loved them sooooooooo much!! I printed them off :) I loved the ear muffin, shine bright, kleeshan, and phoebe ones!!! (and lennon's fat ones... i guess that's all of the pictures... haha!) PLEASE GIVE PHOEBE LOVES FOR ME!!!! Those pics you sent to me of her in mom's bed made me so so sad!!! I hope she gets better!!!!!! (and I hope your coughs go away too! haha!)
This week has been crazy!!! We have been doing service non-stop! It has been awesome! One home we spent a lot of time at this week got 9 FEET OF WATER AND 5 FEET OF MUD in their basement!!!!!!!!!!!!! They had all of the water out and most of the mud when we got there, but it looked SO bad! Their home is ruined! They had 12 dump trucks full of mud!! We shoveled and shoveled and shoveled and just dumped it in the street. They had the road blocked off. It is unbelievably terrible in some places! I will send some pics! Besides shoveling out mud, we tore down sheet rock, and cabinets and worked hard! There were 4 Sisters there. Then 3 elders showed up later in the day. The home owners name is Nick. He is probably in his late 50's early 60's. His voice actually sounds a lot like Todd Franks'! Hermana Cropper and I were working together in the boiler room clearing mud out. he was awesome! super nice guy and was really grateful for our help! We worked in his home from 11-6:30 with a half hour to eat lunch. I have NEVER BEEN SO SORE IN MY LIFE! I really thought I might have sprained my back... it hurt soooo bad! But it was really fun to be covered in mud! haha! We went as a group to eat at Bucca di Beppo after. It was so fun!!! We were all muddy, but our waiter was so impressed with us for helping that he gave us our meal half off!!!! TENDER MERCY! haha :)
This week we also helped a hoarder... it was terrifying! I have never seen so many things in a home before in my life. it was disgusting and I couldn't get out of that house fast enough! haha! And there are streets that are indescribable. Sister Engstrom took pics of one near our house. We also have been helping the city at dump sites. We tell people what they are allowed to dump (no electronics or paint, etc.) The first time was pretty fun! We did it with these 2 guys, one was a cop, he was SO nice and funny! Kind of reminded me of Uncle Eli. We had fun with them! Everyone was really grateful we were there and helping too. Not a lot of people came to the dump site on the second day... so it was boring. But we went dumpster diving... haha! And I found a wooden louisville slugger that a former Colorado Rockie had signed, (darren holmes, he was a pitcher) Pretty legit! haha! And another sister... Sister Koller (who's family might have been in gma and gpa's ward in Payson! he was the stake pres!) she found a rain stick! I used to have one when I was a kid - I think we bought it in Las Vegas on a vacation. SO we had fun with it!! :) We went to Wendy's after that day of work and this guy saw all of us in our yellow helping hands vests and was so impressed with us so he bought all of us chocolate frostys! It was sooooo nice!!!!! :) There are so many good people in the world! :) Hope this food thing keeps up :)
This week we also had dinner with a family who invited their neighbors over. They are 2 guys in their 20's. Their names are chris and brandon. They were sweet!!!! SO nice!! Chris is back in school studying in some sort of seminary and is very religious. Brandon is very religious too. We had lots of fun with them and had a great conversation. They were awesome! The elder's gave them each a Book of Mormon and they seemed like they were really interested in reading it. It was a fun night!
We also did service at the place called Attention Homes for Youth. They were having a fundraiser and wanted our help setting up for it. It was mardi-gras themed. It was pretty fun and they gave us really cool masks. We took pics of together that I will send you! And it was Broomfield Days on Saturday! It was a party! I didn't know how big it was going to be! They had a parade and tents with vendors set up everywhere. We got asked by a couple in our ward to help out with the car show! We were so excited!!!! I love this couple! Kathy and Rick :) We got there at 6am and helped out until about 3. There were some AWESOME cars!!!! Max - I was thinking about you the whole time! I took tons of pictures!!! So I will send them to you, buddy!
Mom- I got your package! THANK YOU!! I have worn the skirt 2 days in a row :) I love it so much! and I am wearing the Suzie Turner shirt today :) And I love that you are fb friends with SIster Engstrom!! I told her to do that :) I had her look up my blog and we watched the video of me opening my call! it was fun!! :) I was with her last night when she got on because she wanted to show me all of your art stuff! SHE IS REALLY IMPRESSED WITH YOUR ART!!! When she got on, you had just fb stalked her and she loved it! She thought you were going to think she was crazy for having liked a bunch of your stuff the other day. haha! I told her you probably loved it! :) I love the Engstrom's so much! They are an awesome couple! They took us to get DQ the other night and it was so much fun! This is actually the last week before transfers!!!!!!! Can you believe it!? I can't! It is flying by! I have been gone for 2 1/2 months! that is cray cray!!! But I am really hoping I get to stay in Broomfield and with the Engstrom's for one more transfer! I will find out on saturday!!!! So on Monday when I email you ,I will let you know whether I am staying or getting transferred to a new area!!! Crazy!!!
Also... Sad news... Kathleen canceled on us this week... her daughters play got rescheduled for that night. But she did sound like she wanted to reschedule! So we are hoping that happens this week! I just have to tell you all how much my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown since I have been out!!! I LOVE EL LIBRO DE MORMON!!!!! I have a hard time putting it down in the mornings after our studies are over. It is so good! And filled with so many wonderful teachings and examples! I wish I would have read the Book of Mormon A LOT more before my mission! I want you to know that I know it is true and I am so grateful to have it as a guide in my life!!!! I hope you are all doing a daily scripture study! I know it will bless you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! TE QUIERO :)
-hannah :)