Mini Road Trips and Trucks - September 14, 2015

Hey Y'all! 

This has been such an exciting/long week. I feel like I have been all over the mission now. Just kidding only to Nevada, MO and Miami, Ok. 

Let's just with Monday. After a really long preparation day we had a dinner at the really neat ladies house. Her name is Margaret. Sister Bailey and I had dinner with the Brickeys (part member family) and this monday she invited both of us to her home. We had a really good meal. She is from the Middle east (somewhere really cool but I forgot) and made us all this middle eastern food. We had stuffed grape leaves, stuffed eggplants, mint and parsley salad, rice, some mystery meat biscuit (it was really good though!) and a couple other things I forgot. It was all really good food. She had been planning this meal for 2 weeks and was so excited to have us come over. She is so sweet! Then she ordered these really good desserts from somewhere. They were like puff pastry dough filled with nuts with a sweet syrup on top. They were delicious! She also gave Sister Millett and I book marks that were hand made in Jerusalem. We were definitely spoiled and it was such a nice dinner. She is really strong in her Baptist faith. We all had a good time. I left SO full! I don't think I have ever eaten so much food in my life! After dinner she taught us how to play Mexican Train. It was a really confusing way to play it though. haha! 

Tuesday was great too. We started off with some service at a local thrift shop. Then we went to Buffalo with the Bishop and his wife, Sister Wilkins. They took us out to lunch before at a Chinese buffet in town. They are so sweet. We met the DeLaMares there and went on splits. I went with Sister Wilkins and Sister Millett went with Sister DeLaMare to go see some less active members. Together we were able to see a lot of people and it was really fun. It was my first time on splits. We had a really good day. And it rained just like every other time we go to Buffalo. I think I have only been 2 times when it hasn't rained. 

Wednesday we did some tracting with no luck but thats okay. This is where our road trip begins. We had to drive to Miami (pronounced My-am-ah) oklahoma. That is where sister Millett came from. she left in such a rush she wasn't able to say goodbye to people or even get everything she needed and we needed to switch cars. It was about a two hour drive to there from bolivar. We got some dinner and then met a lot of members she wanted to say goodbye to. They are so funny! We got some really cool pictures with this building. Route 66 goes right through town. We had a fun night in Miami. We spent the night there and then we drove back to joplin at the transfer point (where all the missionaries meet to move around) to drop off the miami car, drove another car to the mount vernon transfer point then back to Joplin. From Joplin we had to drive up to Nevada (pronounced Ne-ve-da) to get the rest of sister milletts things. It was a long day with lots of driving. We did get a truck though so that is pretty sweet! It is a Nissan Forrester (I think/I'm pretty sure). Lots of driving but we got done everything we needed to and we had just enough time to make it back for our dinner appointment full of homemade pizza!

Friday was our weekly planning day so nothing too exciting there. This week we saw our investigator Tyler a lot because this weekend is his baptism! Yay! 

Saturday we went to the Country Days Festival in the town square. It was so fun! We talked to some baptist preachers and got rejected but thats ok! We keep on trying. They also had a really cool car show and Mickey and Minnie Mouse were there. Who needs Disney Land when you have Bolivar, MO? We drove down to springfield to do this giant service project. We went with a bunch of other missionaries in our zone to it. We packed food for this non profit. I think it is called Fight Against Hungary. SO many people were there and it was so much fun! I even saw some of the youth from bolivar there so that was cool. 

Well I think that has been our week! It was really good though and it was even better to stay busy. I have learned so much about being happy. You are the most happy when you are forgetting yourself and working hard. It is always best to focus on other people and look for things you can do for them. 

I love you all so much! 

Love,
Sister frederickson