The Struggle (it's real)

email 14 Apr 2015

This week has been hilarious! Sister Betzold and I were knocking on some doors and we came upon this house with a GIANT porch! They didn't look like they were home so we decided to practice our moonwalking on the porch. ... Well it turns out they were home. And they opened the door to us moonwalking across their porch. We just started CRACKING up!!!! But they let us in and let us make rice crispies with them:). It was a good night. There's this Elder in my district that everyone calls "Trench-coat-jones" because he wears one. Every. Single. Day. It's interesting haha but he told me a riddle about himself. He said "I'm the oldest and the youngest at the same time. And I'm the only child and not the only child at the same time". If you think of an answer, let me know!!! I was telling someone about him and I made the mistake of telling them he ONLY wears trench-coats instead of ALWAYS wears trench-coats. They were rather disturbed and I will never live that down with that family again, haha. Another Sister Sarlls Struggle moment. Someone was asking me where my old area was and I told them Ben Lomond. And they said "is that in Logan or in Ogden?" Automatically I responded with "Mountain!". Hahaha. I don't know why the struggle was especially real this week. But it was, haha. Sister Betzold and I are going to write a song about it since we are Always struggling, Haha.

We got to have a total service day this week!!! I loooooove service days!!! We started off by joining one of the wards by cleaning up the community. So we went to this old couples house and stacked all their wood and pulled weeds and then we burned it all! SO COOL!!! But the coolest part of that day was when we got to go split and create a new beehive!!! YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT! Sister Sarlls was brave enough to handle a beehive!!! It was so amazing! It was kind of a spiritual experience being able to learn about one of God's precious creations. It reminded me of the song "all things bright and beautiful". The earth around us testifies of God. I love the last line of the song that says "How great is God Almighty, who has made all things well" His creations are perfect. He made them well. He made us perfectly flawed so we are able to learn and grow:). As I looked at the bees on my hand closely, it made me realize that God is in the details of our lives. He's aware of the little tiny bugs on the earth. And he's aware of the little tiny pains and aches in our life. His love is infinite and everlasting. I only got stung once, too! But that's because I smushed it between my thighs. Whoopsies. 

Emily's companions indicating their assignment order.

This past Sunday we had our musical fireside in Logan (Ogden is on the 26th). It was amazing!!!!! Something cool was that I was able to have ALL of my companions there:). I got a picture of all of us together holding up the number of companion they were. I'm so grateful I get to sing here on my mission:). The theme of the fireside is "Redeemer". Sister Betzold is singing a song called "Hope's Song". It's from veggie tales but it's sooo pretty! The last line of the song says "He died for us to give us life, and to give us hope, He rose". I love this beautiful message it gives. I felt the spirit so strongly when she sang it. I love my Savior so much. I love His sacrifice for us. I looked up the definition of Life and it means "something in constant change". I love that definition in correspondence with the song! He died for us so we can change! I hope to use His sacrifice daily to change. And to use His resurrection daily to have hope. His gospel is a gospel of Hope! 

All my love, 
Sister Sarlls 

Snowfall on April 15th!