9 Months!!!

That awkward moment when....

... someone tells you sorry for not being interested so you say "You're good" and they pause thinking for a while and then say "Well I think I am a good person.... I haven't done anything too bad I guess..."

... you go to check up on a referral and they start to sob and say they are so happy you stopped by but they are too overcome with emotion to talk so they shut the door and you walk away confused...

... you check up on the same referral a third time and there is a moving truck at her house so you go up to ask the random lady if they need help and she says "There's no soliciting here. I don't mean to offend you but I'm all set with religion. Plus my partner died two days before Christmas." so you apologize for the loss and connect the dots and figure out that it was the referral you were checking up on again... 

... you tell the "all set" lady she is fine and she says "No I'm not! I haven't slept in two days!"...

... you forget that everything is closed on Christmas as you drive around looking for some place to have lunch...

... you accidentally knock over someone's plant with your hip and it falls to the ground and brakes and causes a huge mess and you don't even know the members because you are on exchange....

... you are walking down the driveway of another "all set" lady and you slip on the ice and almost fall on your bum...

... it was a very unsuccessful day and so to make it better you decide to go get hot chocolate and they are all out and you aren't going home anytime soon to make some...

... when you talk to 55 people but none of them are interested...

... everyone thinks you are getting transferred but you still have at least another month left before you'll know if you are leaving or staying... 

I know, I have weird moments.

I don’t know why everyone thinks I am leaving, but they do.  I won’t even hear about transfers for another month.  

So we gave these guys a card and we came back the next day to that same spot to go street contacting and we found one of our cards right where they were sitting the day before, but they had left it with three full cans of Coke....

There is a really cute little street here that I am sure you would love to use for photo shoots. We get to go street contacting on it. Oh and there is this cute little candy store there too that looks like it's from Alice in Wonderland. It has all this exposed brick and then it has black and white and teal and swirly stuff and they make it look kind of like the cut Tim Burton stuff. Plus the candy adds extra color. Maybe they have pictures of it on google. Look up Scrummy's in Hallowell ME.

When we got to the library there were no empty computers so we went saw one of the original Book of Momons.  Sister Bee hadn’t had a chance to see it yet.  (It was a good thing the computers were all being used because our Utah snow storm made me late getting to work and late sending my email.  I was afraid I was going to miss her.  Tender Mercies)

We still have some of the peanut butter bars left. I had to make them last! I don't have my mom here to make them for me ;)

Sorry, I didn’t have time to answer the questions this week.  

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update from our Christmas Skype:

We were able to see and talk to Whitney via skype on Christmas day which was also her 9 month mark.  She is halfway through her mission!!!  A few things she shared with us:

She had dinner with E and his wife on "Christmas Adam."  They had duck which she has never had before.  She really liked it and said it didn't taste like chicken.

On Christmas Eve she had dinner with the Ward Mission Leader.  He made her feel right at home, even bribing her to eat a spoonful of peas.  She did it . . .  for $5.  For those of you who don't know who much she HATES peas, it goes back to when she was a baby.  They make her gag and sometimes worse (just ask her Grandma).  She said she swallowed them whole except a few because there were too many on the spoon.  

Christmas dinner and skype sessions were held at the Dawbins' house.  We are so grateful for their hospitality.  Not only did they have them over for Christmas, but feed them dinner frequently.  I am so grateful for their willingness to watch over my girl.

She talked about many of the members in Maine who watch over them.  She is in a great area and she LOVES it!  Thanks for taking care of her!

Whitney hasn't changed at all!  We spent the entire time laughing.  She still gets distracted easy.  At one point we made a reference to "Up!" by just saying "squirrel" meaning she was distracted by some object in the room.  She laughed and told us about how there are a lot of squirrels in Maine.  I don't think we have to worry about her coming home and being a super serious RM.  

She also told us about several times when she and Sister Bee slid on icy driveways.  Sometimes on purpose, sometimes, not so much.  I ran across some ice spikes that strap to your shoes that I will be sending for both of them in the next package.  

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  Oh and the final message from Whit, "CPR! Go to Church, Pray and Repent." 

Augusta on Christmas Day

Didn't want to cook lunch and also wanted to celebrate her halfway point.  Drove around to find someplace open. . . Denny's!

"Too sunny to be Christmas Day!"

The tall building is her apartment building from the back.  She lives on the bottom floor.

They were going to visit this home, but there was a big "no trespassing" sign.

Sister Bee took a picture while we skyped.  Oh, her feet don't even reach the ground. :)

Cans of coke mentioned above

This is NOT my favorite tradition for Sister Missionaries.  The do this to represent their 9 month mark.  I was hoping she would skip this tradition.  All in fun...

Our cute girl on Christmas