HUMP DAY! 🐪

What happened this week?

Briefly,

We had exchanges where, at a member meal, I was told I'd get full after 2.5 Philippino egg rolls.  I said "challenge accepted", and then ate 6, no problem.

I carved a cat out of soap for a gift to an hermana.

I got flowers from Tanner for Valentine's Day AND ALMOST CRIED.  He must've put in an order over 6 months ago for them because he's in Africa.  #ExtraSpecial

I hit my nine month mark on Saturday! HUMP DAY!

It was literally too warm today and yesterday for a jacket #EastCoast"Winter"

We were going to have a baptism yesterday but had to postpone it because the kid we were going to baptize has legal issues that'll hopefully be resolved by mid-March.

We made four pans of brownies in one night--the ward is too poor to feed us so we feed the ward.

We spend a lot of time poking around the dollar store on p-days.

I got chewed out by the mission president's wife for having too much money left over on my card. Awkward conversation there. I'm like, "Sorry I know how to budget, and I spend less money than I make...?" She told me to spend as much of it as I could... probably gonna have a lot of fun later today ;)

With some of that money, we built an herb garden on our patio!  We're now awaiting Fairy Garden supplies from Sister Vespucci's mom.

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While writing this, we got a call from President Johnson about transfers and he told us..... We're staying together!  However, we are going "full-pros" (full-time proselyting) where we don't go into the VC and instead, just focus all of our time in our area (like all you normal missionaries).   It's what we have been praying for and then suspecting for a few weeks. 

(SO DON'T SEND ANYTHING TO THE VC ADDRESS. I won't be there!)

But that's pretty much it!  It's been a great week with many smiles and much laughing.  YOU don't forget to look at the bright side of life, because you're a lot happier when you do!

Love you all!

~Sister Galli

Valentine flowers from Tanner (Awwww.....)

Henry the Hump Day Camel (Thank you, IKEA!)

Halfway mark for all four of these gals

Their new herb garden pot

Spring Dinos 🌷

Hey all! Video for this week. Enjoy!

Weekly update

Time lapse video of them cleaning the Sisters' Lounge

Playing the M&M game 

(You squeeze two colors together and see which one cracks. The other one moves on.)

'Thank you' note for cleaning the lounge.

Silver Springs Zone

Dinosaur carved out of a candle

To sum up her week, for the sake of the book:

- Had their first meal with a member in the area. She is from Sierra Leone and she made them a meal with traditional foods. She said it was different but good. (I think it's so ironic that Hannah is having all of these experiences with African people seeing as Tanner is serving in Mozambique.)

- Spent 5 hours cleaning the Sisters' lounge at the Visitor's Center.

- Checked on a referral but got to the street that marks the end of their area and realized it was not in their area. Pulled over to the side of the road to figure out what to do and decided to knock on the four doors near them. The first one wasn't home, the second one was a family from Honduras so they gave the referral to the Spanish elders, the third one was a white lady (the first white person they have really met in this area) who was concerned for their safety (which scares me a little), and the fourth one was another hispanic family who they referred to the Spanish elders.

- Mary and Yeanoh (the ladies that were baptized last week) were confirmed members of the church on Sunday. She said that was wonderful to be a part of.

- Had interviews with the Mission President on Friday. He made it sound like they will be companions for another transfer, and he suggested that he would likely be sending both of them 'outbound' at the same time, which means they will be full proselyting missionaries (so they wouldn't serve in the VC) for one or two transfers. 

- She loves this area. She said the people say 'hi' when you pass them on the street (something that doesn't happen in the DC stake, which is a more affluent area).

Party! 🎉

Three areas. Six companions. Nine months. Three African converts. One missionary.  Booyah.

This week is one for the books, my friends! Putting together a baptism is hard work!  You don't realize how much behind the scenes there actually is with those kind of things until your ward is tiny so the missionaries more or less have to do and/or arrange everything.  From the program to setting up the room to making sure your black investigators have white underwear--which they don't. But, despite all the craziness of setting everything up throughout the week, once the baptismal service started, everything went smoothly :) We had a lot of support from the ward (which means like 30 people came) (but that's like 1/3 the active members so) There was a lot of support from the ward.  The Elders even had an investigator attend so that was cool.

The baptism was so uplifting.  After they were baptized, they shared their testimonies and it even made the mission president tear up. Yeanoh said some amazing things like she knew that even though she'd been baptized two other times, she knew that this was the baptism that God would accept, and that she'd never deny her faith, even if confronted with death.  Those African women have so much faith.  It's awe inspiring.

This week, we were also able to start teaching one of Yeanoh's other kids whose name is John and he wants to be baptized as well. Hopefully his dad will be able to baptize him and not work that Sunday.

This area is a gold mine!  It feels amazing to bring in the harvest for the Lord :)

~Sister Galli

Washington DC Flag

Beautiful!

Sister Galli and Sister Vespucci with their new converts, the elders, and President and Sister Johnson

Sister Galli and Sister Vespucci at the baptism of Mary and Yeanoh