Hump Day!

Hello everyone! Welp, I learned that Spring Break really isn't the best when you're not on Spring Break. I'm pretty sure everyone is out of town this week! It's been crazy trying to visit people and find people to come out with us. I did feel like I was on Spring Break though with how often I got burnt. I got burnt and then it turned to tan and then I got burnt and then it turned to tan and then I got burnt and it's slowly starting to tan. And now it's snowing. So ya, Nevada's crazy. Anyways, it was still a good week! To start with, Sister Anderson and I are companions now!! So it's basically a party everyday. We're so much alike it's crazy!

Anyways we'll start with Monday because that was a crazy day. When we got home to finish packing Sister Finch's stuff, I managed to somehow hit the curb just right at 5 miles an hour and ended up getting a flat tire. Honestly, I blame the mission. They're the ones that decided to give me a Chevy Malibu even after what happened to the last one. It was even the same tire and everything. Anyways, after the Lakeside sisters showed up to help us we got the donut on and went to the shop to get our tire replaced. When we got there, the mission decided that they wanted all 4 tires changed. So we were there for a solid 3-4 hours :(

The rest of the week was much better though! On Tuesday we had transfers and then I was in a trio with Sister Anderson and Sister Finch. Wednesday morning we dropped Sister Finch off at the mission office so she could take the long ride out to Elko. 

Wednesday night we had dinner with Sister Jones. She ended up taking us to In n Out (for the second time in my life) and it was pretty fun! It was crazy because on the car ride there it somehow came up that Sister Wanda Jones and I both know the Nolands and then I learned that they are really good friends. Turns out Sister Jones played a part in bringing the Nolands the gospel, so that's pretty awesome. She also went on a mission with Sister Anderson's grandma and sister, so she's basically connected to everyone.

Anyways, not much else I can think of this week. I hope yall have a great week!

Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)

It's Spring!

Hello everyone!

This week has been a little crazy! Yet again, I'll try to remember what all happened this week. My birthday was great! When we were at our district meeting on Tuesday, Sister Chesnut showed up at the church with a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. Sister Chesnut is the best!! :) That afternoon I celebrated my birthday by scrubbing someone's floors. Party!! That night for dinner Sister Wanlass ordered Papa Johns and I opened my presents and such. Basically it was the best birthday dinner I could've asked for :) That night I went on exchanges with Sister Anderson and we had soo much fun!

On Friday we roadtripped out to Dayton to get all of Sister Finch's stuff. Just so yall know, they give us tiny pieces of the transfer puzzle at a time and it's very stressful. On Friday we just got a call from the APs telling us that we had to get all of Sister Finch's stuff in Dayton (which is an hour-hour and a half drive) and that she wouldn't be going back to Dayton. So we did that and then we spent the rest of the weekend stressing over transfers. Then during Sacrament meeting on Sunday, we checked the phone and realized that President was calling us. Not ever a good sign.

Which brings me to the big news. Sunday night we found out that Sister Anderson is my new companion!!!!! I'm so excited :) the even crazier news is that I'm staying in the Mt Rose ward (for my 5th transfer now) and the craziest news is that I'm going to be a Sister Training Leader (that's what President called me about). For those of you wondering, I don't even know how to be a missionary. So being a Sister Training Leader is going to be a struggle. And I am completely surprised that I am staying in this ward! It's going to be so hard leaving this ward! I love it so much :) But it'll be great because I'll get to be here for the baptism in a couple weeks. And I'll spend another General Conference in this ward :)

Also, more crazy news! Sister Finch is going to Spring Creek! She'll be with Sister Gali. I guess I'll just send all of my companions to Spring Creek :) haha

Anyways there's not a whole lot else that I can think of. Here's the quote of the week:

Sis Finch: Why do people say gingers have no soul?

Me: We do have souls, lots of souls. Every freckle is for a soul I've stolen.

And a more serious quote:

It's harder to live the gospel 99% of the time than it is to live the gospel 100% of the time because that 1% will drag you down.

Also, miracle of the week: one of the elders found my flashdrive! Somehow it ended up at his apartment...? Anyways, he found it and gave it to me and my life was basically just made. Miracles do happen!! :D
Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)

Happy Pi Day! :)

Welp this week started off interesting with me going to Urgent Care on Monday evening. It was totally unnecessary though. The doctor did nothing but check my vitals and then tell me that I either had a viral infection or mono but she wasn't sure yet. Pretty sure I could've figured that out on my own...Anyways I feel better now so no worries about mono! I'm not sure how I would've gotten that anyways but whatever...

I was still dying a tad through the first part of this week and with the Nyquil knocking me out (and making me so tired that I was paranoid I really did have mono) I don't really remember the first couple days of last week. But some great things did happen! We had a Relief Society activity the other day and it was amazing because a. there was free food and cupcakes and 2. one of our investigators came!!! We were so excited! We were at this point in the program when someone was playing a music video from the phone and the song was amazing! The Spirit was super strong and I was getting all emotional (I know, me getting emotional? when does that happen?) and she walked in. So there was this whole overdramatic moment where I got up and waved and walked over and gave her and her daughter a hug and we were at the front of the room so everyone was just staring at us like 'what the heck's going on?'. But anyways that was definitely the highlight of the week. Especially because she got to meet a lot of the sisters in the ward and made some friends with some of them!

Another amazing thing happened! We had exchanges! I love exchanges! Friday night through Saturday I was with Sister Meyer in the Lakeside ward and Sister Anderson was with Sister Finch in my ward. It was super fun to be 2/3 of the way back into a trio! I learned a lot from Sister Meyer's greenie fire that she has! We also had dinner with this family and one of them is thinking about going to Purdue for aviation. So if someone could get me the contact info for one of the guys in Purdue YSA that'd be helpful and I'll give it to him...Anyways, tomorrow I get to go on exchanges with Sister Anderson :) I'm super pumped!

Another amazing thing is that I'm going to have lunch with Sister Torres (my trainer) in a little over an hour! I'm so excited :D

Some quotes from the week...

"Throw those Chewbaccas in the garbage" - quoted from a sacrament meeting talk. They were telling a story about how this Chewbacca doll reminded them of a negative experience that happened with it with his dad when he was younger. The other day he decided to throw it away because it reminded him of his negative feelings. He talked about the importance of forgetting the negative and letting go of grudges to be able to make our family relationships Christ centered.

At Urgent Care...

Sister Finch: I can't believe that guy died.

Me: *completely in shock as I think she's talking about the guy that was sitting right behind us a few minutes earlier*

Sis F: *looks at me concerned* The guy in the Oxiclean commercial

Me: Ohh I feel so much better about myself.

Aka things you don't want to hear when you are sitting in Urgent Care.

Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)

P.S. I did hear that Peyton Manning retired but I don't know when y'all planned on telling me that Alan Rickman died. Thanks guys.

P.P.S. Happy Pi Day! I would not be a true math major without wishing y'all a happy pi day.

8 Months in the Field!

This week was a pretty great week! The week started off pretty normal with some added excitement about all of the baptisms that we had coming up. Then on Thursday we were napping during lunch when we got a call from President. For those of you that don't know, that's usually not a good sign. He then told me that he got me a new companion, Sister Finch! She's pretty awesome. My first night on the mission I spent the night with her and her companion and Sister Paul before we went out to the east side, so I kinda already knew her. So we got that news on Thursday and then Friday we were companions. It was really sad leaving the trio because trios are a party but it's been fun being companions with Sister Finch. Well, actually that's a lie, but only because I've been sick the entire time. So I found out I have Ebola. Just kidding, but I'm not sure how I could feel more like death...**knock on wood**. Basically it's the flu I think. I'm not sure. My brain may just explode from all of the drugs that I've been taking. My voice Friday and Saturday sounded completely like a man and then Sunday my voice went away and now my voice just sounds kinda scratchy. I tell ya, there were so many people that we contacted while I was sick that either offered me medicine or a blessing. We decided to just go in early Saturday and stay in Sunday so that we wouldn't cause an epidemic. Yesterday we stayed home from church sick. Basically I'm less active. This is the 5th time that I've missed church in the ward I'm assigned on my mission. This is the 3rd time in this area alone due to me or my companion being sick!

Anyways other than dying this week, we had 2 baptisms! Well, one baptism, but two investigators got baptized :) it was so great! Ever since I met Reece he's been talking about his baptism and I've been teaching Justin from the beginning, so it was awesome to actually see them get baptized! 

As my head is on the verge of implosion, I can't really think of a whole lot else that happened. Oh we did see this one guy that was clearly affected by some drug or other and he called us over to talk to him and this other lady and it was dark and he kept going on and on about there being vampires in the trees. I'm pretty sure his exact words were "I'm serious, watch out for the trees man...you need some garlic or somethin." People are crazy. Anyways I'll make up for my lack of things to talk about through some pictures!

Love and miss you all!

Sister Ashley Gootee :)
P.S Apologies if this doesn't make sense...