I'm a REAL Missionary Now

We started out the week by getting bikes. Some members are letting us borrow them while we're carless. The one that I ride is a super cute light blue beach cruiser (s/o to Maddi Ostmann, totally reminds me of you every time I ride it.) Poor Sister Hansen is all of 5 foot nothing and the one that's smaller is still way too big for her. Her feet don't touch the ground, so she can't stop without getting off the bike. It is quite...interesting...riding a bike in a dress or a skirt. But it's manageable. I finally feel like a real missionary. No more of that cushy car. It's all about feeling the burn, flying skirts and helmet hair! I really like the bikes but it does require more detailed planning and more travel time. No longer can we have appointments every hour; it takes an hour just to bike to the next place. The first day we used bikes the GPS told us that the bike route would take 30 minutes. It took 90. Part of that though was because Sister Hansen had a near death experience. (Don't worry mom, we've been totally careful) A concerned passerby stopped to ask if we were okay. So of course we did what missionaries do and talked to her about Jesus so I guess it was meant to be! We got stranded because it got dark super fast and we knew we couldn't ride in the dark on the busy streets if we wanted to live, so we called one of our favorite members and she rescued us.

Thursday Sister Hansen was scheduled to help interpret in ASL for the colleague of a member (who we hope to teach soon) at a business meeting. When we were both doing language study we sang hymns. I sang in Spanish, she sang in English and then signed it too. We had 3 languages going at once. It was pretty cool if I do say so myself! The night before we woke up to intense thunder and lightning. So of course we wanted to be prepared missionaries. We put all our things in plastic zip-loc and brought towels to dry off our bikes. We  broke out the rain jackets and boots and decided we'd better ride up in pants and change once we got there. Turns out the rain decided to go away and we were burning up from our boots and jackets. After miles and miles of biking, we were up by Westfield High and we called one of the laurels that has taught with us and asked if we could leave our things in her car so we didn't have to drag them around all day.

Whelp, next day, after we left our rain things behind, the rain decided to come back. Typical.

We had a week of cancellations, which was difficult because we were depending on those appointments for rides to and from where we needed to go. So we had a bit of stress figuring out little things like that. We were supposed to get another car on Thursday but it looks like we'll still probably have another week on bikes.

Nova, the girl we met at the library last week, has met with us 3 times already! She's great and a bit eccentric. Our second lesson with her she got a phone call and found out she lost her job. She was quite devastated because she supports herself. We ended up teaching her at Miss Mae's. Miss Mae excused herself and said she'd be right back. When she came back she had bought groceries to send home with Nova. It was so touching how sweet and thoughtful she was. We sure love her.

We took Blanca for a church tour and afterwards had her attend a baptism. She liked it just fine but I wish it would have been in Spanish for her to understand a bit better. She did say she felt peace and it seemed like a special place but there's still something not clicking for her. At the end she had us come out to her car and she had gifts for us. She gave us each a shirt and jewelry. She was so cute and had to make sure we knew she loved us both and not one more than the other. Aw their my favorite couple!

President and Sister Cleveland were at the baptism. Afterwards we chatted and President Cleveland asked if I heard anything about my visa. Rough, cause he's the one that's suppose to hear about it before anybody else does!

We got a call from a very upset son-in-law saying his wife's mother was not interested in finding another church, that she was upset we kept coming back and she didn't know why we kept coming back. (I'll tell you why, she kept setting up appointments with us for certain days and times. Of course we're going to come back) On the voice mail he threatened to call the cops on us if we ever returned and "trespassed." It's all good though, her memory wasn't very good and she couldn't remember what we taught her. It really blows my mind though how threatened people feel. We're just two girls who love Jesus. Not much scary about that!

Last Sunday we met this guy watering his yard and we shared with him a 5 minute lesson and he said we could come back so yesterday we went back and asked for him. He wasn't home but his 18 year old god-daughter was. She mentioned she was from Noblesville (That's where Abby is from, but so are a lot of other people, so usually I don't say anything.) I asked her if she went to Noblesville High and she did. So I said I knew it was a long shot but asked if she knew Abby Alvey. She does. They're are friends on facebook and the whole bit. We ended up teaching her a short lesson and got an appointment to come back. Crazy the connections I have in good ol' Indiana.

Well as always, I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Pearson

Me and my super cute light blue beach cruiser