Sweet Is The Work: "Virginia-isms"

This week has just been quite the adventure to say the least hahaha.

Are you guys ready? Cool. Where to begin...

Well, Tuesday we taught Ivan again. Did I tell you about him? He is a divorced, older guy from Peru and the best way to describe him would probably be... a very stubborn catholic.
Emphasis on very. Ha!

We took a member with us who is from Mexico and used to be Catholic and we read the Book of Mormon with him, because he didn't understand the language. At the end of the lesson, he pretty much said, "You all can come over here for 20 years and teach me but I don't think I'll ever change." We were like, "Do you believe that through Christ anyone can change and overcome their weaknesses?" And he said "Yes, but not me." He was just trying to be difficult haha :) He even said, "next time you come over I'm going to bring out my bible." We were like coooooool Ivan. Do it! But he did say that reading the Book of Mormon gave him peace, so maybe his heart will soften. :)

We also taught a lady named Carla this week! She is probably one of the more prepared people I've taught on my mission. She is super good friends with a family in the ward and has come to a bunch of different ward parties and things. Back in December the member family gave her family to us as a referral, but then Carla's family went out of town for a while. But! We finally got to teach her on Thursday and she is so so sweet. Her and her husband are from Guatemala and are the nicest people ever. They have two kids and consider themselves Catholic, but don't really follow or believe everything the Catholic church believes. When we had stopped by a few weeks before, we gave her a restoration pamphlet and a Book of Mormon and when we taught her this week she had pretty much already taught herself the restoration. When Sister Wagstaff started reciting the first vision, Carla was like, "Oh yeah, I know!"
It was a great lesson and she is just so humble.
Pray that our lesson with her this Thursday goes well!

Saturday was Valentines Day! Woohoo!

Sister Wagstaff and I had a lovely day. :) We made chocolate dipped strawberries and had a yummy dinner all by ourselves, it was great.
Also, thanks so much to the ward back home for the package! You guys are the best.

I was thinking the other day about all the funny/weird things about Virginia and thought I'd share some with you. I like to call them "Virginia-isms". Enjoy.

Okay the weirdest one first, that I will never, ever understand: EVERYONE here has personalized license plates. EVERYONE. Hahaha I see like 50 per day. With the weirdest things on them?? Examples: "SLEEEEP" or things like "GETR DONE" or "CAT LADY" or "OBNOXROS" like why Viriginia? Who made that a thing?
Anyway, so weird.
Everyone has colorful doors with matching shutters.
It is a constant struggle to find visitor parking here.
This one kills me: people refuse to open their door to talk to you if they don't know who you are. People just yell through the door, "Who's there? Hello? Who are you? What are you doing? Oh, I'm not interested." and we just have to awkwardly yell back, "WE ARE THE MISSIONARIES!" Hahaha my favorite.
Oreo's go stale in like one week. #humidity
Everyone says "y'all" or "have a blessed day".
People love to tell us, "Actually, I'm a Christian. I follow Jesus." Okeeeee.
People are literally OBSESSED with their pets. Every time we knock on a door it starts a symphony of dog barks.
And last but not least, when it snows, everything. shuts. down.

Which brings us to yesterday. We were on a blitz with our district in our area and we had heard that a storm was coming in, but we were not prepared for this hahaha.
It snowed all day and all night!

All our cars got "grounded", so we have just been walking since yesterday in like a foot of snow. Yep it took us like 40 minutes to walk to this library today hahaha. I have been wearing 3 pairs of leggings, tons of sweaters, 2 pairs of gloves, a scarf, a head wrap, and like 4 pairs of socks all week. ITS FREEZING. So just pray that it all melts and spring comes early.

On a happier note, we have a sisters meeting down in Richmond tomorrow! Yay!
So fun to go back down there and see all the peeps that I love. :)

Overall we have just seen a lot of miracles this week and had some fun adventures. We found 4 new investigators! The work is moving forward so well!

Transfer calls are this Saturday night..... So I will know if I'm staying or leaving by then. If I do get transferred (praying so so hard that I don't) then I will leave on Tuesday of next week.
Pray that I stay! K? Thanks. :)

You all are great! I am very jealous of how warm it is at home! I'll just freeze over here, no biggie. :) I hope you guys have a great week!

Lots of love!

XOXO Sister Fowers