Woodhaven

Holy cows,

I never thought that I would fall in love with an area, but it happened! Woodhaven is the dream! It's still part of the city but far enough out that it doesn't feel super busy. It almost has a country feel, and it's so beautiful over here. We do bike over the freeway every other day, so I still get reminded where we're actually at. Oh and there's this giant hill we bike down sometimes and you go so fast your eyes start tearing up! It's awesome and probably super dangerous!😅

We bike all day every day which is just the best! I'm sore all the time but my legs actually have muscles in them now! 😆My companion, Sister Mitchell, does planning differently and we go out in the morning, come back, and go out again and it's great because I don't have a chance to talk myself out of anything!😉 We do finding all day, and we visit people and teach and we're busy all the time. I love it!😊 I've never been this content and self motivated on the mission, I'm so grateful, and prayers are definitely being answered!

It's been nice all week except for today. Today it's raining pretty darn good with an awesome wind factor to add to the madness. But everything is so green and lush, the trees are blooming and the flowers are opening up, a girl can't complain! I got sunburnt this week in the dumbest places. Only half of my foot is gonna be tan while the rest will still be this blinding whiteness. Also, I fell in a ditch.

We were going to turn onto this one main road, and there's a ton of traffic, so we were about to go when Sister Mitchell stopped again and I stopped but on kind of an awkward rise and lost my balance and fell into a ditch. I was laughing so hard because it was the only ditch full of mud and of course I fell into that one! I had mud and blood all down my leg cuz I kinda hit a cement chunk... but there were some members close by and they got me fixed up. Their daughter Delany insisted on bandaging my leg (even though it was just a couple scratches), so the rest of the day I biked around with a pink camo bandaids and a patch of gauze on my leg. I should have taken a picuture but I forgot!😣

I keep forgetting to tell y'all about my fun little discovery the Saturday before transfers. So I had a rash appear on my wrist where I always wore my watch. I thought it was chafing so I stopped wearing it for a while. Well this rash got on my fingers and my other hand, and it would get agitated and itchy when we'd bike. Finally I looked it up in our medical book because I was worried it might be something worse than I thought and transfers were coming up. Turns out I had scabies. They're these awesome little bloodsucking mites that you can get from just about anywhere, it doesn't matter how clean you are. I had to go to the clinic and get some medicinal cream and Sister Wilcox Sr and I washed EVERYTHING. It was a great last Saturday in Hurstbourne...😐😬

I'm in animal heaven! Everyone has a pet of some kind. I've seen so many bull dogs, pit bulls (Sister Mitchell had one of those charge at her yesterday😨),pitt mixes, german sheperds, beagles, and we saw a great Dane the other day. A lot of people around here also have chickens in their backyards which blows my brain because I thought you couldn't have any in an urban area... every now and again I'll hear a rooster crowing and I just love these crazy people! I saw cows for the first time in a while too!😀

So people here are mostly baptist, catholic, roman catholic, pentacost, lutherin, seven day adventists, south east Christian or Christian of some sort. It's so much more fun to meet someone outside of those, because that's not as common and people outside of those parameters are usually more open minded. Meeting an atheist or an agnostic or a pagan is always stretching because we're all so used to Bible loving people. I love it because we get challenged differently and we have to teach based on what they understand.

The other day we met a wiccan dude for the first time and he actually wants to meet with us. Sister Mitchell was concerned about what we're even gonna teach this guy, because he believes in goddesses of the sun and moon and nature stuff. But while he was talking, he mentioned that he liked "feeling" the energy around him. When we were leaving I thought, "this guy would really like the Holy Spirit" and Sister Mitchell was like, "yessss!" So when we meet him next that's what we're talking about. I don't know how solid he'll be, but I'm excited!

Also, we met this really sweet man outside his home on Tuesday or Wednesday, I think. He was open to meeting with us again and we asked if we could say a prayer with him. He started crying during the prayer, and it was the cutest thing! I love these people!

Sister Mitchell is very in tune with the spirit and she just goes for the first prompting she gets and it's great! Earlier this week we were in a neighborhood trying to get a hold of a former investigator. We were about to leave when she suddenly felt like we needed to stay. She said that someone there needed us. So we walked slowly down the street knocking doors we felt the slightest inclination to go to. Then at the very end we reached the home of an old man who lost his wife 2 years ago. We talked with him for a long time, and he wasn't interested in the Church, but he got a little emotional when he told us he was grateful we decided to stop and talk to him. Heavenly Father is aware of all of us and our needs, whether your in the Church or not. We're here to uplift those around us and be tools in the Lord's hands as much as we are here to bring others to the gospel.

I actually have another thing on that. Sister Wilcox Sr and I were out later than usual one night when we ffan into this hobo-hiker guy named Walter. He was cool and he believed in being a good person and all that. He wasn't too fond of big churches, but we testified to him that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored once more and gave him our card. We then parted ways and didn't think much of it. Well three weeks later, Sister Wilcox tells me that Walter called and wanted to come to church! He said there was something different in our eyes and he wanted to know what. It was just soooooo cool!

I got to go to the Temple this week too because a mother and son were finally getting their endowments. It was such a neat experience, and they were so full of joy. They both have had such a rough life and now they finally get to have peace. I'm so grateful we have temples so close!

We had Thunder over Louisville on Saturday,  but missionaries aren't aloud to go. That's ok though we have a lot to do😎. Plus everybody gets drunk and then they drive around and it wouldn't be good for us to be out there in all that... Derby is coming up so that'll be insane. There should be a ton of people around though so that could be fun!

I miss my old ward and my companion, but it's so much fun here and my new ward is just as amazing! Plus, I'm still in the same Stake and building😄! My companion and I relate on so many levels yet differ enough to keep each other motivated. And we're working basically new area because our area has been split up. Our ward has 2 elder companionships now and us! How crazy is that?!

Our zone did a zone fast this last Sunday and Sister Mitchell and I made it to 6:30pm! And on bikes! Fasting with a purpose is so powerful. This new transfer is going to be amazing and I can't wait to see what happens!

I'm currently sitting on the floor in a onesie I found enjoying the luxury of having a washer & dryer IN the apartment. Life is good. That's all I can think of, I love you all tons!😘

I will send pictures eventually! I'm trying to get a hold of them all from Sister Wilcox Sr!

With love,
Sister Wilcox❤💕❤