McKenzee's Missionary Moments: April 17th, 2017

Again I'm so sorry about last week! I'm gonna try and give y'all an update on last week and then this week as well:)

Last weeks letter:)

So holy cow! On the 14th I hit my 18 MONTH MARK! Repeat, 18 MONTHS!!!!! Where has the time gone?!? Time is such a bizarre thing. I'm literally shocked and slightly freaked out. Haha Mostly about the reality that one day I won't be a missionary(one day really soon) and I won't be apart of the mission. There's this amazing unity that comes, almost like a family feeling where you are just connected to these people that you hardly know. You just instantly become your own kind of family with the missionaries and it's sad that it'll all just be a memory so soon. Wow. I seriously can't even begin to express how much I love my mission and how much I've learned and grown. Like really, so much! Coming out on a mission was so hard. Staying on my mission was even harder. But I have seriously had the most amazing time. I just love my mission with all my heart! It's the best thing ever!!!!

Okay but anyway, let me give you the highlights of two weeks ago!

So not a whole lot happens in cathlamet. We drive a ton. Haha and it rains just about everyday. We try and find people to stop by but there isn't a lot of people in the town. To be exact there is about 532 people in the town of cathlamet. You guys only 532 people! I graduated with almost twice that!!! Can't you believe it?! Hah I still can't. It's so freaking tiny. Lol

So two Thursdays ago, (the 13th) we had a zone service project. We went to a community house in Longview and it's this really old place for homeless people to live. It's not much but it gives them a room and bed. So they are trying to remodel and so us missionaries were asked to help. So part of our many jobs were to take about 50 mattresses and move them downstairs. Pretty sure to the dumpster but not sure. They told us to put on masks and gloves because the man was pretty sure they had bed bugs... so that was awesome. These mattresses were so old and gross (some wet) it was just so dirty. So after that we were asked to rip up the old carpet. This carpet is really similar to the church carpet, the only difference is it's about a million years old, and it's so dirty and worn out that it's all matted and literally stuck to the wood underneath it. It was intense work getting it to pull apart. We had to pull so hard. Eventually the elders had to get rope, cut holes in the carpet, and tie the rope to the carpet to rip it up. It was so tough! Lol. Oh and we had to do like 3 floors of this plus stairs. After that little task we needed to paint the walls! It was pretty crazy, there was about 20 of us missionaries painting so it got done pretty fast. It was fun!

Friday the 14th, my 18 month, we went on exchanges with Sister Carrisoza and Sister Proctor. I went to St. Helens with Sister Carrisoza and it was so much fun! Oh it felt so good to be back in St. Helens. It literally felt like coming home! I was so happy to be back! Plus it was so pretty and sunny! It was great! But as great as it was, I had moments where I was freaked out to be back. Ahah it was weird. We went to a few lessons with people that I have been teaching for months so it was good to see them again. But it felt weird without Sister Proctor. And it was the cutest thing, when we went to the apartment in St. Helens, they made me a cute 18 month banner and sang me happy birthday and got me some of my favorite yogurt with a candle. It was so sweet! Haha I loved it! Then we got some Starbucks and we went to mod pizza. It was so much fun! I think I sent y'all the videos!?

Then for dinner we went to the A family! They are a cute older couple from St. Helens 1st Ward. It was so good to see them again. And it was great because I was able to surprise them! It was so priceless to see the people's faces when I walked into their house! Haha I really enjoyed being back.

I also think it was really healthy for me to go back because I was able to see that everything wasn't as perfect as my mind was making it look like. So I was really grateful that president let me go back.

So then Saturday afternoon we exchanged back and Sister Babcock and I got to go to dinner with Sister S! It was seriously so great to see her! We went to Applebee's and caught up on life. I seriously always love seeing her! Then the Longview stake had stake conference Saturday night so Sister S came to that with us! It was fun to have her there. Oh and the missionaries had to sing in the choir that night haha. So she was able to be there for that! It was great:) well maybe not the singing part haha.

Sunday was Easter! :) it was a good day! The weather was nice for the most part and the spirit was really strong. After stake conference we had a lunch appointment which consisted of ham and potatoes. Then we went to another family in our branch and we had burgers with them and watched the little ones do an Easter egg hunt. Then we went to another dinner appointment and had ham and potatoes again. Boy was I sick. Haha I was literally so full I thought I was gonna pop. Haha but we were grateful to be with members that day. It gave us something to do:)

Then Monday we went to the beach with my old Zone, again President gave me permission to go. B drove us which was so much fun to see her and catch up! She is literally the best for always being so willing to drive us.

So the beach was so cool! It was raining the whole time(surprise surprise) haha and it was freezing but it was gorgeous! I really loved being there. We went to haystack rock which was really fun. Then we just walked all around the beach. I was looking for something cool to bring back and I almost died when I found a shark tooth. I almost cried of joy. But to my disappointed when I showed B she informed me it was not a shark tooth but part of a sand dollar or something. Haha I kept it anyway;)

So when we finally got back to the car we had all looked like we had just come out of the shower. Literally, we were all soaking wet and it was hilarious. So since we were right next to a restaurant, MO's, we decided to go and get some famous clam chowder. And it was so good!!!! Haha definitely recommend it. So we were able to dry off a little bit while we were there but not much. But at least we were able to get some warm food in us. It was so fun!

So that's why I ran out of time last Monday. I'm so sorry!

But hopefully this letter helps catch you up on my life! Didn't miss much:)

Xoxo

Sister Batey