Do You Ball?

No. The answer: hard. no. 

I have the GREAT blessing of having a retired college basketball coach for a mission president. I also have the GREAT blessing of being forced to play said basketball for 2 hours when President stops by our zone to teach all of us his many, many skilllzz. 

If you know me at all, you know I DO NOT basketball. I barely sport. 

Shout out to dance for being the only source of exercise I enjoy!

Seriously, what is basketball? I have so much respect for you if you actually know how to dribble that thing without falling on your face... One poor soul did. HAHA. 

I did get complimented on my shot though! THANKS REGAN for making sure I at least know how to throw that dang thing without looking like a total fool. 

But even though I'm almost 100% positive I've never looked more ridiculous or felt more awkward, zone unity is a thing and it was so much fun to just hang out with all these amazing missionaries I'm blessed to serve with. 

But I'll never play again. 

Never. 

First and last. 

I feel like I've been officially initiated into a missionary.

Why?

Because I ate THE MOST horrid meal and totally played it off like, "Oh my goodness! This is the greatest thing ever!" 

First, I just want to say, I am ETERNALLY grateful to the members that feed us. I love these people and I love being welcomed into their homes and getting to feel the sweet spirit that abides in them. It rocks.

But. 

I.

LOATHE. 

Tomatoes. 

Here is my sad tale: My companion and I are sitting there, waiting for this kind brother and sister to finish cooking dinner (omelettes) and we're chitting, we're chatting, we're having a grand ole time. 

And then.

I notice out of the corner of my eye that a huge bowl of chopped tomatoes have made an appearance and before I can say anything, this brother is scooping them out GENEROUSLY onto my omelette (everyone seems to think that vegetarian means I just looooooooove alllllll vegetables). When he feels like my omelette has been sufficiently tomatoed, he sets the bowl aside and I'm thinking, "Okay. Cool. That wasn't a ton. I can handle that."

BUT THEN.

My dear companion says, "Brother, I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes, so you can totally load up Sister Soloa'i's!"

I watch in horror as he then proceeds to take that massive bowl of tomatoes and straight up dump it all into my omelette.

I almost cried.

I almost murdered my companion.

That thing was more tomato than egg.

AND I ATE EVERY BITE. 

Mom, you would have been so proud.

This week was pretty difficult in a lot of different ways. One of them being that NO ONE wanted to talk to us. 

We're two teenage girls talking about Jesus, give us a break people! 

We ran into one lady out walking her dog one day and before we even got near her, she said, "My dog will bite you! He's not friendly!" That thing was the size of my head. Pretty positive it was nice little thing too. 

But the cool thing is, is that every time we felt like we were having a bad day, the Lord always gave us little examples of grace and tender mercies. Whether it was something like we came across a really pretty blossom tree, or someone said they appreciated the work we were doing (even if they themselves weren't interested), or the sun actually shined that day, the Lord never ended our days without allowing us to feel His love in some way first. 

It seems that He's constantly telling us He's with us and loves us. I have such a huge testimony of His love in EVERYONE'S lives. WE just have to notice it. 

Sincerely, Sister Soloa'i

There is this produce store we discovered called Jesus Produce and we buy almost everything there because it's sooooooo cheap... and mostly expired. But whatevs. We're hungry and we're poor and so far, we haven't gotten sick. And hey! All the proceeds go to the homeless apparently! So win win!