Week 77

So this is a little late (because I have forgotten it until now), but I thought I would post it up anyways.....

The Final Stretch
So this week was my final one, which is cray cray!  I cant believe it has already been 18 months!  But lets give you the run down...
Monday was pretty great, but really quite sad at the same time.  It was my last real p day.  Poor Sister Crawford was SO sick, but she was such a trooper and she came to the church anyways.  Limby and Jensy went to the store and Crawfy and I stayed at the church so that she could sleep.
Right as Limby and Jensen got back, and right before Anderbacher showed up it started to rain....HARD!  The streets started to fill up (Arizona has horrible drainage systems apparently).  Well Limburg and I decided we wanted to run and get some lunch, we hesitated because of the rain, but decided to when Limby said "Im from Washington, I can drive in the rain!".  Little did she know the extent of the rain.  I mean sweet glory, we started driving and it was like a river!  We needed a boat not a car!  But it was pretty cool and we made it there and back without to much trouble.  Crazy, but super duper fun!

Tuesday was NUTS!  And it really renewed my testimony of the priesthood!  Sheesh!  So like I said earlier, Sister Crawford has been way sick recently, she spent the past 5 days throwing up, and today was the worst.  It started out at district meeting where I was asked to give my departing testimony.  That was hard.  I cant believe I am already there, and I love my district so much and it made me sad and I cried and it was hard.  But after that the elders all came over to our house to give Hna Crawford a blessing.  Well when we tried to wake her up so she could go out to the porch (the elders arent allowed in the house), we couldnt wake her.  We yelled at her, slapped her face, splashed water on her, all the things we could think to do, but after 10 minutes she still wasnt responding.  It was really scary and the elders started to flip out a little.  We finally called the mission nurse and told her we didnt know what else to do and she told us to call 911.  And so we did.  As we waited to the ambulance to come, Elder Jurgensmeier said a prayer.  After his prayer we asked them to come in and give her a blessing.  Deciding that they could bend the rules in they all came.  Our 6 amazing elders, all willing and worthy to use the priesthood they hold to bless us.  Elder Myler gave a sweet blessing and as he said "Amen", Hna Crawford woke up and said "Amen" as well, just as the ambulance arrived.  We spent the rest of the day in the hospital, and Hna Crawford is fine.  But I am so incredibly grateful for the priesthood power and for young  men who are so worthy to hold it.  Sheesh we are blessed!

Wednesday was a cool day.  We taught the coolest lesson to this kid named Chivante.  He is about 20 and we just happened to catch him outside his house and he let us sit down and talk to him.  We taught him the restoration and we did so pretty quickly.  It was a pretty straight forward resto, but it was powerful and it hit me so hard how important this message is.  We had just told him the story of the first vision and i asked him, "What would it mean to you to know that there was a living prophet on the earth today?"  He thought for a minute and said "Hope.  It would give me hope".  That hit me SO hard!  We are out sharing hope with other people.  That is what we do as missionaries but it is also what we do as members.  We have so much hope that other people dont have.  We are so lucky and so blessed and we need to share that.

The rest of the week was pretty standard with a bunch of miracles and blessings, but Saturday was the bomb!  After weeks of talking about it, Limby and I finally went on real exchanges!  YAY!  It was so dang fun!  We got lost, taught some lessons, had some sweet oyms, took a lot of fotos and had SO much fun.  I am so grateful that I have gotten to serve around her, ever though she is not my companion.  She is glorious and has changed my mission.  I freaking love that girl.

Sunday was sad.  It was my last sunday as a missionary and that was pretty cruel.  Bishop Rasmussen in my english ward asked me to give a talk in sacrament meeting.  It was really kind of a cool farewell homecoming where I just got to share what I have learned in my mission and how it has blessed me.  I have grown SO much and been ever so blessed and I am incredibly grateful for the time I have spent here and all the people who have touched my life.  I will spend every day for the rest of my life thanking God for the amazing people I have loved and who have loved me these past 18 months.  That is what it is all about, loving your neighbor as yourself and I have been so blessed to experience that, and I am devastated to have to leave that.  The blessings are overwhelming and I am so grateful!


Well the next time that I write it will be from home and I will tell you all about today and the next couple days I am try to become a normal person...and so for the last time....
This is Hermana Natalie Parry, signing out!