Five Days till Brazil!

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for your wonderful emails! I loved them so much! It's been a good week. It's been crazy though. I can't believe I only have 5 days left in the United States! haha It blows my mind! But I'm SO EXCITEEEDDD!!! :D The other day I was awakened by our neighbor who was gagging and coughing. This wakes us up every morning. It's lovely, really. But anyways, I woke up Sunday morning to those horrendous noises and said to myself "eight more days." Then jolted out of bed "EIGHT MORE DAYS?!" in nervous energy cuz I had totally just scared myself. haha It's pretty crazy.

This was a good week though! First, we had Halloween!! Halloween here in the city is CRAAAZY! They quarantined us at 5 PM because apparently the Halloween parade gets a little out of hand. People were everywhere though and everyone was dressed up. We were on the train in the morning and I had the thought that people might think we were dressed up too! JUST after I was thinking about it, I heard someone say "Mormons." after a second, his friend leaned over to him while completely staring at us and whispered "Do you think they're real?" BAHAHAHA!!! It kind of made my day. It cracks me up how often people see us and just say "Mormons" and move on. haha weird. Being quarantined was fun tho. We did our weekly planning, then went downstairs to the Spanish Sisters' apartment (they live right below us) and watched the Testaments and... relaxed? Is that what we did? haha That's a rare commodity on a mission. It was pretty wonderful.

Halloween Party watching Testaments!

Then on Saturday we worked in the Bishop's Storehouse! Aimee, our investigator, signed herself up and asked us to come with her! haha She's incredible. Everyone was like "You're investigating, and you're volunteering here?!" Then they'd see us and be like "Oh, your missionaries brought you." and we'd be like "Nope. She brought us." haha it was so much fun though! What a cool opportunity! I had never seen a Bishop's storehouse (that I remember) so volunteering there was fun. Especially with Aimee. I'm gonna miss her. 

We decorated the sisters' window from our fire escape...

And we decorated the wrong windows.
So our Chinese neighbors know we love them! hahahah

We decorated the sister's windows to surprise them... But we're tired missionaries. And by tired I mean we're just unintelligent. And we decorated the wrong windows. So our Chinese neighbors know we love them! hahahah So we had to take the sisters on our fire escape and show them our beautiful art. :P OOOOPS.

This week, Travis accepted a baptismal date for November 30th! We've been teaching him for about 4 weeks? He just showed up to church one day and asked to know more. haha! Every missionary's dream. I'm sad I won't be here, but I'm grateful I was able to learn from him before I left. What a blessing.

Payson Street!!

Also this week, one of our members (Sister Murdoch, from Grace, ID and Bishop Holloway's niece) took us to Thai food!! But, first we met her at her work - Dean & Deluca! Have you heard of that place? I hadn't heard of it, but it is SO cool! It's been in a few movies (Julie and Julia, and The Devil Wears Prada) and just has the coolest set up. They have super expensive import stuff from all over and more cheese than you could ever comprehend. Dad, when we're off our missions, let's go back there. You need to see this cheese supply! It was kind of a fairy tale land. haha She let us taste Truffle Oil (Truffle stuff is HUGE this year cuz it's at an all time 'cheap' price. Only $5,000 per pound. The fungi not the chocolate) and some aged balsamic vinegar! It was good. But also nearly $300 per bottle. Not even bottle. Flask. It's crazy. Crazy good. Such a cool store. Then we went to Thai food and it was so good. I got massaman curry. So happy. The bathrooms were made of two-way mirrors. So from the outside it looked like mirrors, but while on the inside you could see everyone. And you could see whenever someone was coming up to knock on the door. So weird. Is that a one-way mirror? I'm not sure. But it was so weird. haha

Dinner with Sister Murdoch at the Thai place (Sister Murdoch is in the middle)

Then, last night as we were walking home, I heard a cat yowling. It was very sad. I looked around and found her up on this high rafter thing. We stood there until curfew trying to think of ways to get her down but she wouldn't jump (even when I sang Soft Kitty). We had to get home so we had to leave her. But this morning there was a fire engine there and she was safely running around. She ran over to me and rubbed against my legs. haha Apparently fire engines saving cats is not just a thing of the movies! (I guess fire engines never save cats. It's probably the fire fighters.) :P I was glad tho. (Even if fire engines are scary. I've seen 6 just today. That's a lot of fire engines.)

Anyway, it's been a really fun week. :) I've had some good New York experiences and I'm gonna live it up. I can't wait to see some of you this weekend! My next email to you will be FROM BRAZIL!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH. I'm so excited! :D I love you all so much and I hope everything is going well for you! I think the Pday for Porto Alegre North is Monday, so I may not get to email again until the 18th. But hopefully you'll hear from me before then. haha I love you all so so much! Hope all is well!

Drea