BASICALLY All about Doris because I'm obsessed with her

SO GUESS WHO CONFOUNDED THE BASHERS-NOT-BASHERS??!

Mmmhmm.?.?.?... The Spirit.

BUUUUUT I definitely helped. You know, the crazy thing is, I couldn't even tell you what it was that I said, either, but it was the first time they paused, were silent for a second, and said... "I don't know." WHAT?! And we said, "What? Can we get that on tape?" And we had a good laugh about it, but seriously. The Spirit is softening their hearts to prepare them for the truth. 

After the lesson (we talked about families and the afterlife, etcetera) we told them that they needed to read the Book of Mormon. We had asked them before, and they had been reading bits and pieces, but we told them they needed to read up to Words of Mormon (that's 143 pages) before we'd meet with them again. And they'll do it, too, we know it. So we won't be seeing them tonight as usual. But soon! And they gave us Hebrews to read, so I'm working through that, too. 

Also, Josh and Cacey totally gave us little turtles! Not real ones. But turtles. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the whole "turtles on turtles" concept? Like if God had a god, then who was that god's god, and before that, et cetera et cetera. I DON'T KNOW IF THAT EVEN MAKES SENSE TO YOU, they could explain it better. But they gave us turtles. I LOVE THEM. I want to live here just so I can hang out with them and stuff. 

Sister Leavitt and Sister Clark
Animal Shirts!?

So we were looking through our formers in the area book and ran across an old lady named Doris. I didn't want to go see her because of the experience we had with that one woman who's husband we met and told us she'd died... I didn't want that to happen again so I voted no. But SisLeav is inspired and said we should go see her so we did! 

She invited us to come in, so we walked through the door and she said, "Well I'm Baptist!" and we said, "Okay, soooo???" and she told us to have a seat. She started right out by telling us that she didn't believe in the Mormon church because "Brigham Young had sex with all those twelve year old little girls and I think that's just awful!" UHHH WHAT?? So we tried to clear that up for her, but she's pretty set in her ways because she's 93. But she has a lot of respect for us so we went on to have a grand old time. I kept taking notes so I could remember all the hilarious things she was saying. Oh Doris. Here are some of my favorites:

"If you let a man start bossing you around, he won't stop! You've got to get him in the first round." - Doris is totally a feminist; it's AWESOME. This was a bit of her advice to us young-en's. Her husband passed away in '87, and even though she misses him she says that she doesn't "need no man!" She can do everything just fine by herself, thank you very much.

Then she told us about how she broke her hip a while ago, and had to do physical therapy and everything, and that she has to exercise every day. For her exercise she puts on "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and dances all over the house by herself! And she'll just laugh and laugh and dance! 

She also thinks that there are too many children in the world and that this Earth is falling apart and that there isn't room for all the kids! 

Then she started telling us about the jobs she had - she said that during the war women could get one of two jobs: a nurse or a secretary. She went for the secretary route because she couldn't handle needles! 

But then later in her life she was working for a Petroleum company that her husband worked for. They kept putting her on all different kinds of jobs. One job they gave to her was to break up concrete with a JACKHAMMER. She laughed and laughed - she was 105 lbs! She hopped on that thing and shook up and down all over the place - then she threw that thing away from her and it hopped all over the place, breaking everything. "Oh, they were so mad! But I was 105 libs, what did they expect!" then she snickered a little and said, "they fired me from that one, too." 

THEN she mentioned that the other night her blood sugar was down to 36 (WHAT!?!?!) and so she barely made it to the kitchen for her orange juice. Then it was up in the hundreds... and she laughed some more and said, "So then I ate a donut! Hooohoo! I dunno what I'm supposed to do when it gets too high, I guess I should find out!" 

She also talked about how she worked in a psych ward for several years (occupational therapist) and people would always be mad at her and tell her that she killed their brother, or killed their grandma or whatever. And she had a good laugh about that, too. "So I kill grandmas! Heehee! And I pick on Mormons, too! I saw you comin', and I just said, 'Oh good the Mormons are here so I can pick on 'em!" 

Oh Doris. I want to live in Norman so I can just go visit her every day. We gave her a book of Mormon and she promised to read a chapter. She cried a little at the end - she was just so happy. "I never thought I'd be like this," she cried, "I've just always had so many people in my life and now I just live alone! My last best friend just died!" She's just so cute and tiny and spicy and I JUST LOVE DORIS. Her house is like a museum! I want to be her best friend. 

Ohhhh what else, what else. Still have flakey investigators. But Maverick! Oh, he is going to get baptized on November 2!!! He's going to pray about it some more, but we talked to him about it and he feels okay about it so far. He's so awesome. When we said it though, his GF Liz sat up and was like "WHAT! That's so soon I just didn't know it worked like that whatt??!" And we were like "STOP YOU'RE FREAKING HIM OUT!" But Mav is pretty solid. I'm so excited for him! I hope he goes on a mission, seriously.

And we have a new investigator, Toy. She's from Thailand (did I already tell you about her?) But she doesn't speak great English so we're going to get her a Thai BoM! And then she'll be baptized. It's all figured out. :D Don't even stress.

Missionaries in Norman Oklahoma District

So TRANSFERS! This week, I can't believe I've been in the field a whole transfer period! I think I should go buy myself a shirt. Yep. Goodwill. Happening. ANNYWAYSSS Transfers are so intense and dramatic it's awesome. Buuuuuut Sis Leavitt and I are staying here! Yeah! TADA! Okay the real news is we're getting a third companion! Sis Leav is going to be doing double training, sweet huh? It's because she's proski. I'm nervous, but super excited. I hope she's okay with crazies because ummmm..... Us! She's a VISA waiter, which means she's just here temporarily till she can get her VISA to wherever she's going (probably Brazil) but we don't know anything about her so it's pretty exciting! Also Elder Byrd is leaving (he's our DL) and Elder White (one of the ZL's) is as well. Things are changing! I think really we need it. Sister Leavitt and I have been really struggling with motivating ourselves to do the work, and have been seriously slacking off. It's hard to obey the little things sometimes, it really is. So I think having a trio will be great. I always do better when I know I'm being an example to someone. Heavenly Father is taking care of us. There was too much space in our apartment anyways!

OHHH I almost forgot! We had a miracle and ran into Rochelle the other day! Seriously it was a miracle. I wish I would have gotten a picture with her. She's so cute and toothless. :(  But we will see her again! And we have her phone number now. But apparently she's splitting up with her husband and living with a friend for awhile. We prayed with her though, and I showed her a picture of the fam and told her that all ya'll were praying for her! And she just cried and cried. "You told them about me?? Tell them I love them!" and I pointed out Mom and told her that her name was Rochelle too, and she gasped. "Nawh! Really? You're pullin my leg!" "Nope, it really is!" and her grandson asked, "Is it spelled the same?" And Rochelle said "R-O-C-H-E-L-L-E!" And I said "Yep, the very same!" And she stood up and clapped her hands and waved them in the air, "Woohoo! Rochelle, Rochelle!" hahahah it was so funny! And she just loves you, Mom. :D 

I think that's about it! I'm so so excited to have a new comp, and I'm SOOHAPPYTHATSISTERLEAVITTDIDN'TLEAVEMEEE! Seriously. I love her. We had another awesome cry fest about all the happy things in the world last night. It was fantastic! We were like on the floor bawling. It was beautiful. And then the other day it was stormy and it was like a river, especially in our "foresty" apartment complex. I felt like we were in a jungle. :) And the Relief Society Broadcast! And at the end of President Monson's talk he was like "HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES YOU." 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. 

THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!

I'M SO HAPPY.

Love, Sister WhyamIsoemotionalClark