Bite, Black Boxes, BBQ

In the beautiful Pennsylvania forest. 

Only one more week of Training! (thumbs up)

Between the dog bite, zone conference, black boxes, German food, and

the Elders quorum bbq I would say it was a pretty fresh week!!!

Ok so back it up! We went and visited our little 96 year old friend on

Tuesday! We were outside playing this German game called rummy cube

with her and our other dear friend Sister Swazuk... who's a total

Pittsburghian! She has a legit Pittsburghies accent, oh boy that lady

can't say one thing without making me burst out laughing! :) Anyway, we

were getting whooped at this game by 96 year old Sister McCarty, which always feels great, haha! I was petting her dog Bear and he turned for

me to scratch his tummy so I did like any Christ-like missionary

would... then Bear got mad because he had a sore on him or something

and went all crazy! He barked at me and bit my arm....dingus dog! It wasn't bad, and it didn't puncture the skin, but it was all red and

sore! Her cute little care taker, Freddy was so upset and felt really

bad, but it wasn't a big deal. Haha sad to say, but I doubt that will

be the last time that happens, EVERYONE in Pennsylvania has dogs!!

Zone conference was, as Sister Hokafonu would say, A1! Translation: A1

= AWESOME First we had training from President Johnson, who

focused his remarks on how keeping the Sabbath day holy can build our

faith in Christ. He talked about how as we as members strive to keep

the Sabbath day holy, that faith will increase across the world. We

watched a few clips from Elders Holland and Ballard from the mission

president training last year. In the message by Elder Holland he

talked about how the sacrament is the most repeated ordinance we do

Got a quick pic at zone training with the AP's because Elder Birrell
is going home next transfer. These two are incredible missionaries

as members for ourselves. We only get to be baptized and go through

the temple for ourselves once, but in taking the sacrament each week

we are renewing those covenants individually. He also talked about how

the Sabbath day shouldn't be a list of do's and don'ts, but rather to

think of what sign we want to give God on the Sabbath. My mission

president asked us that question and it has really made me think

differently about the sabbath and how I worship. So what sign are you

choosing to give God?! We were all asked to come to conference with a

3 minute talk prepared on this topic. I had totally forgotten about it

so I stayed up writing it the night before... apostate, I know! But

I'm grateful I did because I got called on to give a talk. The focus

of my talk was on how we were given the Sabbath day "in remembrance of

Jesus Christ"

Then the not so fun part of zone conference came with the loathed

black boxes...nooooo!!! Basically we now have these gps speed tracking

devices in all the mission cars that talk to you and tell you to slow

down and such. I'm not a fan. But I know they're just trying to keep

us safe. These things are crazy though, we have to log in as the

driver and then it records our driving and gives our President a

report each transfer. My poor Californian companion’s crazy driving has

been put to an abrupt halt, she's not too excited about the whole

thing haha!!

We found this little nature walk by the really cute Cranberry park. We
went for a walk before we taught Jerry, because we were so tired! I
love how pretty it is here! Always brightens my day:)

That night we went to a members home for a really nice German dinner!

Sister von Rintelen went on a mission to Germany where she met her

husband, who is German and has a sweet accent! It was fun to talk

about his life back in Germany and have all of this traditional German

food that was really different and good!

There was an Elders quorum bbq that we helped put on Friday night! It

was such a good turn out and a ton of people brought their families

and many members brought friends and their families too! This ward is

seriously stellar, they're really trying their best to help in this

great work:)

Well just another great week in Cranberry, PA! I can't wait for

General Conference this weekend and to get three new Apostles!!!!!!!

There are good things to come my friends:)

I hope all is well and I keep all of you in my prayers.

Lots of Love -Sister Douglas

More beautiful PA.