Priesthood. For real.

SO! This past week was PSYCHO. I was in a big pile of crud, so I felt. I just didn't want to do anything. I felt like I COULDN'T do anything, so I didn't want to go out and prove myself right. I felt awful. And I was having all sorts of confusing thoughts, so I was in a pile of DOO-DOO. I realized that I hadn't been to the temple SINCE NOVEMBER. Which is a long time for me, since I go twice a month. I NOW SEE THE HUGE BLESSING IT IS IN MY LIFE. I literally felt physically, spiritually, and emotionally DRAINED. Like I couldn't take another step. It was bad. So we went to the temple and that helped a lot. THEN, we had President interviews. We were walking down the hall and he said "So Sister Willis how are you doing?" I told him I was doing ok, and he said "Why just ok?" I told him "I was hoping you'd be able to help me figure that out." So we sad down in the room where he was conducting interviews. We knelt, he prayer, and before he was even in his seat he just BLURTED out what was on my mind. So naturally, I started to cry, and we discussed almost everything that was on my mind. He told me some things about myself that I never thought could be possible, and some of the things he said and promised literally changed my mission and my life. I can't explain it. But my GOODNESS. The Priesthood is real. And President McCune was called to be my mission president, and I KNOW Heavenly Father knew I would need not just a mission president LIKE him, but HIM as my president. I'm 6 months into the mission, and while I can look back on these past 6 months and he happy with them, I want to be able to look back on this coming year and have absolutely not one regret. I don't want to say "I wish I hadn't worried about that" or "I wish we had worked harder that day" or "I wonder what would have happened if I had followed that prompting. I wish I had!" This week was a game changer.

My companion is only talking to me in Spanish, and EVERYTHING SHE SAYS IS FUNNIER IN SPANISH. It's awesome. She's literally the best person I've ever known. I don't know why Heavenly Father keeps pampering me with the best Spanish sisters in this mission! I don't know what I'm going to do when I get a rough comp. Eeesh. Well, Hermana Morla and I are making goals and WORKING ON THEM. Wait, WHAT?! Yeah. We write them down and put them where we see them, so we're progressing! Woot woot! :)

Oh, I was drugged and almost died.

JUST KIDDING! :)

Preface: The night before (Friday night) I felt MEGA nauseous. I don't know why, but I really just felt AWFUL. It was one of those body-crippling nausea-fits. Not crippling, buuut my whole body feels like noodles made of jello. My muscles and bones just felt like they were made of marshmallows. MY BODY WAS MADE OF SWEETS, obviously. Sooo I asked the ZL's for a blessing. Before the blessing, they were talking to me about how they want me to continue to have faith in the priesthood and this blessing. That if I will keep faith, I can be completely healed from whatever is bothering me. So I was like "Yeah ok, I know the priesthood is real, let's just do this blessing so I can feel better." So then they gave me a cool blessing. I didn't feel better immediately, but I didn't expect to. So the next day I felt pretty ok. Buuuut later in the day this happened...

We went to a new member family's house, and I wasn't feeling well, so they gave me te de aniz. Mom, do you know what aniseed is? Because IT IS DELICIOUS. But My companion thinks it made my blood pressure drop it like it's hot. They gave it to me before the lesson we were going to share with them. I drank it. We had the lesson. We said a closing prayer. We stood up and started talking. I was yawning A LOT, and it wasn't until we stood up that I realized it wasn't because I was tired, but because I wasn't breathing. Oops. My breathing was shallow and not frequent enough. Everything seemed heavy. My clothes. The air. Everything was just too much, and I was literally about to faint. The room seemed darker than it was before, and like it was in slow motion. I thought I was just going crazy though. So we were standing there, and I couldn't even hear what was being said. All I could hear was in my head "Sit down, or you're going to pass out." So in the middle of somebody's sentence I said in baaaad Spanish "I need to sit down, I feel like I'm going to *hand motions*..." So they all flipped out "ARE YOU OK?!" And when I eased their minds, they went back to talking. I sat there while they chatted for a minute or two, then when I stood up and was ready to leave, they were all super "Tenga mucho cuidado..." "Cuidense muchisimo, hermana!" So we got to the car, aaaand THE ZONE LEADERS HAD JUST TEXTED US. So I nearly passed out because of WHO KNOWS WHAT, and at that exact moment they texted and said "Hey Sister Willis, we just wanted to remind you that you can be totally healed if you continue to believe in that blessing. The priesthood is real!"

So basically, I like the priesthood A LOT.

Also, Amanda Orrock lives in SF! Which I knew, but she emailed me and now we're in contact! I HOPE I GET TO MEET THE BAAABYYY!! Hahaha

Dad, we had an apartment inspection today and a car inspection on Thursday. Can I tell you how GOOD it felt to CLEAN?! Normally we just take the trash out of the car, and tidy up our area of the house on P-days. But I went in the trunk and organized ALL of our materials. One box of BoMs, one box of English materials, and one box of Spanish materials. It looks AWESOME. We both felt like there was a weight lifted off of us with an organized car. It is SO beautiful! :) Also, for the house inspection, my companion had a lot of clothes/luggage stuff to fix, so I cleaned the bathroom (which was surprisingly relieving!), and vacuumed our rooms and area. Then... I swept the kitchen, washed all of the dishes, wiped down every surface of the kitchen, DRIED AND PUT AWAY THE DISHES, and vacuumed the downstairs (which isn't ours). I literally thought of you the whole time. I was IN HEAVEN. Clean house, clean car... EVERYTHING IS CLEAN. I miss cleaning our house. I love it when things are clean. I think I'm developing your cleaning-Nazi tendencies, AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY :) :) :) :) I miss you and your clean-Nazi tendencies :)

So now that I've written probably the longest email on record of ever... I'm going to go shopping. JUST KIDDING. I'm broke. But it's ok, the month is almost half over :) Haha I'll send y'all a few pictures later today.

I LOVE YOU ALL A LOT. Like, a lot a lot.

Squiggles and snuggles,

Hermana Willis

AFTER THE TEMPLE!! I was so so so happy. I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!

One of our investigator's dogs, Harley.  I think my love for dogs is exploding a bit because I can't hold babies.  BUT that does not mean my love for babies is lessening.  You know what they say...  No, I don't.  BUT I DO KNOW I CAN'T WAIT TO HOLD BABIES :) Let me rephrase... I can't wait to HAVE babies.  Some things will never change :)

Remember that old lady dress I bought at the thrift store that wasn't quite big enough? I'm pretty sure ONE person, MAYBE will remember said dress... Yo, it's TOO BIG NOW. It's more of a summer dress, so I'm not really wearing it around, but hey... LOOK AT THAT. It fits!