Summa time April 25, 2016

Even though school doesn't get out here until JUNE (brutal) there is no denying that summer has hit Illinois. The heat and the bugs and motorcyclists have arrived. Along with half of Provo's populations who is here doing pest control and summer sales. Sister Smith and I were going to make sure we knew absolutely everyone in the ward this Sunday bc we think we were missing a couple people and then we show up and there are at least 20 new people in the ward. So that was a fail. Pretty much all of them are my age but none of them go to YSA because they are all married. It's like I never left Utah. We had a lot of plans for Saturday that all ended up getting canceled because so many people called us asking for service and help doing there yard work. It was awesome I love service! Although now I wonder why no one in our family ever called the missionaries over to do our yard work... Anyways, An interesting new chore that I learned about that everyone in Illinois does is "pick up sticks" and that's literally it. There are so many trees here that you have to pick up buckets and buckets of sticks before you can even attempt to mow your lawn. It's madness!! I am grateful for Utah. Don't get me wrong I love trees and have always wanted some in my yard when I have a home. But now I'm not so sure. Trees are a good thing to have, but at what cost???? Not much else has happened this week, Evelyn called again and said she is for sure going back to being Catholic this time. Jerry has cancelled on us twice but is weirdly very nice about it and always sets up another date for us to come over so it's kind of confusing. The missionaries are going to start teaching a mission prep class for the youth of the ward. It has been discovered that the reason I have been called to English speaking is because I am the only English speaker here who has the gift of tongues. There is this man we have been reading the Book of Mormon with and he is a Refugee and NO ONE ELSE KNOWS WHAT HE IS SAYING. I feel like I am secretly being a translator because every time after he talks I have to say "so what your saying/asking is ____" and then everyone else in the lesson knows what he's talking about and can answer his questions. It's actually pretty sweet I hope you all have a good week and get a lot of yard work done. And if you don't just call the missionaries because they would love to do it. This woman in the ward named Norma is 90 something years old and the cutest lady. She is always giving us stuff she orders online from the BYU bookstore and asking if we saw what was on BYUtv the other day. Anyways she called us the other day to clean her microwave and it was probably the highlight of my week Have a good one! Sister Madsen