The one with the Dad, the kids, and an ice cream truck

August 21, 2023

What uppppp! These past two weeks have been crazy hot! The temps have been over 100+ and last Monday got up to 108°. Luckily that day was our p-day so we just all stayed inside at the Stake Center playing volleyball and basketball.

It was so hard tho to get out and do the work, especially on bikes in the heat. It's extremely dry so it was not too bad to be outside. The humidity levels were around 20% and that's exactly what Utah is normally at, so it felt like I was right at home just on a bike. But the following week was from 105 to 98 the high, so it was pretty toasty biking from lessons to our dinners. We got through it and now this upcoming week the high for Eugene Oregon is 85 just about the entire week so that will be super nice and looking forward to it.

The wildfires are raging. The massive Bedrock Fire in the Willamette Forest east of Eugene is huge and the smoke, wow the smoke. That combined with the heat also made it pretty sucky to be outside and the wind keeps changing directions in Oregon so there's smoke that comes and goes all throughout the day. All we can really do is just suck it up and get through it. There are several other fires raging in OR too. Pray for Oregon and the fires!

Other than those two things, these past two weeks have been super exciting for me and Elder Larson. We've had a lot of members welcome us into their homes and have been sharing a ton of member messages about the blessings of the Sacrament and Covenants.

On Aug 11, I got to MOW my first yard on the mish!!! You already know I was absolutely so happy to do this! We mowed this yard for the Brogaras family. They are always super nice to us and just a great overall family. Bro. Brogaras came up to me not knowing my background in landscaping and he goes, "Hey would you guys be down to mow my yard?" I was like bruh sign me up!! I was like I'll mow your yard every single week haha! "He says sweet I'll grab the mower." We get to mowing and that's probably another happiest moment I've ever been on my mission ngl (not going to lie) hahaha. It was super fun and I really enjoyed it and miss mowing! The Brogaras also fed us that night!! So nice of them!! Nothing better than mowing a lawn and getting fed!!

On Aug 16, it was quite an exciting day we had a service that involved us washing off someone's deck and that was super fun because it was really hot and we were able to spray each other with water to stay cool. After that service one of their neighbors came over and wanted us to also come help them with some service. So we set up a time this upcoming week to help them! Both are great teaching opportunities as they are both not members of our faith so super excited to do that this upcoming week!

Later that evening we had an Indonesian dinner! It actually wasn't all that bad I'm usually pretty picky when it comes to food, it was a pretty big meal I literally don't remember what it was called, but I ate it and it wasn't that bad. Brother Huff in our ward, just got married to a woman from Indonesia so that's why she made that type of food bc there all she's knows how to make.

The following day we had a part member message with a family in the ward and they got a new young goldendoodle puppy. It was so cute but its teeth were like razor shark teeth so you had to be quick if you wanted to pet it hahaha. We tried to take a selfie, but the dogs were crazy so I'm gonna put the best photo below haha

On Aug 18, We were getting home from knocking on less active doors and we heard the ice cream truck siren. These young kids from across the street were running outside all excited for the ice cream truck to come down the street and then the ice cream truck took a left right before the house with the kids outside. So saddd and we could see them all disappointed and that the ice cream truck didn't come down our street.

So Elder Larson and I are like shoot maybe we should go track down the ice cream guy and have him turn around and come down our street..... but we were on our bikes so we would have to be speedy... So we look at the kids again and we're like yeahhhhhh... let's go track him down!

So we hop on our bikes and bike as fast as we can to catch the ice cream truck and we tell him about the kids on our street that want some ice cream. He was super cool and was like oh yeah sure I'll definitely turn back around. So he turns back around we led him to the kids that were waiting. The kids were so happy and the Dad to those kids was really appreciative. We got to talking with him and it was super nice getting to meet him. I've been here for 6 months and I've never seen him or talked to him and they are in the house across the street from us.

After we're done talking to the Dad. The ice cream truck guy is about to leave and he goes "Hey missionaries, here's an otterpop for you guys! We are like sweet we'll take it. It was a super nice positive interaction with the dad, the kids, and the ice cream truck driver so it was overall a WIN WIN.

Super awesome week. Transfers are coming up tomorrow...stay tuned. Will I stay or go?

Love Elder Fillmore.