March 17, 2014 - Ether 14:23

"And the scent thereof went forth upon the face of the [car], even upon all the face of the [sisters]; wherefore the [sisters.. and the vehicle coordinator.... and Pepboys] became troubled by day and by night, because of the scent thereof." (modified Ether 14:23)

First of all, Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! :)

Second of all, at Zone Conference I got a sweet little envelope from the ward filled with wonderful cards! Thank you!! :)

This week has been slap full of adventures! The water here in Hartwell is gross. So we take our water jugs to church in Elberton on Sunday and fill them up and we have great water that could last us a couple of weeks. Well. A couple of weeks back we accidentally left the jugs in the back of our car. They stayed there all week. On Sunday (a week ago) our car started to smell funny. We thought it was the jugs getting mildewy. Nope. Last Monday it smelled worse. It was a great motivation to deep clean our car. So we did. Washed, vacuumed, waxed, scrubbed down mats, individually cleaned each seat, Windexed all windows inside and out... It reminded me of when we deep cleaned the suburban before we sold it. And the smell... was still there. It wasn't bad, just kind of mildewey/moldy. Which is never good. Tuesday it got worse. We called Elder Elder (They're like our grandparents/home teachers out here. I love Elder &Sister Elder). He suggested that it might be the air filter molding (yay humidity...). We called our vehicle coordinator, Elder Residori, about it and he told us to get it checked out at Pepboys after Zone Conference on Thursday.

On Wednesday Elder Elder sat in our car and turned on the AC. The stink at that point became a stench. He said, "Nope. That's not mold. That smells like a dead rodent." So he looked under our hood to check it out. We found crushed acorns and rodent droppings! We took the car to a carwash and Elder Elder sprayed everything under the hood with the pressure hose. No rodent. We searched and searched. No rodent. He checked the air filter. No rodent. So he sent us on our stinky way and we kept our windows down all day. Thursday was Zone Conference! and car inspections! Haha. After our wonderful meeting (more on that later), we talked to Elder Residori about our smelly friend. He said that he kept the doors open to air out the smell for a good couple of hours... and his only other thought was to check the cabin filter. We left zone conference in our stench-mobile and zipped over to Pepboys. We warned them of the smell, and off they went. About 5 minutes later, 2 guys came back to the front desk, "Dude. We gotta get something to get rid of that smell. It's rancid." Yeah. We weren't just being sister missionaries about it :P We asked them if they found our furry friend, and they did!! It was a mouse. In our cabin filter. Which is, according to them, only accessible from the inside of the car. ...? No idea how it got there. But all that matters is that he is gone and our car no longer reeks of death :)

None of our other critter encounters are nearly as exciting as the cause of our stench mobile... but Stenchy was only one of the three this week! It's spring time in the South! That's for sure! :)

Alrighty! Our investigator K. is still on the map! I know I kinda talk about her off and on, but she's awesome :) We finally got to meet with her husband and their 7 kids. He had tons of questions. He had already watched the Restoration DVD we left with K. and he asked us all about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. They are so awesome! The Elberton branch will have another family! It'll happen! With prayers and effort, I know it can happen :) They are so prepared and receptive :) Our lesson with them was one of the shortest lessons I've ever taught, but it was so meaningful and it gave me so much hope for the rest of this area! There are people everywhere ready to hear the Gospel! :)

Zone Conference!! Elder Kopishke of the Seventy came! It was so awesome! :) Before he started, he told us to each write a question or concern that we've had on our minds. "I don't have time to answer 124 questions, but the Spirit does." He talked just about the whole time. And my questions were answered! How about that! :) I decided to do that yesterday before church, and it made the meetings a lot more meaningful :) I challenge y'all to do the same! Every Saturday night or Sunday morning before you get to church, write down a question that you have. And then let the Spirit speak to you as you sit in your various meetings. The church is true!! :)

At lunch 6 lucky sister missionaries got to sit with Elder and Sister Kopishke. One of which was... yours truly! :) They are the sweetest people! Sis Kopishke told me that she likes Utah alright, but she misses the beauty of Germany. She spent the next few minutes reminiscing about Europe. She's so cute :) Elder Kopishke asked what Dad does. Sooo I told them about ancestry.com and they were super excited about that! :) So Dad, according to Elder & Sister Kopishke, You're a pretty cool cat :)

We also did some service this week... and for the first time ever, I split and stacked wood! Woot! :) It was lots of fun. The longer I spend in this area, the more I realize that even though Lindon is small geographically, it is definitely a city. I used to think it was a small town. Hah. Not really. :)

This week has been great! This upcoming week it gonna rock! And missionary work is my favorite ever! :)  Keep doing the little things that make the big difference! :)

Love y'all! :)

~Sis Jacobs.

Stenchy!

All the wood we helped split at Harold's. 

Learning how to split wood.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!