Living in a Horror Film

Hey, 

This week was pretty eventful. We've had more service opportunities recently, including setting up for a wedding reception and then spending half of our Saturday moving a member's neighbors out of their house. The wife, Jennifer, was amazed at everything we and the elders did for them, and Sister Fox and I got to answer some of her questions and give a brief Restoration lesson as we were fed lunch. She wants to come to church and has sooo much potential... then we realized that she is moving to a house that is only a couple blocks outside of not just our ward boundaries, but mission boundaries... we don't know what will happen with that yet. 

Isaiah passed his baptismal interview and should be baptized on Saturday. Our fingers are crossed as he literally just quit smoking 2 days ago. We have also found two new investigators this week, which has not happened to me since I was in Westerville- that's a really long time! One of them is Nick, a father with two little girls who is going through a divorce. We came by on Tuesday to teach a first lesson in connection with the "Because He Lives" video that we introduced to him. He gave us a tour of his house, because it was built in 1906 and has a historical plaque on the front since it's one of the first homes in Beavercreek. It had 3 stories and was really cool! The staircase to the third floor was secretively hidden in what looked like a closet in a tiny room on the second floor. Fun stuff. 

The other new investigator is a older man named Joe. We had also given him a Because He Lives card, and had a return appt. We wanted to teach the Plan of Salvation because his wife passed away from cancer and he seemed receptive. We brought a recently returned missionary and he invited us in to sit down on the couch in his living room. Within the first two minutes, I noticed a bug on Sister Fox's shirt, and flicked it off. But I recognized it right away as a bed bug (other story, one of our other investigators, Robert, has a bed bug infestation so we had a member look up pictures of them for us so we could recognize them)(we haven't been over to Robert's in a while...). So then I looked behind her at the couch we were on.... AND THEY WERE EVERYWHERE. Bugs were ALL OVER the back couch cushions, and holy crap I got SO squeamish as Sister Fox obliviously went into the Plan of Salvation. Then Joe had to take a phone call, and while he was talking on the phone, I turned to Sister Fox and whispered, "BED BUGS.... LOOK BEHIND YOU." Then the both of us, along with the member we had, were all fidgeting and squirming as we found bed bugs crawling on US. Sister Fox tried to keep going and make the lesson brief, and Joe was surprisingly receptive and feeling the Spirit as bed bugs WERE CRAWLING ON HIM. He looked like a creepy crypt-keeper or something. It was weird. We were only in his house for about 20 minutes and felt bad about cutting things short, but we said we had to go. Outside his house we were lifting up our clothes and pulling bugs off of each other before getting into the member's car. Sister Fox and I immediately stripped down, threw our clothes in the washer, and took a shower when we got home and were majorly panicking. After that, we sat down to finally get around to our weekly planning, and Sister Fox found a bug on her arm and freaked out. I vacuumed the entire apartment as my companion was almost crying. 

The good news is, we (along with our apartment) are clean! We have not seen any more bed bugs. However, Sister Fox has bite marks up and down her body- I think I was only spared because I was wearing tights and my arms were covered with a cardigan. That is an experience I never want to have EVER AGAIN. I have had other things happen in lessons, such as children throwing their pet rats on my lap while teaching the First Vision, but this was absolutely repulsive. 

Anyways, here's my only picture for the week- Sister McCarty finished her mission and is home now- this is us the day before transfers. 

Love, 

Sister Petersen