An apostle, a lorax, and a spider...

"You are you, now isn't that nice!" Dr. Seuss

This last week has had a bit of a Dr. Seuss theme, but I'll get to that later. First I want to start with a major event for the area here...Elder Russell M. Nelson came! The talk by the apostle was specifically for the leaders of the surrounding stakes, but as Matt and I arrived a couple of minutes late it was clear that news had spread and more than just leaders were present. We were able to squeeze into some open seats but unfortunately I could not see any of the speakers. Here's just some awesome comments Elder Nelson and his wife made:

- What we look at matters! Sis Nelson
- There are no dead, they are living! Sis Nelson
- Men are stubborn, but none are so stubborn that they can withstand the LOVE. Elder Nelson

Gideon final test for choosing his army of 300. Judges 7

The following day we had sister missionaries over for dinner and they shared some of what Elder Nelson talked about with them. Many stories in the scriptures have the seemingly impossible occur such as the virgin Mary giving birth, or Elizabeth giving birth in her old age. These occurrences are to show evidence of God, because how could it be otherwise? In Judges 7 Gideon's army is reduced to 300 to fight an army of around 135,000 men. Elder Nelson told the missionaries that this ratio 1:500 is the same ratio of members to nonmembers today! We are the minority, but just as the Lord showed Gideon and many others...great things can come to pass in small numbers. As my old institute director Brother Richardson used to say "The Lord loves ridiculous odds!"

The rest of the week seemed to fly and on Saturday I got up before Matt at 5:30 am so I could go with Cate Lynch for a run in the city commonly called the bay run. It's a beautiful 7km path around the bay and we got to be there for the sunrise. Unfortunately, we were not in any condition to run the whole way, but we hope to return frequently and improve each time. (Photos below have been instagrammed)

Later that day I met up with Cate and Racheal so we could prepare for the Young Women New Beginnings activity the next Tuesday. Since we had a Dr. Seuss theme we created some large paintings of some key characters. It's been a long time since I had sketched or painted, but between the three of us and the help of our artistic YW Alayna it all turned out really well. We just had the activity yesterday and after tying Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hear's a Who, and The Lorax to the gospel we played Family Feud! I learned later that Family Feud and Jeopardy aren't broadcast here so many people haven't heard of them :(. It was a lot of fun though and to top it all off we had some Dr. Seuss themed treats!

On Saturday Matt and I also attended a mission farewell for a girl in our ward. We will certainly miss Natalie Payze but I'm sure she will be an awesome missionary in Adelaide. Although I didn't spend all night talking to Natalie, it was really great just to get together with many of the ward members and chat. The Scott family are great hosts!

The major downside of all these activities is that I have eaten a LOT of sugar and baked goods lately! Racheal gave me a loaf of banana bread, I had made cinnamon rolls for one of the youth's birthday, and I made snicker doodles for choir on Sunday. I also still had leftover cheesecake I had bought early in the week. Once you had all of that with the eating out at uni and other catered events - I have officially gained 2-3 lbs! So much for my goal of losing weight! I made a commitment that I wouldn't let myself get over 140 lbs or 25% body fat again. Now that I have I just really need to stick to a plan.  So at the beginning of March I am going to be calorie counting again and exercising every day but Sunday.

As for some other events. We had FHE with Brock and Kaytlin as usual. They made these awesome pizza scrolls which I will definitely need to learn how to make! They are so tasty and a little healthier than pizza. After Matt's lesson we had cinnamon rolls and played XBOX Kinect Adventures game!

Another "adventure" came the following day when I was getting ready to go to uni. I noticed the cat was hanging out in the bathroom and when I went in there I found a huntsman (click here for a funny article describing the huntsman)! This particular huntsman was average sized with the body about two inches in length and 1/2 inch in width and overall with legs he is slightly smaller than a palm. He had only four legs - one side had three and the other only had one. I wasn't sure if Shade had just caught legs and eaten them, or he found the spider that way. I kind of felt bad for the non-aggressive spider because with his disability and Shade's attentiveness he had no chance. Unfortunately I had to leave and I was worried shade might eventually eat him and throw up later (they are mildly toxic and he is still a kitten). I gave Shade an opportunity when I coaxed the spider onto a towel and dropped it to the floor, but Shade hadn't seen it and just kept meowing trying to figure out where it was while walking right over it. I decided I would just spray the spider with pesticide and then I covered it with a container so Matt could see it later. Now I have officially had the huntsman experience - time to move on with other things.