Cookie Creations

We feel blessed to be able to serve in this beautiful place among such wonderful people. We get to meet and interact with all kinds of God's children, and our experiences with these good folks have been all over the spectrum. For example, last week we were talking with a man who was trying to turn his life around after several years living on the street, and struggling to overcome his drug and alcohol additions. But what surprised us was when we asked him what he did for a living. He said he was a professional shoplifter. He'd steal food from grocery stores and sell it on the black market. We were shocked that he showed no remorse for his actions at all, especially when he told us he'd never pay for groceries again in his life! We felt sad and discouraged after our conversation with him, but immediately afterward we had one of our best experiences with people ever!

Sister Mundell baked some sugar cookies and made some frosting, and we brought it to the common area of a women's and family shelter for homeless and indigent residents we visit every week. There were only a couple of people downstairs when we started, but as we handed out the cookies, frosting and sprinkles to decorate them, all of a sudden we had dozens of happy souls asking us for them. We loved seeing the little children laughing and playing as they decorated their cookies. It melted our hearts to see that joy in their eyes and hear the laughter of their happy voices. This is what makes our mission so special to us. It's the people we meet that inspire us, and which give us the desire to keep going and find creative ways to serve and bless their lives. It's not boring, each day is a new challenge and opportunity for us!

Elder Mundell has been learning what it's like to be without a cell phone this week. He dropped his phone and damaged the screen, so he had the great idea to swap out the SIM cards with another phone we keep at home. Unfortunately after doing this, he realized the SIM trays weren't exactly the same, and now he can't retrieve the card because it's wedged in there too tight. He discovered that he can still use his phone and the apps on it as long as he has WiFi, but getting or sending calls and texts is no longer possible. His solution was to get a new phone, but the order is being shipped to our home in Florida. It's been one bone-headed mistake after another for him this week, a comedy of errors! But he has a reasonably good attitude about it all, he's not one of those guys that lives and dies with his phone and has to keep it handy at all times, so he considers this break from having a cell phone a welcome opportunity to revert back to a simpler life for a while that he had before getting a mobile.