Living in the growth zone

At our District Council this week Elder Westover said; "there's no growth in the comfort zone and there's no comfort in the growth zone".  So I guess we are growing.  We have taught lessons in 3 languages this week to people from Liberia, Togo, the Congo, Mexico and the Marshall Islands.  It turns out that Iowa takes in refugees.  5% of Iowa is people born in other countries and 4% are children of people born in other countries.  I spend about half an hour every day studying on Duolingo and TALLdrill apps to try to improve my French.  The Spanish seems much easier comparatively, but I still struggle to understand sometimes.
Another new experience has been using the laundry facilities in our building.  We have to have quarters!  Something I've never dealt with.  The nice part is that there are 2 washing machines and 2 dryers, so we can get things done faster than at home.
So, we've had 4 missionary meetings so far and each one has been in a different city. So we've been to Ft. Dodge, Des Moines, Amana, and Ames.  Inside of our ward boundaries we've been to Wellsburg, Grundy Station, Gladbrook, Albion, Conrad, Mountour, Tama, Toledo, Rhodes, and of course Marshalltown.  Each town is surrounded by corn and soybean fields and then has a cute center with stores and subdivisions.
We had a great baptism Saturday!  Danal is cute and outgoing and had 10 people from her neighborhood there besides lots of ward members there to support her.
I've started sending out a text with a scripture to read in French each morning after I send one to my English speakers. The 4 families I send it to have all expressed their gratitude and how they enjoy it.  Yesterday I knew the name of every person at church!  That feels good!

Danal with her friends and family and the trio of EldersJo Ferugson at her beautiful place.

So some places are still waiting to be cleaned up here (rentals and those beyond repair).  Some are being repaired by the owners (those without insurance) some are being repaired by professionals (those with insurance), and some are realizing the damage is worse than first expected and will be demolished.  The traffic lights are on and almost everyone has power now, although some still don't have gas turned on.

Manathan and Hardy in the awesome matchng clothes she made.

We had the Elders over for hamburgers.  They enjoyed them.

Lunch at Hickory Park in Ames with our district.

Danal and friends excited to be given programs.

our laundry room

Our district.  We have transfers Thursday, so it will change.  Elder Fox and Elder Lovin are going home!

Some of the Matthew family; they are from the Marshall Islands.  The Elder that found them and taught them happened to be from the Marshall Islands.

The crew packing up Amy's stuff.  She has to move out of her rental because the roof was too soft to repair. She is awesome!  She was baptized the week before we got here.  We've been teaching her the new member lessons.  

This restaurant is open even though it hasn't got all the repair work done.

Lots of roofs covered in plastic waiting for their turn to be repaired.

This is the back of the Lennox plant.  Lots of people work there.  They plan to rebuild.

This water leaked into Amy's kitchen. It is right below the damaged roof upstairs.  The water line appeared over night.

We got these sweet notes from our grandkids today!  Our first letter!  We've had a busy day with a lesson in French, a lesson in English and a Family Home Evening in Spanish!  We love being able to teach lessons on this mission.  We've taught more than we did the whole year we were in Cleveland already in our first month here.  Its amazing to see how the Lord sends us to the right people at the right time!  He really does love the good people of  Marshalltown!