"Lying on the cold hard ground." Squirrel edition

I'm not even sure where to begin. It's the littlest things while still in quarantine...going on month 10...that make each day a little different and fun.

This member asked us if we could doorbell ditch a birthday present from the Relief Society to an inactive member. We gladly accepted because we love to serve in any way that we can! We drove over to this members house to pick up this present but they also gave us some red solo cups full of a vegetable stew and SQUIRREL. They had shot these squirrels down with their pellet guns just hours before. I felt bad for eating Chip and Dale but hey, the squirrel wasn't too bad...you just had to spit out a bone or two every bite haha. THEN. We drove over to this other ladies house with the birthday present in hand. I parked and ran up to the front door to drop off the package. Well, for those following Virginia weather, we had a snow storm that shoooook the entire state. As I ran up to the porch I saw a patch of ice and was like "Good thing I'm from Utah and know how to deal with ice because I'm sure someone could get really hurt not seeing that ice." I put the present down and touched the doorbell. LITERAL seconds later--before I could even untouch the doorbell--someone on the other side of the door was trying to unlock the door all frantically and open the door. That scared me so much for some reason so I went into "fight or flight mode." I leaped off the steps and started sprinting to the car without even realizing the patch of ice. The next thing I knew I was on my back literally "lying on the cold hard ground" squirming like the dead squirrel I had just eaten. To make it worse, the door finally swung open to reveal a dad and his kids all jump out of the house to see innocent Elder Gardanier chillen on my back on their front porch. I was so embarrassed and was laughing SO HARD. I sprinted off laughing so hard that I think the Dad thought I was crying as I sprinted away bahahaha. Can you imagine being him? Opening your door to a missionary lying on his back on your porch who had just ditched a present from the Relief Society. Yes. T'was a confusing experience. To end things on a good note though, Bea Quicke is progressing SO well. Sadly, she couldn't come to church because all churches were canceled this Sunday due to 3 inches of snow. No joke. However, during the week we had a call set up with her at 7pm but she couldn't resist video chatting with us earlier that day just so we could meet her mom who Bea is wanting for us to start sharing our messages. Bea gets emotional every time she mentions how we have helped her so much during her time of need and hurt. What an amazing experience. I am sad that we are going to need to pass her off to some Elders in the next zone over but it's been an AMAZING experience with Bea. What went from a bag of free food on Facebook Marketplace given to us from a member family which has now turned into teaching her and hopefully a baptism and confirmation soon!

Remember to take your Vitamins--I definitely recommend the chewy gummies over the pills ughhh. That was a rookie mistake on my part. Elder Gardanier