From Down Under

So my friend from Australia came in town. Melinda Ansley. We were companions on the mission. She is actually from New Zealand but now lives in Perth. I was so happy to see her and have her spend 5 days at my place. We had so much to do but first off was a stop at the grocery store. She had a list of things she wanted to try from America that she has seen on movies. Poptarts, Cap'n Crunch, Sunny D (from Juno), Starbursts, any peanut butter and chocolate treat, and a couple other things I can't remember. Australians never eat peanut butter and chocolate together. No matter how hard I tried on my mission to get people to try it there were only a select few that actually would and those that would LOVED it! It's a funny world. They also have a very small cereal selection and there are only a couple "sugar cereals" that they offer so when I walked her down our cereal isle she was blown away. It was so fun to see things through her eyes. Although I mostly felt a little ashamed because Americans are such sugar addicts. It was sad to hear her say with everything she tried, "ugh, this is too sweet." It's amazing what our bodies can tolerate when we eat something day in and day out. She is getting married in Perth in June and wanted to get a modest wedding dress. When she asked me to take her dress shopping I thought it was going to be chaos because brides can be soooo picky and take forever. We went to David's bridal and the second dress she tried on.... did you hear me? The SECOND dress she tried on... she bought!!!!! What???? So easy! We were both super surprised that she found one. I am not posting the picture I took of her in it in case her fiance stumbles across this blog. I don't want to ruin it for him. lol. She looked gorgeous. We also got her slip, jewelry, and hair accessories there. One stop... less than an hour. Amazing. We were in West Valley one day and decided on a whim to go to the Redwood Road Drive in swap meet. It was very interesting. This is just a taste of what it was like. We stopped at a table with random shampoo, body wash, and such. I laughed so hard at the sign. Take a look! We were definitely in an ESL setting. They were all very nice and helpful though. It was just hard to communicate.

I have to tell you about Levi's little crush on Melinda. After about an hour of warming up to her Levi wouldn't leave her alone her entire stay. He would always go up to her and hold up his arms for her to pick him up. He always wanted to hold her hand and would look at her and giggle all the time. It was so cute to see him take to someone like that. Normally when Levi gives kisses to someone he really has to be around them for a while, but he loved giving her kisses any time she asked. I miss her, but I think Levi misses her more. lol She gave him this toy to remember her by. He still carries it around all day and cuddles it even though she has been gone a couple days.

We went to the Gateway to Victoria Secret and Victoria Beauty. They don't have this store in Australia. Melinda was a little timid of the Secret side, but we loved the beauty side. We had a cool experience with this gal that worked there. Salinda is her name and she is a master esthetician. She offered to do our makeup and we got to chatting. Turns out Salinda really wants to serve a mission. She really opened up to us when she found out that we are both RMs and that we served together. Apparently she keeps feeling like she is supposed to go but can't get over how BIG of a decision it is and was kind of scared. After a while of talking to her I finally invited her to pray about serving and promised her that if it was right she wouldn't feel scared anymore. It was a really neat experience. All three of us felt the Spirit and had goose bumps. I love this moments where we can serve as tools in God's hands to comfort others that are seeking His help. I hope she gets that answer and is able to serve. She would be on fire!! This is her while doing Melinda's makeup.

Here is me and Salinda. I hope she serves a mission, but the Elders better behave themselves.

After that we met up with Sarah Erickson. She also served in our mission. All three of us served together at one time so it was fun to be back together again. We went out for sushi at Happy Sumo. It was funny because Melinda said she loved sushi, but she only gets sushi that has chicken in it and she said that sushi in Oz is always cold. So funny. She really liked our sushi though. Oh delicious!!

We of course hit up all the Mormon stuff. Temple square including the visitors center and the main street plaza. We went to Deseret Book where she went crazy and bought almost $200 worth of stuff. I take all these things for granted. Here we are on the steps of the SL temple.

I also took her up into the mountains so she could see the amount of snow we get up there. She loved it and thought it was soooo gorgeous. She also told me that before she came to Salt Lake her friends and her joked about moving to Utah and working in the salt mines. They thought we mined salt because of the Great Salt Lake. I took her there to see how normal it is. Except for the smell and lack of life in it! lol. It was so bright that we could hardly keep our eyes open in this picture.

Overall she had a great time and is going to talk to her fiance, soon to be husband, about moving here for a year to give it a go. She loved it and wanted to see the summer and winter seasons really bad. She also wanted to go to a football game so we'll see if she makes it back for that!!

I miss you Melinda! You are always welcome in my home whenever you are here! xoxo