Testifying, Winning and Swimming

Our first Saturday morning in town was spent at a laundromat, which was pricey! It cost 7$ to wash a large load of laundry (water is an expensive utility here).  We knew that was going to add up quick so we got on craigslist and decided on a used washer and dryer set.  Luckily our water utility is included in our apartment rent (woohoo!) plus we have the hookups for a washer and dryer.  Matt picked out the set online and called the guy who was selling them.  Super nice guy named Bill.  He even offered to bring us the set for a little extra cost and install it for us. And he did just that and when he left he told us to let us know if we had any problems with the machines.

The sad part of the story is that we did have a problem with the dryer:( It was working just fine and then all of a sudden halfway through the first load it stopped working.

The glad part of the story is that we had a great missionary experience come of it!  A lot of students in Matt's classes are religious and talk about religion and Christ often.  Matt has a gospel discussion with a person in his class pretty much every single day-it's pretty cool!  This missionary experience was with Bill who came to fix our dryer.  Matt called Bill and told him that we were actually having some troubles with the dryer and Bill insisted on coming to our apartment to fix it.  Bill started talking to us about the church because he asked where we were from (Utah=Mormons right?).  He told us that he lived next to two Mormon churches and then we realized he was talking about the Birmingham Temple and the church that is right next to it.  So he asked us the difference of those buildings.  I think the spirit got really strong when he asked about Joseph Smith.  Matt told an explanatory but simple account of the first vision and bore his testimony.  I think we all felt the spirit and Bill was really grateful for the knowledge he gained from it.  We offered to send him a Book of Mormon-but he didn't seem like he was wanting that quite yet....hopefully we can have more problems with our dryer;)  It was a great missionary experience and we are hoping and praying to have more!

I'm trying to limit my use of exclamation points.  In the MTC my sister Kim thought I was on crack because I used so many exclamation points in my letters home.  But I just get excited about sharing the gospel!!!

"If it's free its for me!" is usually my motto.  Except when I attended free Yoga at Railroad Park.  It was a really cool park in ghetto area birmingham (the city is trying to give face lifts to several areas downtown) but pretty lame Yoga...

Friday we checked out the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which was free and for me.  They are sweet! 67 acres of different themed gardens and we only went through 1/3 of the park.

Alabama Woodland Garden

Japanese Gardens

Bamboo!! 

There are a lot of statues throughout the gardens

I refused to believe this area of the park were really the "Japanese Gardens" until I saw Koi fish...well I did!

The ladies in the Rose Gardens

Yvonne loved the roses

Southern Living Garden

Saturday morning Matt did a 10.5 mile trail race in Oak Mountain State Park and took 2nd! The winning guy was a sponsor at the race so he gave Matt the winners prize.  It is 5 sessions at a chiropractic clinic to do normatec treatments.  I think Matt will really like the prize because he babies his feet haha.

Matt and this guy came in together as friends...The race director (who had beautiful hair that looked like George Washington) made the boys chose who took 2nd and who took 3rd place!

Our southern babe waiting for Dad to finish his race

After the race we met up with another couple in Matt's program at the lake in the Park and hung out there.  Yvonne went swimming for her first time and seemed  to like it.  The lake was really warm and it was a hot day=perfect for swimming.  I am not in the photos because I forgot my swim suit...typical mommy brain:(

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