Day 103

Leslie in our little cooking area.
Note the oven in the lower left corner.

Lauren making some cookies.

Dinner with the family!

Sam's House

Sam!

Saturday. The 10th of December.

I slept through breakfast, like always on Sabbath. It's such a pain to get ready for breakfast, I mean who does that? We had our last Sabbath here, our last time having Church. Right after I changed and Leslie and I went and borrowed some vanilla and baking soda from Sister Bentley. Then Leslie, Lauren and I went upstairs and waited. Because we had gotten permission the night before to go back to her house! After the concert last night we had her talk to our head of security and he loved her and gave us permission go over. She was an hour late to pick us up, but we sorta expected that. She picked us up and we went to a couple local stores and bought the rest of the ingredients needed to make chocolate chip cookies. She then drove us over to her house, where her daughters were. We also finally got to meet Zaki, her husband. He was great! He spoke English really well and was so nice to us. We also met a few other members of the family, like sister-in-laws and nieces. The sister-in-law who is engaged came over and showed us her glamorous shots from her engagement party! They were fabulous. Sam started cooking us dinner while we started making the cookies. It was a bit harder than I expected because we didn't have any measuring cups or really any baking utensils at all. We warmed butter in our hands and mixed everything with spoons and forks. And we just eyeballed all the measurements and used random cups. Samach, Sam's four year old was enjoying helping us stir. Our next problem was the oven. Okay her 'oven' is something I would never consider to be an oven. It was a big round, pan type thing. That had a lid that had the hot rods on it like an oven. But it was more like a broiler and had no temperature setting, just hot. So we would flatten out the cookies in advance and then make them like pancakes flipping them so they didn't get burned. Well we struggled and actually did burn most of them. They weren't that great, but it was a blast. We ended up eating more cookie dough than cookies. And at least Zaki loved our cookies! We were supposed to be home by dark, five. But as you can guess, that didn't happen. Sam's meal wasn't ready yet, so we kept on waiting. We called the center, but had Sam talk. The head of security wasn't in, so they said they would call us back. They called back and somehow I was the one that ended up on the phone. And I managed to get us permission to stay out past dark, because they trusted Sam! Last night she was joking with the guards that we lived in a jail and they said they were just protective over us because we were like sisters or daughters to them. And Sam told them that we were like sisters to her, so it was just as important to keep us safe. Therefore she gained their complete trust. We were all so excited that we were allowed to stay for dinner! We were pretty much panicking once five rolled around and we weren't home. Sam made us a traditional meal, it was a big pot of rice, veggies, and chicken. She dumped it upside down on a giant plate and served us. But she knew that I was a vegetarian so she had one of her daughters make me a salad. But Leslie and Lauren loved the meal! I love Sam's family so much! Her and Zaki are the best parents, they are so fun with their daughters. I love that I have made her as a friend and that she sees us as her sisters and welcomes us right into her life. They started asking us about what Mormons are, we told them we couldn't say anything. But they insisted saying that we were friends and it wasn't a big deal to them that we signed a contract. But the other two girls are pretty by the book, so we didn't say anything. And it was about time that we needed to get back, so Sam and Zaki drove us home. Before we left her daughters gave us each one of their scarfs! Being at their house was one of my favorite thing's I have done in my entire three months. I just felt bad that everyone couldn't experience what we did. I wish all of the group could have the same experience. When we got back we were a little worried about the security guards, but they were super nice with us and asked if we had a fun time. We had a Last Supper experience when we got back to the center in the Upper Forum. Where they had set up a little scene and had students read the story of it. It was nice, but I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. It was just so peaceful. Afterwards we went to the Ludlow's apartment to see if Sister Ludlow had some red nail polish, bad timing. Because they were just about to have family prayer when we walked in. So they had us join them, it was kinda funny. For the rest of the night I just hung out with the girls and watch the movie The First Night. It was a great, great day.