Where to begin...first off my trainer, the lovely Sister Harston, is finally going to Brazil after 11 months of waiting on her visa. She will leave September 2 and I will be trained by someone else, I'm guessing in this same area, but I don't know. I am moving tomorrow (it was supposed to be today, but a pipe busted when they tried to install the sink at 3am on Sunday) out of the Bishop's home into another member's basement that is remodeled for us. It looks great and it's going to be an adventure, because they have four kids under the age of 13. If an apocalyptic tornado happens, I'll be sorry for y'all but I have nothing to fear, because we will be in the depths of a basement, with about enough food storage to feed the ward for 10 years.
I'm going to miss living with the Daley's though, first off because I feel like it's been about ten months since I've started living there. I think starting as a missionary is similar to being born again, because I remember as a little kid 5 minutes seemed like an eternity! I'm hoping that it will pick up and I'm guessing by the end I will lose sight of my days. I just need to get out of the habit of calling yesterday last week.
Bishop Daley is awesome though. He has a PhD in Economics and I found out through his counselor he is like the right hand man of the guy who owns coca-cola. He gives him advice on how to run the company like a free market kind of deal. Anyways, imagine having this guy as your bishop. The ward we're in has more than half the ward as less active to the point the members have no idea who a lot of the people are on the roster. We spend half our time finding the houses these members live.
So the girl I nicknamed Shelby last week, we visited her three times this last week and still haven't seen her since our first visit. For someone who's on house arrest she sure isn't home a lot...just when we left for the third time off her porch (btw she lives on the other side of the ward from us (when we move we'll be more centralized hurray!) it takes 45 minutes to bike there). A tender mercy happened and something that is illegal in Oregon rang in it's delicious goodness...an ice cream truck came! I was like LET'S GET SOME, and my companion was like I've never done that before, and then decided she was just going to watch me...haha yeah no, so I made her get some ice cream too and it was amazing.
I should probably eventually get to the title of this post. I was having a really hard time starting off. I love my companion to death, but it took me too long to figure out why she was meant to be my companion. The weekend before last I realized I was starting to feel like Maria having an overweight nun tell me I wasn't a good nun and trying to convince me to just go home...or in Maria's story go and take care of a single, wealthy, good-looking man's kids. My companion obviously never said I was never good enough, but in my twisted brain every time she told me to do something differently, I felt like I was failing.
I realized that I was being tested, not if I would follow the example of my trainer and turn into her, but if I would love her and not so much as strive to be like her, but realize what a good missionary she is and look up to her as an example. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's hard to articulate. We have completely different personalities and as in all things when you are with people 24/7, I find things she does that bother me, but I grew to really understand what it means to be a good missionary and qualities that I will want to establish during my mission.
Oh, I almost forgot, best tender mercy in the world happened. This is crazy. So I was sitting in bed in the morning one day trying to remember who and where I was, when I got a song stuck in my head. They have a CD here that missionaries made like 6 months ago that some of the songs have some real talent, but in all reality it's a Kansas Wichita Mission themed EFY CD. So one of the songs was stuck in my head and I was just so annoyed with it. There's a Foster the People song that I really liked (sorry Elder Seymour) called The Truth that I couldn't remember and just then I totally could remember every part of it. I could hear every instrument and if I had a piano and sheet music I could probably write every part. Throughout that day whenever I wanted, I could rethink of the song and it would play in my head. Then, of course, the next morning it's gone again and no matter how hard I try, I cannot think of that dang song again! Take a moment and go listen to Supermodel Album by Foster the People, because it is underrated. (again sorry Elder Seymour)
Speaking of my Spanish speaking brother, he would have been fairly helpful this week. We ran into this family that hadn't been to church for 3 years, because the church would take 2 hours to walk to. We were able to meet with them and find a ride for them, and throughout the whole lesson I understood none of it, because it was all in Spanish. My companion knows quite a bit and can speak it almost fluently. I just smile and try to pay attention.
Now for the most unladylike thing I did thus far on my mission...yesterday while biking I got a bug in my mouth and I attempted to spit it out real good...it didn't work. Biking is always an adventure, then when you add a skirt to the mix it's pretty much stupidity, but I'm trying to be positive about it...it's not working out. My companion wears knee length yoga pants and tucks the bottom of her skirt in, but I would die of heat stroke if I add another layer, so I've learned to just embrace the fact that my bare knees will show. I'm also dripping with sweat wherever I end up, and my companion is one of those people that never sweat, so it's quite a sight to see when we get somewhere. People just look at me and go, yeah I guess it's hot out...yeah it is.
Anyways thanks for the people who've written me, and if you haven't I will eventually get back and I'm fairly talented at ignoring certain people's presence. Just kidding, but seriously I love to get letters.
Love you all,
Sister Seymour
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| It actually rained the first day I was back on a bike, so I broke out a cardigan...crazy! That cooled down the rest of the week so it stayed in the low 90s yay! |
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| Anyone know how to take bike oil stains out of a skirt? |
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| I also wanted to justify why I'm wearing ugly brown shoes in the pic before, it's because my feet look like this... I was also wearing to sets of socks to avoid friction, fun times. |
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This is the Raya family.
We did have baptism dates for them,
but the girls are moving back with their grandma in Texas.
Hopefully we can get their address and
send some missionaries down there to them.
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| Ice cream truck! |
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