I'm on the Edge... of Nowhere...[Oct. 27, 2014]

I forgot to mention the housing coordinator pointed on a map where Goodland was, and I was like, "Wow that's in the middle of nowhere",,,and he goes, "Nope that's on the EDGE of nowhere." But he was wrong...it's in the middle of nowhere. 

We were at a less active's house, and he plays the guitar. He wanted to play some hymns for this thing and had a nice stack of copies from the hymnbook and was like, "It takes me forever to figure out the chords, if only I had someone who could do it for me." I was like I CAN DO IT and proceeded to aw him with my amazing chord analysis...(okay, it was something like that)! It was fun doing that again though. When I was taking my music theory, I wondered when on earth I would ever need to analyze chords in real life, but apparently there is that need. I think I remember how to do that better than play cello, I played for transfer devotional and my hand was just all sloppy and my wrist and fingers were so sore afterwards....I've lost all muscle. Aghhhh!

Apparently, I've sloughed off in talking about my companion. She is awesome! She is 22 and from Glendora, CA and is a dental assistant. She played a big role in a miracle we had this week. 

We met this guy once while tracting (his name is John and he is from Hungary, I informed him I was actually just there a few months ago and then he talked a bit more and was like oh I also went to school for three years in Austria and I was like I spent three months there! Study abroad for the win!)...and on Saturday when we had an appointment, he forgot and was on his way out the door, so we quickly set up another appointment and then Sister Fosselman asked him if he could make it to church tomorrow. Then he was like maybe and she went on about how important it is and that I was talking in it, and then he sighed and was like well do you have the address and do I have to drive myself there...um yeah....Then Sunday morning, Sister Fosselman called him and was like are you coming and he sighed again and was like what time does it start again and I just was thinking this whole time he is so annoyed with us. We haven't even really taught him anything. Well, church started and as I guessed, he was not there, but two seconds after the branch president started the announcements, guess who was in the doorway! 

We had dinner at the Klemm's, who are an awesome family and live on a buffalo ranch. (they fed us buffalo meatloaf, delish!) It took like 15 minutes of driving on a gravel road to get to their house and it was pitch black on our way back and there were speeding semi's hauling corn on this road and in an effort not to get hit head on, I had to teach Sister Fosselman how to use her brights...yeah that happened. The Klemm's found the church, because they felt they needed to start going to church, so they attended a couple different ones and one week tried the Mormon church and the bishop introduced himself. He was like, "Oh, are you just visiting?" They were like, "Uh, yeah sure." Then left, because they didn't know there was a Sunday School afterwards. A year later they went again randomly, and the bishop was like, "Oh, are you staying the next two hours this time?" They were like, "What?"... and he was like, "What?" ...and then realized they weren't members and introduced them to the missionaries. 

We talked about our next appointment, which happened to be with this young Baptist pastor, (we met him tracting and was super nice), well the Klemm's were like, "What's his name?" ...and Sister Klemm was friends with his wife on Facebook, and they gave us some good advice for how to approach it. 

Well, when we went to talk with him, he was really nice. He told us how he came across the Baptist church and what led him to be a pastor. Then we talked about his hold ups with our church, which are mainly he has this thing against Joseph Smith, something he found in the church history book, and also he for some reason doesn't like the fact of where we are going after this. He invited us to go out to lunch with his wife and him later, so maybe we will be able to help him then. He seemed really genuine and after we asked him why he was so nice he was just like well if what you guys are telling me is true, then I would be held accountable for it and should probably know.

What does the city of Goodland
and the axe murderer in your basement
have in common? They're both
 waiting for you...

Field...

Another field (sensing a theme??)...

Banner thing.

Sister Fosselman (flossy) and me.

 This is the Williams.
Brother Williams isn't a member,
I had to inform him that
the two baptisms I've had were old geezers
who's wives were members and
 he better watch out and
he just laughed and nodded his head.
He is the ultimate country bumpkin
(he calls himself that)
he owns a manure hauling business
and is the most hilarious person
 I have met on my mission yet.
I have not laughed so hard
as I have in Goodland.
 He likes to broaden our vocabulary,
so he uses words like Ol' biddy,
which he sometimes calls his wife
 and she rolls her eyes. 
He uses it as a term of endearment,
but really it means a defeathered chicken
or gossipy lady. He also calls
things ackumpuckie,
when he doesn't know what else to call them...
like delicious, but unidentifiable
chocolate dessert.
He attempted to enlist us
to haul manure for him,
but we informed him that was
not going to happen.

Travailler...[Oct. 20, 2014]

Sometimes, not often, but on occasion, I start thinking of things that stress me out for absolutely no reason, and I have to consciously stop thinking about it. Like what happens if you live on a time zone; does everyone just get super confused and you say I'll meet you at this time, and then you meet them and they are like no I meant the hour before that...and you have to say Mountain time or something like that, I don't know? I was thinking this back in Wichita, and I was like I'm sure people have it figured out stop thinking about it. Of course, now here I am only a few minutes away from a time zone. Thankfully, the fine town of Goodland is not divided by a time zone, so there is no confusion and I'm pretty sure there is no town on Earth that is divided by a time zone, so don't start worrying about it either, not like anyone would, I'm just really weird.

Anyways, in my last post, I said that I am near Garden City. I'm not. I just assumed so because I'm in the Garden City zone, but actually that is two hours away. I am 30 minutes from Burlington, Colorado where we have church. We introduced ourselves at church and the other new elder was like, I am so excited to be in Colorado and I was like thinking what is he on...oh wait that's right. This is going to take some getting used to.

We are in mountain time zone and our district leader is in central time zone, so we have to drive 30 minutes to Colby for district meeting and the time difference also makes calling interesting. Our mission has the district leader call us every night to talk about what you did that day, so now it is always at inconvenient times. Our branch is um, tiny....33 people came to church last Sunday, and 8 of those people were missionaries, 2 were a senior couple just driving through to their area in Florida, 2 elders are serving in Burlington, 2 were a senior couple that are serving in Burlington, and then us.


We obviously have a full time car, and actually in my last area in all three wards the missionaries have full time cars now. I mentioned how dangerous it is to bike in Wichita to my mission president, and I like to think it's because he took my advice. There's no street lights there, I don't know if it is to save on money or what, but the last night we were there, we biked in the evening after dark to get to some investigators, and we were crossing at a street light (we had blinking lights on our bikes at the time) and it was our right of way and a car turned left almost into my companion, it stopped like a foot away and sat honking it's horn. I love Kansas drivers....

This zone had interviews at the very end of transfers and there was some major drama and disobedience in this district, and each companionship got pulled one companion. Hence, probably the last minute change with my last companion not training. Of course, what do you do when there is disobedience in the furthest district from the mission office...you send in the Elder that is a marine and of course apparently Sister Seymour :D  The first thing my comp told me was, well that we are so far away, we can get away with more stuff and it's not as strict out here. In my brain I was just like, honey, I hope you enjoyed that when it lasted, because I didn't come out on a mission to waste my time doing things that I would do on my most boring day off the mission.

I'm pretty sure Goodland maintains it's population through online dating, my favorite ice breaker questions for members is how did you meet...and every answer I have gotten so far is online. It's super windy here as well, especially in front of Walmart, we had two people talk to us at different times about it one day and a less active who told us that he got a concussion from the wind and his car door. At the hospital, they obviously didn't believe him and took him to a room to ask about his wife. I've also heard of two instances (one was a semi and another a companionship last transfer) where cars have flipped on the highway just because of the wind.

My companion, Sister Fosselman, is awesome! Easiest companion to get along with and daily plans like a boss...it helps that she's been out 14 months. I hope I am not pushing her too much, because I can tell the amount of work we have been doing is more than she is used to, but we are going to rock it out here. We got 4 new investigators within an hour tracting a single street. Things just got real. Everyone who has been here longer than like 10 years knows each other, so we get referrals like crazy, it's awesome. It's just going to be hard getting members out with us, considering there is literally only a handful, (okay maybe not literally).

Goodland Watertower

Giant Van Gogh painting
in Goodland.

Anna and I.
She said to me as we were taking it,
 "oh you want a picture
of the one that got away."
 I was like, "um, no the one who is
 just taking her own good time.
It's all about time."

Barbara and I.

 Griz (the guy that got baptized
right when I got out),
Sister Andersen, and I.

Grizz, being a wierdo,
with his wife, and I.

Grizz, his wife, and I. 

Sister Biel is a member
who just got sealed to her late husband.
She has been wanting to say
her testimony on Sundays,
but she can't walk to the pulpit.
Last Sunday, she got up the courage
 and asked them to give her
a microphone to say it,
 and even though it was so simple,
 it made a huge difference.
That's because there is a less active in the ward,
 who would otherwise not talk to her,
but was there to hear her testimony,
 and later did go up to her to ask her
 how it felt to be sealed to her husband.
The less active is working on
being able to be sealed to
her own deceased husband.
Sometimes things that don't seem so important
 really make all the difference in the world.

Wichitawesome...[Oct. 13, 2014]

Well, it's here, transfers....my companion got a training packet a couple weeks ago. So at first we were like, well, I guess I'm leaving because your getting a trainee, but then I realized hey maybe you're just followup training like me and going somewhere else. Yesterday, I mentioned this to a member we LOVE and she was like "hmmm...let me look at both of you and see who is leaving." She said I was, and then gave me three huge hugs. I was like, "NO, I'M NOT!" and she then was like..."Well, you're in denial." Then, she turned to my companion and was like..."We're feeding you next Sunday, what do you want?" and she said, "Pancakes." I WANT PANCAKES!
Well, last night, we found out that my companion got the training packet on accident...and then this morning, we found out that we are both getting pulled from College Hill, here in Wichita and no sisters are coming to replace us!! I guess you never know with transfers. I'll be in Goodland, near Garden City. My District Leader just sent a text saying, "There, I called it...Sis Seymour is in Goodland...translation for middle of--NO WHERE! Hahaha been there!"-- He's dead to me.-- My current companion had a really hard time getting along with her first companion and she talked about it a lot, now that companion is going to be my new companion. I'm trying super hard to go into it open minded!
That leaves all our investigators to the Elders, including a 12 and 11 year old girl who live with their single mom, which would be super weird for them to teach. Also, we have an older man who refuses to see Elders, because he claims they act like they know everything. He just started progressing, quit smoking and his wife was so happy we were finally making a difference. I know transfers are inspired...what's supposed to happen will happen; meaning their agency is going to be t-e-s-t-e-d.
On a side note, I was sitting in our last district meeting and eating this amazing Panera Bread pesto cheese-filled pasta creation when we were talking about Kneaders. I have worked with one of the Elders for 3 months, the other one 6 weeks, and there was a third. Well, the one I knew forever was like, "wow, you know a lot about Utah stuff, do you have family there?" I was like, "No, I went to BYU for three years before I came out." He was like dumbfounded and was like, "How old are you?" I was like, "Um, 21" and then in succession they each said, "You don't look 21, you don't act 21. Wow, you went to BYU for three years and didn't get married." --They're all dead to me as well.--
I should probably explain about the man in white below. It's a bit odd that the baptisms thus far on my mission are older men. I really think I have the soul of an old geezer...we just connect somehow. Well, he recently got married to a lady in our ward, and they were together before and raised 2 kids. He had taken the lessons with her, but she moved to Wichita and got baptized. Well, I felt like he needed to get baptized right away, and so we taught the last 4 lessons in 45 minutes (which is probably a record that isn't one you should strive for). But he took it all really well...and well, I guess we found it was a good thing later, because we would be leaving anyways. Also, coincidentally we haven't had any new investigators these past 2 weeks which we felt really bad about, but that makes the lives of the Elders less overwhelming which is a lot better. Meaning, investigators won't get lost in the shuffle.
Now, how to make the best pancakes in the world. Take any type of pancake mix and put in a lot of cinnamon, a little bit of nutmeg and almond extract and cook them. Then you can top with some homemade butter syrup if you so desire, but they're also good with plan maple syrup....so yummy!
The other picture--the one with the tarot card palm reader. (furture, not a typo, it's what the sign says, in case you don't get that) : Time to see what the furture holds!

Baptism

Baptism

Time to see what the "furture" holds...

Even If Things Get Heavy We'll All Float On...[Oct. 6, 2014]

Have you ever had one of those conversations where it starts off okay, but then by the end you realized it ruined your day and the rest of your week is shot. I'm starting to realize serving a foreign language mission can't be that bad. Something I get asked constantly, especially more annoyingly after people find out my major, is what I want to do when I grow up. My favorite answer now, is to live as a hermit in the mountains in a nice small house just big enough for a library, cello studio and tons of potted shrubbery, along with 2 big dogs and a tiny one and a couple cats. I'll have to start rumors somewhere along the line that I'm a crazy or something so that my self-proclaimed hermitage will continue uninterrupted. Kids will walk and see in the distance my tiny cottage in the mountains and they'll be like, crazy Sister Seymour lives there, then I'll start playing my cello and they'll run away.

In the meantime, I guess I have to learn to communicate with people. Even Elders, who, if I remind them 5 times, still forget to put a piece of paper we need from them in their bags. I've learned that the Lord works through imperfect people, but he still works through them. Even though the conversation I had that ruined my week was a bit of a misunderstanding and judgmental, I still learned things that I need to work on. They encourage us to always have a specific Christlike attribute to work on and I always knew that I had a great love for my investigators, but I'm realizing that I didn't have that same charity towards the missionary leadership. To quote myself in like every lesson I've ever given, it's all a progression. Or in the words of Elder Jorg Klebingat, "Acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don't let them disable you. Some may be your companion until you leave this life."

There isn't too much to update on investigators, we finally went and saw Barbara, and she told us they didn't come to church because her nephew wanted to get a hair cut or something. He apparently doesn't like the fact that he's prematurely balding. Does anyone have a toupee?

In other news, I found the secret to how to make out of this world spaghetti sauce. First, ground the beef with Worcestershire sauce and basil. Then put it in a crockpot with garlic salt, Parmesan cheese, and this is key, two different tomato sauces. Like mushroom prego and off brand 3 cheese. As long as they both have distinct different flavor, that works. Then, you let the flavors work together in a crockpot all day, and in the words of that really annoying television cook--forgot his name, bam, amazing spaghetti sauce.

Okay, this was a whole lot of random, but whatever. I'm loving this thing called Fall and I'm PUMPED for it to turn into Winter. I now have "The Four Seasons" stuck in my head. I hope whoever is reading this has a fantastic week and I love you all!

Oh, btw go to meetthemormons.com and request it in your area, it takes 600 requests for it to come and they showed us some test runs of people watching it and it's a great missionary tool. Then, go opening weekend, (this coming weekend) because based on how many people watch it the more media will be on it. I've already seen it twice and it's pretty good, of course the last movie I saw was like half my life ago, so that might be biased...

 We found the worlds tiniest park
while tracting and took a swing break.