I just can't believe it. Last P-day!? Never thought I would make it here, especially near the beginning of my mission. It just seemed so far away and I couldn't fathom doing it for 18 months. Surely something crazy would happen where I couldn't finish, but nope. Here I am. It just took a lot of sitting down after being utterly overwhelmed and thinking....all I have to do right now is....
Yesterday was my last day at church in Lamar and my last time seeing a lot of people, but instead of leaving in tears, I left blushing...this is why:
After the lesson in Relief Society, the lady conducting stood up and announced transfers were this week and I would be going home. Well, another lady who was sitting in the back (she goes to the ward about half the time, because they just bought a giant property in Coolidge and her single son (Kent) and married daughter moved here, but she still lives in Arizona) looks over and was like it's your last week! Can I give you Kent's number? I was like oh my gosh and all the ladies giggled. Then we said the closing prayer.
Well, she came up to me afterwards and I thought she was going to apologize about embarrassing me in front of everyone...nope...she handed me a paper with Kent's number on it and was like I kept telling him to give it to you, but he kept saying no we had to wait till it was closer to the end for you.
For the record Kent is a guy my parents would probably term 'a nice boy'. This whole situation now explains some things in the past such as why Kent drove an hour each way just to be in our nerf war at the church. And at the nerf war he asked me questions such as do you like it in Oregon or here better and are you coming back to Lamar to visit. The real reason I went on a mission? So I won't have to talk to boys. It didn't work. I knew I should just been a nun!!
We did have a less active that we have been working with since I got here come to church for the first time since April! It was good. Nothing much else exciting happened. The elders let us borrow the car AND it had a full tank of gas! I almost died of shock- nothing short of a miracle.
I keep getting less and less sleep, no idea why because I feel like I should be getting less stressed, but I guess not so. Last night I couldn't go to sleep till about 11:30 and I woke up at 5 and gave up trying to go back to sleep at 5:45.
So probs what'll happen the rest of this week is I will leave Tuesday evening to either Garden or Dodge. Then weds we will drive to Wichita, watch a world wide mission broadcast that is coincidentally happening that morning, then transfer devotional where I'll say my departing testimony, then at some point my departing interview with president, then Thursday I high tail it home.
Well it's been fun! I can't even begin to describe everything I have learned out here. The importance of charity. What it means to have a prayer in your heart. How to repent. How to develop Christlike attributes. How to read the Book of Mormon. How to not punch your district leader when he keeps distracting you while writing your blog.
Guys, the church is true! This is Christ's church on the earth. We will finding lasting happiness as we draw near to Him and honestly seek out His will for us. I know, with everything I am, that He loves each one of us. He truly is our Heavenly Father and Christ is our Savior.
See y'all on the flip side!
Pics:
Melanie and me!
Volunteering at healthy places, fixing up bikes with kids.
Getting an iPad set up to take a video of the second nerf war...elder
style and my last pancake. :(
Lacey is doing awesome! But there's this thing (something that I'm banking on for when I get back home....lol jk) where after you go through this refiners fire of a process and the light of Christ envelopes you, you become naturally attractive and therefore her ex-boyfriend came back into the picture. We were devastated at first, but he seems to be respecting her standards. He also is interested himself and we have taught him a couple lessons and he enjoyed church yesterday. So cool all the timing of everything. The elders met Lacey right when she broke up with him and I think she had to get solid in the gospel and now that she's a rock he can also be built up by it as well. #eternalfamiliesFTW
Let me tell you in two words what it's like getting close to the end of your mission. It sucks. Not to brag on how awesome of a missionary I am and look how spiritual of me not wanting my mission to end, but because there is so many emotions (excited, scared, sad, happy, relieved, anxious, depressed, nervous, etc.) that I just want to ignore the whole thing, or at least not talk about it. But then we had specialized training in Garden and naturally everyone that came up to talk to me before it started wanted to talk about me going home. I was also just feeling depressed, because I kind of have a hard companion. So I avoided people which led to me awkwardly standing by myself. My stellar district leader spotted me across the gym and bee lined it towards me with a threatening look of, if you don't lighten up I'm going to punch your face in. In a matter of two questions he got to the root of the problem and built me up from there. So inspired the people that you serve around and the timing of it all. I've learned so much from everyone, even though I feel like an old geezer more than ever.
Also, what it feels like to be close to the end is that you just left the side of someone who is in the midst of dying and you go outside and see the lives of people unaffected by the fact that there is someone dying. It's like HelllOo, my mission is coming to a close, why are we inviting people to be baptized after the 21st and doing all these trainings and crap! Anyways, enough of this trunkiness.
We are also teaching Lacey's sister and her family. She is super set on the fact that she will never quit weed, but I think after a few weeks of seeing her potential, we can help change that. Cool how the atonement can work sometimes.
We hiked two buttes last p-day. It's the highest point in our mission...which just goes to show how pathetically flat our mission is. Two buttes is 45 mins. South of Lamar and still very much so in our area. There's a member here who served in New Jersey and her mission is smaller than our area. It was super windy.
Another tidbit...
We beat the record for pancakes eaten in the Lamar district. Don't know if that really is something to be proud of, but we are. :D we hit 95. I personally ate 15.
We try to get a group together of members/investigators to do sports with us Saturday mornings and this last Saturday we had a good turn out to have an epic nerf gun fight.
LACEY GOT BAPTIZED!!! THE greatest miracle on my mission. The Lord really knows us and has the timing all right and He truly has the power to change our characters. She was in a really bad relationship when I met her two months ago and just not living a good life style and within weeks she has forsaken all of the bad. A couple days ago she was listing off all of these things that she has sacrificed for God and she said she just knows that she will get blessed, but now she just has to be patient and let Him work with her and her life. Her whole demeanor has just changed so much.
Yesterday we were riding in the car together and she asked if I will get a Facebook when I get back....yes...okay just don't get corrupted, there's a lot of bad stuff on it. It's okay though, your strong. I was about to tell her I had one before my mission too, but before my mission gay marriage was still illegal, it was illegal to smoke pot in my home state and Robin Williams was still alive. I think my recent convert just insulated me...(insulation lessons are lessons you give to investigators before they get baptized to warn them about ways the adversary will try to deviate them off course.)
We invited like everyone to the baptism and we had a good turn out. We had a little potluck afterwards and it was all fun. Lacey got the Holy Ghost on Sunday and that was also legit.
We also went on my last exchange with the STLs this week. Huzzah!
The Wednesday before the Thursday I go home we are having a world wide mission broadcast so that should be immensely exciting.
On Thursday, we borrowed the car from the elders and they left an upside down cup on the dash. Naturally my companion picked up the cup and we found a big hairy spider underneath. Screaming ensued and we called the elders and they were like oh how's Reggie doing? Well, it climbed into a vent and we had to go, so you can imagine the fear of when we had to go back in the car. :(
I forgot my journal so I kinda forgot what else happened this week.
Thanks for the prayers! Here's some pics.
So it was Sunday and we still didn't have any new investigators this week and Sister Mertens was looking at the old paper area book that we still have. Pretty much the whole thing hadn't been put in the area book app. Well, we found some former investigators to try and the first one was this single mom that has 7 kids living with her all baptismal age. We knocked on their house and before we could introduce ourselves the daughter let us in and the 5 kids that were there and the mom all sat with us as we taught the Restoration, it was soooo awesome.
Then we still needed some new investigators to count as our found through member ones. Well, we found a potential that was a referral from a now less active recent convert that he referred several months ago. So we visited her and we could tell she had a lot of friends over, but we knocked anyways and she let us right in. Her name is Patty and she is pretty old and has that scruffy voice that long-term smokers do. We found out right away that one of the ladies there was a member who hadn't been to church in several years and her nonmember daughter. After 2 hours of laughing our guts out because Patty is hilarious, both Patty and the daughter became investigators. I love how apparent God shows His hand in this work.
Anyways, more about Patty, she smoked at least half a pack within the span we were there. She offered us diet Dr. Pepper or Coke my companion asked for a Coke and I made the mistake of asking for diet Dr. Pepper (which btw is my recent go to, when I am in need of a caffeinated beverage which is necessary a lot here with having to drive so much) anyways, she was handing it to me and asked, "do you have diabetes?" "No...." "Well, your not fat. Are you constipated" No...." "Well, we're going to have to work on you."
Pretty much any topic of conversation goes with Patty. We went from visiting teaching, to our 'magic underwear' and then the social occasions that would require one to wear a bra. (Apparently shopping at Walmart is one that doesn't.) Anyways, I'm pretty excited to start teaching her, but now with Patty "musk" on us, everyone we meet is also going to start thinking we are chain smokers.
So Christmas was fun, we got lots of chocolate and that's all that matters. Skyping the fam was a delight as well.
Lacey is set to get baptized on Thursday, so we are super pumped about that. I love her so much and this is going to be the greatest thing she's ever done....so yeah....it should be kinda fantastic.
We finally got to move into our new apartment today, so it's been kind of hectic. You have no idea how much stuff apartments accumulate after housing missionaries for just three years. So I'm trying to email in half the time I normally do....hopefully this works out.
Yesterday was a bucket of crazy. Well the night before our district leader was talking about the mission presidents devotional that was happening in Liberal, Kansas the next evening. He mentioned how awesome it would be if we could get Lacey to go. So we made this crazy plan of asking a certain member to drive her and us the 2 hours and 45 minutes to the devotional. (Yeah, that was where they were doing it for our stake) the member was all for it, but she said she only had two seats besides herself. So we needed a member to drive us. We were exhausting all resources and finally as we were talking about it after the block a member overheard us and said you need a ride? We can take you. Haha, no you don't understand....its to Liberal, KS which is almost 3 hours away. Yeah, we can take you. What!? So we went and had lunch with them (this is the same member that fed us goose last week) and we were going to meet the other member at Lacey's house. Well when we got there we found her getting sick on the side of the road so that was a no go and considering the members small car we were in only one sister and Lacey would fit, so me being the graciously generous companion I am I offered Sister Mertens to hang back with the Fillmores all day...haha jk, no she was a doll and said it was my last chance to go to a mission presidents devotional and let me go.
I called the ZLs...no answer....called the district leader and he said GO so me and my companion went on splits....for 7 hours 169 miles away. We had a good discussion with Lacey on the car ride there and the devotional was #worthit. Lots of testimonies from recent converts and lots of talk about acting on faith and the importance of the BOM.
Then I made sure she met President and Sister Bell afterwards which was really good. He told her she was ready and she just needs to take that step of faith...its just faith from now on. Everything that evening came together so well, it definitely was the hand of God. I also chalk up it up to eating that hairy goose.
The ride home was also sooo necessary she opened up so much and I think we FINALLY got to the root of her concern. I also got a call from the ZLs saying the assistants called them and to tell me never to go on splits 3 hours away from my companion again....I imagine that though it will be somehow tempting with all the opportunities that would present themselves over the course of this next month to go on 169 mile away splits, through the grace of God I'll have the will power to overcome such behavior.
We also had our Christmas zone conference this week which was delightful...besides the fact that I had to give my testimony because it's my last transfer....so weird and not okay! Pic 1 zone Conf
Pic 2 Lacey and I
So, I was just about to write this when the elders texted us asking if we could come out to give them the car keys. After grumbling about why they couldn't just come to the door I go and open the door....see that there is an iPad a few feet away recording and then I look down to see some sort of animal skin on the Fillmores porch and then it slides away as Elder Michaelis giggles reeling it in, because he had attached it to a fishing pole. They were kind of disappointed I hadn't screamed and I almost felt bad, but they're going to have to try a lot harder than that!
I showed them a pic of my brother and Elder Michaelis said hey it's Elder Porter and Elder Porter said, hey it's me a few years down the road.
The main topic/struggle for this week was definitely our housing drama. It's been going on quite a while, but it reached its peak this week. I got permission from our mission housing several weeks ago that we could look for a new place. Our apartment is 2 miles outside of town and we can't go back for dinner and it's too long to walk so when it snows we always have to get rides. One day we just had to eat crackers in the elders garage in below freezing weather, because we didn't have a dinner or transportation. Anyways, so it was a problem and I was trying to fix it...well our bishop owns the place we are at and his wife was beside herself that we would want to move. We ended up calling the mission housing people back after we viewed a perfectly fine apartment that is in the middle of town and has everything we need and they talked with the president and we are getting moved. We have dinner with bishop tonight, so let's hope that's not awkward. Lesson learned here: don't rent as a missionary from your bishop. Super excited to not have to walk an hour in freezing cold weather to finally see people!
Lacey is progressing more and more rapidly! She just keeps going through all of these concerns. She mentioned, okay guys, I've been holding back an addiction I have...I smoke weed. It's like Lacey, we know your house reeked of it when we first met you, but it doesn't anymore we thought you quit....well yeah I haven't had it for a few weeks....and your concern is?? Well what if I want it again! Do you want it? No, not right now....okay....but she really is concerned about it. She of course said the classic, well it's like an herb from the ground. God created it for us...uhhhh. #onlyinCO She completely gave up alcohol and it was because she saw her friend get sick from it a couple nights ago and just realized it's not worth it. Then last night Pshe was like, guys I know what to do! I'll smoke weed right now and you'll see me act all not myself and I'll realize I don't want to be like that anymore. Yeah no! How bout lets be obedient to all of Gods commandments...yeah? Anyways, her countenance has changed so dramatically since I first met her. She is a completely different person....well not different, but a glowing shiny version of herself.
Sister Mertens is my new companion and she is awesome! Unfortunately she hasn't gotten her driving privileges yet, so I had to drive from Wichita to Lamar pretty much straight 6 hours. We have been able to see a lot of miracles since she got here. We have a few new super promising investigators and we have been able to contact a lot of people that it's been hard for us to contact before. Super excited to see what this transfer has to bring.
We watched the Christmas devotional at the church last night and it was so good. Sometimes a French horn player I know plays with them and he was there last night. He was on the chamber orchestra tour I went on right before I left and he was being really friendly on it. I was not at all interested in him, but it still was discouraging when I saw his wedding ring. I have no contact with all of my music school or brick oven friends and I'm going to have to take some happy pills before going on Facebook when I get home to see what I've missed. I feel like I started watching a tv series on Netflix, and I told myself oh I'll just watch one episode, 5 episodes later I've procrastinated everything else I need to get done for so long that I might as well finish the series. I now understand why people used to beg for extensions.
Tomorrow we head for Wichita at 2:00 to get there by 9:00. Then I drive back with my new comp the next day.....fun times living in the middle of nowhere on the edge of the mission! Last week we had
interviews and then the next day zone training, both in Garden City, so that was 8 hours in two days, I complained, so of course we have a drive of 12 hours in two days this week. Karma.
Onward to my last transfer! So incredibly crazy....how did I get here!?
Yesterday I woke up feeling sick to my stomach, but I was good enough to go to church and everything. When dinner arrived after fasting all day I was a little worried how my stomach would hold up. Then we were eating this wild goose, which was good up until my last piece. I turned it over and it was hairy on the other side. I looked up and the hostess was watching me. I could tell she knew what I was thinking, so I looked down and I put on my big girl pants and stuck that hairy goose meat in my mouth. I felt like standing on my chair and yelling, what! What now! Bring it on hairy goose!! Long story short, my stomach, with the help of Chamomile, held it all.
We had a movie night where we watched Meet the Mormons. Some active members were being bums and told us, you know the missionaries did this a few months ago and only two people showed up. Well we advertised and told everyone and 28 people showed up, so that was super awesome!
We had a super spiritual testimony meeting on Sunday which was perfect for Lacey. She was crying and told us she's really warming up to coming to church on Sunday. She even had comments and questions in Sunday School and Relief Society and everyone was so nice to her. Ug, she just needs to get baptized already!!
I feel like so much more happened, but I don't have time to write. Love you all!
Pics: Sister Fillmore, Sister Birks, Lacey and I
Zone training
This was kind of a bleh week. We had exchanges with the STLs and they were stressful as always. That combined with everyone else I'm working with made me feel about as useful as chopped liver. I was having a breakdown afterwards and asked my companion...well should I just clock out? "No" but really I think that's just the easier route, because everyone else thinks they know how to do things better than I do, so why bother? I also realized that this is my first area where there is no major hurtle I have to push myself to overcome. Nothing that is making me go the extra mile. Other areas I whitewashed, led, trained, and saved from being closed. This area is just fine and my companion is competent. Who knew that the trial I needed was feeling the lack of being needed in an area that was trial free. Well, obviously God.
An experience yesterday kind of sums up how the work went this week. We went and tried a potential we both hadn't met that was in the area book. She was a teenage girl and let us right in. We taught her the restoration on her couch and she took it well. Then we invited her to baptism and she was like to be a Mormon!? Uh...yeah....she said no, then we invited her to read the Book of Mormon...no, I'll stick with the bible...then we gave her a card to Christmas.mormon.org
We had thanksgiving with these members that are RAs for the dorms at the community college here. A couple college kids showed up....they're new investigators now!
I'm trying hard to show gratitude for everything that God gives me. Isn't it cool that we have a holiday that reminds us to do that? But I really think that is key to happiness.
"Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation? In other words, I'm suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstance- whatever they may be....Being grateful in our circumstance is an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true. By being grateful, we follow the example of our beloved Savior, who said, 'not my will, but thine be done.'" President Uchtdorf
Pics:
Sister Fillmore let us help her make pies.
Thanksgiving dinner.
Elder Michaelis and his food baby with Elder Porter.
Outside our window this morning. Mother Nature decided to welcome our bike week in with some aerial bestowed powder.
The weather update....we call this area Lamar beach, because there is a river bed that had a beach and some elder way back from California started calling it the beach and it stuck. I thought. Super ironic the weather update showed the beach...
So last Monday we were driving to Walmart and I saw a big tumbleweed on the side of the road and I pulled over. Our apartment is rather dreary so I was thinking a tumbleweed decorated as a Christmas tree would lighten it up. Well the tumbleweed didn't fit in out car so we walked it the couple blocks which was awkward especially when people we knew honked at us. We tried stuffing it in the elders garage, but they walked out right as we were stuffing it in the doorway...it was funny. Well, we got it in and later when we wanted to go home, Sister Birks was a trooper and held it outside the window as we drove the couple miles to our house. Of course we also left right as the elders came up with the Fillmores. They got a pic of us.
One evening we were biking to an investigator and it was dark and this dog came out of nowhere and it was big and barking at us and following at my legs. It got real fast and I screamed bloody murder. Had I had the pepper spray on me that dog would've had it coming! But thank goodness I didn't because it ended up being our investigators dog. It was a German shepherd, but it was far scarier than some pitbulls I've met.
The elders have been driving all over the place and have had lots of adventures they've told us about, but they were butts and scared Sister Birks as she got something out of the trunk and saw a dead bird. I hate sharing a car with elders! They are good elders though and they met a guy two weeks ago and he's getting baptized Saturday!
There was a crazy blizzard that happened earlier in the week and it calmed down enough that we could walk outside. Lots of semis were stuck in Lamar, because all the surrounding towns got tons of snow.
Lacey is still progressing. She is making small steps with changing her life. We are trying to really get her in the Book of Mormon, because that's really gonna be the key with her understanding everything. We also established that we are having a dinner with her every weekend in the hopes that she won't be tempted to go drinking afterwards. She is so fun and cute and I just clearly see how much potential she has.
We had dinner with this one member who told us that in Brazil on his mission whenever they had trouble with someone they were teaching who wouldn't stop talking, they would ask three random successive questions without giving them time to answer, to break their train of thought and the other companion would go straight into the lesson. The elders tried it on us one time and it was so annoying!
Anyways, stay fly. Read the Book of Mormon. Go to church. Know that God loves you. Oh and pray for things that you need right then!
Pics: Sister Birks, Lacey, me
Our tumble tree
Sister Birks, and I with Lacey's dog, princess. She blended in with my
black scarf.
E. Michaelis, E. Porter, me and Sister Birks
E. Michaelis without adjusting the seat after I drove.
We have been teaching this lady named Lacey. She's had a rough past involving incarceration and teen pregnancy and she has SO MUCH POTENTIAL, but it is so hard for her to see! Babylon is all she knows. There's that popular quote, what the mind can conceive it can achieve. Yeah she is still at the conceiving part of it. But just within the past little over a week she has changed so much. She is feeling the spirit more and more during the lessons. Well, at the beginning of the week she was set to be baptized Feb 28th but then we taught her the WOW and LOC and she had a mini freak out. She mentioned that no one had taught her this when she was young. We fasted for her and the next day we took this awesome team up that helped her with her vision of herself. Then the next day she kind of dropped us and said she was going to a different church in Sunday. But we told her about priesthood blessings and she really wanted one so we set it up for at the church. She got it and felt really good about it and then we showed her the font and because of him on our iPads. Then I told her that God didn't send us to her in a few years, but NOW, because He knows she's ready. I asked her if she still wants to get baptized. She said yes. I asked when. She said Feb 28th. (Totally unexpected, we were thinking she would say months down the road) then I told her she would have to live WOW and LOC that day and she committed to do so. Such a MIRACLE! Lacey told us a psychic told her that people would be coming to see her and she will learn a lot about herself through them and she took us as those people. Another investigator this week told us that a lady in her old church that she doesn't know too well stood up and said that people are going to come to see Gail and she needs to listen to them and she is taking us as those people. Talk about prepared!
Both the elders and us hit standard, which I think is the first time my whole mission that my entire district hit standard so that's a miracle itself.
Yesterday I may or may not have told a random stranger that he is the most prideful person I ever met...we were in a gospel discussion talking about the existence and nature of God and he pretty much said he believes He exists, but that doesn't motivate him to change his sinful behaviors. We had a good discussion on pride and he's a new investigator and we have plans to meet his wife who is a referral we were planning on seeing anyways. I think I have old man syndrome again where my death is eminate and I'll say what I want to say. Oh who's
kidding....I have that all the time!
One evening we prayed and I rubbed my eye....than it started burning and felt all blood shot and I had no idea why. Then later I was playing with the nozzle of the pepper spray in my pocket and was like...oooooh....
We got a new phone (nothing to be excited about...it's harder to text than the last one) well we tried setting it up, but it failed and then we didn't have any phone. So we went to our appointment and across the street was a member so we asked to borrow her phone and she was super nice. On the phone the lady that helped asked my first and last name and she started calling me by my first name and then it got to the account name and I was like LDS church? And she's like oh...is it sister? Uh yeah! And she started calling me that. I don't know if she
was a member or maybe just working at Sprint she must talk with a lot of missionaries changing their phone. But the member we borrowed the phone from asked if we had a dinner...we didn't...so she fed us dinner and talked about our investigators and just was so nice. I love members!
Picture: selfie with Kaitlyn
This week was a hardun' ...my companion likes to plan things to a T and I'm one that's like....let the spirit just blow me where I need to go. It's more PMG to plan to a T, but try planning with Sister Seymour at 10pm after biking up a small hill for 30 minutes to get home and see how that goes. :] Oh yeah it's also bike week...and we live about 2 miles outside of town...yay. Anyways, so I know that I've seen success, therefore I know what I'm doing is at least one right way to do things, so it's been a lot of a balance act with not letting my pride get in the way, but also correcting when I know there is a better way. Can I go back to training?
This week marks my first EVER flat tire on my bike. Even before my mission I used to go road biking and stuff and have never gotten one. The elders fixed it up. We got some gooduns!
The Fillmores have bailed us out so many times and they are such sweethearts! I have no idea what we would do with out them. She feeds us pancakes Monday mornings and they never go to bed before 9:30 in case they have to help one of us.
We had a double baptism! Isaiah and Kaitlyn! They are so awesome and were super ready. They're brother Jesse got baptized last week and their mom the week before. (Found through aunt who got baptized 2 years ago) The grandma and sister are left. The sister is named Kristina...its just a matter of time. :)
Lamar is interesting, because they really are the size of a small Ward, but the population is just a bit bigger than Goodland, which had to travel to go to a very small branch in the city 30 minutes away.
The difference? Goodland had one big less active family. Lamar has a big solidly active family which created a foundation for the ward. Goes to show every person is so vital in building the kingdom. It's
been hard coming from Junction where people come and go so often to here where everyone is related and if you talk with anyone they know at least a couple people that go to the LDS church.
On Weds we had a team-up with this active member who is probably about my age. She had these super cute glasses on and her hair was thick and was in this sleek slicked back pony tail. She had this perfectly cute coat on over her thin figure and I had this immediate....I want to be you when I grow up impression. The next thought....oh wait. We are like the same age. I have been working to be you for several years and yet here I am in my ugly black smudged shoes with my I don't care hair in a low falling out pony. Pale legs splotched with mosquito bite scars. Whatever make up I had on had long been sweated off from biking. Why am I failing at this goal of perfection? Haha, maybe because only Christ is perfect and He has no intention for me to be perfect in that way. But this goes far beyond the mission. Not having social media has been bliss because my self esteem doesn't at all stand with how many likes or followers I have. It doesn't rely on the funny or profound things I have to share on Facebook. My self esteem here completely relies on my standing before the Lord....that is until I have a run in with a team-up that the adversary uses to let me lose sight on what the vision for myself is. Don't know what I'll do when I get off this shin dig....I guess practice what I preach. CPR...church, pray, read.
Random AP visit... Me, sister Birks, AP Merrifield, DL Michaelis, E. Porter, AP Limb
Zone training
Baptism! Me, Sister Birks, Kaitlyn, Bro. white, Isaiah, MaryAnn (mom)
LDS.org...been there don't that. (Regarding the prompt to meet Elder Stevenson)
This week has been crazy. It started off with so many sad good byes. Saying bye to Sarah was the hardest. She is a recent convert and just a classic teenager and when I told her I was leaving the next morning she started tearing up and I just hated life at that point. She was the first one to get baptized in her family and I just found out that her brother in law who is also like her adopted father is on date for baptism and committed to quit smoking. When I left he completely refused to quit smoking and consider baptism, but I just got Sister Chappells email and after fasting he had a change of heart. I LOVE THAT FAMILY sooooooooo MUCH.
So Wednesday we drove 2 hours to Wichita, had the transfer devotional then I sat in a van for 3 hours awkwardly squished next to an elder and then another 3 hours to Lamar. So full day of driving. Then we had Thursday and Friday where Sister Birks introduced me to so many awesome people here in Lamar. I feel like right away I click with like everyone here, more than any other area I've been in. It's Gods way of saying, hey, you weren't done with just Junction.
Saturday we were back on the road for 12 hours. We didn't get back til 12:30, thank goodness it was the time change! Sister Birks just finished her training, so she doesn't have driving privileges yet, but we took a bus for part of it so it wasn't all me. She is just like me when I was that far in the mission. She puts a lot of pressure on herself and I want to help, but I don't want to step on her toes with things, so it's a balance. I feel like I'm getting good at being in the background of things and a safety net when they need it. She has a very different personality than me and I realized that I just have to constantly decide we are going to get along. We'll be besties by the end of this.
We drove 12 hours to see an apostle! The third one that I have shaken hands with. Elder Stevenson. He is so awesome! He asked who was here when E.Holland visited in May and most of us raised our hands and he was like oh dear....you should never lower your expectations...except for right now. Lower your expectations. I learned a lot from him. I need to promise specific blessings when committing people. I also need to testify at the end of each lesson to leave the spirit in their home. He talked for like 2 hours and it felt like nothing and it reached 6:30 and he was like holy smokes it's 6:30! Then he went on for another 15 minutes lol. So we missed Halloween in its entirety, but this was much preferred.
Oh I forgot, Friday we had a baptism! When I got there late weds night they had nothing set up for the program including the talk and no one to baptize him. We got it pulled together though and it was awesome. It was for Jesse who is 11 and two of his older siblings are getting baptized this Saturday. His single mother got baptized a week ago.
My mission dad (first district leader) went home this last transfer and in his departing testimony he talked about the Wizard of Oz and how it's about Dorothy and her adventures to Oz. She meets up with people along the way. They all help her and she helps them and in the end when she finally gets to her destination she realizes it wasn't where they were going that mattered, but the people you meet along the way. Completely describes my mission. Especially the meeting of people with no heart, courage or brains :P
