Back When Hector Was a Pup...[Dec. 15, 2014]

Last week was full of tender mercies. One lesson, which we thought would just be a cold short doorstep visit, because our investigator just broke up with his girlfriend so we can't go in his place unless a member is with us,...well, his ex-girlfriend was randomly packing up things at his place so we could go in. Then they were like, "Do you  want to hold some week old puppies?"...uh yeah! So there was 3 of the cutest little puppies. Then they were like, "Do you want cake?"....uh yeah! It was awesome, cake and puppies, you can't go wrong.
It also rained yesterday, which was delightful, plus it was a potluck Sunday! So lots of people came and we held a gospel principles class, which this branch has never seen and it went great. I literally planned for five minutes for that class, which was all it needed, because the investigators were talking and teaching each other the whole time.
Debbie did a garage sale yesterday and she needed a lot of stuff moved including a car, so miraculously the Elders were able to come help.  Normally it's just too far for them, but they were leaving at just the right time anyways to go to Garden City.  Then they were also on exchanges with our district leader who realized Debbie wasn't wearing a watch, and asked why? She said she gave it to a girl who didn't have one and then he took the watch off his wrist and gave it to her.  She was so touched that she started crying. She is going to ask him to baptize her, which is a good thing, because there was literally no one else that could. (She didn't trust our Elders, poor kids. I guess if you're a stick before your mission, it might be good to go to the gym to prepare to baptize on your mission!)
Debbie is getting baptized on Saturday, which is going to be one of the greatest miracles on my mission! She has changed so much, and after 48 years of smoking she quit within a matter of weeks. We have been making daily contact with her and the fact that she doesn't have a phone means we have stopped by every day. I had a district leader tell us that no matter whether or not we make daily contact with our investigators, Satan is. That is so true. She has been tempted every day to smoke or drink coffee or even Pepsi, (which we've told her a million times it's okay, but she still can't get over the fact that coffee isn't, but Pepsi is, so she's quitting it as well.) She did smoke 2 puffs today, from a cigarette she found, so we are going to have to get special permission for her to get baptized from our Mission President, but I don't think it will be a problem.

Sister Fosselman (my comp) and I

Garden City and Liberal Zones
at our ugly sweater Christmas party
in Garden City.

Looking through a window made of time, would you have the courage not to lie; burn it down...[Dec. 8, 2014]

So Kevin is in rehab in Norton, KS. Debbie (not his sister) took him there, and somehow he was able to get the money. We don't know how long he will be there.
We continue teaching his sister Debbie, she is so awesome. She loves reading and learning more. She is in love with True to the Faith and she always has questions for us. Her baptism date is Dec. 24th, but we are thinking of moving it up because she is ready and we feel like we are holding her back.
One day this week our district leader called us up and said that he was on exchanges with the Burlington elders, and they don't have a USB thing for their car (for music) so he was wondering if we had any CD's he could borrow, so they could listen to some music the way up there. Well, naturally, we said he could. Then I went down and grabbed my Lower Lights Christmas album cover (acquired b/c someone left it behind in one of my areas) and switched the CD with a super corny pink sister missionary CD that had about a dozen cheesy sister missionaries on the front, my comp had. Well, they pulled up to our apt and I gave it to him and he's like NO WAY the Lower Lights have a Christmas album. He just had pure joy on his face, and I was cracking up so bad...he was so confused why I was laughing. Then a few minutes after they left, we texted them how they are liking the Lower Lights and he texted back, you sisters are bums.
Friday, we had to wake up at 4am to go to Zone Training (remember the time zone change). Love it. Well, after I was driving on the highway for 20 minutes I realized the speed limit was 75, not 65. We were a bit late, but that's okay. It didn't help that there was literally no one else on the highway at the time to pass us.
Sister Fosselman woke up with the stomach flu on Saturday, so our best proselyting day was a waste. I read and memorized all day, so my brain was aching by the end.

My half chihuaha and half poodle boyfriend.
Hubert (huey) Lawrence Matthews. Debbie's dog.
He waits in the window for us all day
and bites at our ankles when we try to leave.

Debbie informed us she wants to set off
fireworks after her baptism.
 She has quite a stash
and we decided to try one right then.
Putting her lighters to better use then
before we went outside and she lit one.
I then learned that lighting a firework
 next to your house on a windy day
in Kansas is not a good idea.
It flew to her roof, but thankfully
 it was a short one and was out by then. 



Debbie scared her house is about
to light on fire. 

Sister Fosselman and I

Elders stacking up on each other for
an object lesson.
No one was hurt, miraculously,
the making of this picture.



As a zone, we memorized this thing
from Preach My Gospel and the zone leaders
volunteered themselves to have
freezing water thrown on them.
My district leader is in the brown in the back.



Wet zone leaders.

Hornswoggl​ed by a Skinflint...[Dec. 1, 2014]

They should have told me in my call packet that I was called to the Kansas Wichita Mission backcountry hick English speaking, since it definitely is a different language then I grew up speaking. Anyways, this week...wow...take a few minutes to think of happy and good things in this world...and then, you can start reading what happened. I swear the beginning of this week feels like a month ago for me, it wasn't super terrible, it just was a lot to take in.

At one point this week, our recent convert as of last Saturday (Kevin) was on the lamb with 10k and a stolen car....Let us start from the beginning.
Tuesday morning: Sister Williams (a member who is married to Don who owns the manure spreading business Kevin worked for--she introduced us to Kevin) called and said, we don't know where Kevin is, but he has a check and we think the customer (they don't know who the customer was) put it on accident in Kevin's name. The last time we saw Kevin was in Sacrament Meeting when he got confirmed. He was crying and left and then came back. The talk was on the history of Thanksgiving and I was confused why he was so emotional over Native Americans and Pilgrams, when he whispered that his grandpa had just died and he was in Nebraska. So, he left in the middle of Sacrament Meeting to go to Nebraska....Well, that's where we thought he was this whole time....We texted him once, but he didn't reply, we just thought he was busy with family.
Well, Tuesday we also got a call from the Branch President's wife, who said a lady in Limon got our number and is wondering if Kevin had a stroke. We figured it was Debbie (his girlfriend) and we went to go see Debbie (his sister and our investigator he introduced us to) to see what was up. She said he was in Colby getting his foot fixed, because it was broken. We were like wait, didn't your grandpa die and she's like, no, he is in St.Francis (that's in Kansas in our area) and he just had a couple strokes, but he's fine and not even in the hospital.
So we called the branch president's wife and told her Kevin was fine. She must have given our number to Debbie (Kevin's gf) because she called us in the afternoon. She said she was in Denver trying to find the hospital Kevin was at, because he said he had a stroke and was there. I was like, well other Debbie said he is in Colby getting his foot fixed.
I decided to ask her a little more. I knew she was a member and she explained that she got baptized in 2003 and she was endowed. She said she met Kevin at a gas station in Colorado. (We later found out he drove the Williams truck with his sister there to get some pot) They met a month ago, which truthfully coincidentally is around the same time he met us. She said they talked a lot on the phone and when she came down for the weekend that was her first time spending time with him.
She just went on how they were supposed to ride horses together and she's like, "Yeah, I never even did see his house." I was like, "What house? He lives in the William's camper in Rexford, KS." She's like, "He lives there!? He said his hired man lives there." I was like, "He IS the hired man." She lost her breath. She said she also saw him put chew in his mouth. Delightful.
Debbie (the sister) said Kevin told her he was going to Larnard Mental Hospital. The Williams told us he deposited the check for $10,000 and said he had their truck.
Wednesday: We visited Debbie (the sister) with a member in an effort to get her to know the members in the ward. You bet your bottom dollar we were on her like Donkey Kong. I was like, "When did you last smoke? Do you have any coffee in the house? Alcohol?" (She threw away her alcohol, she has family coming in and out and a niece that lives with her so she claims it came from them) I flat out asked her if she had marijuana and she's like, "No, I don't have that anymore I gave it away." I was scared who she gave it to, so I asked her, "...Kevin...DEBBIE!!" Of course, the member is just wide eyed this whole time, because we were so blunt with her. Thankfully she was a convert herself. Debbie (the sister) also told us she saw Kevin drink vodka right before his baptism in the church parking lot and she was just what the! and he offered her some and was like it's cool! She said she was so mad at him she didn't want to go in, but obviously she did.
I just told her, you can lie through all of this and seriously it's no skin off my back if you are doing any of it, but it's between you and Heavenly Father, so it makes no sense why you would bother lying to us! She completely agreed, so hopefully we can keep that open communication with her. I know she know's it's true and she honestly wants to quit.
We found out that night from her calling Larnard Mental Hospital that he wasn't there.
Thanksgiving Thursday: the WORST proselyting day ever! We knocked on this one house and this old lady answered and talked with a Russian accent and with her hands and said I'm IN the MIDDLE of COOKING! and slammed the door. We obviously weren't able to make any appointments that day so it was a shot in the foot. We had dinner at a member's house and that was good. Later that night, we were going to start a fast with both Debbies and we got a couple interesting texts from Debbie (the sister): Are you coming over here to fast? Us: Yeah, will you be home at 8 tonight? Debbie: Yeah both my couches fold out. We were like wait does she think we are sleeping over? and then she sent another text Debbie: Or is fasting no sleeping also? We were cracking up so bad. Apparently, we didn't explain fasting very well...so we called her and set her straight. She told us Marshalls came to her house that morning to look for Kevin.
Friday: That morning we got a call from Debbie (the gf) She said that she had been sending texts to Kevin this whole time and last night at 8:30 is when he started sending the texts back! She was able to convince him to come clean and go to the Williams. Sister Williams called and said Kevin was on his way and will be there in an hour. We sent the senior couple over there, and they convinced him to go to a hospital to start detoxing. Apparently, he drinks vodka 24/7. So they drove him to Wray, CO. They took him for 72 hours and will kick him out after that. Meaning he will be out sometime today. It would be prime if he could go to a place to detox all the way, but he has no insurance and no one wants to pay for that, because he would just go back to it afterwards anyways. He'll probably just end up going to Debbie (his sister)
So that's Kevin for yeah. We also found out yesterday that he never was a marine. Sister Wiliams is convinced that he did it all to get with Debbie (his gf), but I don't know. I think he honestly wanted to change and he liked the support he was getting at church, but he just didn't have the mentality to know how to get there.
Our Branch President was less than helpful yesterday as he blamed us for allowing someone to "mock a sacred ordinance". Thankfully, our stake president must have heard about that from someone, because he came up to us (he's in our branch) and said he was going to talk with him about it, and to not blame ourselves. My companion had an emotional breakdown yesterday in the car, so that was also fun to deal with. We both just are emotionally and physically exhausted from the week. I can't imagine what would have happened if one of us did get transferred on Tuesday in the middle of all of this. Our branch president also was like, now it's all my problem to deal with, we were just like seriously?! Who has been in communication with the Debbies?...who convinced him to come clean?...who fasted for him?...who drove him to Wray?...who arranged for him to get a blessing in Wray?.... He didn't even know where Kevin was at the time. It was just a little bit frustrating, but I'm really not blaming anyone for anything. It just is a situation that we were all put in, and it is not meant to put us down, but to learn from. 

This sounds like it was my entire week, but it was all intermixed with everything else and we ended with 12 lessons with less actives and 17 other lessons. We tracted into 2 different part member families who's records aren't in the branch, but they live next to each other randomly in a trailer park we never go to. They were super nice and had families. Whoop!... there it is.
OH ALSO, I got to slaughter a pig on Saturday! We got a call Thursday from a member who was killing a pig Saturday and needed help cutting it up. I wanted to get a picture, but by the time I thought of it my hands were literally covered in pigs blood. #sorrynotsorry My hands stank so bad afterwards, kind of like wet dog. Yeah, wet dog literally smells like dead pig.

 

The elders in our area last transfer...

let's just say they aren't going

to be professional football players

and so we waited for transfers.

Then they send us another stick.

So Saturday, we decided to move

our insanely heavy and bulky hide-a-bed couch

ourselves it involved a lot of scooting and sliding. 

There is this shrine thing
this house puts up for the holidays,
a different one was there
for Halloween,
so naturally I took a picture with it.

LIFE GOES ON...[Nov. 24, 2014]

Well, remember about Kevin? He was the man we met at church (the Williams brought him) and he gave his testimony saying he read the Book of Mormon in two weeks. He got baptized last Saturday and it was a miracle. Mainly, because on Thursday he was supposed to have his interview, and I even reminded him the night before, and he forgot. Then Friday, he was having car troubles in the middle of nowhere with no reception, so we really couldn't get a hold of him. We thought he was backing out. Finally, Saturday morning he called and told us everything and our district leader was able to meet with him and talk marine with him (both marines). Everything came together. Debbie (his sister that we are teaching) came, and it was awesome. I swear we were best friends in the Pre-mortal existence, she is so dang funny! She's getting baptized Dec. 13.


Found out this morning that for transfers both me and my companion are staying in Goodland. Our district leader is turning into our zone leader. The lovely Elder Pettit is getting a new companion.

Let's talk about Elder Pettit for a few secs, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Elder Pettit's cousin was my stand partner in BYU Chamber Orchestra, meaning we were stand partners for a semester, and then for that tour in Europe. Elder Pettit, after he found out I was a cello major at BYU, asked if I knew Zach...uhh yeah. So that's pretty coincidental. He also reminds me a lot of my younger brother (pretty serious), and sometimes I think he gets a little annoyed with how much I joke around.
Example: We went outside and it was getting a bit dark, to walk Kevin and the Williams to their car after the baptism, and on our way back I noticed Elder Pettit was crouched on the inside and locking the door to the building.  So, naturally I ran up and into the door and Elder Pettit yelled and fell over. His companion walked around the corner like, what the....
Another Example: At district meeting last week they mentioned something Kevin said to them and I was like, "You talked with Kevin!?" They were like, "No, that was just in priesthood"...I was like, "Oh"...and then later we texted them about something and they texted back way later and they were like sorry it took so long we were talking with Kevin (just being a pain). They were supposed to have someone (Juan) get baptized as well on Saturday, so it was going to be a double baptism. But long story short, it didn't work out, but we didn't know that then. So I texted back, "Oh cool, how is Kevin doing?" They said, "Umm...Did you not see him? He told us you saw him." I said, "Yeah we saw him, he said he was offended by Juan's tatoos and wants a private baptism." They replied, "Oookay jokes over."




Me, Debbie (Kevin's sister) Kevin,
and Sister Fosselman

Elder Ballard (senior missionary),

 Me, Debbie, Kevin,

Debbie (Kevin's "friend" that he apparently

met 3 months ago that apparently

is a member that he didn't tell us about,

we are going to have to get

the full story later) Kevin, Sister Fosselman

Many are Called, but Few are Frozen...[Nov. 17, 2014]

 Well, this week was bundles of joy. Let me describe to you what tracting in sub zero weather feels like. Your extremities just hurt, especially if you forget to wiggle your fingers and toes, and your face loses the capability to make expression. It actually feels exactly like diving head first into the ocean on the Oregon Coast.
I don't have too much time to write, so I will just go straight to the funny stories.
Last Monday, we had dinner with our branch president. His wife asked Elder Pettit about his tie and if it had a story. Elder Pettit was like...well...not really, I guess I bought it at a thrift store. The branch president was like, "Oh that's why it's butt ugly." I don't think we will see that tie again for awhile...
The Elders also told us that after they invited one investigator to come to church he replied back, "Um, yeeeaaahhh there's a 99% chance you will NOT see me at church." That might be just funny in person, but I was cracking up and everything after that was a 99% chance I won't be able to do it.
We have the HARDEST time getting people to church, because our building is 30 minutes away and our investigators and less actives don't normally have reliable transportation. Well, this last Sunday was the Thanksgiving potluck, and we worked hard at inviting everyone like normal. But we finally reaped our rewards, this week we had 7 investigators and 12 less actives at church! It was fantastic! Our zone leaders didn't believe us when we told them! I wish their was a potluck every week!!
We had a zone conference thing with 5 zones in Great Bend last Friday where Elder Schwitzer of the Second Quorum of the Seventy came...it was great! We also got a challenge that I also want to issue to everyone reading this no matter if you are in the middle of reading the Book of Mormon or if you have never read it before...that is to get your hands on those cheap paper back Book of Mormons and read the entire thing before Christmas and with a red pencil mark all passages pertaining to Christ and/or the atonement and all the green ones for faith/works. I started last week and it's seriously like reading a different book. I think because you take a bit of time marking it all up and that lets you think a little more about it all. It's life changing and I know that it will take a lot of time, but it will be so worth it. So go find your closest missionary and let them give you a Book of Mormon (you might have to coerce them and tell them you are going to give it to a friend afterwards or something) and DO IT.

[**She sent me a link to the calendar for studying until Christmas...drop me an email and I will forward it to you.  I couldn't figure out how to attach it to her blog (strange format--my slow brain).  amysmour@gmail.com]

 

 

My sub zero attire.
For some reason animals are
 really attracted to my boots
and dogs just sniff sniff sniff that fur lining
 and then we went to this one less active
and his cat would run up and attack my leg.
 I would have to keep track of where he was
 and if he was missing
out of nowhere from behind
 he would just claw up my leg.
Those boots are just too cute,
so that's a burden I'll have to deal with...
 

 

I can be down, I can be blue, I can be violet sky...I can be happy, I can be bappy, I can be anything you like...[Nov 10, 2014]

Well, I think I hit the low point of my mission. Friday was zone conference and it was FANTASTIC, (we meet as a zone every month) but I think it's like every three months, the mission president comes down and we have an 8 hour meeting and it's super motivating--great for figuring out what you can do better.  Apparently, also a great way to shake germ infested hands.
Saturday night, I got the stomach flu and I slept all day Sunday. My companion spent the day watching 90's seminary videos and I think she watched The Testaments 3 times. We found out that 3 other people in our district were sick with the stomach flu and our district leader had a bad cold. For not proselyting 2 days (sick and zone conference) and being parked and walking 3 days (my comp used pretty much all our miles the first two weeks before I got there so we had to go way over miles and they made us walk, so we walked about 8 miles each day, I literally got a sunburn in the middle of November-the struggle is real) our numbers were actually pretty good. It's a blessing we didn't have to walk this week, because we would be frozen popsicles.  The weather told us that on Tuesday the high is 28 and low 5. Ahhh!
Oh, also some crazy awesome news we learned at zone conference--it was like a dream come true--they are doing away with designated drivers, so only one companion was designated to drive, but they said the church came out with a rule that a missionary can't drive for more than 2 hours straight.  So that means we have to switch off! I got to drive home (from Garden City, which is a 2 1/2 hour drive) it was my first time driving in 7 months! My companion was just mentioning the ride up here how she was getting sick of driving all the time and wished we could switch, so awesome! It's also good, because my companion is from California and has no driving experience in the snow and I delivered food in Utah for a year, so hopefully we won't die.

Driving!!

There's this random,
 wooden statue of liberty
 in someone's yard...

Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word...[Nov. 3, 2014]

Well the beginning of this week was, in my companion's words, a shot in the foot. At midweek when we give our numbers, it was zero across the board and definitely not from lack of trying. Well, we didn't let each other give up and we kept on trekking. Then, the next day we got 3 new investigators...and the day after that 3 new people on date for baptism... and then the next day held the ultimate miracle...a sparkling golden investigator!

He comes in the form of a bald man named Kevin. He has a grey stache and he came to church in a white button up shirt, jeans, and a "ginormo" belt buckle, which he later explained he got from bull riding. He showed us pictures and let's just say he probably has to allow plenty of time when going through airport security.

He works for Bro. Williams (remember him from last week)...so he's a manure spreader and he was busy the past two weeks with a job, so we couldn't see him. But as we learned at church when he was sharing his testimony in sacrament, he read the entire Book of Mormon over the past two weeks. We taught him at the William's last night and he's on date for baptism on the 15th. He, of course in true back country fashion, chews tobacco, so he will have to quit that. But when he committed to do it on the spot during dinner, I extend my hand palm upward and he just shakes it and it's like um...no...give it up, dude. We threw his tobacco away for him.

We met a couple tracting a couple days ago and we taught them the night before. Somehow we brought them up and the fact that he is a "tower"...and the main things he tows is flipped over semis. Then Kevin was like, "Hey, I know a guy that does that."....and I have just embraced the fact that everyone knows everyone else, so I was like, "Well is his name Tim?" He's like, "Yeah and he has a wife and two kids...yep." Then we said his last name they gave us last night and then Kevin was like, "No, that's not his last name, it's this." Goes to show that if you live in such a small town, you can't just give fake last names. Hopefully they will let us come over and see them again. Apparently, Tim is really good friends with Kevin, so I told Kevin to tell Tim he's getting baptized.

This is slightly embarrassing, but I'll share it anyways. So a few weeks ago the zone leaders called us and were like, "Hey this is Elder Johnson, I just got ET'd (emergency transferred) here." We were like, "Wait, what? Who did you replace?"  "Elder T." We then were like super surprised and everything. We mentioned it to the Burlington Elders and they were like, "Hey he didn't call us and they were kind of offended." Well, after that it was always Elder Johnson talking with us and getting to know us and stuff. We both didn't know who Elder Johnson was and we looked up where he was before and everything. Of course, district meeting happened and guess who was there...Elder T. He just pretended to be an Elder Johnson. Revenge is a dish best served cold. I have no idea how we're going to get them back though, so if anyone has any ideas, please share!

We have an investigator whose dad lives with her and he's a Pentecostal minister. He's a nice guy, but likes to get in discussions with us and the last one ended with...read your Bible ladies! So we've been avoiding him because he's a pain (it's hard to avoid people in a small town, we ran into him at the gas station and post office). Well, on Halloween we decided to visit that investigator. So it was around 8 and dark outside, and we walk up to her house. (which btw is already legitmately haunted...it looks like a ghost lives there and it looks haunted and she's asked for a blessing to be put on her house). Well there was this shrine thing on her walk way and a smoke thing and noises and spiders everywhere and bats flying. I'm just standing in front of this shrine thing and it's dark and I'm trying to figure out what it is and my companion turns back so I start to turn back. Then, the dreaded voice of the man we've been trying to avoid booms out so creepily, "Where ya goin' don't you want some candy!" Apparently he was sitting behind this table of a shrine, and he has this stringy grey beard. He was sitting in this couch that they covered with black fabric and he had this black hat on. I was standing in front of him for like 5 minutes before that and didn't figure out he was sitting right in front of me. SO CREEPED OUT! We got some candy out of it, so it was okay.

The sky is HUGE out here.

Barn next to the Williams.

Field next to the Williams.

We helped Bro Williams
tie shingles together to burn as firewood.
 The Elders were there as well...
let's just say it's not a secret
 I'm not photogenic...
it was cold outside....

They fed us after the service.
The elders real names are
Elder Jensen and Elder Pettit,
 but a less active lady we talked
with yesterday
 forgot Elder Pettit's name
and the fact that we call each other
companions, so she referred to him as
 Elder Jensen's "little partner"
teasing will ensue...