Black Skirt, Black Skirt; the longer you wear it the blacker it gets...[Mar. 16, 2015]

Update on the cold: I stopped taking Zicam and the next day I lost my voice and then the next day my nose was a little runny and that was it. I think my body was so pumped with Zicam and vitamin C and my killer offense of an immune system just nipped that thing in the bud.
I recently got sick of every day looking at my wardrobe and thinking what skirt am I going to wear for the hundredth time today? So I decided that I was just going to wear the same skirt everyday and see who notices. It's a black skirt with pockets and one of my favorites and goes with about everything. Obviously, no one notices because it's a plain black skirt. I already need to sew on the back button, but it for some reason makes my mornings that much less stressful.
Sorry, this is kind of boring, but this week was not super eventful.
Oh we went to this place called HuHot that is a Mongolian grill and it was a lot fancier than Chang's in Portland, but cheaper and not as good, but that might be because I'm biased.
We also have this teenage girl investigator who's mother is a less active. This girl went to Girls Camp three times and was even in the Kansas City Temple dance event thing they do when the temple opens. Yet, her mom doesn't want her getting baptized until she knows more, so like in a year. Which we think is just a bit too far out, since we think she is ready for it on March 28th. So we fasted with her yesterday. Hopefully we can get her mom on our side, until then all we can do is pray.
I gave a talk yesterday. Three weeks ago someone in the bishopric asked if I know anything about family history...uh not really, especially since like I can't even do it now...so I was asked to speak on missionary work, family history work and temple work. You probably can assume I leaned on one subject than the rest. A high counselor spoke after me and referenced me a few times, but called me Sister Skidmore. Teasing later occurred. Our ward also has an Elder Seamons, which is kind of confusing, but the person who mixes us up the most is his companion.
Our ward Mission Leader's wife just got back from New Jersey and she was describing how fast paced it was. I just started identifying with everything she was saying. How everyone is so determined to get where they need to be. They talk fast, oh and the best part...they can get whatever food they want delivered at whatever time they want. It's my utopia! But then I realized that I have this belief that for some reason I think you aren't living your life the fullest if you don't have your plate heaping full and running to and fro to get to places. Kansas has really taught me what's important in life....get on disability and watch netflix all day! Okay, I guess there's probably middle ground somewhere.... I think as long as you have time in your life to drop what you are doing and serve people, then that's what's important. Such as if Sister Missionaries call you at 8:30pm after dark from a ghetto area sitting on a park bench asking if you could give them a ride home, because theirs fell through as they were saving on miles... if you're able to do that, then you're good. Not that that happened or anything....
I actually took pictures this week!

The Elders were playing outside
in the nice weather with the
 Thompson kids before dinner.

Me on a bridge.

 Larissa, she is super cute!
I keep trying to get her
to remember my name and
she asked if I was Sister Deppe
and I was like, no she's gone
and she gave me this face that looked like
I just told her her dog died.
 I had to back up, but she'll be back!
It was really bad.


 

The Sisters in our Zone and the STLs.

Titanium...[Mar. 9, 2015]

I have been on the precipice of a cold for the past 4 days. I was sure after the first night I would be completely sick...but then I wasn't. It was like a battle where I could see the enemy encroaching. I bought some Zicam to arm myself and Nyquil/Dayquil for the inevitable. But it's been FOUR DAYS... FOUR BLOODY DAYS... and the cold is still just barely there. I think it got intimidated by my Zicam and now it's dragging it's feet. A member mentioned, "Hey maybe that's as bad as it will get?"...but I know better. BRING IT.
I recently discovered meekness and this talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell and it is sooooo good. It's frustrating, because it's not something that you can just do, like, "Hey I'm going to be meek today," but it's something that you obtain and become. Someone yesterday at church said you have to do the actions first before the heart comes in. I've heard fake it 'til you make it, but the way she said it makes so much more sense. Love it.
This week has been crazy. My comp has discovered that she can't digest processed foods really well so her physical sickness led to some just sadness and homesickness...and it's been rough. I've had to really rely on the spirit when to push through and work...and when to give her time. It's been so cool though, because we were able to receive so many miracles. The Lord will have His work go forth no matter what and He can give us the added strength when we need it. We were able to hit our mission standard after over 3 1/2 months of Lake Shawnee not hitting it and everything really just came.
We also learned as a Mission that we are getting IPAD Mini's the end of May. If you go home before Nov.23rd, you don't have to pay for it and it stays with the mission, but otherwise you have to pay for it and keep it. It's going to be so awesome with area books and planners online and better connected to our ward mission leaders and missionaries...and oh you want to watch a Mormon message in the middle of a lesson?... well let me pull it up for you. bam.

[So, she had me title her blog this week--too much battling her foe to think clearly. Keeping up with her tradition of sticking to song titles, I had to peruse my playlist and this seemed quite fitting (this will probably be the first and last time she gives up control when she finds out! ha!ha!)....]

I Don't Care What They Say About Us Anyways...[Mar. 2, 2015]

This week has been hard, this area for some reason that I still can't exactly pinpoint is just difficult. It's nice because we get fed every day and we see a lot of members, but the numbers are just not coming. I've learned that my companion can sometimes get discouraged and stressed--that I have to just keep working and the motivation will follow (and hopefully she doesn't hate me for pushing her). It's just not the easiest thing for me to do.

Last night an Elder tried convincing me how similar Utah and Oregon are. Obviously he's never been to Oregon, but he's like, "Well there's like mountains in both and areas of grass..." I just gave him this look.

We had this awesome dinner where she made spaghetti like normal, except with angel hair pasta--and she combined the sauce and noodles. She rolled Rhodes rolls (after rising) into a rectangle, put the spaghetti in the middle, cut the dough on the sides in stripes to lace over the spaghetti, put an egg wash on top with parmesan cheese, onion powder and italian seasoning. Later in the week, we also had waffles and we put sweetened condensed milk on top. Yum...I can feel the diabetes coming on.

One of our Zone Leaders looks like Buddy Holly, isn't there a song about that? (There is, I think it's called "Buddy Holly", it's fantastic, enjoy it, because I can't!) We were sitting in Spangles and there was a wall of pictures of Buddy Holly. I would say pictures will follow, but that would be awkward just taking a picture of an Elder.

We went on exchanges this week and it was fantastic, especially since I got to leave my area and not have to worry about what we were going to do while there. I don't know, a lot of stress just comes with that. So I went to Lawrence and a member fed us IHOP and I got to actually learn a lot from the STL. She just has so much confidence that it attracts everyone. It's annoying, because I really want to be able to be like that and I think it partly comes naturally to her and partly she just practices a lot. It's annoying, because I want to work on my confidence, but also my charity/humility. Which I think right off the bat sounds like opposites, but they aren't because they are all Christlike attributes. So, somehow there is a way to have them all.

I've been learning a lot from my companion. I think she thinks I'm the biggest idiot of the world. Which I think is a big success for myself, because I have been working on not being condescending because of my age, and my humility, but it's also kind of annoying. Sometimes I do deserve it. She's just a classic BYU student who knows her stuff. Oh be Wise, What Can I Say More? She has the brain of an engineer, which, trust me, I know. So when she told me she was thinking of going into business, I was surprised and we talked about it and she said she had been thinking how she likes math and about engineering. So I think that's what she is planning on now. Either way she is going to do fantastic with whatever she does. I don't know if I put any info up about her, but she's 20 and went to BYU for a semester and has been on her mission one year and is from Kaysville, Utah.

'ello Govnuh...[Feb. 23, 2015]

Lake Shawnee. Where to begin.... Well, it's my area and I have already met a lot of the members, because my last comp (in Kaw Valley, which happens to border part of this area) served here a few months ago, so we saw a lot of them again...including Ben, who I think I mentioned before. He has been to a few of our appointments and he bought us dinner one time. At dinner we were sitting down and he looks over and in a knee-jerk reaction exclaims, that's the effin (edited from what he actually said) governor! The man sitting in the table next to us looks up and decides to wisely change tables. Ben just laughs and explains the governor made a lot of budget cuts, especially to schools, so he is not so well liked with the Kansans at this point in time. Ben is a convert that my last comp introduced the church to. He was high at the time (when he first met my comp) and has a crazy conversion story. He is probably the coolest recent convert you could meet.
One house we have been to belongs to this awesome lady named Sister Jackson and she has 3 kids and her husband is deployed. She works at Petco and she has a ton of reptiles....(yaaaaay).... I only screamed about three times during dinner with geckos flying everywhere. I found out later that they actually have a cello (1/2 size, but I'm not complaining), so ironically, I can't wait to get back there.
Lake Shawnee Sisters haven't had any investigators come to church in the past 3 and 1/2 months, but we had one on Sunday, so that was sweet!
I got to go to Debbie's baptism on Friday and it was so AWESOME! She is so prepared! I think at this point I should just find out all the Debbie's in the area and visit them. Anyways, to compile all of Debbie's conversion, we met her the second night in Kaw Valley at a member's home. The member invited her to Meet the Mormons via email and she went with her. She invited her to talk with the missionaries and Debbie was like, "Well I'm probably not going to convert, but I'll see what they have to say...haha." We started teaching her every Thursday at the member's home and we sent her daily texts with scriptures. She was eating it up! Her trial of faith was whether she should continue without her teenagers also in it as well, but she received her answer that she should. She got baptized!!!
Our Zone has 10 Missionaries, 3 Districts, 2 new, never been District Leader District Leaders, 3 Trainees and 1 never been Zone Leader Zone Leader. It's gonna go one way, or the other...so this will be interesting.

Me, Debbie, Sister Mitchell (last comp)
Sister Hansen (her trainee/new comp)

Sister Budge (member we had dinner
at/with Debbie on Thursdays),
Me, Debbie, Sister Mitchell,
Sister Hansen, Brother Budge

Elder Ives (District Leader that went home)
Elder Mcgee, Elder Stum,
Sister Mitchell, me, Elder Hunt

 

Goin' Around this Roundabout...[Feb. 16, 2015]

Soooo, my companion got a training packet and my potential to go to Debbie's baptism on the 20th started to seriously dwindle. Since, she will stay to train someone and I will be cast off the island. I actually was freaking out a little bit, but my freakouts aren't as bad as they used to be....sticky notes weren't flung in the air like they were in Goodland when I found out that was about to be closed.
The Elders are hilarious, but they were starting to drive me insane.
"Hey, can you meet us at the church?"  "No, we are in North Topeka, ain't no one got miles for that." Wait, why do you care about miles you aren't going to be here?
Then at dinner last night the lady was like, "Oh my goodness you should come over for p-day and we can play games and cook food!" I was YES then one of the Elders was like, "Wait, you're not going to be here." I threatened him with a fork...
Then we were asking her her favorite part about her mission. She said going to the baptisms. Thanks.
Well, I fasted and then the miracle...uh miraculously....came through. The APs called Sister Mitchell to tell her her trainee...and then we asked where I was going? and they said Lake Shawnee...which is in Topeka. So I totes am going to make it! I am so happy! We called Debbie and she was so happy she got goosebumps. Lake Shawnee is struggling a bit right now, so it'll be tough and with my track record it'll be closed in 2 transfers, but we're going to thrash the crap out of it.
Last Monday, we had dinner with this young family and the mom got out some cool whip and said oh it's still frozen...one little girl was like Frozen?...and a little boy gave a loud rendition of "Let it Go". Then another little girl was like, why does no one give Elsa balloons?-- Because she let's them go. It's an obsession.
We had lunch at this place called Pie Five and it was so good! It had the same vibe as Chipotle except with pizza and you could put whatever on it. Then I was sitting down eating my delicous chicken tomato alfredo pizza and Tongue Tied by Grouplove came on and I felt like my ears were bleeding. It was the strangest experience, because it was the one song that I listened to the most before I came out and haven't heard since I left. It's like someone calling you by your first name...ahh!!



 

My new comp is curly haired sister in back.

 

Pool Party: It was a Cool Party!...[Feb. 9, 2015]

Well the miracle of the week was that the Elders' investigator in our Ward got baptized. He is a whopping 495 pounds with understandable bum, knees, and hips. For two weeks, the Elders have been on a hunt for something for him to wear in the font. We miraculously were going to the temple, so we got a 5x suit from the font there....but not so miraculously, because it didn't fit. They ended up having a member make new pants.
The night before we were asking the Missionaries how they felt towards the baptism ,and one said, "Normally I am excited with butterfly's and everything, but this is a different kind of nervousness." The Elders are two sticks and our Mission Leader was planning on baptizing him with the Elders catching him and lifting him up. I was so excited to see how it would work....it didn't.
They first tried with chairs, but the chairs were too tall. So, we took a little intermission where one Bishopric member came out of the font with suits and told a couple more burly Elders to suit up. Then, with one Ward Mission Leader, one Bishopric member and 3 Missionaries, they attempted to baptize him. But, he was so scared and he half screamed; which, is not so cool when you are about to go under water. He came up coughing, and it was a mess.  So, they attempted one more time, and I prayed in my head SO HARD. Well, like one intense spiritual trust fall that 495 pound man got completely immersed, and he came back up a new man. It was fantastic and we couldn't help but ring out an applause! It was incredible!!
The temple was also an awesome experience. Such a blessing we can go there! After we did our session, I was lucky enough to be one of the first in the celestial room. It was so cool, because slowly, one by one each of my fellow missionaries came in and each time they came in, in my head it was like, "Yes, they made it."
Funny story...but not...the night before the temple I realized that I didn't have the phone with me and we could NOT find it. At first, I was like, aw man, we can't talk with anyone. Then I was like, Aw YES, we can't talk with anyone! I didn't realize how much stress that thing gave me. I figured it would come back somehow...which it did...but that night, before the temple trip.  The phone is our only alarm, so that was scary seeing if we would wake up. But after waking up for 7 months at exactly 6:30 every day, it was not a problem.  It ended up being in the driveway of our dinner  appointment the night before.
We also had another miracle. We were able to put an investigator...who coincidentally also is named Debbie...on date. Exactly one day after transfers...yay...send in prayers that I stay here! We also have our District Leader...an ex AP talking with President about it. So, fingers crossed. We have been teaching her since we first got here.  She was the investigator we met the night we got here at the member's home. We have been texting her every day scriptures and she eats them up. She loves the church. Her only hold up was her kids weren't so hot about it and she doesn't want to get into something with out them. But we told her how she will be a fantastic example for them, and we made a pro/con list for her. After a giant group fast... she's getting baptized!

Baptism as written by Elder Mcgee:

"So, it's the day of Raymonds baptism! Me, Elder Stum, our Ward Mission Leader, and Raymond are all dressed in white and the baptismal service has begun. We struggled to help him down the steps and into the baptismal font. When he was finally in the font we were relieved, but we had no idea what kind of struggles laid ahead. Attempt number one was very unsuccessful. As we tipped him down into the water, for some reason he inhaled and kept his eyes wide open. He started to panic. The look on his face was the essence of fear. So naturally, the moment we heard gargling we brought him back up. That's when we knew we couldn't do this alone. I summoned another Elder, whom is our District Leader and is known by the name of Elder Ives and the 2nd counselor in our Bishopric. We told them to put some jumpsuits on and hop in! Once the five of us, not including Raymond himself, were in the font we were ready to get this guy baptized. After one more failed attempt, we were more determined then ever! Third time's the charm we got this 495 pound man fully submersed! We all smiled from ear to ear and Raymond was  entered into a covenant. Doesn't get better than that folks!"

 

Also, I found out that there was no trust fall! Elder Ives kicked out his legs as he went down, subtly enough that we couldn't see, but it must've taken the leg strength of a pro soccer player.

Ward Mission Leader, Man being baptized,
his Wife, Elder Stum, Elder Mcgee

Elder Mcgee and Elder Stum
fitting into his pants.

 

Teardrops on my Guitar...[Feb. 2, 2015]

Every three months 1 or 2 zones get to go to the temple (Kansas City or Oklahoma) and there is about 10 zones. So the likeliness of going is not very likely, but luckily I am in one of the two zones that gets to go this quarter, so I get to go tomorrow! I am so excited it is hard to focus, but I will try.

Last Monday, I got my hair cut by a member of the ward who is a hairstylist...come to find out she really specializes in mens hair...she cut my layers just a tad too short and didn't frame the front, so in the end it came out looking like I had a mullet. Sister Mitchell (my comp who is a certified hair stylist) fixed it a bit, but there was no way going around it. Bangs. At first, I was like, "Oh hello awkward teenage years, hows it goin'?"...but then I straightened them and I took a gander in the mirror and I was like wait...I don't know? So I'm considering the bangs...let your opinion be heard and email me cuz I can't decide. They can grow out in like 3 weeks, or I can keep them the way they are.

We are teaching a lady who is a mom of 2 kids on missions and she has 2 boys at home. Her husband is like the biggest teddy bear and they are all converts...except for the mom. She goes to church every week and she even is in Cub Scouts. Really she is a mormon in all aspects, despite the fact that she has never been baptized...and oh yeah she also doesn't believe in God.

She had an experience over Christmas where she prayed for the first time and a miracle happened that made her start thinking, but she still has so much further to go. It's almost like she is scared to acknowledge the faith that she does have. She really is such a phenomenon, we asked her last night, "Do you have any desires that you look forward to?"...no..."Do you ever think about what happens after we die?"...no....THEY DIDN'T TEACH ME THIS IN THE MTC! We learned we just have to be more bold and start where she is at.

On Weds. I lost my magnetic name tag...probably just flung off at some stop when we left the car. I didn't have it for the lesson that night...super awkward...we were about to chalk it as a member present...just kidding...we actually did cuz we actually had a member with us.

I had a dream last night and I had just gotten home and I was like MAN that last 11 months flew by! I told my companion in the morning and we had a good laugh, because it really feels like the past 7 months have flown by that fast.

We had our District Meeting this morning (cuz the temple is tomorrow :]) and one sister shared this testimony (background: they have had a really rough (number wise and everything else wise) past couple months) and last week everything went so well....so many miracles. She was saying the only thing that changed was her attitude. She kept trying to do better and was stressed so bad and just having a really rough time. She finally just decided to not stress...to give it all to the Lord and be happy. Then everything started coming. I totally went through that when I was in Goodland, and she articulated exactly what I went through, so well. I realized that even though I did just give up all that stress and not worry about how "I" was going to get the numbers, but what I could do to serve the Lord better, even though I did all that...Goodland just wasn't ready and it was time for us to serve else where.