August 15, 2011

Whoasers, what a week. So last week after I emailed you was an adventure. After emailing we went to the stake center which is about 15 minutes away. When we got there I realized I forgot my P-day clothes so we had to drive back to get them... opps. But yep, my companion is really nice to me. So for p-day we played capture the flag! It was... interesting. We had balloons for one of the rounds. It was a way you could tag people and put them into jail. But people started using them as distractions instead. A kid (literally - he's a kid in my ward, 17... Trevor's age... weird, I just realized that) he practically threw one in my face... lame! Whatever.... anyways. Also there was this moment where I was trying to chase this elder down and... BAM! Out of nowhere another elder came and rammed into my side. He hadn't seen me, I hadn't seen him. He really took my breath away... and hurt my side. So now every so often as I move.... depending on how I move my ribs hurt. Quite an unusual experience... kind of funny to experience. But nothing broken, it's not bad at all. Just kind of funny... yep. :) So that was fun. We had dinner a little later that evening because the member had her ipad stolen that day, but then was able to recover it right before dinner. Miracle. After dinner, we got a phone call from the recent convert lady who we just found out was in our ward. She was crying. "I'm scared," she said. "Can we meet somewhere?" I asked. We met at the church... except we first went to the wrong church and got at the right church shortly after her. Her living environment was less than pleasant. She lived with crazy people! One of them was making her scared. She truly has embraced having a Christ-like life. And anything contrary scares her. But no, seriously the people she happened to live with were weirdoes that were crazy, bipolar and insane. Anyways, we called the zone leaders who had been teaching her. They came, gave her a blessing of comfort, took her out to eat, helped move her out into a member’s home for the night. That all took about 2 hours. We got home shortly after 10:30pm. We were all grateful that we were able to help her. She said as she was driving and crying, her first thought was to call the sister missionaries. We were glad she did.
Tuesday was exciting too. District meeting. Lunch. Worrying about the recent convert lady because she needed to find somewhere else to live. Well, she did! That day! We had lessons back to back. 2 investigators lessons with members! Interesting lessons they were too... and a lesson with the recent convert lady, which was interesting in itself. The zone leaders showed up and we all taught her lesson 5... yeah that was hard... weird, 2 different lesson plans. Oh well. The lesson went well nevertheless. It was good. And we, the sister missionaries, prepared to move her. Called some members and they moved her away into the Sacramento Mission boundaries. Now we are trying to keep in contact with her and making sure the missionaries and ward fellowship her. But yeah. I think she is liking where she is living now. She only had to deal with one major problem the day after she moved there, which ended in 2 of her roommates being evicted. They were doing something VERY wrong. Life is so interesting. Fun and interesting and good. Every moment is a teaching moment. And each teaching moment I am actually grateful to have as oddly as it may sound sometimes. But yeah. Those first 2 days of last week were fun, stressful, and eventful, but very good days in being of service to that lady.
Wednesday was a more normal day. Thursday we had exchanges so I was in Dry Creek (Rio Linda) all day. It was good. I enjoyed getting to know Sister Barfuss. Which I recently found out that I actually met her on my first day in the mission field. I had remembered meeting 3 sister missionaries, but I had never figured out who or where the 3rd sister had gone. It was her! Fun times.
So exciting news of this week if it hasn't been exciting already. We committed 2 people to baptism!!! One for September 3rd, she is willing. And one for September 10, he's kind of squirrely as Sister Wither's likes to say. I really just don't understand why he is taking the lessons. My thought is he likes having company. He's a talker. His wife just died in January. And he has MS and other health problems. We'll see what happens with him. But the lady seems to be doing well. We taught her Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday of this last week. It was good. She truly has a desire to have Christ in her life, to have more peace. We also picked up 2 new investigators!!!! One just moved from Antelope area and had been taught there. She's from Russia and doesn't speak or understand English all that well, so we had an interrupter for her. But she's come to church since January. Her husband is a less active... he works on Sundays, and her 11 year old daughter got baptized in May. And our other new investigator comes from a part member family. His wife and all of his children are members. They are kind of semi-active... the kids at least are more active... the mom more less active I think. But the dad is finally willing to learn more from us. I have been told that previous missionaries had tried and he told them he was a heathen. But a member of our bishopric has been working with him and he is finally ready. He admitted yesterday that as a family they want to come to church together. Actually the way we picked him up: we had dinner with a member, the semi-active family had dinner with us, and then we taught them a lesson and asked them if they (he) would be willing to take the lessons. One the daughters was excited for it. He was totally fine with it. Exciting!!! Yep. That's my life as a missionary. :D
Yep. That's what's been going up in my life. How's everyone doing back home?
I love you all!!!!!
Yours truly,
Sister Kristi Walston