Monday, October 31, 2016

Kissimme--Hellos and Goodbyes Week 5

31 October 2013

Hi Mom and Dad!

I hope your week has been fantastic. I love seeing your emails
throughout the week. (Yes, I can read emails any day, so any time I
can connect to Internet, it comes through. It's just a matter of
finding Internet.) Thanks so much for the packages! I love the sheets,
definitely needed the shampoo, and my companion and I have been
surviving off of the candy, haha. I shared it with my District, too.

And thanks for the water bottle! I left mine on a train in
Utah. We're mostly using bottled water because Florida water is
slightly swampy... But it'll come in handy as soon as the m&ms are
gone.

I can also listen to just about any music, as long as it doesn't
distract from the missionary purpose. So I would love love love if you
sent music to me. (If you could find that arrangement of "Precious
Savior, Dear Redeemer, that's not to the common tune... I would love
it. Can't remember what the tune is called or how it goes. :P)

Let me rewind time to over a week ago, back in the MTC. My last day in
the referral center, two people hung up on me, and the last call I had
said she didn't want a "Mormon Bible". I think I really needed the
experience with calling people, though. I'm much less stressed about
phone calls now. (We also have TONS of Bible referrals that haven't
been contacted, and it makes me so upset that they've been waiting for
months.)

Saturday was our last class day. We had our final classes with our
teachers and took pictures with them. Our last "investigator" visits.
Our final visit, the investigator prayed for Sister Sorensen and me,
that people would be nice to us in Florida and that we'd be able to
help others like we helped her. It was so sweet.

I played hymns for Sacrament meeting. I didn't get the chance to
practice AT ALL, so I was a little stressed. Sister Williams, the
Branch President's wife, made sure I got to run through them once, and
played one of them for me, which I was very grateful for. My District
did the special number, since we were all leaving. :( Sister Sorensen
gave her talk, and my goodness, I miss talking with her. She's just
really great at personalizing and relating things.

We had a little Sisters' Conference, and heard from Ann M. Dibb, which
was super cool. "I know when you heard that I was coming, many of you
prayed that my father would be here as well. Sorry, that's not
happening." She did talk about him, though. Her talk was "My Father,
the Prophet". She talked about attributes that President Monson has
that we all can and should strive for. He observes and remembers, is a
loyal friend, encourages others, is happy, loves his family, prays, is
a missionary, has great faith, and is a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I got a sketchbook in the bookstore and drew animals for my District
(minus two, so I'll have to find them out here and ask what they
want).

Nobody told us when to pack, so we were scrambling to get it done on
Sunday. My bag was like 7 pounds under, it was great. And I made sure
to say goodbye to the Sisters I was with that first day. They're still
stuck in the MTC for six weeks, going to Japan.

So we woke up at 4 am Monday morning, finished packing up, and Sisters
Page and Christiansen were nice enough to get up with us and help us
get our bags down to the travel office. They're in CA Ventura, so they
didn't need to leave until like 9 am. So sad leaving them. I didn't
expect a month ago that I'd grow so close to people so quickly.
We took a bus to a train to Trax to the airport, turning a 45 minute
drive into a 1 1/2 hour ordeal. I was so excited that there was a
Jamba Juice in the airport, and as I went to pay, some lady pushed
past me with her credit card. She has a daughter on a mission in
Brazil. She then insisted on buying something for Sister Sorensen and
Hermana Mull (the only other Sister going to Orlando, but there were 6
Elders with us and 1 that came from the Mexico MTC). Then none of the
airport phones would work with debit cards or coins, only with phone
cards. Which is why I called from a random person's phone. She noticed
Sister Sorensen and me asking if we could buy phone cards, and offered
her phone. Then she bought us waters, donuts... She was lovely.
I spent an absurd amount for plane snacks, haha. Mostly caught up on
my journal, a little bit of sleep, and talked to Sister Sorensen. I
wrote her a letter, too. I want to make a habit of handwriting a
letter to my companions. We had the smoothest landing I've ever
experienced on a flight.

President and Sister Clark fed us (homemade. pumpkin. roll.) he
interviewed us, we had a little devotional and tried not to fall
asleep... And the Sisters stayed with the Woods, who are in the
mission presidency.

Next day, we had a little orientation and met our trainers! I have
Sister Lamborn. She's great! We have pretty similar personalities and
humor. She's also an incredibly positive person. With everything crazy
that's happened this week, she's able to laugh it off and move on. She
gave me a little plush sloth ("To remind you not to be slothful.")
We're also whitewashing an area, which is interesting for a first
area, to say the least. The ward has two other Sisters (Angelo and
Parish), but they live further north where the active members are.
We're south, and there are maybe three active families. It takes 30
minutes at least to get to church from here, and some of the people
are fairly poor and don't have a way to get there. Honestly, our area
reminds me a little of home. There's Elders down here too, but because
we're here now, they've entirely shifted their focus to the Spanish
branch.

Sister Kober (who posted the picture of us :) ) drove us around
Tuesday and helped us get necessary items. (This is also why I didn't
have my bike at first; there wasn't enough room in her car.) Because
it's the end of the month, Sister Lamborn had very little money, and I
had about $36 on my mission card. So we had enough for a little food,
and Sister Kober was kind enough to buy us some cleaning supplies and
lunch. We're also the first in this house (it's a duplex) it smells
like cigarette smoke a bit, and it's filthy. It's been very
interesting. Certainly a process to get everything in working order.

Because of the smell, we were opening up windows to air out the house.
Wednesday, we did that once the sun was up. Left the room, heard a
REALLY LOUD CRASH. The window had swung down and shattered, haha. Like
I said though, Sister Lamborn is so positive. We just laughed, cleaned
it up, called the mission office, and went about our day.

Wednesdays are also our service days! So we left the wide open hole in
our house and left to the organization that we work with in this area,
Give Kids the World. It's an amazing place. They work with Make a Wish
to give sick kids and their families a place to stay, presumably while
they're going to Disney? Basically though, it's a mini park in itself.
Colorful and bright and fun. Everyone's happy and kind. It's a great
place to be.

I'll be honest, the first couple days I WASN'T upbeat. I was okay
during the day, because we're busy. But at night it was super hard,
because I've felt slightly useless and powerless. I cried a lot the
first couple of nights. I haven't been super homesick, but I was a
little MTC-sick. But my attitude and trust in the Lord has greatly
improved.

So since the chapel is 30 minutes away, getting to meetings is
interesting. We're starting to car share with the North Sisters, but
it's still going to be a bit of a struggle working around mileage
limitations. I think they're working on giving us more miles, and
potentially our own car next transfer. But we worked out getting to
District meeting this week... Though I forgot to put on shoes. Nobody
noticed, but it had me stressed out. Without someone like Sister
Lamborn to just brush it off, I probably would have been much more
upset. I didn't focus as much as I should have, but one thing that
stuck out from the meeting is that we need to apply the Atonement in
our everyday lives. Christ did what he did, for us, so that we can
turn to Him and constantly repent. Repentance is a great teacher.

I GOT MY BIKE AFTER DISTRICT MEETING. It's so pretty. It's kinda big
and getting on and off is awkward in a skirt, but I love it so much.
The roads are so flat, I can pedal like 3 times and then just coast
forever. I love it. There's so much wildlife to see, too! I wish I
could look up what all the birds are. There are sandhill cranes,
ibises, vultures, herons... Eagles and falcons, maybe? Tons of huge
black birds everywhere, but I can never see them clearly enough to
figure out what they are.

Because we're whitewashing, we didn't really have any investigators,
and very few potentials. The Spanish Elders transferred some of theirs
this weekend, so we have a few more now... But this week has basically
been trying to figure out the area and meet some members. There's
honestly only a handful of active families down here and people don't
always answer their doors. So we haven't had 
any actual, sit down lessons
yet. I'm trying to be better at street
contacting... Lots of things have culminated
in me understanding how 
important it is, and the fact that it doesn't matter
how stupid I
feel, because these souls are important and they deserve to hear 

the gospel. Literally everyone down here already believes in Jesus, so
there's that at least.

The mosquitoes are murder. I have bites all over my legs, and I've
been desperately try not to scratch. I also managed to drag my
kickstand over my foot, so I've got a huge gash on my foot now. But
the itching is definitely worse.

Church was great! It was the Primary program this week. The ward is
tiny. Very very diverse, but small. Apparently it's also a struggle to
get help with missionary work. The car share is a blessing in that
regard, because it's forcing the members to at least think about
helping. There are some fabulous members though, and our Ward Mission
a Leader is wonderful. We got a less active member to come to church.
She just needed a ride. She wants to go to the temple, and had so many
more insights than I would have given her credit for at first glance.
We told the ward of our plight, and one family invited us over to take
whatever and have dinner. They gave us some essentials and fed us.
Sister Lamborn and I were just beyond excited for real food. It was so
so good. Then another member today gave us some supplies and a $50
gift card for Publix, the main grocery store down here. The last 24
hours have honestly been the miracle after the storm of the past week.
We also had our money come through a day early so we're able to buy
supplies for the house and real food. We had one "real" dinner at home
last week. Pastaroni, broccoli, and chicken. After that, we were kinda
living off of apples and cereal, and the occasional gross pb&j. We've
got so many more options this week. :)

I just want to share with you the thought we left with the members
yesterday. 3 Nephi 13:25 says, "And now it came to pass that when
Jesus had spoken these words he looked upon the twelve whom he had
chosen, and said unto them: Remember the words which I have spoken.
For behold, ye are they whom I have chosen to minister unto this
people. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what
ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye
shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?"


We've kind of had to live by this this week. Trying to stay positive
with everything thrown at us, trying to get places, trying to live off
of very little, and trying to get to know an area and people that
we're not remotely familiar with. And those people that have given us
rides, listened to our messages, fed us... They've been such
blessings. Things sometimes seem awful and strange and confusing...
And sometimes we just have to wait it out. As one of the people I used
to follow on Facebook would say, "Don't give up five minutes before
the miracle."

Have a fantastic week. I'll try to send pictures if I can find an
adapter today. I love you all.

Love,
Christine


Here's a pic of my MTC District and one of our teachers




Another one of MTC District with teachers. 




Goodbye and hello.




Sisters Lamborn and Stevenson



President and Sister Clark with Sister Stevenson
(Last two pictures sent by Sister Rasmussen)




President and Sister Clark, along with me and my super tired/pathetic smile.




















Sister Lamborn and me!


























Picture sent by Sister Kober.

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