So I still hate bugs. Sister Sheldon is such a doll as to killing them for me. I love her lots partially for this reason. I've also come across this strange obsession with larger dogs...it's weird. I just want to pet them and play with them and hug them all the time. It's still a really strange obsession.
So this past week. Hmmm....where to begin!! I guess I'll just start with Tuesday night.
Tuesday was P-day. It was also Christmas Eve!! Sister Sheldon and I treated ourselves to opening a present early. We got our super soft socks!! Can I just say that Sister Sheldon has this strange obsession with socks?? She LOVES colorful socks. A LOT! No joke. So that was a great first for both of us! :)
Just before Preparation day was over, we went into town and bought the few things we needed. We then headed over to the Barnstead's, a less active couple. They LOVE the missionaries. Made all 6 of us Christmas presents and goodie bags. So the gift was a box. In this box, they had a paper bag. On the paper bag they had a scripture and in the bag they had an item connected to the scripture on the outside. It was so fun to guess what was in each bag and then to open it and see if they were right...it was pretty creative!! Later that night, back at the Turner's, I made green salsa. Sister Sheldon and I think that I made about a half gallon. Over the past week, I ate about 3/4 of that wonderful salsa! I'm pretty sure that's what got me through Christmas. That was my coping method, my little piece of Arizona...and it was pretty yummy. ALSO!! Erika got out of her detox that day!! It was a happy day!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!! Sister Sheldon and I are SUCH little kids. Right when we woke up, we went upstairs and opened our presents. Sister Sheldon got a lot of colorful socks. Did I mention she had an obsession with socks?? Haha! It was so great! She gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon without the standard verse form. I love that thing so much!! I also got a copy of the Miracle of Forgiveness from Ryan. Extended family, thank you for all the cards!! I loved them!! Family, thank you for the WONDERFUL package!! Sister Sheldon and I really loved our stockings. Ben, how you manage to poke at me from TWO STATES AWAY I'm not sure. THANKS for wrapping my Christmas present in DUCT TAPE. I did get to opening it in like 5 minutes though...need I mention WITHOUT sharp objects. I have been wearing the tights like every day the past week. You hit the nail on the head, Mom. And for anybody questioning it, it's not about the nail. Later that morning we went to the O'Hara family home. We stayed there for a few hours and then headed home around 3. At 4 we got to the Turners and the Elders were here Skyping/calling home. I got to meet Elder Terry's family. Elder Terry is from East Mesa. He goes home in February. I waited patiently (HA!!) for him to get off the computer. I then was able to Skype my family!! I love them so much!! After Dad had suggested, twice, that we follow mission rules, I got off a crying mess. I hit the end button because nobody else would and it was only getting worse. Sister Sheldon AND Sister Turner were so great to have given me a hug after that traumatic experience. I did eat more salsa that day. Later that night we watched Ephriam's Rescue and I cut Sister Sheldon's hair. I thinned it out. Marin, she may be competing for that thickness contest. There was a HUGE pile on the floor.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! I didn't forget it....I woke up and freaked out a little bit because I forgot to tell you to have a great one the day before. Thursday was an interesting day. Thursdays are the days that we do our weekly planning. that encompasses about 4 hours more out of our regular day. Then, after planning, we went to see Johnny. He is so great! SO great! We talked with him about patriarchal blessings.
He is so ready and so excited to be baptized. After we went to Columbus to dinner with Jeremy
and the elders.
Jeremy is the Elder's
recent convert. He's been such a little missionary lately. But dinner was... kinda different. Like it felt a little weird
and here is why.
So the Elders were there, which was great
and normal, and
that was the whole reason we were going to dinner. It
was because Elder Whitney goes home on Wednesday, but they were in their street clothes and not wearing name tags...other than the one on Elder Terry's coat. But we were in church clothes with our name tags. So if you didn't see the name tags it kind of looked like we over dressed for an awkward
third wheel
date.
Jeremy paid for all of us which was super nice,
but made it
more like a date
because he just turned 27 so not a ton older than us. We had lots of fun talking and ate some good food. Oh,
as a
side note,
at the beginning of the non-date
with the Elders and
Jeremy, Jeremy
gave
us Christmas gifts. He gave us Texas key chain that is super cute!!!
Anyway after dinner we met with Patrick, another recent convert,and taught him about the 3 Nephites. Somehow it came up and
because
it came up, he wanted to learn about
that. So that is what we told him about.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIN!! I celebrated your birthday from afar too!! It was great. So, Friday we had district meeting/final district meal since we aren't getting together today. We got there a little early (10:15) with a ton of food. A bunch of junk food plus the steak the elder's were going to teach us how to really make, and by elders, I mean Elder Whitney. Elder Terry's really good at eating it. Note that everything we brought had been given us by members so we decided to use it to feed our district. ALSO note we have the farthest to travel. So the meeting was supposed to start at 10:30. The Spanish Sisters who live 2 minutes away got there at 10:35 and the Elders got there at 11:15. Don't ask me why it worked out that way, but that's how it went down.
We started with a song and a prayer and Sister Sheldon did a white handbook spotlight. We then talked about all our investigators. Next we all went around and told each other one thing we had gotten for Christmas.
Today has been a relaxing day. Sister Sheldon and I have spent the day here at the farm (the Turner's home). The Professor, Brother Turner, has helped us to serve them today. We helped watch a pipe to make sure it didn't explode while he turned the water back on. It's always an adventure out here in God's country.
--Sister Carling
So this past week. Hmmm....where to begin!! I guess I'll just start with Tuesday night.
Tuesday was P-day. It was also Christmas Eve!! Sister Sheldon and I treated ourselves to opening a present early. We got our super soft socks!! Can I just say that Sister Sheldon has this strange obsession with socks?? She LOVES colorful socks. A LOT! No joke. So that was a great first for both of us! :)
Sister Sheldon w/ her Super Soft Socks!!
Merry Christmas Sister Carling!!
Just before Preparation day was over, we went into town and bought the few things we needed. We then headed over to the Barnstead's, a less active couple. They LOVE the missionaries. Made all 6 of us Christmas presents and goodie bags. So the gift was a box. In this box, they had a paper bag. On the paper bag they had a scripture and in the bag they had an item connected to the scripture on the outside. It was so fun to guess what was in each bag and then to open it and see if they were right...it was pretty creative!! Later that night, back at the Turner's, I made green salsa. Sister Sheldon and I think that I made about a half gallon. Over the past week, I ate about 3/4 of that wonderful salsa! I'm pretty sure that's what got me through Christmas. That was my coping method, my little piece of Arizona...and it was pretty yummy. ALSO!! Erika got out of her detox that day!! It was a happy day!!
Sister Sheldon and Sister Carling
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!! Sister Sheldon and I are SUCH little kids. Right when we woke up, we went upstairs and opened our presents. Sister Sheldon got a lot of colorful socks. Did I mention she had an obsession with socks?? Haha! It was so great! She gave me a copy of the Book of Mormon without the standard verse form. I love that thing so much!! I also got a copy of the Miracle of Forgiveness from Ryan. Extended family, thank you for all the cards!! I loved them!! Family, thank you for the WONDERFUL package!! Sister Sheldon and I really loved our stockings. Ben, how you manage to poke at me from TWO STATES AWAY I'm not sure. THANKS for wrapping my Christmas present in DUCT TAPE. I did get to opening it in like 5 minutes though...need I mention WITHOUT sharp objects. I have been wearing the tights like every day the past week. You hit the nail on the head, Mom. And for anybody questioning it, it's not about the nail. Later that morning we went to the O'Hara family home. We stayed there for a few hours and then headed home around 3. At 4 we got to the Turners and the Elders were here Skyping/calling home. I got to meet Elder Terry's family. Elder Terry is from East Mesa. He goes home in February. I waited patiently (HA!!) for him to get off the computer. I then was able to Skype my family!! I love them so much!! After Dad had suggested, twice, that we follow mission rules, I got off a crying mess. I hit the end button because nobody else would and it was only getting worse. Sister Sheldon AND Sister Turner were so great to have given me a hug after that traumatic experience. I did eat more salsa that day. Later that night we watched Ephriam's Rescue and I cut Sister Sheldon's hair. I thinned it out. Marin, she may be competing for that thickness contest. There was a HUGE pile on the floor.
Sister Sheldon's pile of hair!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! I didn't forget it....I woke up and freaked out a little bit because I forgot to tell you to have a great one the day before. Thursday was an interesting day. Thursdays are the days that we do our weekly planning. that encompasses about 4 hours more out of our regular day. Then, after planning, we went to see Johnny. He is so great! SO great! We talked with him about patriarchal blessings.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIN!! I celebrated your birthday from afar too!! It was great. So, Friday we had district meeting/final district meal since we aren't getting together today. We got there a little early (10:15) with a ton of food. A bunch of junk food plus the steak the elder's were going to teach us how to really make, and by elders, I mean Elder Whitney. Elder Terry's really good at eating it. Note that everything we brought had been given us by members so we decided to use it to feed our district. ALSO note we have the farthest to travel. So the meeting was supposed to start at 10:30. The Spanish Sisters who live 2 minutes away got there at 10:35 and the Elders got there at 11:15. Don't ask me why it worked out that way, but that's how it went down.
We started with a song and a prayer and Sister Sheldon did a white handbook spotlight. We then talked about all our investigators. Next we all went around and told each other one thing we had gotten for Christmas.
THEN we opened our Christmas gifts from each other. The elders went out to their car to get theirs. Here is Sister Sheldon's dramatized version of the story:
"When they came back in they made us sit in our chairs, eyes closed, and our right hands out. Then they put something in our hand that we had to hold very tightly to. I wasn't like worried or anything. [We were only terrified] When they said we could open our eyes we found that each of us had a goldfish. A living little goldfish. Mine is named Fred :) Apparently they are decoration not pets. Uh huh. So they didn't think this through very well because they also didn't get us any fish food or anything to put the fish in. But I love my fish! It is awesome and still alive. (We bought them some food) Anyway then the Sisters gave us their gifts. We each got a pop gun. It is so fun. I love to shoot mine. Its also orange :) Then we gave them our gifts. The Spanish Sisters got stuff from Bath and Body Works. They liked them. Then Elder Terry got a Nerf gun which he immediately got out to shoot Elder Whitney with. Elder Whitney saw it and was like "Epic!" then like a split second later "I hate you guys! He is going to shoot me everyday till I leave" We just laughed. Elder Whitney got Anastasia, Pride and Prejudice, and Tangled stickers. Yes these are actually things that he really likes. In fact he loves all those moves and was super thrilled. It was fun."
Fish for Christmas??
I love my district. It'll be sad to see the Elders leave but they've served well. Later on Friday, we managed to get yelled at by an old lady, practically eaten by a little dog and bought our fish food. The Elder's didn't think through that. Talk about a crazy day. Saturday
consisted of driving with Sister Turner to Eagle Lake (40 miles away) to
visit a couple of members. We then headed back to Columbus (where we
left our car). We visited Robbin Burton and went on a walk with her. We
helped walk her dog (because she is getting fat) and talked about the
questions she has come across the past week. Robbin has been active for
about 9 months now after 25 years of inactivity. She is a convert to the
church. She appreciates that we stop by to answer her questions she
stumbles upon as she truly studies the Book of Mormon. That night we
went to visit Sarah Cox, one of the Turner's 2 daughters, who lives just
outside of Columbus. I got to cut Sarah's and her daughter's hair. This
is one form of service that I absolutely love!! Sarah is inactive and
her husband is not a member. Josh, one of the Turner's 5 sons, who is
also inactive was there. It was great to be able to get to know all of
them better!!
Sunday. OH!! Sunday was our last day as a district! We had lunch with the Elder's and the Turners where we said our final goodbye's to Elder Whitney. He is being transferred home this week. Late that afternoon, we went out to Belville. We got to visit with Michele. I love her so much!! She and her family have been so sick the past week. It was great to see her so well. She's done a lot of praying to be able to get better. We also visited a new family, the Huber's, who moved into the ward recently. They are so awesome!! That night we made an "adjusting-to-civilian-life" letter for Elder Whitney. It will be mailed directly to his home in Kaysville, Utah. Sunday was also transfer call day. That's a scary day. Our phone was being dumb and got no call or text from our zone leaders. I COULDN'T SHUT OFF MY BRAIN FOR AN HOUR!!! Nothing is changing though. Sister Sheldon and I are staying put, there is no need to worry.
Sunday. OH!! Sunday was our last day as a district! We had lunch with the Elder's and the Turners where we said our final goodbye's to Elder Whitney. He is being transferred home this week. Late that afternoon, we went out to Belville. We got to visit with Michele. I love her so much!! She and her family have been so sick the past week. It was great to see her so well. She's done a lot of praying to be able to get better. We also visited a new family, the Huber's, who moved into the ward recently. They are so awesome!! That night we made an "adjusting-to-civilian-life" letter for Elder Whitney. It will be mailed directly to his home in Kaysville, Utah. Sunday was also transfer call day. That's a scary day. Our phone was being dumb and got no call or text from our zone leaders. I COULDN'T SHUT OFF MY BRAIN FOR AN HOUR!!! Nothing is changing though. Sister Sheldon and I are staying put, there is no need to worry.
Left to right: Elder Terry, Sister Deloya, Sister Fletcher,
Sister Sheldon, Sister Carling & Elder Whitney
Last time together as district before transfers
Today has been a relaxing day. Sister Sheldon and I have spent the day here at the farm (the Turner's home). The Professor, Brother Turner, has helped us to serve them today. We helped watch a pipe to make sure it didn't explode while he turned the water back on. It's always an adventure out here in God's country.
Over and out ya'll!! Have a blessed day!!
--Sister Carling
No comments:
Post a Comment