Week #1 as Senior Comp! 10/13/2014

Hey, hello, hola!

This week has been both awesome and sucky.

Awesome because I flipping LOVE my new comp, Sister Hatch! She's my second companion from Canada, so I'm practically Canadian now, eh. We are literally the best of friends and apparently I have forgotten what laughing feels like. We laugh ALL the time. We both think the other is HI-larious. We are twins at just about everything and we stay up way too late talking about life. #oops.

Seriously. The past 5 days have been so fun.

Sucky because I learned that the pain I've had in my jaw is not just TMJ and me just being the most tense person to ever exist, but that my tooth has been slowly dying for the past year and now it needs a root canal and I've been in ridiculous amounts of pain amd my face got all swollen and gross. Yayyyyy.

The beginning of this week was fairly unproductive. We mostly just visited all our friends and the members so that Sister Alder could say goodbye. It kinda sucks to get transferred right after conference, because you don't have the normal Sunday church opportunity to see all your peeps.

So we did that.

Then Wednesday we left bright and early and met all our friends at the South Stake Center and I said peace out to Sister Alder and waited all day for Sister Hatch to arrive from Green Bay. That was fun and delightfully awkward.

The second we were driving out of the parking lot, I knew Sister Hatch and I were going to be great friends.

 We drove home and then saw the Donnely's! We talked about enduring to the end as part of our multiple week lesson on The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was awesome because we got to teach Aiden and Emma, and then talk to Sister Donnely and have a heart to heart. She got an invitation to go do baptisms at the Chicago temple with the sisters in our ward next month and it really got her thinking about what she needs to do to be able to go to the temple again. She wants to go! And she talked about how us teaching her kids has really helped her too because they are teaching her a lot about her own testimony. She got emotional and the Spirit was there. It was precious. We are super stoked for them!

Thursday we weekly planned for forever and a half. Its really hard to tell someone everything about everyone in the area and NOT take forever. haha. We also saw Blanca in Jefferson. She is just precious. We talked about charity and love and I just love her. We also stopped by the Woodland's house on the way home and got to talk to Karen. Karen is married to a less active brother, (actually, he's the brother of Sister Donnely!) and she has a little sprouting seed of potential. We got to talk to her and introduce Sister Hatch and we both have super high hopes for that family!

Friday we tracted and had some hilarious missionary moments. We knocked on one door and this old man takes FOREVER and a day to come to the door. Like....ridiculously awkward time where we werent sure if he was ignoring us even though he could plainly see us and we should awkwardly walk away....or...what. but finally he opens the door and he has no shirt on and is in a wheelchair and keeps making sounds like he's about to vomit. We do the typical, "Hello sir! We're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.." sha-bang and he tells us he doesnt feel well today. We ask him when a better time would be to come back and he says, (while still occasionally making legit about-to-vomit-sounds) "Well, I never know when these hiccups are gonna come, so I really cant say." So we left and didnt say a word about it 'till like 3 days later and laughed soooo hard because we just got told that we cant come teach him because he had the hiccups. hahaha. So. We're going back(:

On the same street we met this lady named Jamie who is SWEEET! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read it and we taught her a bit about it got a return appointment. When we asked if we could leave her with a prayer, he face LIT up and she asked, "YES!! But..! Can I get my son first?!?!?" We were like, "uhhhhh, YES!" So obviously we are gonna baptize that family.

We also talked to Myrtle. hahahaha. Sister Hatch asked, "How have you seen God help you in your life?" And Myrtle says, "I havent." So Sister Hatch rephrases the question, "How have you seen having a faith help you in your life?" And Myrtle says, "I havent seen it. ....Is that a movie?" hahahahaha. And we tried not to laugh as we explained the question. Then we taught her about the Book of Mormon. haha

Funny street, I tell ya.

We get to watch Meet the Mormons on Friday at ZTM!
Watch the trailer and then go find it in a theater near you!

I'm still getting the hang of being in charge of an area. I'm so used to being told what to do every second of my life here in Lake Mills that being totally responsible for everything is like...crazy. But I'm getting the hang of it. And Sister Hatch totally gets it and gets me. We've both had really hard missions with health stuff and all so we work pretty well. The only problem is that we are both basically chronically sick. hahaha. But we know that the Lord needs us here and we refuse to go home or let it affect the work. The awesome thing about Sister Hatch and I is that we have both learned a TON about the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Missionary work is hard for the both of us, but we rely on extra strength that comes freely if we give it our all.
So. We're gonna show the world that sick sisters can kick butt. Then we'll write a book.

I'm super stoked for all the things that are going to happen here in Lake Mills!

Oh, ps! As a mission, we are reading the Book of Mormon together before Christmas. We are reading it to understand Christ's Atonement and what we need to do to access it. We are underlining the nature of Christ and his Atonement in red. And we are underlining the things that we must do to access the power of the Atonement in green. Do it with us! I'll fwd ya'll the reading schedule!