Hola y'all!
Ok so A LOT of stuff happened this week. It was crazy, but I'll just let y'all read about it ;)
Monday was Zone pday! So we did all our morning stuff (showered, ate breakfast, personal studied, etc.) before going to the Laundromat. Then drove over to Leesville and got the trio loaded up in the back of our car to carpool to Alexandria! What a fun drive! We even grabbed Cane's for lunch to eat at the Alexandria church building! As a zone (3 districts of missionaries) we played cards, basketball (PIG and Speed) and a little bit of soccer. :) Then Sister Teague and I drove the Leesville sisters home and I found a Halloween treat waiting at my door! CHIP COOKIE! I've never eaten Chip cookie in LOUISIANA! What a good time! Best surprise ever (*thanks mom!*)! We even got to eat some while watching a devotional from one of the apostles!
On Tuesday we went for a run...well Sister Teague ran and I did some speed walking for exercise, we even saw our neighbor, Josh, getting home from work (he works as a correctional officer on the night shifts). We did our normal morning stuff and during companion study we heard a knock…on OUR door. Let me just say that as a missionary, someone knocking on MY door is quite the turn of events! Sister Teague ran to put a dress on (she gets super cold in the mornings so she wraps up in sweats, a sweatshirt and blanket), I threw her laundry that was on the couch on her bed and answered the door! It was Josh and his friend Agosto, asking to know more about what we are all about. Literally a missionary's dream! Someone knocking on their door! Asking about what we do! It was crazy! Agosto had only heard of "Mormons" (our nickname) from a guy who said we practice polygamy. We assured him that we don't have multiple wives and tried explaining who members of our church are and the whole mission thing. We learned that Josh is actually super religious and is even an ordained minister! So that was cool! Then it started to get weird when they asked about what happens after the mission.. .but we said that if they had anymore questions to feel free to knock on our door. Then we went back inside and continued our companion study. Soon after that though there was another knock on the door...they said they had more questions, so this time we grabbed our shoes and chairs to go sit outside with them. They continued to ask us "what is a Mormon" and the difference between our religion and others. Instead of repeating the simple answers, Sister Teague gave them the shortest version of our unique message that the Restoration of Christ's New Testament church is on the earth today I've ever seen. We even gave Agosto a Book of Mormon and they both thought it was cool that Christ visits the Americas in it. Josh even said that if Agosto doesn't read the book, he will look at it! Apparently Josh's fiance's mom is a member of our church! That explained why his fiancee always avoids us...Then Josh proceeded to quiz us on the books in the Book of Mormon, we think he may be actually interested but tries to play it off. Then somehow Josh told us a story of Agosto on Halloween and that Agosto thought Sister Teague was "stunning" and embarrassed himself when we first met him. That was awkward...and we went back inside to start making lunch. In the middle of lunch there was a third knock on the door! This was getting a little ridiculous now...but we opened it and they just kind of walked away and Josh said if Agosto didn't want to ask his question then we could go...so we went back inside. Sister Teague said she knew exactly what Agosto's question was...he wanted to ask her out! Not too long after that, we heard the fourth and final knock on our door. We opened it and Agosto asked about our free days, worried about where this was going, I said that we don't have any free days, just Monday that we spend preparing for the week, calling our families, buying groceries, doing laundry, etc. I thought that would work, but they also knew Sister Teague was going home in like a week...he asked her about her plans after the mission and if she wanted to hang out. It was SO AWKWARD and she rejected him politely and he just kept pushing saying "just one night could change your life". She even tried telling him she has a boyfriend back home, but he just kept asking for one day with her. Somehow we eventually closed the door and both died over how utterly horrible that went jajaja. Then we went to Cecilia's for a lesson but no one answered so we just left a note like back in the days of Sister Farris. We then came home, called people, had our usual scripture read with Brother Larimer, dinner and a language study call. Then we ate the cheesecake Sister Teague made! Yum!
Wednesday we had district council in Many and we carpooled with the Leesville trio. Although I don't know who decided on the seating arrangement of putting me, tall Sister Teague and Sister Hansen in the back with the 2 smallest girls Sister Murdoch and Sister Christensen in the front?? That was a fun drive. At district lunch we celebrated Elder Teare's birthday and Mama Hales made better than anything* cake which was delicious! Then we drove back to Leesville to have our lesson with Sister Hancock. She had some interesting thoughts about trying to find herself IN the Book of Mormon...we explained how everyone can apply scriptures to their own lives, but she's convinced that it writes about HER in there because a missionary once told her that...I have some words for that missionary jajaja. Then we stopped by the church on the way home to drop off the sewing machine we borrowed and Brother Pontiff was there and asked us to speak in church on Sunday...Sister Teague would be home, but I had no excuse. So that's fun. But we came home, read the Book of Mormon with brother Larimer, I made pizza for dinner and we got to finally finish our personal study. I was being stubborn about something and was torn between doing or not doing something and thought that where I was reading in the Book of Mormon might have an answer. I read the chapter heading and was like "great this has nothing to do with my situation. I'm not going to find anything in this chapter." Well Heavenly Father always likes to prove me wrong and so of course that random chapter answered my personal question I had been thinking about for YEARS. Even when I was SURE that the chapter in no way could answer my yes or no question, it did. God always finds a way to speak to me through the scriptures. And that's how the Book of Mormon answers all of my questions, even when I'm being stubborn about it.
On Thursday we had service scheduled that morning, but couldn't find Tony's address. We asked the people in his supposed neighborhood and searched for like 30 minutes before deciding to go home after already trying to call him. That was a little sad. When we came home they had started reroofing all the buildings in our complex at the same time! During personal study all I could focus on was the random bangs on the roof from the guys hammering in the roof stuff. That was a little annoying and made it hard to concentrate, but we tried to just drown it out with instrumental music :). After lunch we left the house to go to the park for weekly planning. We had to figure out this whole mess with 4 of our referrals that some other Sisters just sent over to us because they were "too busy to focus on them"??? So that's a fun situation. Then we went home, made shrimp and scallop fettuccine alfredo pasta for dinner before going to the Jacksons. They were really tired when we went over, so we just read from the Book of Mormon with them. But it was still good. When we came home our apartment smelled like fish so we opened all the windows and the front door as we ate cheesecake and ice cream in the dark so the bugs wouldn't come in. But then Agosto came out of Josh's apartment and was like "what the *heck?" to our apartment wide open with the lights off, that was pretty hilarious jajaja.
Friday was a pretty chill day. Our Bible study got cancelled and we called a billion people and members. We decided to make cookies for AJ since it was his 15th birthday recently and he hadn't told us! After dinner we went and delivered the cookies. Janaya was home, but the boys were at the game. It was good to get more contact with them throughout the week though. Then we watched a devotional from one of the apostles before bed.
On Saturday we got to go over to Valorey's house again. We talked and got her husband, Bruce, to join us when we read from John 10 in the Bible. We introduced them to the Book of Mormon, but apparently they used to have the Elders come ever and play basketball all the time. Except they thought the Elders were too pushy and asked them not to come back...But Bruce has read from the Book of Mormon and even showed us his copy (with a fat red "DISCARD" stamp on it, oof). He said he's read some of it, but doesn't accept it all. He says that when it confuses him he reads it with the Bible to make more sense! Then he proceeded to show us his entire collection of different Bibles! There was even a Bible written where everyone was of African descent and had pictures and everything. It's just so crazy how many different perspectives there are in the world! When Sister Teague said goodbye to them, Valorey even cried! They are so sweet! We came home and after dinner went to the Jacksons. This time we brought Sister Britt from our congregation who also has teenage kids. We taught the Restoration of the gospel and it was so cool to see Sister Britt share her testimony and how she connected with Janaya! Ja'Ron is so accepting of everything we have to say and when Sister Britt brought up the story of the stripling warriors we showed it to him in his Book of Mormon picture book and he was like "so they went BEAST MODE?!" He got super excited about reading the stories! We even invited them to church! Janaya had to work but she said the boys could go! It was such a great lesson! Then we came home and watched Luz de Naciones (a broadcast of different songs and dances from Spanish culture) and it was so cool to hear President Nelson, the prophet, speak to us IN SPANISH! He's still working on the language, but I understand almost all of what he said! Probably because he's a gringo too, but still! It was awesome how much effort he's putting in, as a 96 year old man to learn another language!
Sunday morning the Jacksons said they couldn't come to church, that was pretty sad, but maybe next time! We went to church and this was the first Sunday they let 65+ age people back to church, so they were all there pretty early for the full 2 hour church block. Then they asked Sister Teague to bear her testimony before the speakers as a surprise since she'd be gone. Since we've only been having 30 minute church, I think the speakers weren't used to the longer talks and we had like 20 minutes left in sacrament meeting...so Brother Marshall got up and asked me to come bear my testimony to fill the time! So I went up and bore my testimony for like 10 minutes, I couldn't say everything since I'm literally speaking in church next Sunday! The ward is gonna get pretty sick of hearing from me soon enough jajaja. Then we got to help Sister May with the little primary kids since all the primary teachers were gone. That was really fun! I just love kids so much! After church we went home, ate lunch and Sister Twague told me about her dream that I would be a trainer since leadership gets their calls on Sunday. I told her that she was crazy and that there was NO WAY I'm ready for that! I feel like I just got here and I still know nothing! But then we got ready to go to Cecilia's granddaughter's birthday party. We've only had one lesson with Cecilia, but she invited us to the party and it was the most AWKWARD event of my entire life! It was just her family and the kids were off playing while practically none of the adults talked to each other, they just stood in groups smoking. No one even talked to us! Then the birthday girl opened all her presents, had cake and everyone left. Cecilia even forgot we were there! Yeah...it was rough jajaja. Then we came home to finally start our personal study when we got a call...from PRESIDENT AMOS! My heart dropped! Why would he be calling today?! Only leadership gets transfer calls on Sunday?! We answered and he talked to Sister Teague about leaving and coming to stay in the mission home, then he asked to talk to me! He said I'd be staying in DeRidder as a TRAINER! I think I just about died right then and there. He said I'd be training Sister Lynch, but it was special because she was coming from the Kirtland Ohio historic sites and had been there as a missionary for the summer, but that we'd figure out how to handle that later. I was so shocked that when he asked if I had any questions, I couldn't think of any...of course I thought of a million things after the call, but that's fine. After this call, I straight up cried about how totally freaked out I was to have the responsibility of another missionary and leading the area. I am not ready for that at all! Sister Teague and I spent the rest of the night stalking her on Facebook, talking about the area and Sister Teague giving me all her missionary/trainer knowledge (she was a trainer like 2 or 3 times). Quite a stressful night.
Monday was not pday since it was transfer week, so I have more proselyting stuff to tell y'all about from Monday :). That morning there was a trainer meeting led by SISTER FARRIS and Elder Obray! It was so weird being in the meeting after I'd seen so many of those meetings and watched them behind-the-scenes. She even gave a little pep talk speech at the end and I feel like she was talking to me, knowing I was terrified. After the meeting we went to do service at For the Critters, this lady who runs a thrift store and uses the money to help spade and neuter animals. The place was kind of a mess and the lady was slightly crazy, but it was some good service to organize everything more. That night we went over to Sister May's house for dinner and we brought a table to eat outside. She is the sweetest little old lady and made us Jambalaya, cornbread, veggies and eclairs for dessert! It was all so good! She even told us about her conversion story and some advice for a lady Sister Teague used to teach in Lafayette. Sister May is awesome! On the way home we stopped by Sonja's (a referral) house, but she wasn't home. To end off the night we had a Zone Zoom call to talk about stuff and helped Sister Teague pack up for tomorrow.
Overall this week was full of a lot of good stuff and some scary/exciting stuff to come. I'm super sad Sister Teague is going home, but I'm excited/nervous to pick up my greenie (new missionary). This next transfer I know that I'll have to rely on the Lord A LOT! And I know that He will magnify me because there is no way I can do it alone. I am so grateful for my testimony that continues to grow and for how important the scriptures have become in my life. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it can answer your questions because it's answered every single one of mine so far! I am nervous, but excited for everything coming my way :).
