Sorry no email yesterday. It was a national holiday so EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED!
Friends and family, I think I've experienced the most stressful week of my life. I've never had so many consecutive mental breakdowns in my entire life. My body is exhausted, my spirit is exhausted, my mind is exhausted. And yet there is no place I'd rather be.
My dear Sister Springer and I were doubled into the area not knowing anything or anyone. (But on a super plus side, so were the two Sisters we live with! Schwester Roberts and Sister Petersen, my MTC companion!) We started going by members' homes, we got to know the Bishop, we talked to our investigators. We tried so hard. On top of all that, we needed to plan for a baptism for that Saturday! We did everything we could and I can't really go into a lot of details because I am still beyond frustrated, but what matters is that the baptism went through without a hitch.
Let me tell you about them! We baptized two members of the Hicks family: the mother, Jillian, and oldest son, Julius. The father, John, grew up a member, but wandered away from the church. With a family and the knowledge that raising a family in the Gospel brings the most happiness, he decided to return to church! He was able to baptize them, and it was so lovely!! Their youngest boy was so upset that he couldn't be baptized too! He has a few years until he turns eight:)
Friends and family, I think I've experienced the most stressful week of my life. I've never had so many consecutive mental breakdowns in my entire life. My body is exhausted, my spirit is exhausted, my mind is exhausted. And yet there is no place I'd rather be.
My dear Sister Springer and I were doubled into the area not knowing anything or anyone. (But on a super plus side, so were the two Sisters we live with! Schwester Roberts and Sister Petersen, my MTC companion!) We started going by members' homes, we got to know the Bishop, we talked to our investigators. We tried so hard. On top of all that, we needed to plan for a baptism for that Saturday! We did everything we could and I can't really go into a lot of details because I am still beyond frustrated, but what matters is that the baptism went through without a hitch.
Let me tell you about them! We baptized two members of the Hicks family: the mother, Jillian, and oldest son, Julius. The father, John, grew up a member, but wandered away from the church. With a family and the knowledge that raising a family in the Gospel brings the most happiness, he decided to return to church! He was able to baptize them, and it was so lovely!! Their youngest boy was so upset that he couldn't be baptized too! He has a few years until he turns eight:)
Menifee is so interesting. It has SIDE-WALKS! Something Hemet barely had! The homes here are pretty large and there's so much shopping. Super Target, Khols, Ulta... It's all here! Our apartment is really, really nice. Two bedroom, two bathroom, living room and kitchen. We don't really eat at the kitchen table, however, because we have a few puzzles going. We also don't have pots, so making mac 'n cheese was definitely an adventure. When there's a will there's a way!!
A super fun thing happened this week!.. And by super fun I mean super crazy! And fun, of course! One evening, Sister Springer and I decided we needed to see a certain member. We plug their address into the GPS and head out! We're several miles away from the actual city, and street lights become sparse. We're driving and talking and all of a sudden THERE'S NO MORE PAVEMENT AND WE'RE DRIVING ON A DIRT ROAD! We scream a little bit, but continue to follow the road. We stop at an intersection and stare in horror at the road ahead of us. It's like a 45 degree angle up with pot holes everywhere. Our little Corolla could not take that! So we drove home, agreeing to try in the daylight. So the next day we go down the same bumpy dirt road, and when we get to the intersection of death, there's a dirt road that will take us to the same place, just a little bit of a longer round trip. We'd rather invest our time rather than total the car! So we drive around trying to find their house! But we're out in the country where next door neighbors are minutes of driving apart and where the house numbers don't really exist. We make an educated guess and knock on a front door. Not the member. We call the member, let them know where we were, and they gave us directions to their home! We drive a little bit up this mountain and come upon a very interesting sight... There was a large boulder in the middle of the road and a chain link fence blocking the rest of the road. Inside of the fence a ways away, there was a house! It must be the member's house. But there's no way to get to it... Unless we jumped the fence...
To make a long story short, no fence hopping took place. It wasn't the member's home, but in order to get to the member's home, I had to do a 17 point turn on the side of a very tall hill. #neardeathexperience. I'm glad we visited them, however. We had a great talk with them, and what they said to us really settled our stressed little souls. Plus they gave us chocolate cake!
A super fun thing happened this week!.. And by super fun I mean super crazy! And fun, of course! One evening, Sister Springer and I decided we needed to see a certain member. We plug their address into the GPS and head out! We're several miles away from the actual city, and street lights become sparse. We're driving and talking and all of a sudden THERE'S NO MORE PAVEMENT AND WE'RE DRIVING ON A DIRT ROAD! We scream a little bit, but continue to follow the road. We stop at an intersection and stare in horror at the road ahead of us. It's like a 45 degree angle up with pot holes everywhere. Our little Corolla could not take that! So we drove home, agreeing to try in the daylight. So the next day we go down the same bumpy dirt road, and when we get to the intersection of death, there's a dirt road that will take us to the same place, just a little bit of a longer round trip. We'd rather invest our time rather than total the car! So we drive around trying to find their house! But we're out in the country where next door neighbors are minutes of driving apart and where the house numbers don't really exist. We make an educated guess and knock on a front door. Not the member. We call the member, let them know where we were, and they gave us directions to their home! We drive a little bit up this mountain and come upon a very interesting sight... There was a large boulder in the middle of the road and a chain link fence blocking the rest of the road. Inside of the fence a ways away, there was a house! It must be the member's house. But there's no way to get to it... Unless we jumped the fence...
To make a long story short, no fence hopping took place. It wasn't the member's home, but in order to get to the member's home, I had to do a 17 point turn on the side of a very tall hill. #neardeathexperience. I'm glad we visited them, however. We had a great talk with them, and what they said to us really settled our stressed little souls. Plus they gave us chocolate cake!
The Facey family owns a desert tortoise and I love tortoises now.
So many more things happened, but I can't really talk about them without getting red in the face and gritting my teeth! Lots of stories for after the mission. Know that I love all of you, and that I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He loves you too!
Sister Turner
My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. -- Abraham Lincoln
So many more things happened, but I can't really talk about them without getting red in the face and gritting my teeth! Lots of stories for after the mission. Know that I love all of you, and that I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He loves you too!
Sister Turner
My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right. -- Abraham Lincoln