Well, here goes the weekly rundown. Hopefully I'll be able to remember everything!!!
Monday: It felt like FALL again!! Beautiful weather. Loved it. Also, we had yummy ribs, corn, rice and gravy for dinner. Mmmm-mmm. Also, little Allie (known as Allie-Kat) drew me a picture of a unicorn and told me to put it up on my wall. She knows me too well :P
Tuesday: Well, it was a very interesting day. We gound a Recent Convert's apartment finally, and a man answered the door in his boxers. He seemed very... glazed. Like, something was up and it smelled soo weird. So we left a mormon.org card with our number on it and left! I don't know if he'll even remember that we stopped by... But we tried! We also tried to contact some referrals that live in town, but we just didn't feel good about the area. Its interesting how the Spirit will warn you that you aren't supposed to be in certain places. So, we didn't even bother getting out of Antonio because we both just felt very... weird about the whole thing. So, onward we went, trying to find a new referral! We drove out to the middle of nowhere. Literally. We hit a dead end and had to trun around by a sketchy, gutted out mobile home. I found out that I laugh when I'm extremely nervous. It didn't help that as we were trying to get out, a HUGE, and I mean GINORMOUS, grasshopper jumped up right onto the middle of our windshield and scared us. Yes, we are scaredy-cat girls sometimes. I named the grasshopper "Hopper" from A Bug's Life and told it to get off. Sister Jones was smart and turned on the windshield wipers. What a smart companion I have! Needless to say, I was a bit freaked for a minute. But, thank goodness for Antonio because we were perfectly fine and safe. So, we finally calmed down and then, as we were driving to find a different referral a few minutes later, saw this huge.. thing coming towards us on the road. It totally looked like a Transformer at first. Then, about .02 seconds later, I realized it was a combine and yelled "There's Frank!" (Cars anyone?) and Sister Jones- who is freaking out because of this huge thing headed towards us- yelled "WHAT is that? Who is Frank?!" So I explained that it was a combine, not a Transformer, and reminded her about Frank from Cars and we both pulled off the road a bit as we passed, and were fine. We even waved at the guy driving the combine, who was very nice and waved back.
After all that... we had no luck finding people. Sister Jones and I needed a break for a minute, so we went back to our apartment to de-stress. We colored some very cute ponies in the coloring books my mom sent. I colored a beautiful picture of "Princess Celestia."
After a few minutes, we made a thank-you card for Vicky, who made us some lovely candy bouquets, and took it over to her house and visited for a while. She doesn't come to church but was baptized, and she's the only member. But man, her husband is funny. They also love having us over, which is AWESOME.
We ate dinner with Jan, who is a marvelous cook. I'm talking amazing. She had cooked two, whole, entire small chickens and stuffed them with a deligthful mix of fruits, and then we had some yummy rice and cookies for dessert. DELICIOUS. I like the people in this branch :P
After, we went to the activities going on at the church, and rode with Jen to go get some cow milk from her in-law's house. Which was interesting because the cows were out on the driveway, and were very scared as we drove through them.
Wednesday: One month until my birthday! Its weird to think that I'll be 20 soon... No longer a teenager. I finally met our investigator, Marsha! She is just wonderful. We had an amazing member present lesson with her. She really liked the 1st Vision. She said, "Oh wow. That felt really good to hear. I haven't cried yet (reading the Book of Mormon) but.. that came real close. That felt really good." It was really amazing, and she said that she hopes to find out for herself that the church is true, and wants to be a Mormon. No baptism date or commitment, yet, but we are sure its in the near future. She is super stoked about general conference happening and will be watching it because she has the BYU channel. She's just so cool. Plus, she has the cutest Australian shepherd puppy ever. And he gave me a kiss. Don't tell President Pingree!...
Then, we went and visited Dan who got the Priesthood last Sunday, and his mom, Margaret. They're just wonderful, humble, good people. Debbie, Dan's sister, lives with them and is not a member, but we keep missiong her! She's been starting to ask questions, though, and is always really nice to us. We're hopeful that something will happen soon there.
We finished with dinner at Mary's house. She has a gate and a fence around her property, and accidentally forgot to unlock it for us. But, we told Mary we would not be late. So what did we do? We climbed over the fence in our skirts and trekked through the wooded wilderness driveway to her house.
Also, Sister Jones was wearing heals and a longer skirt. Can I just say that Sister missionaries... we get stuff done! (I am woman, hear me ROAR!) It was another lovely vegetarian meal. Tacos! With soy meat. It was pretty good, actually. All the strange things I'm starting to like eating... I'm basically a new person now.
Then, on the way home, we almost got hit by a young buck! It missed us by maybe a yard. Sister Jones had to slam on the brakes too. So that made us a little jumpy. Then, a little while later, about 5 young bucks decided to cross the road in front of us. Good thing we were far enough away to stop in time. Conclusion, the deer are still after me. (Remember last September, when I got hit 2 nights in a row??) Then, we almost hit an armadillo and a racoon. Let me tell you, nature is a pain sometimes. But, we arrived home safe and sound. Hallaluyer!
Thursday: Weekly planning. Woot woot. That took a while. Then, we headed over to the Mitchell household and helped out Jen because her elbow has been really bothering her- she had surgery on it years ago that should have prevented this from happening again- so we helped her make cupcakes, cook dinner, and rearrange her bedroom. She was very appreciative. We had really yummy dinner too. All homemade: chicken fingers and fries, and peas! Yum. The chicken fingers were breaded, and had curry powder and coconut mixed in with the bread crumbs. It was realllllllly good. See, again with the food!
Friday: We had district meeting, and it was Elder Anderson's 19th birthday! So we had yummy cake as well. We were pretty hilarious, singing to him and such. After, we ate lunch with the Binghams at a Mexican restaurant called La Bamba. It was really good. I had some pretty yummy enchiladas. Plus, we mixed salsa, melted cheese, and guacamole for our chips. It was pretty delicious. Again, the food I am eating.
We tried to find some more people who haven't been coming to church, but no such luck until we found Sister Goodwin! She's actually pretty active, and has just been having problems with her allergies. But we finally met her and had a very nice visit with her. She's actually really hilarious, and is such an incredible woman. All these people that live out here are truly an inspiration to me, and I'm so glad that I've been able to get to know some of them!
Saturday: Well, it stormed all Friday night and we were going to go help out with the YW activity Saturday morning at the Mitchells (older Mitchells). It was still raining pretty hard but we went anyway because we were helping with the horses and I would NEVER pass up that opportunity! Sister Mitchell (Diane) knows that I've helped with horses before, so she relied on me a lot. I was a bit nervous (AHH what if I don't remember anything?!) but it went really well. I caught a horse named Grady, who was such a sweetheart, and was able to get him ready fairly quickly (with only a little reminder about how to cinch up the saddle) and help the other horses get ready. It was really fun. Grady was so sweet, and while we were waiting for some YW from the other branch to show up, I was just petting his nose and resting my face on his. I'm sure it looked totes presh. I may or may not have given him a kiss on the nose. Again, don't tell President Pingree! The YW showed up and were so excited! I got to help some of them get up on the horses, and they went in two different groups on a trail ride. While they weren't riding, they hung out with us. They really wanted us to be able to ride too, and were very sad for us because we couldn't. Apparently they even tried to convince Diane to let us ride! It was a lot of fun. That took a while, and then we went home, ate lunch, and got ready for the day. Diane's horses are hypoallergenic, because they're curly haired horses, so Sister Jones shouldn't have had a problem, but there were tons of cats around, and hay, and horse feed... All of which she was allergic to. My poor companion took some allergy medication and had to knock out for a while so she could feel better :( So I just read the Book of Mormon. It was quite fun. We finished up our studies, then went to the Relief Society Broadcast. We had a Mexican potluck dinner before which was AMAZING. I'm telling ya, the people here are incredible cooks. The Broadcast was amazing. I loved it. I loved what they all said about being Covenant Keepers, and what the Prophet said about the importance of prayer. He truly is the Prophet of God today, and you can feel it and know it every time he gets up to speak. I encourage everyone to listen to his words, and the words of his apostles and our other leaders, next weekend during General Conference. What they say is truly what God wants us to hear.
Sunday: Okay, Fast and Testimony meetings are AWESOME in a small branch. Every adult got up to bear their testimony, and a few kids too! It was such a cool experience. I've made it a goal to get up every single fast Sunday in the field, and so far I have kept that goal. Its been amazing. After, we visited Sister Arellano who is so cool and then went to Dan and Margaret's house because Margaret was feeling sick :( We watch The Lamb of God with her. It is such an amazing thing. The Savior lives.
After, we had dinner at the Mitchells. Yummy roast, and veggies! Just like being at home. And homemade rolls.
Y'all, I love it here.
The church is true. Being a missionary is seriously the best thing in the world.
love,
Sister Kirsten Shell
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