Tuesday: Well. We woke early in the morning to take Sister Jones down to transfers. Can I just tell you how crazy that was?? Okay, so Monday night, we got a call at 11:15 from our Zone Leader who was also leaving for home. Naturally, we were all in bed asleep. So we listen to his voicemail in the morning. It said, "Hey, sisters, this is probably redundant.. But I just wanted to remind you that you need to drive down to College Station tomorrow morning so everyone can put their luggage in your truck." And we were all like.... whaaaaa? Because that was the first we'd ever heard of that plan! So Sis Jones, who was already FREAKING RIGHT OUT had to change our plans, and we had to get ready speedy quick so we could keep the timing of everything right. So we get down to College Station and the elders sandwhich everything into the truck bed, and then they ask, "You're picking up Sister Williams right?" and we were all like "... sure, yeah, no problem...." But once we got in the car, Sister Jones leaned back and said something like, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" and then we went and got her.
So we drove down to Houston just chatting it up, and towards the end of our 2 hour trip, Sister Jones and I sang For Good to each other. I changed the words "my friend" to "my companion" and Sister Jones got mad and told me to stop trying to make her cry :P
We got to transfers, everyone unloaded the stuff out of the car, and took our last pictures with Sister Jones and said goodbye. They had a busy day of departing missionary stuff to do. It was kinda weird. Just like that... poof! There went Sister Jones! I miss that chicka. But Jenn called her the other day and told me that Jaesi Jones was doing pretty well- except that she couldn't talk about her mission without crying, and that she was homesick for TX. But everything else was good. Yay!!!
Then we found out that we were going to be in a trio again with Sister Rainsdon! So we loaded everything up, and then were told by the College Station people that they'd put some stuff into our truck and so we'd need to drive back through College Station again. So we were like... uh.... okay.... Which we did.
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| The New Trio: Sister Rainsdon, Sister Paddock, and Sister Shell |
That night, we went to eat at Dan and Margaret's. Such amazing people! Before we left, we prayed that we'd be able to befriend Dan's sister (Margaret's daughter) Debbie a little bit more that day. And she sat and talked with us for 10-20 minutes, and we had a really nice chat! And when she wasn't sitting with us, she was helping out in the kitchen with finishing dinner, and would contribute to our conversations still! So I thought that was pretty neat.
Wednesday: We went out and saw Becky for a little while, which was awesome! She seemed really glad to see us, and said she missed seeing us. She had to leave for work fairly quickly but she told us to keep coming by. Score!! We tried to visit a few other people but... no luck. So we went ahead and went over to Mary's house, and saw an emaciated dog on the way. Sister Rainsdon had some fruit leather in her bag, so she rolled down the window and gave it to her. The poor thing. She was so sweet, and seemed happy, but sooooo hungry. It made me sad. And you could tell she'd just had puppies too. :( When we got to Mary's, we parked and chatted, and took a small walk that was halted when a large German shepherd started trying to follow us. We know how dogs are with missionaries...
Then, we had dinner with Mary. She read us an amazing mission story from a book she just finished called Journey to the Veil and it was so awesome. We had a quick spiritual thought with her, and then we left.
It was a fantastic day :)
Oh! And found out Sister Kyles and Sister Hansen were going to be training! Woot woot! Seriously, Sister Kyles in the bom-dot-com. She's amazing.
Thursday: Yupp, you guessed it. Weekly planning. After that, Jenn picked us up to help us save on our miles and we helped her out at her house. We had yummy dinner, and her kids were crazy. Thomas and I were battling, then everyone ganged up on Sister Paddock. Which was lucky for Sister Rainsdon, because her hair is super long and gorgeous and I'm sure that they wanted to play with it... but Sister Paddock's kung-fu skills distracted them successfully.
After dinner, we had a quick lesson with them. We taught a little bit about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. Then we left with Jenn and went with her to Rex and Diane's, her in-laws, so she could get fresh milk from their cows and so that they could meet Sister Rainsdon. And oh my goodness, Diane has a beautiful Christmas village. It puts ours to shame, mom. It takes up several tables, and is gorgeous. It reminded me of home, which was nice :)
Friday: BRRRRRRR! I dunno if y'all know this... but its been down in the high 30's/low 40's the past few days and raining! ICK. Lets just say we layered a few things up, and lucky I have my raincoat! Holy cow.
Oh, and I realized that CHRISTMAS IS IN THIS TRANSFER AND I AM SO STINKING EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! :D
Phew. Anyway. So, at district meeting, we smashed some old videos (yeah, the kind that go in the VCR), and a coffee maker, to symbolize "smashing away" our investigator's obstacles for baptism. That would have been fun except for we went outside and it was freaking COLD. Poor Sister Kyles had on a short sleeved shirt, and so I hugged her the whole time to keep her warm.
After that, we visited the Farmers. They are such sweet people, and they were glad to hear that Sister Jones finished her mission and was home, and they were excited to meet Sister Rainsdon. They had their TV on the whole time, which was sort of distracting. I turned away from it and faced her completely but there was a mirror on the wall behind Sister Farmer! So I leaned forward and that helped. But she would randomly ask things about what was on TV (ex: What's the Hunger Games?") and pointed to the TV. From the tops of the heads I could see in the mirror, Catching Fire looked like a success. Nevertheless, I persevered and didn't watch the TV. We finally got them to turn it off at the end for a prayer. Woot woot!
We were supposed to have dinner at Whitney's house, but she felt sick so... McDonald's it was. Then we went to the church building so Sister Rainsdon could practice piano for a minute. Yupp, that's right, another piano player companion! Heavenly Father must know I love listening to the piano.
Saturday: Goodness gracious sakes alive, the cold continued! I wrote this in my journal "It appears to have rained throughout the night. I shall go see how cold it is.
Um, just an update- it is, in fact, COLD."
Then, I made a list of 100 things I'm thankful for during personal study. I'll send that in a separate email.
Judy let us in, and told us she hadn't read. So we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon with her. Then, she told us that she wasn't in a state of mind to process all of this right now, and that she would read the Book of Mormon on her own, and to call her in a month. Yeah, Judy "broke up" with us, so to speak. Temporarily. But that's okay. I feel peaceful about it. Nevertheless, it came to pass that we went and got "breakup" ice cream anyway. That was pretty fun.
After that, we tried to visit Sister Arellano- Whitney- to see if she was doing better but no one answered. So we left her a cute little thank you card and went on our merry way.
After that, we headed over to the Gambles house. Grace's dad has been in town, and they've gotten a lot done on the place! By the time her dad leaves, they will have replaced the floor, moved the front door, finally insulated all the walls, and put up sheet rock. And who knows what else? It already looks much better than it did, which makes me so happy for Grace!
We had pizza with them around the bonfire, which kept us nice and toasty. We talked to her dad a lot about his mission, and then went home.
Sunday: We had an awesome day at church! The Crawford's were the speakers at our sacrament meeting, and they were amazing. I love that family!
Last night, we had dinner with them. They're so much fun! So hilarious, and just way awesome people. We had a good spiritual thought with them, and then left to go try to visit a less active. No luck. So we went to see how Whitney was doing and had a nice, long talk with her. I think she really appreciated us stopping by- her husband had to work, and she was alone with the kids. We had a nice chat and prayer with her, and then we came back home.
Well, that's it folks. All in all, it was a pretty crazy week. I hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I really am going to send my thankful list, and I want everyone to add on to it. I know I forgot tons of stuff, but there's only so much you can write down in an hour and still have time to read at least a chapter in the Book of Mormon!
Eu amo voces muito! Tem um bom dia!
Sister Shell :)
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