Okay, here goes the rundown.
Monday: I got two packages!! Obrigada MUITO familia! One was a small Christmas tree, and the other had some sweaters (much needed) and other decorations. I also got 3 Thanksgiving cards! So, of course, I couldn't wait and immediately decorated our apartment while my comps took a P-Day nap. Now our apartment is all holly and jolly and Christmas-y and it makes me happy!
After P-Day was over we went to the Mitchell's house. They had a cute FHE about Family History and used the new My Family books that the church sent out.
Tuesday: We tried to stop by some less active members. One was the Douglas' home. We parked next to their home and walked up to the porch and knocked on the door. We started to feel a little weird but stayed there. Our records say that they are super nice and enjoyed visits from the senior couple, so we weren't too worried. Nobody answered so we went away and figured that maybe we'll try again another time. And we're fairly certain that the creepy feeling was because of this huge dog that was by the side of the house as we drove away. Good thing Heavenly Father protects His missionaries!
After that we went to the Gambles. Grace's dad was still in town, helping them finish the renovations on their home. Already it looked so much better! We talked with them for a while, and they were nice and fed us some lunch.
Sister Paddock started feeling sick, and my throat started to hurt. But, we continued and went on to dinner at Dan and Margaret's house. They had a yummy roast and veggies, and it made me feel like I was at Grammy's for Sunday dinner! We talked about a lot of things with them and answered a few questions that they had. Then, we headed home and went to bed.
Wednesday: I woke up with a scratchy throat, an achy feeling and a faucet for a nose. Its cold for a few days and look what happened! Sister Paddock felt pretty awful as well. But Sister Rainsdon had gotten permission to go to a baptism for her investigator in her last area, as did Elder Hill in our district who had helped teach her. We got a ride with the elders down to the Cypress area and attended the baptism. It was amazing. I love baptisms! It was wonderful to see somebody making that covenant with Heavenly Father.
By the time we got back to our area, it was time for dinner with Mary. She noticed we were under the weather and gave me some VapoRub to help me feel better. People around here really take care of us! After dinner and a great little spiritual discussion, we went home. Sister Paddock and I took some medication, I used the VapoRub and knocked out for the night.
Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day! It was pretty good for us. I felt tons better than I'd felt on Wednesday, so that was a little miracle for me!
We went and ate Thanksgiving Breakfast with Whitney and her family. It was fun to be around a lot of people, especially a family, because it reminded me of home. :)
Then, Jenn picked us up and we went to her in-law's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a huge feast with about half the branch there. We had yummy, delicious food and I felt stuffed all day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and it was another big gathering that reminded me of home. After the feast, we played Thanksgiving pictionary- the two teams tied- and made a craft. Indian feather hats! Hee hee it was pretty fun. All the kids were running around in the yard after that, arguing over who was chief and who was Princess Tigerlily.
When we got home, Sister Paddock was still feeling pretty sick and I was feeling sick too, so we took a nap. Then we started weekly planning, ended the night, and got some more shuteye.
Friday: We had Zone Meeting! They told us to bring something for a White Elephant gift exchange so we scrambled and grabbed some random things that we didn't need around our apartment. I don't even remember what I grabbed... Sister Kyles taught part of it and did an amazing job! I bet she'll be the next Sister Training Leader when our current one goes home after this transfer. That's just my top secret guess though- shh!
Oh! Elder Bell, one of our Zone Leaders, did something that was pretty hilarious. He pulled on a Santa hat that lit up and told us that sometimes, when we try to teach the Plan of Salvation, we sound a little bit like Buddy the Elf. He grabbed a piece of chalk and proceeded to charge into a monologue that went a bit like this;
"So right now we're all on a big adventure that Santa sent us on. So before this we all lived with Santa as his elves and we wanted to be Santas too because he's pretty cool so Santa gave us a quest to complete. So we went to the sea of swirly twirly gumdrops and got on a tiny iceberg and then we had to sing a top secret song, the special song of the narwhal to the narwhal guardian and he liked it and let you pass through but then you forgot it- but some people think we were actually narwhals at one point and not elves but anyways- so you sail across and get to the 7 levels of the Candy Cane forest and if you end up in the top 3 levels then you're good but if not then you are sent straight to the South Pole. But anyways then you have to find the raccoon and give him a hug and if he hugs you then you're good but if not then its the South Pole for you! And then you have to go through the Gutenberg gate and travel to NYC and you have to find Santa and if you find Santa then he flies you back to the North Pole and there's a party and you get a Santa hat and you get to live with Santa forever in the North Pole but if you can't find Santa in NYC then you get sent to the South Pole. Any questions?"
"Yeah, where exactly is the raccoon?"
"Well, he's kinda right here but I dunno exactly but somewhere in the forest but don't worry about it because you'll find him."
"How long do we have to get all this done?"
"Uhh, about a week I think."
Needless to say, we were laughing pretty hard. Especially since he drew out a diagram as he talked. Man I wish I had a picture! It was pretty entertaining.
I got a lint roller for the white elephant. Woot woot!
Then we came home and finished up weekly planning, and headed over to Whitney's for dinner. She had her brother's girlfriend and her friend over, and they were both 19. So we talked to them a lot about missions and answered some of their questions. One of them was actually named Kirsten, so it sorta felt like I was talking to myself.
Then, Sister Rainsdon got permission to go to another baptism on Saturday that the Spirit had been telling her that she needed to go.
Saturday: We got up, and car pooled with the Brenham elders again (because Elder Hill had also taught the investigator who was getting baptized and had received permission to go). We got down to Cypress and everything was just so happy. It was a part member family getting one step closer to becoming whole. They've been married for 11 years, and the husband went through 11 years worth of missionaries and it wasn't until this past transfer that he finally felt that he needed to be baptized. It was such a happy moment, and it was beautiful. I'm so glad I was able to go. It just makes me so happy when amazing, wonderful, happy, beautiful things like that happen. Its truly spectacular. There's nothing better.
When we finally got back, we went over to the Gambles for dinner and brought some service clothes. We weren't sure how we could help, but we felt like we should wear our jeans and tee-shirts. That was probably the best decision that night! They needed help destroying the kitchen floor so they could put the new floor in. That meant we got to use a sledgehammer and smash through the bottom of their house, then use crowbars and pry the leftover wood off of the 2 by 4s. Let me tell you, that was so stinking FUN. We each took turns using the sledgehammer. We got a pretty hilarious gangsta picture with us behind the wreckage. It may or may not be my favorite picture of the mission so far! That took a while, but apparently we actually helped them get it done faster. They want us to stop by a few times this week to help out so they can just get everything done before Grace's dad leaves Saturday. Needless to say, we agreed.
Sunday: Woke up sore... But hey, it was worth it! Church was fabulous! The branch is getting bigger, so there were a lot of releases and calls extended. Jason (Gamble) was released as our Branch Mission Leader :( We will miss him! But, Brother Crawford is now our Branch Mission Leader! We are super excited to have him help us out.
After church, we finished our studies and headed over to Brother and Sister Mitchell's house for dinner. We had some yummy food, and then Brother Mitchell talked with us about another new family that just moved in over the weekend! He also asked us about some less active people, and asked us to call him if he could ever be of service for missionary work. So we had an awesome discussion.
After that, we stopped by Connie's house to talk with her for a while. We saw her extremely fat cat named Cottonball again, and Sister Rainsdon was so astounded by how big it was! It was hilarious. We had a nice visit with her, got to know her a little bit better. At the end, we asked if it was alright with her and her husband if she was assigned some home teachers. She said that would be fine! We were pretty excited, shared a prayer with her and left.
When we got home... Well, back up. Our District Leader called right before we went in to Connie's house and asked for our address because he needed it for stuff. So we hastily gave it to him and went inside.
Fast forward. We got home and our door had tons of pass along cards, mormon.org cards and pamphlets all over it. On the back of a few mormon.org cards, they wrote "WE WERE HERE SUCKERS" and then they taped a huge sucker to our door right under the last word. I'm not sure why they felt the need to drive all the way to Caldwell from Navasota just to do a little prank... But it was kinda funny. So, when they called for numbers, we acted like nothing happened. They "nonchalantly" asked about our day and I told them what we had done, and told them we'd just finished at a less active's house and that we'd had a really good discussion with her. They said, "Oh, so you're on your way home now?"
"Oh, no, we're already home." And in the background I heard "They're already home! dang it!"
Then we gave them numbers. We may or may not get them back when we all have a Zone Activity on P-Day sometime. Hee hee.
So, that was our week, and it was pretty great! I love the missionary life, and I know this church is true.
Can't wait to skype the fam in 23 days!! When it gets closer, we'll set everything up.
Eu amo voces muito!
Sister Shell
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