Tuesday, November 10, 2015

getting colder and getting better

I'm doing pretty well. Keeping warm, trying to not stress too much.

Training goes well- my companion is well adjusted and more or less could be a trainer herself. The occasional situation baffles her, but that’s true of even seasoned missionaries, so I suppose that’s why they send us out in pairs.
We made up one of the two lessons (they missed two lessons when Sister Marsh was hurt and needed medical attention) - we actually haven't heard from the lady we were going to give a church tour. The other was super understanding and came to church for the 3rd time in 4 weeks.
The night is getting icy, in the 20s, but the day time hangs out in the low 50s high 40s. We're buying gloves today. We're otherwise ready for it I think.  I can't believe we're talking Christmas already! The highs are in the 50s here pretty consistently now, so I'm always wearing leggings or tights. We just Scotch Guarded our winter boots as well. I have a heavy jacket, but it’s not been quite cold enough to wear it (but we're almost there I think. I'm a baby. At least my companion is also a desert child so we can whimper about the cold together.) Thanksgiving is coming!
We have a couple of new investigators. One's a couple from the Congo with a tremendous testimony of Christ. There’s a second family from the Congo (we think) and they also have awesome testimonies. Unfortunately there's a language barrier of French. ]: And most of our members who speak it are male... so we try hard to make sure their wives are there too. The Chinese mother-daughter pair is moving forward with investigating as well. They were apprehensive about committing to a date (the 24th), but it would help to happen here and now. Turns out NO ordinances at all can be done in mainland China. They don't have the keys for it there. No convert baptisms. No priesthood ordinations. The only one we're aware of (aside from Sacrament) is Patriarchal Blessings (individual blessing for revelation - more explanation here). They even have to have separate congregations for Chinese citizens and foreigners. No fellowshipping/intermingling. We're not even sure if they can get on the lds.org website and stream General Conference (worldwide conference so we can hear from the top leaders - twice yearly.  Read what we learned from them last October here). They can't receive mailed church magazines or anything that might even be half way considered proselyting material. Hard stuff indeed.
My companion got her stitches out today; the doctor said she's healing up well. She slipped off a narrow ramp (it was wet) up to this overgrown farm house. We didn't see what cut her up, but her stitches came out today mostly pain free so it seems to be all well. Which is good, because we played volleyball for our dinner hour on Thursday and she dived for a ball. Mercifully no stitches popped. Miracle. Busy week, and another busy week to follow.
Love
Christine

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