new area, former companion

This week has been arguably better than last week. I’m in my new area- Macomb, Illinois. We share the ward with a set of elders, one of whom is our district leader. He’s a little older (24!) and definitely different (I can't quite gauge him other than he's very go-go-go) in the way of personality, so this should be interesting. But he aims to please, so I don’t expect it to be a conflict so much as I expect a struggle to mesh personalities well.

 

The area is not small by any means, but it is nowhere near the size of Fayette, and since we share it with the elders, it’s only half the size of the ward. We live with members, an older couple whose children are long since out of the house. They’re both on the Stake level. Very environmentally conscious and very precise about pretty much everything they do, so hopefully my controlled chaos isn’t too stressful for them.

 

Our Zone is the Nauvoo zone, and we have our district meetings every week in Nauvoo itself, so we get to see the temple every week. Unfortunately, as it’s an hour drive (and a lot of miles besides).

 

The district itself is huge- 5 sets of missionaries (normally I see 3 sets), and it used to be 6, plus the zone leaders ALWAYS come and visit.

 

My companion is Sister Carter! She’s great, I love her. We served together once before in Iowa City- it was her and Sister Dilworth who took me in when I came back out initially (in the middle of the transfer). So we’d only had 3 weeks together, but now we have another 7 (the transfer is running a week longer to accommodate the changes in the MTC)! I’m very pleased. We work well together. Sad thing is though, she goes home in the September 2^nd transfer, which means she HAS to go this next transfer so I can teach someone else the area; or I HAVE to go next transfer so she can train. We’ll make the most of it.

 

The weather is getting warmer, so I’ve for the most part forgone my jackets, save in the last hour or so in the evening. Tights are gone, and likely soon I’ll be switching to my flats for most days (we just received a box of cold weather stuff). It’s expected to get REALLY hot this summer, and I’m in one of the most southern parts of the mission, so I’ll be seeing some of the stickiest, hottest, humidest (is that a real word?) times of the year. Just in time to go home. Woo. Trying not to cut all my hair off.

 

We’re working with a few people here. One is a hair stylist with a couple of kids and a husband who’s turned off to Christianity.  She’s super enthusiastic and really wants this, but hesitates to move without her husband because she wants to go together, to share this together. Her mom is also working with us, but catching her is a little more iffy. Then there are 3 friends - two girls and a guy. He’s got insomnia and very intellectually geared, so I’m excited because this is right up my alley.

 

I'm doing better. I'm getting up a little more easily/on time, and I have yet to have a particularly horrible person talk to us.

 

Love, Christine

 

Rough week....and 3 months to go



Looks like they had a little fun on P day!

It’s been a rough week.

 

Monday was pleasant enough- we went to the Amish and picked up a few things- groceries mostly (you can’t really beat picking up a couple of boxes of hamburger helper for 65 cents a pop), but we picked up some hand-made soaps and jelly. It was very cute and just a pleasant reminder that there is a simpler way to live. I like it a lot, and the idea of keeping a garden of my own someday doesn’t seem too implausible (aside from my chronic lack of a green thumb) (sorry....that's moms fault!). But then I got sick (though I’d had no dairy as of yet that day and nothing clearly food-related as a problem), and the appointment we’d been looking forward to all week with a lady who really, really needs the Lord in her life cancelled. At least the night finished off with a lady we went to visit (a member of the church) told us we were inspired by God to come because her mother had just gone into the hospital and she needed help because she didn’t really understand how to use her track phone. We were glad to be of help, but honestly we felt like we had come because we wanted to see someone who actually wanted to see us. (wins for both of them!)

Speaking of people not wanting to see us, we had back-to-back days of the whole day knocking, and the whole day full of rejection. And not just rejection, but really cold, rude, snide rejection.  We smile, we’re polite, we’re not at all pushy, the first "no" we get we politely say good bye and leave, so why the most un-Christian behavior? I try to tell myself it’s because they don’t understand, because they’ve been misinformed about what it is we believe (we believe in Christ too…), but for people who profess to be Christians, where is the Christ-like behavior? One of the few ladies who were polite to us told us a joke. ‘A catholic priest gets up before his congregation and tells them he can tell them his whole sermon in three sentences. “We know there are millions of Catholics in the United States. We know there are millions of Protestants in the United States. We are looking for millions of Christians in the United States.” He sat down.’ We laughed and agreed with her… Jokes are funny because they have at least a particle of truth in them. That particle is a lot more than just a little particle here. The first day we came home feeling good, despite the commentary and how worn our feet felt. A member family had prayed for us that day, fasted for us, and given us a list of names of people who might be open to learning more. They fed us at the end of it. It was a good day despite other people.

Thursday was more pleasant, if only because we had a few appointments- a few people who actually wanted to see us, but then one investigator texted us after we got home and told us we didn't need to come back because his pastor and his mom didn't like the idea of him talking to us. I wonder why.

Friday, another investigator told us he needed to think and didn't want to meet us, most of the day was spent yet again, knocking and getting rejected. Saturday was more rejection.

Sunday we saw a few members, but honestly after this week I'm not sure we had the courage to really make a serious effort to talk to people that day.

So all in all, no one teach, no one to talk to, and the transfer is on Thursday. Hallelujah. I hate to leave my companion here, though I'm sure some new blood would be good for this area.

Every week we email our mission president and talk to him about what is going on in the area, and who we’re working with and how that’s going, etc. The email I got this week essentially read that I would likely get moved this transfer. Transfer calls are going out tomorrow, so I’ll be likely writing you from a new location next week. It’s possible I won’t get moved, but extremely unlikely.

My companion and I are still two peas in a pod. I am displeased to most likely be parted from her.

The 22^nd marks officially 3 months to go. (YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!)

Definitely relating well to the talk “But if Not” by Elder Simmons of the Seventy. (Click HERE to read the talk)

Anyhow. All my love.

Christine

Field and Dreams....and thoughts of home.

Field of Dreams bleachers

Field Of Dreams

signage

Giant Strawberry??

We're coming to the end of another transfer (the 21st), and a lot of people are going home this go around and next. I've been told I'll be moving this go around, so I'll have one more area (most likely a good size city, whatever that means) before it's time to come home. I have mixed feelings. The both of us work very well together, and honestly that’s the only thing I'm kind of bummed about with the impending move.

We went to the Field of Dreams last Monday. It's cute. It’s a tiny little field (non-standard size diamond) with a tiny little gift shop. No corn up right now, so nothing like the movie in that way, but apparently it's a beehive come summer. I think it might be a little more worthwhile then, but there was an article on one of the display boards that really made it sound a little more magical.

We're going to the Amish community again today. I'm on the lookout for neat things to pick up and maybe send home to all the good little girls and boys. And I made my planners for the next two transfers... The last one has a ton of pictures of the family and such, since it’s supposed to be, you know, tremendously trunky (I saw another sister had an airplane on hers and it read 'going home' but that's a bit much, even for me).

The work here goes well- we're working with an older man who is incredibly intelligent and asks really deep questions. It’s sometimes a little baffling and quite the challenge (though this was more of what I was expecting when teaching people- some sort of brain power while sharing these 'new' doctrines with people, as opposed to the weird baseless anti we get from time to time). He's retired from a very high stress, tight deadline, heavy pressure job, so he's pretty resistant to any kind of pushing we give him. We tried to set a date with him for May 4th, and it's totally doable, it's just a matter of meeting with him and getting him to church the next two Sundays. We fasted for him yesterday.

We were dropped by a young man this week- he's moving to New Mexico and likes smoking weed and loose women too much to keep talking to Jesus people, I guess. No real surprise there, but still disappointing. I wanted to know what he was like sober.

Speaking of sober, another man has been talking with us. He's very sincere in his desire, and he's been through a lot. He's been clean of drugs for 7 months now and has been on the right medication for a while as well (since finding the right cocktail is such a challenge), and attributes all of the changes in his life to finding God. Problem is that, like most churches, they get a little antsy when we start talking to anyone in their flock.

Anyhow. Another week, another chilly walk through the tiny neighborhoods of the area.

Love you!

Christine

Conference Weekend

(Sorry that I can't make it stand up....but you get the idea.....)

It’s been a relatively eventful week.

 

Wednesday night we left our area early to drive down to Cedar Rapids in prep for driving to Davenport, and stayed with the sisters there (we went to Red Robin for dinner- thank you dad for that. :) ).It was fun, despite me sleeping in a recliner because they had no spare mattresses (my backkkk). The next morning was the long drive to Davenport, and lots of meetings. They were good though- the first one in a while I felt like I got something (more than one something even) out of it and will be actually trying to do better in those areas using what they talked about.

 

The drive back took forever, and then we did our shopping there (yay having a real town) and the people we were supposed to have dinner with were super late, so we ended up sleeping over in Cedar Rapids again (yeah recliner again) and then driving out the next morning.

 

One bright side, our purchases included a blender and stuff for smoothie/shakes that more or less go in place of meals, so that’s what we do for breakfast. Working on the exercise part, but it’s getting better.

 

A little knocking- mostly ‘WE DONT WANT ANY' or lonely old people who just want to talk but aren't interested at in Jesus. ): We met a lady named Jingles though. She had her name legally changed to the name her husband gave her. Wild.

 

We had one lady come to conference. She slept through some of it though. Not sure how much she got out of it, but she's 91 so we're still trying to figure out if she's actually understanding anything we're teaching her or if it’s another “oh yay someone to talk to!” old person experience. ): I feel bad, and so I try not to rush out of those too fast, but we're not really fulfilling our purpose by just shooting the breeze.

 

(General Conference is our semi-annual meeting where the leadership from Salt Lake speaks to the members world wide. They counsel and encourage us.  See all of their talks HERE.)

Speaking of conference, wow. What an experience. Elder Hales isn't looking so good, and President Monson doesn't sound so good either (but at least he didn't crumple on the stand again)... I wonder if we'll be seeing some seats changing come next conference. I liked a lot of talks (my notebook is pretty full), but it definitely made me trunky (the feeling of wanting to "pack your trunk and go home"....homesickness).

 

Humorous moments- we were in an old folks home talking to one of our members when a lady had a glass of chocolate milk in front of her. She looked at it, puzzled, looked at the nurse, then back at it, and asked "Is it medicine?" It was quite clearly chocolate milk. "No. It's chocolate milk." She went on about medicine for a while. I don't know that she ever actually drank it.

 

Jingles also told us that what we Americans call Canadian Geese, Canadians call American Geese, and it turns out we're all wrong, they're North American Geese. There was some debate as to what Mexicans call them. Who knows.

 

We've been teaching the Addiction Recovery Program lately, and while it’s been a joy to see the progress in the people we teach it to, it’s not something I want to deal with in my life. This is too much for me. I'm out.

 

Today we're going to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, which is in the area next to us. So we got permission to go. It won't be as cool, because the corn isn't up yet, but it’s there and open to the public, and my companion is all about that baseball life so it’s a must see I guess. Pictures next week on that.

 

Attached is a cut out we found in front of a tiny church along our drive to Davenport.

 

All my love.

 

Christine