the rise of the trining
This week has been quite a... a.... something... I don't know how to explain it. Monday was pretty awesome. I led a cow. And I might have rode a tiny horse. But I might not have. (shrug) It was tiny though. My feet touched the ground... that's one tiny horse. Plus, in our defense-- if we rode it, we might not have-- we thought it was a pony. There is nothing in the White Handbook about ponies. Tuesday was pretty a'ight; I got to email and such. Except then all of a sudden at 6:30, Sister Randall looked like she was going to die. Literally. But we were out in Kingdom City at a "birthday party" (it was more of just eating McDonald's). So we hopped back into the Prince's (a family in the ward. They are way awesome.. and apparently, I look like their daughter...) van and drove back to Mexico and we called it a night. Hoping that Sister Randall would feel better in the morning because our Exchange Sisters were coming! Well, the Exchange Sisters came and Sister Randall was still sick as a dog (why is that a phrase? just wondering.). So I got to go out with the Exchange Sisters-- Sister Luker and Sister Bierman. We had a pretty successful day. We taught a few lessons, tracted a bit, and just had a blast. All while my companion laid on the couch and tried not to die. Well, the Exchange Sisters could only stay for Wednesday (because a storm was supposed to hit), so they left Wednesday night and headed back to O'Fallon, Missouri. I prayed and prayed and prayed that Sister Randall would be better on Thursday. She wasn't. So we stayed inside again. Luckily, we are supposed to do our Weekly Planning on Thursdays so we did that and felt somewhat accomplished. (Weekly Planning usually takes us about 6 hours... it's crazy... But we also have 27 people in our teaching pool, so it kind of makes sense as to why it takes so long) During our Weekly Planning the storm hit. It hit with some force. I have never seen so much snow. I thought it would stop after a few hours-- no. It didn't. It snowed ALL day long. And then we got these tiny little ice pellets. what? yeah, ice pellets. Coming from the sky. Imagine hail. Okay, now turn it into ice. and bam. that was what was falling out of the sky. But Sister Randall was still sick, so we didn't get to go work out in that lovely storm. The poor Elders from our Zone had to though... poor guys. And they had to WALK in it! We got a call from our Zone Leaders that said, "Ground your cars and then get back out and keep working!" ah. Poor kids. Oh, and then Larry went MIA. yeah. the day before his baptism. He was just gone. He was supposed to be home from the doctor Thursday afternoon but nobody could get a hold of him. So we were kind of worrying a little bit-- we thought he might have fallen or crashed from the snow; the possibilities were endless. But we finally got a hold of him around 8:00 pm and found out that he wasn't going to be able to be baptized the next day because he couldn't get his eyeball wet. I thought he should just slap some goggles on and jump in the water, but apparently that wasn't a good idea. Plus we didn't have a jumpsuit big enough for him yet-- we were supposed to pick it up at District Meeting the next day. So we were pretty sad about the baptism falling through. But he told us that as soon as he could get that little guy wet, he would be in that water! So he's still getting baptized! We just don't know when. Then came Friday, Friday, Friday! I REALLLLLLLLLY prayed hard that Sister Randall would get better. I was having some serious cabin fever and NEEDED to get out of the apartment. Well, we woke up Friday morning and she still wasn't better. So we called some folks in the ward so that I could go to District Meeting down in Fulton. As soon as we had somebody to go with us (Maddie Prince. She's super rad.), I ran outside and got to shoveling some snow. After all, we had about a foot of that nasty white stuff and it needed to be moved. Well, I shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. And then I looked at my progress-- nothin. I had barely made a dent. And because they plowed the roads Thursday night, they plowed the snow from the road right up against our car. Huge bummer. So I kept shoveling. And Sister Randall made a few calls to see if she could get me some help. Well, because the ward is so rad, we had people come as soon as they got themselves shoveled out. But when they got to our apartment, we decided that it wasn't a good idea for me to drive down to Fulton because of my slim, slim, slim driving experience in the snow. So we didn't go to Fulton for District Meeting. And I cried. I was so tired of the apartment. But because my district is so awesome, they called us and let us listen in to District Meeting and still participate. BUT the Lord knows what is going on in our lives. He knows how things are going to go down. And well, a few hours later, we had a knock at our door. This woman wanted to shovel our car out for $5. So we let her. (I thought she was craaaazy because that labor was worth WAY more than $5) Well, as she shoveled, Sister Randall decided that we would make her some hot chocolate. And then I felt like she needed a Book of Mormon. So after she finished shoveling, we invited her in for a little bit and gave her the hot chocolate and just talked with her. She shared her life story with us and then I really felt impressed to give her the Book of Mormon. So I gave it to her (along with the money for her work-- I paid her a little more than $5-- that was too much work for only $5) and then we invited her to church. She seemed really interested and gave us her address and phone number. The Lord does answer prayers. He hears us. He heard me in my plea for something to do. He knows our situations and our desires. We just need to place our trust in Him. Then on Sunday (I'm skipping Saturday because I can't remember it) we went to church! It wasn't cancelled! So we went to church, hoping that one of our investigating families would be there. They weren't. So we sat down a little bit sad. Well, about five minutes into the testimonies, I got a tap on my shoulder. And one of our awesome members (who helps us with pretty much errrrythang) asked, "Is that Debbie Duschne?" I looked over to my right and there was Debbie! I was so excited! So I hurried over there and sat next to her! She had an impression that she needed to come to church that day. So she got up and told her husband (who is kind of against the church, but he's a work in progress-- miracles are happening, I tell you!) that she was going to church! And then she just came! It was so awesome! Then she called us after church and told us that Doug (her husband) had said they needed to look for a new church and that she would be at church next week. WHAT?! so exciting. The Lord softens people's hearts. His timing is perfect. Trust Him. But that was a super awesome experience. Then we went over to the Sherrow family's house for Sunday dinner. It reminded me of home. Kids were running all over the place. There was so much noise and laughter. I loved it. And the food was deeeelicious. We had Navajo Tacos. yum.
Oh. I forgot. The most important part of this email. The subject. "the rise of the trining" trining. yeah, it's a word. Elder Miles made it up. it's a mix between trio and training. YEAH! WE ARE TOTALLY TRAINING A NEW SISTER!! I am so stoked! If the storm that is supposed to hit tonight doesn't hit, we'll go to St. Louis on Wednesday and pick her up! (If it does hit, someone will bring her to us) Pray real hard that it doesn't snow again. Please. Please. Please. Please. PLEAAAASE. This white stuff is gross. Plus, I really want to go to transfer meeting because those things are fun!
I love you all and pray that you are still doing well! The mission life is wonderful. I pray for you every day! I love you so much! Have a superb week! Pictures are coming. I promise! (I already ordered them at Wal Mart!) Love, Sister Sadie Leavitt