Well it was HOT this past week! The heat and the humidity melted us! The schools all started last Monday and they had early release everyday last week because there is no AC in the buildings and it is too hot to be in class in the afternoons. But somehow the heat didn't stop us from being a missionary. On Tuesday we had our normal morning schedule with studies and then service at Hills and Dales. That afternoon Elder and Sister Thomas came over for apartment checks. We then went tracting around the University of Dubuque. We met this one guy, Sean, who has a friend that is on a mission, so he had been to church with her a couple of times. He had to leave because he was helping with Freshman mentoring, but we are planning on dropping by this week. We also ran into two wrestlers who knew that their athletic trainer is a member. We had a dinner appointment with the Spencer's and it was delicious! Since we don't have a meal coordinator yet, we really haven't had very many meals at members homes, so it was so refreshing to finally have one! Also, to top it off when we were getting ready to leave, Sister Spencer had made us a loaf of whole wheat bread! Basically nothing tops a loaf of homemade bread!
So a week or two ago I ordered some supplies and a couple name tags from the office. So of course in my order I specified that it would probably be best if my name tag said SISTER CALL rather than Elder. So we got a text from Sister Simmons when she received the order, and she commented on the Elder Call note. Well I called Sister Simmons the other day because I had a few questions so when I said it was Sister Call and Sister Whipple on the phone she responded "I don't know of any Sister Call's in the mission, all I know of is an Elder Call" so we laughed even more. Sister Simmons called the following morning and so when I answered I said "Hello this is Sister Whipple and Elder Call" needless to say both Sister Simmons and I were laughing so hard it took us a while before we could even talk, and then we decided that it didn't sound quite right if I answered the phone like that.
Anyways on Thursday we had an appointment with a sister in our ward that we are working towards being able to go and do temple baptisms in the next month or so. The last time we were there we had left her the reading assigment of Ether 12 and so when we followed up with the assignment it was wonderful. She had read the chapter at least 6 times so when we asked her what faith is she said how faith is believing in something we can't see and how we have faith in almost every task we do. So for example we have to have faith that the chair is going to hold us up, but we act on the faith as we sit down in the chair. She continued to explain several everyday tasks that require faith, but unless you are specifically looking at it as an act of faith it is easy to overlook. We were also able to contact another Pageant Referral which was great. She is a good friend to one of the members in our ward and was so excited to get both the pageant CD and the Restoration DVD.
On Friday Sister Whipple and I officially decided that we are in Iowa! We started the morning off helping the first ward elders move into a new apartment. So we arrived at their apartment at 8:00 a.m. and they said that they were all packed, but when we walked in we realized that they had completely forgotten to pack the kitchen. So the sisters were all packing up the kitchen, and since the apartment they were moving out from doesn't have AC it was 89 degrees in their kitchen at that time. We were able to pack it all up and help them move into their new apartment which has air conditioning and more space so they should be happy. I had to laugh because as we were helping unpack I took charge of organizing the food into their pantry, and my little bit of OCD was coming out because I had to make sure that it was completely organized and didn't want others to help, because then it created more work for me. haha Well after helping them get moved in, Sister Whipple and I ran over to the Eastvedt's home to help husk corn for the ward Hoedown that evening. We learned all about corn and apparently if you want the best corn you look for the ear that has the smallest kernels. See Iowa is a land of corn so I will take their word for it. We helped husk over 8 dozen ears of corn and then we went and picked pears off of their pear tree! Later that afternoon we decided to run by one of the apartment complexes that we are at fairly often. Well we decided to walk and as we were walking there we felt a couple raindrops but didn't think much of it. So we went and stopped by one of our investigator's apartments and she was at work, but her cousin's family is living with her for now, so we started talking with them, and Rancle, the husband, had met with missionaries when he lived in Washington. So we were able to teach them a little bit and set up a return appointment!!! After the short lesson we needed to head home and sure enough the few raindrops that we thought were going to be nothing, turned into rain. haha we were drenched by the time we got back to the apartment, but we needed to head over to the ward hoe down so we jumped in the car and headed over. The best part is, when we arrived people just assumed we were sweaty and told us that it was alright we would cool down in a little bit. The Hoedown was great and we had over 200 people in attendance, including nonmember friends that came!
Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night to the craziest rain and lightning storm that I have experienced on my mission. The entire sky was lit up from the lightning which was constant. Not just a couple of flashes here and there, but literally our room was lit up even with the curtains closed. Anyways the storm lasted over an hour, and I was just grateful that it was during the night and not when we needed to be outside. Saturday morning we helped the 2nd ward elders move into a new apartment and then we had district lunch, district meeting, and mission coordination meeting. So funny story, the other day in companion study it was my turn to pick a hymn to sing and I didn't really feel like picking a song so I decided that we would sing whatever song I opened up to. Well we ended up trying to sing #31 accapella. . . haha remember the fact that the musical gene is no where to be found in my body. Ya well Sister Whipple and I laughed more than we sang and tears were rolling down my face because of how pathetic we sounded. umm. . . ya I'm thinking we will stick with songs we both know.
Sunday was another good day. Once again no one that said they would be at church showed up, but the day was great. We had our usual dinner at the Beytien's and then we had the first sunday Marshallese Fireside that evening!
Yesterday was a great day! We decided to have a district P-day and since we were given left over BBQ Pulled Pork from the ward party we had a potluck lunch at our house with our district. It was great. Then we played a couple of rounds of UNO (Elder and Sister Thomas rules) which makes UNO way more intense. Afterwards we went to the park and played volleyball! Yesterday evening we had FHE with the Marshallese at the park and one of the Sisters gave us some earrings which are so neat!
Anyways this past week was pretty good!
Hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Call
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