Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays Family and Friends:


Sisters Call and Broome

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas Season as much as I have!  What a miraculous event the birth of our Savior was!  And how everything we have is because of our Savior. 

top: Hermana Phelps, Hermana Stroud, Sister Broome

Bottom: Sister Call, Sister Delau, Sister Jensen

Last Monday we went over to Elder and Hermana Peterson's apartment with some of the other missionaries for some Christmas games and a white elephant gift exchange.  That evening Sister Broome and I were able to serve dinner at the YMCA.





Hermana Stroud and Sister Call with the bus passes.



 

Tuesday was great!  We were on exchanges and so Sister Broome went with Hermana Phelps and Sister Delau,  and Hermana Stroud came with me.  We had talked with the elders and they had agreed to allow Hermana Stroud and I to borrow the car for part of the day, but since Hermana Stroud has never rode the bus, we decided to use the bus for the day.  And as always you are able to meet more people on the bus which makes each ride exciting.  We were in a hurry for most of the day and so we would catch our bus and then speed walk where we were going.  Poor Hermana Stroud was freezing, but she never complained.  In fact it wasn't until that evening that she said that when we had stopped for a bathroom break that her legs were red from the cold.  We had a great lesson with Carrie and Hermana Stroud is wonderful at asking questions and tailoring the lesson to the person.  Well when we were almost finished at Carrie's, Hermana Stroud asked what Carrie's favorite Christmas song was. And so we (well more like Hermana Stroud)  sang "O Holy Night"  to Carrie and I would sing a few of the lines that I knew.  Now I will be the first person to admit that I am not a singer, but Hermana Stroud is, and at the end of the song Carrie says to Hermana Stroud "you have a beautiful voice"   she then turns and says to me "you have a pretty voice."  hahaha. . . Anyways we had dinner with some members and visited two other members and then met up with the other 3 sisters and went caroling for a short amount of time. 

Now for Christmas day we were allowed to sleep in until 8:00 a.m.  which sounds so great any other day besides for Christmas.  Because I don't think I have ever slept in on Christmas morning.  So sure enough this Christmas was no different.  I woke up during the night and thought for sure my watch was broken because it said it was only 2:30 a.m., but the clock in the kitchen confirmed that time.  So I went back to bed.  After waking up several times afterwards, I laid in bed until Sister Broome sat up at 6:30.  I was so excited that I jumped out of bed and she asked if I was ready to open presents.  Ummm. . .  I was feeling a little charitable and said that I would go ahead and shower so that she could sleep for another 15 minutes and then we could open gifts.  haha oh I'm still a little kid on Christmas morning!  People were so kind to us and so it was a lot of fun opening up gifts and reflecting on the loved ones we have.  The Hermanas came over around 9:00 to end our exchanges and then the ward mission leader's wife came and picked up Sister Broome and I, because they were having the missionaries over to their home for a Christmas brunch!  

 

Christmas Brunch with the Des Moines ward missionaries
AP  Elder Anderson, Sister Call, Sister Broome, DL Elder Bowers, Elder Swenson, AP Elder Saunders.

Afterwards we went to the Olsen's home where we called/skyped home! And oh how wonderful it was to talk to the family!  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, but am so grateful for this opportunity to share what makes my family so happy (the gospel)  with those I come in contact with here in Iowa.  We had Christmas dinner with the Salt Family and their tradition is to have Thai food for Christmas dinner which was really good, but something I have never had on Christmas day.  That evening we went over to the Mission home and saw President and Sister Jensen, the office couples, and some of the other missionaries in the surrounding areas.  They had 17 Miracles playing downstairs so we were able to watch the ending of it! 

with President and Sister Jensen

Thursday was another good day.  We went and had a lesson with Dawn.  Anyways we then had a day after Christmas lunch with some members and this was basically another Thanksgiving dinner but it was so delicious!  After the lunch we had our last District Meeting before transfers which take place January 2nd. 


Des Moines District minus the AP's

Elders Dutson, Bowers, Swenson, Bowden, Sisters Call and Broome

bottom row: Elder Smith and Elder Smith

I have never rode the bus so many different places and routes as we did on Friday.  So it was fun, and it was like in the 45 degrees both Friday and Saturday so it was a wonderful day as we were able to have a lesson with Alice as well as some less actives. 

Okay so I about had a panic attack when I arrived to church yesterday.  I looked up at where they have the hymn numbers in the chapel and the closing hymn was not one that I was told, nor was it one that I knew how to play, since I was asked to play the organ for the closing song and postlude music.  Now you have to understand that I have never played the organ for church, nor do I really know how to play the organ.  So panic mode took place and I went up to the organist who was playing the rest of the songs for the meeting, but then I looked into the program and realized that the song numbers hadn't been changed from the ward that met right before us.  Also, the Christmas program we were supposed to have for last week, they were doing this week so I needed to play Silent Night!  Tender Mercy because I am more comfortable playing that song.  Well President and Sister Jensen attended our sacrament meeting, so all together we had 15 missionaries in our ward yesterday.  I had Sister Bachelder (organist)  leave everything set up for the organ so all I had to do was play it like a piano.  Heavenly help was there, because I don't think I messed up while playing.  But what worries me is that as I was playing the postlude music Bishop said to me "Oh Sister Call you are in trouble. You should have never let us know that you could play the organ."  Anyways Sunday was good, we helped with Singing time in Primary.  Got the car from the Elders, visited a few potentials, contacted  a referral, and had a lesson with a less active. 

Transfer calls are today and so far we have not heard anything, but Sister Broome has a feeling that she might be leaving so we will see what happens. 

Anyways, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

 
Love, Sister Call

sketchy elevator

Merry Christmas!!!

Dear Family and Friends:

 

Monday night we had Sister Tobias and Sister England come and spend the night at our apartment.  Since our apartment and the Hermana's apartments are the closest ones to the mission home we end up being the hotel a couple of times a transfer for different events.  Sister Tobias was going on the departing temple trip on Tuesday so that is why they were able to come.  Anyways  it was cute, so Monday evening I was talking with Sister Tobias and we realized that in mission terms she is my "aunt"  because she was trained by the same person that "mama t" (aka Sister Thompson) was trained by! 

 

Hermana Houtz and I

Hermana Houtz and Hermana Harkness who came out with my group, and have been waiting on their visas to head to Argentina finally got their visas and headed out on Wednesday, so it was a crazy week.  Also, Hermana Stroud was sick and so on Tuesday I went and stayed with Hermana Stroud for the day, while Sister Broome and Sister England worked our area and Hermana Phelps and Hermana Houtz did what they needed to in their area.  So cool little fact that I found out Tuesday, Hermana Houtz's family owns/runs the Dairy Keen restaurant in Heber City, UT!  

 

This week Sister Broome and I were able to visit a lot of less actives which was very rewarding because several of them opened up and discussed how they didn't feel like anyone was listening to them, but after several of the ones we visited we both felt very strongly that they were the ones that had needed us that day! 

 

Friday there was an ice storm so the sidewalks and roads were extremely slick and it made it a little bit more difficult to walk.  Sister Broome has fallen a couple of times and luckily she hasn't gotten hurt, but we have been able to get some good laughs out of it. 

  

"snow storm"  that cancelled church

I play  the piano every week in District meeting and I led the music at the last Zone Conference.  Get this.  So this week Brother Edwards called and asked if I could play the organ for the closing hymn at church on Sunday since he would be gone and all the other organ players are involved in Primary and can't play the closing hymn and postlude music.  So being a missionary you can't say no.  So Thursday after district meeting I went and tried practicing on the organ at the stake center.  I opened it up and looked at it and thought to myself "ya I don't have a clue what I am doing or what I am supposed to do.  That one 30 minute lesson four years ago hasn't stuck with me."  haha so I tried to figure it out, but then decided that I would just ask one of the organ players Saturday at the baptism to briefly show me what I am supposed to do.  Luckily Sister Bachelder came to the baptism and showed me what I needed to do to make it through the song. 

Our Christmas tree in our apartment

Sunday was crazy.  We found out that all cars in the mission were grounded, so we called a member for a ride to church,   Well it turns out that church was cancelled in most of the wards and branches across the mission on Sunday.  Snow Day from church???    Oh well I haven't had many, if any snow days in my life, let alone a snow day from church.  Funny thing is that the church that is right next to my apartment still had church and their parking lot was full.  umm. . . . so I was able to read quite a bit of the Book of Mormon, before we went out.

 

Last night we went over to a member's home for dinner and they had an Irish wolfhound dog, and so I was playing with her and it made me miss Lucky, and realize how much I miss playing with a dog.  Anyways we are doing well and we have to laugh,  because it seems like the times that we have the car the weather is really good.  Like the other day it was 45 degrees here.  But of course Sunday it snowed 4-6 inches and now it is 1 degree with a low of -10 degrees today.  So I just have to laugh.

 

Well I can't wait to talk with all of you in two days!  I hope you have a wonderful day!

Anyways I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that you know I love you all very much!

 

Love, Sister Call

A Good Week

We survived another week without the car and using public transportation and without fail interesting experiences come along.  

the coveted bus pass

Tuesday was a pretty good day, but it sure was cold!  Anyways we started out helping one of the Less Actives paint her living room,  afterwards we were able to go and do service at the YMCA.  We then headed over to Oakridge where we had some great lessons with Alice, Odell, and Dorothy!  With Alice we focused on Faith in Jesus Christ and the spirit was so strong, and she accepted the baptismal invite!

 

Wednesday we were able to meet with Carrie and she didn't remember a whole lot from church, but she did like it and wanted to go back. She ended up coming again yesterday! So that was exciting. 

 

As we were riding the bus on Wednesday we were at one stop and this lady got on pushing a stroller with a teddy bear in it.  It totally made my day! 

 

Wednesday evening we went and had a lesson with one of the African families, and then they fed us dinner, which was my first time eating real African food.  As we were eating dinner, we were helping them with their English and they would tell us the words in their language, so there was a lot of laughter as we were both trying to speak the other's language.  But good thing is laughter and smiles are universal among languages. 

 

Thursday was amazing!  We had zone conference here in Des Moines that went from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.  The first half of zone conference was trainings from the A.P.'s and President and Sister Jensen.  President focused his on Jesus Christ and Sister Jensen's was on the gifts that the Savior has given us such as repentance, eternal life, being an example, etc.  We then had lunch, and then the afternoon session started.  Each district presented their musical number or skit and it was so fun to see different personalities of missionaries come out during the skits! As well as just to sit back and relax.  After the skits were over we then watched "Ephraim's Rescue."   AMAZING! 

Our district moments before going on stage.

Saturday morning was our ward Christmas party and the missionaries in the ward had been asked to do a musical number for it.  haha.  Anyways there were so many people at the party!  Tons of less actives and some non members it was fantastic!  So after the ward party we decided to celebrate at a frozen yogurt place since we survived the musical number. 



Des Moines ward missionaries

L-R Elders Bowers, Swenson, Sister Call, Sister Broome, AP Elder Saunders, AP Elder Anderson

Okay,  Saturday night was a little creepy.  We had a media referral that we were going to at 7:00 pm  and so we were walking over there from the bus stop.  And I have felt very safe here in Des Moines, except for when we were walking that night.  We passed one guy that tried to pick me up and was yelling different things, as well as a car full of guys about a block later that were yelling things from their car.  Basically I was saying a prayer the entire time that Heavenly Father would protect us.  We did arrive at the referrals home and she ended up being a member from Liberia, but hasn't been to church since she moved to Des Moines about a year ago.  She is going to come next Sunday, but she was talking about how she had been an African Pioneer for her family and how all of her kids are members in Africa, and how she is going to come back!

 

Yesterday was wonderful!  It the Christmas program for Sacrament meeting and for Relief Society, and the stake put on their Christmas performance!

I can't believe how fast time is going by, but what a wonderful time of year to reflect on the gifts that the Savior has given us, the gifts that we can give to Him, and the spirit that comes with Christmas!

 

I love you all!

Sister Call

Season's Greetings from Des Moines Iowa!

 Dear Family & Friends:

 

The weather is still cold and this week we were sharing Christmas messages with some of those we were visiting, but it hasn't really felt like Christmas time until yesterday when it finally snowed! 

 

On Tuesday, Hermana Houtz spent the day with Sister Broome and I because her companions went to Mission Leadership Council in Iowa City.  It was a lot of fun to be in a trio for a day.  We were able to go to the Hermana's service, which is at one of the libraries and you go and visit with people that are trying to learn English.  So I was able to talk to Quoh from Vietnam for the hour we were there!  After the Hermanas service we were able to go to the YMCA and perform service there as well.  The appointments that Sister Broome and I had all fell through, so we went and visited people that the Hermanas work with.  So it was interesting because Sister Broome and I would sit there as Hermana Houtz taught in Spanish. 

 

The Bishop and Relief Society President have had us focus on finding and visiting with the large list of less actives in the ward, and so a lot of our time is spent trying to locate and make contact with people that the ward hasn't been able to contact.  Which I have enjoyed because we have been able to meet some wonderful people as well as relieve some of the work load from the ward council members. 

 

Anyways highlights from this week

 

Carrie:  a less active that we have been working with.  She hasn't been to church since she was 9 years old, but she loves us coming and has said that she is ready to come to church whenever we can help her get a ride.  So this week when we were visiting with her, Sister Broome and I promised that we would do everything in our power to make sure she had a ride to church.  Then when we were at Coordination meeting we told our Ward Mission Leader of this promise and so he volunteered to pick her up.  Due to health problems she was in a wheelchair, and so they assigned one of the young men to push her to and from the classes.  She looked so happy at church and she participated in each of the classes!  One of the members mentioned to us that as she said hello to Carrie that Carrie has a special spirit around her that lets you know that Heavenly Father loves her! 

 

Thursday we had Zone Training meeting which are always wonderful.  One of the trainings was on being yourself as a missionary.  Use the strengths, talents, and more importantly your personality in your missionary work.  Which was a great reminder, because when you aren't yourself then missionary work is rough.  At Zone Training they also mentioned that Sister Jensen (President's wife)  said that the mission as a whole has been pretty stressed out and so for Zone Conferences this week each district is to come up with a skit from the Book of Mormon or a Christmas song.  haha well it has been a lot of fun trying to come up with a skit, and we are finalizing all our plans today for the rest of P-day, so we will see if it will work out.  But we are trying to do the book of Nephi in 7 minutes.

 

We were able to watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional last night!  I loved it!  Especially Elder Nelson's talk about the Prince of Peace and how the true, unfailing source of peace comes from our Savior! 

 

Another "highlight" from the week came yesterday as we handed over the keys to the car to the Elders and we got the "coveted" bus passes!  haha another week full of adventures on the bus is on it's way! 

 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Sister Call

Lots to be Thankful For

Dear Family & Friends:

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and had time to reflect on the many things we have to be thankful for!  For the past week or so I have started a gratitude journal and so every night before I go to bed I write down all the things that I can think from that day that I am thankful for, and now several pages are filled and I haven't even began to scratch the surface.   We truly are so blessed, but sometimes we take too many things for granted. 

 

Sister Broome, Santa, Sister Call

This week was pretty good!  Last Monday after emailing and shopping we went and met up with several other sister missionaries at the mall and so we got our picture taken with Santa and just enjoyed spending time with each other.  After our p-day was over Sister Broome and I caught the bus down to the YMCA where we volunteer at.  We were able to serve food for the dinner, and it was fun because Sister Broome now knows most of the people that come and eat! 

 

Well this week we didn't have the car and so we had to figure out the city bus system.  Something that I am not familiar with at all.  Anyways each night during our nightly planning session we would plan out what routes and transfer locations and what not that we would need to take for the following day. .  .  umm . . . you could tell how tired we were the night before, solely based off how our routes turned out that day.  Needless to say we caught some wrong buses and sometimes ended up walking further distances than originally planned.  But hey one of these weeks we might get the bus system down.  In some ways I loved riding the bus this week.  Yes, it is a pain to not have a car, but oh you can meet so many interesting people on the bus, and something that was really neat, was that each time that we discovered we were on a "wrong" bus, we ended up talking with people that the Lord had placed in our path.  So in some ways there is no such thing as a "wrong" bus.  Anyways, Wednesday evening we went to catch the bus home, and we didn't have the schedule  for the bus route that we were going to be taking, so we sat down to try to figure out where we were, and then a bus showed up.  So without thinking we got all excited and jumped on the bus.  Shortly after the bus started moving we discovered we were going outbound instead of inbound. . . making our trip significantly longer than planned.  Well shortly down the road a couple got on the bus and sat in the row behind me.  Peggy (the woman sitting behind me)  commented on the head band I was wearing.  So we started talking.  And we talked.  And we talked.  We talked for at least 30 minutes and then as she and her husband were getting off they said "thank you for the inspiration and hope you gave us today."  Once again, proof that it is almost impossible to be on the "wrong" bus. 

 

Another neat experience that happened because we didn't have the car this week.  We had been at Oakridge (where most of the African refugees live), and it was getting to be time for us to head home. So we called a sister in the ward to come and pick us up.  So Sister Broome and I were waiting for her to come, and it was cold outside.  So we were trying to stay warm.  Like I would jump up and down for a little bit.  Finally we decided to say a prayer for Sister Strayer to be able to find where we were at in a timely manner.  Not even kidding within 30 seconds of finishing the prayer she pulled up, and she mentioned how she had been driving all around the complex trying to find us. 

 

Do you ever stop and ponder how powerful prayer really is?  Or even the power of the Priesthood?  or scriptures? or Prophets and Apostles? Or the Atonement? or anything and everything that Heavenly Father has blessed us with to help us through our journey here in mortality?  If you haven't  take a moment now to ponder how much your Father in Heaven loves you.

 

 Thanksgiving was an interesting day.  I'm not going to lie, Thanksgiving feels really weird away from home and not being able to help cook all the food for it.  But the day was really great!  We had dinner with the Anderson's.  It was Brother and Sister Anderson, their son Aaron who has Down Syndrome, the elders in our ward, Sister Broome and I.  So just the seven of us, which is quite different from the Thanksgivings at home with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Dinner was really good though and between dinner and time for pie we played Pictionary, Andersons vs. Missionaries.  Umm, there is something about being married for 35 years that gave the Anderson's a slight advantage over us.  haha  The Anderson's started and they made it half way around the board before they missed a turn.  But we had a lot of fun. 

 

Another highlight from the week was on Friday.  We went to visit Hawa and Alleyia (Sister Broome's) recent converts.  And Hawa was going on the recent convert temple baptism trip the following morning.  And she was so excited.  Little Alleyia is the cutest little 8 year old and she was so sad that she wasn't able to go to the temple on Saturday.  Anyways as we were finishing our message with them, their next door neighbor, Odell, came over and made the comment that one day she would join our church.  So we taught Odell on Saturday and she is now a new investigator! 

 

Since we were at Odell's on Saturday we dropped by to see how Hawa enjoyed the temple trip.  The spirit was so strong in her home!  She literally glowed and beamed as she talked about the temple experience.  She talked about how beautiful and peaceful it was, and how she cannot wait to go back.

 

 

Anyways, these are just a few of the highlights from this week!

 

I love you all!

Sister Call