Another Wonderful, Crazy Week

What another wonderful crazy week in Des Moines!

 Beautiful sunrise this morning 24 Feb 2014

This week when we turned on our faucet it smelled so strongly of chlorine that you would have thought you were at the swimming pool.  We thought it was just our complex, but have come to find out that the whole town has way chlorinated water right now.  But at least we have running water and a store where we can buy drinking water. 

Anyways, you remember Linda, the one who had wanted her records removed, but when Bishop went to visit her she agreed to meeting with the sister missionaries.  Well she took us out to dinner on Tuesday and we were able to teach the message of the Restoration and she has started a 30 day challenge to read from her scriptures for 30 minutes for 30 days!  It is so amazing to see how the Lord knows each of His children and what they need. 

 

At church on Sunday one of the sisters from Uganda/Sudan spoke briefly in Relief Society meeting and made the comment that the Lord watches out for and protects His animals, so how much more likely is He to watch over and protect each of His children.

 

We've been focusing more and more of our time to finding and so Tuesday we were tracting, and one thing that I have come to the conclusion is that the attitude you have towards tracting that evening is affected greatly upon the first couple of people you meet.  Which we were able to meet lots of wonderful people that could benefit greatly from the gospel, they just may not realize that they are ready right now. 

Power outage at Zone Training Meeting

Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting and it was also the day that a storm was coming in.  Anyways we were in the middle of our zone training and the power kept going on and off and so we spent probably 30 minutes receiving training in the dark.  Right after Zone Training Meeting cars were grounded and so we all had to go home.  During our dinner our the Hermanas, Sister Brown, and I made a snow man!  So that was fun!



The Hermanas, Sister Call & Sister Brown

Friday was an adventurous day.  We started out having companionship study at the stake center with the Zone Leaders and Hermanas as they gave additional training.   That afternoon we had English with Paw Thet, Cho Ku, and Moo Gay.  They are so sweet and it is fun to try and help them learn English.  That evening we were supposed to meet with Francis, so we showed up at the apartment and we walk in, to find out that Stella's sister had passed away this past week.  They invited us to sit in the living room, and some of their friends were there.  Then some more friends/family came and they started an African grieving which was new to Sister Brown and I.  It was interesting as well, because we have absolutely no idea on what to do or say, so we asked if it would be better for us to come back another time.  That evening we were out tracting and the sidewalks were covered in ice from the storm the day before.  So Sister Brown was trying to avoid the ice and ended up falling. I was walking ahead of her and heard the fall, which did not sound like a pleasant fall.  She said she was fine, but by the time we got back to our apartment that evening she couldn't move her arm and it was starting to swell.  We got ice on her arm and called the mission nurse who told us to keep it elevated.  So we came up with a contraption to help hold her arm up as well. haha we also had companionship bonding time as I had to help here with smaller tasks such as taking out her contact lens. 

keeping Sister Brown's arm elevated!

Anyways, her arm is healing and each day she is getting a little bit more movement, but nothing is broken. 



Elder and Sister Simmons, Sister Call & Sister Brown


After church we were able to visit Carrie and Maryann.  And we had a tender mercy take place.  We were supposed to have dinner with the Hansen's, but since they are medical students and live close to the university parking was impossible to find.  So after like 15-20 minutes of finding a place to park we started searching for their apartment, but we had the wrong building number, so as we are looking around we heard "Sisters"  and sure enough there was Brother Turner who is in our ward and he was able to send us in the right direction. 



Elder & Sister Simmons & Sister Call

Sunday was another crazy, exhausting, but wonderful day here in Des Moines!  In Sacrament meeting they had Andrew, one of the recent converts, tell his conversion story, and then Sister Simmons (office couple) speak on the blessings from missionary service, since they go home tomorrow :(

Carrie's super cute boxer puppy!



Well I hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Love you lots!

Love, Sister Call