Dear Family & Friends:
Oh the week of transfers. . .
You love them and you hate them.
So as you all know last
Monday we got our transfer calls in the morning letting us know that I would be
leaving Mount Vernon and Sister Porter would be staying and training. . .
they forgot to mention one slight detail that day that I didn't find out
until my name was called at transfers!
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| The last frog Sister Porter & I caught. |
Now you may be wondering
where I am right now, who my companion is, or what the slight detail that they
forgot was, but I didn't find out until Thursday, and many things took place
before Thursday.
So let's start with
Monday! Monday was by far one of the best days I have had in Mount
Vernon! When we were done emailing we went and had lunch at the high
school with Kelbie, which was a lot of fun and her friends love the
missionaries so it is a win win situation! That afternoon we went and
spent some time in Clarence and Stanwood before heading to Tipton for the
evening. We had an appointment with Jeff and right after with Chris (who
we haven't seen since the middle of May), and then FHE with Karla. We had
about 10 minutes before the lesson with Jeff so we decided to run into the
grocery store to get a treat that we could bring to Karla's. As Sister Porter
and I were standing by the door looking through the ads, a man walked in and
stopped, he gave us the look of "I know you" but Sister Porter
and I did not recognize him the slightest bit. We start talking with him
and it turns out that he used to live close to the church in Mount Vernon and
the Elders have helped him with several projects. He then said I'm going
to buy you dinner, so we went to the little buffet in the grocery store and
there wasn't much there, so he says "go on over to Hardees and your dinner
is on me." Which as missionaries this makes your day. We
headed to Hardees, and called Jeff and Karla and rearranged times that evening,
and Tony bought us dinner and told us that if we were ever in Tipton in the
afternoons to give him a call and lunch would be on him, because he had gained
so much respect from the service that the Elders had given him and his mom!
Also, another crazy thing was that Tony had gone into the grocery store
for just a bottle of water, and we didn't even end up getting treats for FHE. .
. coincidence that we ran into each other? I think not!
When we were done eating
we went to Chris' and it was by far the best appointment we have had with him
since I have been in Mount Vernon! We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and when we got to baptism he said "The Elders asked me if I would be
baptized if I knew it was true and I said yes, so I'm fine with being
baptized." Also, his girlfriend Alexis who hasn't had much interest
at all, she sat in on the lesson and when it was time for the closing prayer,
Chris didn't want to say it, and Alexis was like "it's easy! It has
the outline on how to pray right here." and then Alexis ended up
saying the closing prayer! Also, I just love the Spirit, because as we
were teaching about faith and repentance Chris said "Can I ask a question?
I know this may be stupid, but what are the commandments?" And
then without us evening saying what the commandments are he turned to Alexis
and said "We would have to get married, because I'm pretty sure that is a
commandment." Anyways, it was an amazing lesson and I am excited for
Sister Porter and her new companion to continue to work with Chris and Alexis!
After Chris's we were
able to read from the Book of Mormon with Jeff before going to Karla's!
Karla is a single sister in our ward and the only active member in Tipton
as of now. She is so in tune with the Spirit and we had a great lesson
with her as we read 1 Nephi 1 and compared it to Joseph Smith's experience!
See Monday was a great
day and you are probably still wondering where I am, but let's talk about
Tuesday first :)
Tuesday morning we
visited Grandma Mickey who is one of the many people in the Mount Vernon Branch
that I have grown to love dearly! We then had service, had a lesson with
Karin, Anthony, and Angela, and visited Sister Askew. We had dinner with
the Yancey's, but they had forgot that we were coming over, so it was quite
entertaining, but at the same time Sister Yancey handled the situation so
wonderfully! You could tell that she had raised 5 kids and so she didn't
even seem panicked or anything as she gathered some things together from her
fridge!
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| The Eskelsen Family |
Wednesday was our p-day
so we packed and cleaned, had lunch with the Eskelsen's, and went to Cedar
Rapids to play basketball with our zone.
Did I ever mention that
I have the hardest time sleeping for the entire week of transfers? So I
am exhausted right now, but no worries!
Thursday came and Sister
Young picked us up to head to Iowa City for the meeting! I love
missionary meetings and seeing many of the missionaries! When it came
time for President to read off transfer assignments he was going along, and
then I hear "Sister Call" but it took me a little while to
register that my name had just been called, because my name was first and
usually the person staying in the area is read first. . . anyways, I stood up
and met my companion Sister Amy Chirinos from Salem Oregon! The only
thing is she was being transferred from Dubuque. . . We sit down and then it
finally dawns on me that we are pink washing the Walnut Hills West area. . . .
hahaha so the little detail that the Assistant's forgot to mention was that we
were pink washing. . . which is where the set of elders leaves and sisters take
over the area. But besides that I was so excited because I am back in Des
Moines!! Not only was I way excited to be coming back, but the office
staff was really excited! We rode back in the transfer van that Elder and
Sister Shelley were driving, and as we were getting in Elder Shelley said
"you know the only thing missing from Des Moines was Sister Call!"
Since Thursday, life has
been a little crazy trying to get adjusted and figure out what is happening in
our area and trying to find homes. We live in Grimes, Iowa, but do a lot of
work in Urbandale which is a suburb of Des Moines and it has subdivision after
subdivision of beautiful large homes.
A tender mercy though is
that one of the medical student families in the Des Moines ward now is in the
Walnut Hills ward and a family that Sister Chirinos knew in the Perry branch is
in our ward as well. So we knew two families!
We have been meeting
different members and trying to get into contact with each of the investigators
that the Elders had been working with, so it has been an adventure every day! We are so excited to be here and the ward is really excited to have
sisters!
I guess that Hayden Heap (a family friend that served in the Iowa Des Moines Mission) served in this exact ward. It was fun because when one of the members heard I was from Star Valley, they came up and said that their favorite Elder was from Star Valley and that he grew up on a dairy farm and would tell his family that the mission was great because he got to sleep in until 6:30 every morning!
Sorry I don't have any
pictures with my new companion. Will be better this next week!
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Call
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| You may have moved into an Elder's apartment if you find a jar full of dead crickets in the tank of the toilet. . . joys of pink washing! |
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