Missionary work

To any and all who are preparing to/thinking about serving a mission, I have one message for you:

Expect miracles. Seriously. They're EVERYWHERE in the mission field! I love it. Love, love, love it.

I am going to start with Transfer calls, because I seriously can't remember anything that happened before then.

(It's a sad life.

Thank goodness for journals.)

So for leadership positions, President always calls Saturday morning. For anything else, the zone leaders call you for changes later on Saturday.

Saturday morning came, and I felt pretty confident that Sister L and I were staying the same and staying as Sister Training Leaders.

And then....personal study came.

No phone call.

Then.....companionship study came.

....still no phone call.

Sister L and I looked at each other, and suddenly I found myself getting nervous.

Well crud! What on earth was happening this next transfer, then?

The phone rang.

Sister L and I dashed to it.

It was a less-active member that we visited a couple of times... We picked it up.

"Hello, this is the missionaries," said Sister L.

"Hello. This is _________.....from.....the church."

"Hi! How can we -?"

"What time is church at?"

"10:00!"

"Okay I'll be there bye."

And he hung up.

We looked at each other.

"That was the shortest conversation I've had in a while," said Sister L.

We went throughout our day, and still no phone call from President.

Later in the afternoon, we were weekly planning, when the phone rang.

"IT'S THE ZONE LEADERS!"

Suddenly my knees were wobbly, and my heart was pounding SO hard!

"Who would you like to know about?" Elder G asked when we answered.

"US!" I yelled.

"Nope. You have to wait for last."

"UGH. ELDER G I'M GOING TO THROW. UP."

"Well while you throw up, you better start packing. But....we'll get to you two later."

"Fine. What's happening with the Elders? Are they coming back to Saratoga?" I asked.  

"Okay.....are you reading for this? Elder T (who used to be in Saratoga) is coming BACK to Saratoga! He's going to be training."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Geez, Sister Stimpson, don't you guys have neighbors?"

"Yes. Sorry."

"No worries. You wont be their neighbor for long..." he said.

"ELDER G."

"What about the Sisters in our zone?" asked Sister L.

"Sister B will be going up north to be with Sister R (my first companion)."

"THAT'S MY TRAINER!" I yelled.

"Cool! So....who next?" he asked.

"Um.....how about Glens Falls?" we suggested.

"So, Sister C will be going to Owego--."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA---"

"Sister Stimpson, hang onto that scream because Sister G will be joined by Sister S (my second companion)."

And, if it were possible, which I didn't think it was, but apparently it was....

I screamed even louder. (Don't worry. These are screams of excitement.)

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Man I feel bad for your neighbors." said Elder G.

Sister L unplugged her ears.

"Anyone else?"

"US! TELL US ABOUT US!" I yelled.

"Okay.....Sister Stimpson.....you're going to pack your bags.......and then unpack them because you two are staying the same."

We looked at each other.

"Well sweet!" I said.

I know. An anticlimactic reaction.

"Wow. How does it feel to spend 5 transfers in both of your first two areas?" asked Sister L.

"Eh. About the same."

"Who are the sister training leaders?" we asked.

"You guys are, and then Sister W and her companion are."

"President didn't call us, though."

"He didn't? Huh. He must've forgotten. But yeah you guys are still Sister Training Leaders."

"Oh. Well....great!"

So basically, in summary:

This is going to be the BEST. TRANSFER. EVER!

Sister L and I are paranoid that something is going to go wrong and that the Elders WON'T actually be coming back to Saratoga.

So what did we do?

We told the Ward Mission Leader.

And one lady they were teaching, because we wanted to ask her if she could feed them.

And no one else.

Later we called Elder T to tell him the information about his dinner appointment on Wednesday, when they get here.

"AWESOME!" he said, "So does everyone know I'm coming back?"

"Um.......nope.......we didn't really tell anyone."

"Well Sunday should be fun."

"Yeah.....we actually didn't tell anyone that Elders are coming back in general."

"..............................Man I'm going to have SO much fun with this!"

We can't wait to see everyone's reaction on Sunday.

Now for Sunday, miracles were EVERYWHERE!

Our elder investigator came to church, our young-adult investigator came to church and brought her friend again, the less-active guy who called us came to church, AND another less active member came to church!

Basically, it was the best Sunday ever.

Except in Relief Society we went off on the law of chastity and the young adult investigator's friend got asked to read a quote on it.

Basically I was praying the whole time that she could still feel the spirit even though we were talking about chastity....

Later on Sunday, another investigator called us to say that he just got a bunch of Sundays off so that he can start coming to church, and he wants to work to get them off completely! Best day ever!

But, because there must be opposition in all things, this week wasn't COMPLETELY perfect.

On exchanges, I went to Albany. The Sister and I went to go try an investigator. We knock on the door, the investigator opens it, and their little Yorkie dog TAKES OFF running! This investigator is this older woman who can only really speak Italian and very little English.

So, we volunteer to chase it down.

After trotting after it for ten minutes shouting, "PEPE! COME HERE, PEPE!" The dog finally walked up to me.

I put the back of my hand down for him to sniff.

He sniffed it.

I put my hand closer to try to pick him up and---

he leapt up and bit my hand.

My reaction?
"YOU LITTLE EVIL THING!"

I have no tolerance for dogs who bite me.

The Sister I was with ran up next to me and tried it. The dog was friendlier to her, so she tried to grab its collar.

And then he did the same thing to her.

She acted a little more civilly, though, and just yelled, "HEY!"

Then the owner came out and tossed me the dog's leash, and suddenly the dog was my best friend.

But I didn't trust it still.

And the worst part is, the bite didn't even leave any scars or battle wounds or anything, so I don't even have anything cool to show off for this story!

Oh well. What can you do.

Well. That's all for me. It has been a marvelous week full of marvelous work and not too much humidity yet!

Well, maybe there's humidity.....but I'm just used to it?
Dunno.

Love you all!!!!

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Stimpson