New Mailing Address

As of September 1st, this will be my new address! Love you all! 

3830 Poplar Springs Dr Apt D53

Meridian, MS 39305

Monday, August 18, 2014

Pioneer Children Sang as they Walked...and Walked...and Walked...and STILL Walked...

Oh. My. Heavens. I don't think I have ever done this much walking in my entire life! 

 

No-car weeks really do a number on you! Every day Sister White and I walked from the other sisters' apartment to our area, spent the day walking around that area, and then walked back. And then we'd wake up and do it all again! One thing's for sure, I slept really good this week! You know that phrase, "I was asleep before my head hit the pillow?" Yeah, that can actually happen if you're tired enough! 

But here's a little story to show how aware of us God really is. One day we were walking down the highway, coming back from working in our area, and we were both just dead tired. We'd tried calling everyone we could think of who might be willing to give us a ride, and none of them had answered. Just when we'd accepted the fact that we were going to have to suffer through and drag ourselves all the way back to the other sisters' apartment, a car stopped and the lady driving said, "Can I give you a ride? I'm a member, I just don't come to church because I always work on Sundays." We happily piled in and she took us home. She said she'd been driving the other way but she saw us walking the other way but she just had to turn around and get us because she knows how hot it gets and knew how tired we must be. We're pretty lucky she saw us! 

 

But besides all the walking we did this week, we also had zone conference! Woot! I got to be reunited once again with my dear sweet Sister Dailey! *sob* I miss that girl so much! Who knows when we'll be seeing each other again. I also got to hear the goodbye testimonies of some very good friends. I'm getting to the point where a lot of my mission friends are starting to go home. It's happy but so sad too! That's one of the hardest things about a mission. You think the goodbyes stop at the MTC but that's completely untrue! You're saying goodbye to more and more people you've grown to love all the time! But I suppose when it comes down to it, it's all worth it. Your heart just keeps learning to get bigger and bigger to make room for all the new people you're growing to love. That's a good feeling, and it (almost) makes up for the goodbyes. 

Oh! And I finally got to go Mugshots this week! I heard about it from Sister Parsons way back when I was in Picayune. They've got this HUGE burger there where if you eat it in 12 minutes, you don't have to pay. Yeah, I didn't try it. But I did get the Kahuna burger! It was a hamburger with fried pineapple and barbecue sauce on it. It was so good! 

Here's a picture of the Kahuna burger, as well as a raccoon that came to a member's house we were visiting to get some food. (Yes, she feeds the raccoons--I was pretty surprised myself) the pictures not very good which is too bad cause we could see the little guy really well! 

Monday, August 11, 2014

Dear Family and Friends, 

You should all be really proud of me right now. 

I almost wasn't going to put up a blog post this week...but I reminded myself that I had promised to do better about keeping up with this thing, so I decided I'd better not fail this early on! 

Mostly I'd considered skipping it this week because not much missionary work really got done. No worries, I'm not slacking off. But I was sick for the past three days. Yeah. THREE DAYS. Do you know how long that is when you're on a mission? That's like a million years in NPS (Normal People Standard) Time! No TV, no books, no loving mother to fluff your pillow for you, nothing. You gotta get creative when you're a missionary and you're still sick, but you've slept so long you can't sleep anymore. 

 

In other words, the second half of this week involved a lot of writing, card playing, listening to the thunder storms outside (Side note--it rained all weekend! God loves me; he decided to save the crazy storm for when I couldn't work anyway--and thank goodness I didn't have to! It was crazy out there. We had lightning strike so close I swear I felt it, and then our smoke detector went off. Kind of odd) and tallying up how many times I was told how pale I looked. I just told them I always look that way and they must have just noticed :P 

 

But it wasn't too bad. One of the nice things about being sick on the mish is you realize how aware of you people are. A bunch of people in the ward texted us and asked if there was anything I needed and I had the other missionaries taking care of me too. It's pretty cool because as a missionary you sometimes feel so unnoticed and unwanted (I think it comes from getting doors slammed in your face X amount of times) but God always slips in little reminders that you are loved by Him and by others. Sometimes He decides to have you be sick so He can show you, but if that's the way He wanted it then I guess it's okay. 

 

Oh, and did I mention during those three days (and more) we had the other sister missionaries living with us? Their air conditioner decided to give out last week. In the middle of August?! Yikes! Let me tell you, fellow Utahns, we don't know what real heat is like. We don't have any idea how it feels to be standing there dripping sweat and honestly feeling like you can't breathe because it's so hot! Needless to say one afternoon eating lunch at their apartment was enough to make us take pity on their souls and let them move in for a bit. I know I grew up with four sisters, but I gotta say, the estrogen levels in that apartment were way too high after that ordeal! And our food supply is definitely much lower than I intended it to be! Looks like it's gonna be ramen noodles every night by the end of this month for this poor missionary...but it was fun. I think having other people there definitely made the time go faster. My sista from anotha mista and I were definitely happy to be sleeping in an apartment to ourselves last night, though! 

All in all, can't wait to get back to work this week. :) 

Hallelujah holla back, 
 
Sista Glenn

Monday, July 28, 2014: My New Catch Phrase is "Only One August"

 This week was me and Sister White's first week without a car in a Meridian. And let me tell you, it was quite the experience! I didn't realize how utterly spoiled I was in Picayune. It might have been a car share, but the town was as flat as it could possibly be and we were smack dab in the middle of our area! If I ever complained about not having a car there I was simply being a baby. 

Here in Meridian, these are the difficulties we're trying to overcome: 1) Our apartment is all the way out in China and it's off a freeway, so the possibilities of us biking to our area is a bit unlikely, and 2) Even if we could bike to our area, we would probably end up walking our bikes up all the staggering hills. So let this be a lesson to all of you. Don't complain about your situation! I complained about the baby hills that were in Clinton and so God said, "Okay, Sister Glenn. If you're going to be a Negative Nancy I'll let you experience what REAL hills are like!" 

Heavens. My mission has taught me so much. 

So this week, we pretty much walked! A lot. In fact I'm fairly certain I have never walked so much in my entirely life. We usually managed to catch rides to a certain point, such as the other sisters' apartment, and from there were would walk about four miles to our area. Then we would work are are for the time that we had, and then we would walk the four miles back and get a ride home. I got excited a couple of times at the end of the day because it looked like my feet and legs had actually gotten tan. Turns out it was just dirt. I think I'm doomed to be an albino forever. 

That's not to say that I did feel the wrath of the sun at least a little bit, though. I think for the first time in my life I sunburned my neck because my hair has been piled on top of my head (I can't do anything with it these days) so that's fun. 

Ever since I've come out on my mission I've had people talk about Mississippi summers and how deathly hot and humid and miserable they are. And...I'm starting to think they were right! It's not like Utah where you can find some shade and stay relatively cool. Our ward had a Pioneer Day Activity on Saturday and sitting under the pavilion it was still hot! You just can't escape it! I don't think I've ever been so sweaty. But I've always told myself if I can get through the summer of my mission, I can get through the whole thing. So seeing as we're quickly approaching the worst of it (August) I keep telling myself as we're trudging down the road and I can feel sweat dripping in places it shouldn't, "Only one August! If you can do this you'll never have to do it again!" 

It's just good that there are kind Christian people in the south who have kept me from melting thus far. For example, yesterday Sister White and I were tracting, and we knocked on a door that opened a minute later and the man inside handed us both a bottle of cold water. He said, "I know about your church already and I'm not interested, but I hope you have a good day and don't get too hot." Kindest rejection I've ever had! 

P.S., I apologize to those who are still keeping up with my blog for being a bit...soulless in my posts as of late! I've made it my goal to be better so this thing actually stays interesting. I'll be better! Promise!

One of the members brought a log and a two-man saw for the pioneer day activity. We missionaries had a go at it, but we didn't get very far. Legacy makes it look so much easier than it actually is! My job was to keep it still...but don't be deceived! That's a lot harder than it looks!