Monday, April 14, 2014: Just a Regular Week

Good morning everyone!

Sorry I didn't post anything last week. We've had some weird P Days the past couple of weeks that have been pretty much normal working days so I didn't have a lot of time to email. Luckily I didn't have a lot to update you on anyway! This week was good but pretty slow. Sister Dailey and I are hoping we start to get busy again. As much as I appreciate my extra study time a person can only read the scriptures and stay interested for so long! We also hit our seven month mark this week! We celebrated by going into town to get frozen yogurt. Twice. Rest assured, if I return from the south fat it will because of all the ice cream, not the fried food. 

We got to see Skyler twice this week and she's doing fantastic! Her baptismal date was set for May 3rd but we realized she could get baptized sooner than that since we're finished with the lessons, so we gave her her options and she chose the soonest date she could, which is this weekend! We're really excited. She's such a cute girl. She doesn't talk much in our lessons but you can really tell she's taking it all in. 

 

Oh, and for the first time since I came out on my mission I got to go on a full exchange  with the STL's, so I got to stay in Jackson for the weekend!Woohoo! It was fun! We even went tracting, which I hadn't done in three months! Fortunately, I hadn't forgotten how to do it. It's going to be weird to leave Red Star and go back to regular missionary life. That probably won't happen anytime soon, buy the way. Transfers are next week, but President basically told Sister Dailey and I we're both staying where we are. We probably won't be going anywhere. Although President does like to surprise us every once in a while. I'll find out what's happening for sure this Friday!

Monday, March 31, 2014

Hello!

Well, I don't have too much time because we have some people to see (today isn't much of a P Day for us) but I did say I was going to be better about keeping up with this thing so I thought I'd better write something! This week went pretty well! Sister Dailey and I used our spare time to visit those on our list of ward members we haven't met yet. We knocked a good amount of them off! Only 21 more people to meet! They'll be the more challenging ones because some of them live a good 40 miles away but we'll get it done somehow. 

This week Skyler, the one investigator we've been waiting to get to church, finally came! Woohoo! I think she's been wanting to come but it's harder for her because since she's still a kid she has to rely on her grandparents to get her there. But she made it this time! That means all five of our investigators made it to church this week! It's not exactly fun having so few investigators, but hey, how many missionaries can say that all of their investigators made it to church on the same Sunday? Probably not very many! We might not have too many investigators in Red Star but the ones we do have are golden. 

So on Wednesday night around midnight I woke up and our whole house was shaking. I thought we were in an earthquake for a minute! But it turned out it was actually thunder. Me being from Utah, I don't think I've ever seen a storm that bad! The lightning and thunder was just going nonstop for several minutes. We're surrounded by trees so I was terrified one of them was going to fall on our house. We did have some trees fall here and take out some power lines but luckily we were safe! Good thing we have the Lord on our side, eh? 

Oh yeah, and I also had the chance to try the thing I wasn't sure I'd ever be brave enough to try: crawfish. And I'm now convinced these things are called Mudbugs for a reason! They look like mutant bugs from some horror movie or something! I don't think it's even the taste that bothered me, I just can't get past how they look. But at least I can say I tried them! Now the last thing I have to tackle is alligator... (Not literally though. That would just be stupid.)

 

 

Monday, March 24, 2014

Hello, Everyone!

 

So, it's occurred to me that I haven't been very good at keeping up with my blog since I got out here. Sorry about that. I'm going to do my best to be better about it starting today! 

I don't think I ever even explained what Red Star is like on here. Let me do my best to explain as briefly as possible: A very very long time ago, two missionaries came through this area and baptized one family, the Britts. But instead of moving west like most of the pioneers, the Britts just stayed where they were, and they had ten children, and their children had a lot of children, and so on until basically a whole ward was built up out of just one family. Now a few others have moved in, but seriously everybody in this ward is related to each other. Everybody. It's like nothing I've ever seen in my life. But they love their family and they're proud of their heritage. 

But this is why Red Star is such a different area. First of all, it's not actually a town; we're way out in the middle of the woods. There's not even a gas station. Second, people don't really move out of the area, they just raise their family right by their parents, so everyone in our area is either already a member, or they've already heard of the church and have no desire to become members. Therefore, tracting here is pointless. So if we're going to get any baptisms here, it's going to have to be through the members. Which, it turns out, is not too easy sometimes. But that's ok! 

So, we had interviews this week, and President gave us kind of a new assignment to meet every person on the ward roster (even he doesn't know what we're doing with Red Star for sure so we're just sort of playing it by ear). So last week we got to work! We made a list of all the people we haven't met. There's actually not too many left! We have about 35-40 names, which, out of 150 people on the roster, isn't too bad. I think the only challenge is going to be that some of them live really far away, like 45 miles, and we don't have a lot of miles so we're going to have to get a lot of help from the members in meeting these people. But I'm excited about the new assignment and looking forward to meeting all the people! 

We've also been working a lot with an amazing woman named Tracy. I've seen huge changes in her even in just the past two weeks. She left the church a few years ago but she really wants to come back. This weekend we celebrated her successfully completing the stop smoking program! We did it at a member's house and a few people came to show their support. It was fantastic. She has a goal date to be baptized again and she's hoping her son will be able to be the one to baptize her! 

Spring is also coming quickly here. It's beautiful! Sometimes it's hard for me to be so far out in the middle of nowhere, especially considering all manner of beasts are currently getting inside Mortimer (our house)--but you've got to love the scenery.

Monday, February 17, 2014: Pictures

Part of the program from the dedication of the new church building.

Part of the program from the dedication of the new church building.

Mortimer, our home.

Cookies for the members.

Mustache cookie!

Monday, February 10, 2014: Life's Beautiful Things--and a Different Kind of Work

Several times over the past few days things have happened to cause me to think of something my sister was doing on her blog for a very long time. She was posting pictures every day of something that happened or something she did that made her happy that day. The point was to show that "Life is full of beautiful things, especially you're looking for the little things that happen every day." That was the attitude I tried to take with me this week! So here's a few things that happened this week that made my days better:

1. Our heater got fixed! Life is so much better now!

2. I got a package from my aunt! Inside were personalized M&M's that said things like "sweet is the work" on them. That just brightened my day! I think my mom would be jealous ;)

3. I got a package from my sister! Two packages in a week? I felt so lucky! She decorated it so cute too. I wish I would have taken a picture before I put everything away, but it was full of all sorts of things I love, like bubbles, Burt's Bee's Chap Stick, Bath and Body Works shower gel, and--of course--lots of candy! 

4. I got two letters from my best friend! Since he's pretty much on the other side of the world, that never happens! I was basically skipping around the house when the second one arrived!

5. My recent convert in Picayune and her husband got called to be ward missionaries! I was told they went out with the missionaries last week to help teach a few investigators. I'm so glad they're doing so well :)

Life really is good. I have to slap myself every once in a while and tell myself to stop exaggerating how bad things are. That's one of the things I've learned this past year: things are never as bad as they seem. When I get put into a new situation, everything bad about that situation seems to be magnified, and so is everything good about the situation I'm leaving. But it's never as horrible as I make it out to be. Last week I thought I was going to die here. Then things started getting better. My ward mission leader fixed our heater so my house isn't so miserably cold anymore. Elder Edwards replaced our broken car with a new one. I figured out that if you flush our toilet twice, it usually won't clog--who knows why. And I found out that we should be getting a washer for our house in a few weeks! Yep. It's really not so bad. I have simply been having to adjust to a different kind of work here in Red Star. When you picture missionary work you picture knocking on doors and teaching lots of people and always being busy. That's not really what it's like here. This is a very unique area. Our instructions from President were to "go about doing good" so we have to be a little more creative with our time. So, this is what we spent the weekend doing: 

 

We wanted to meet a lot of members, but we had also been warned that a lot of them didn't like surprise visits, so we thought bringing food was a good way to make us a little more happy to see us! I think our plan was successful. We got to meet a lot of people and they were all pretty excited about the cupcakes. It took a lot of cake mix and frosting...(yep, I'm definitely broke this month) but I think it was worth it! 

Philippians 4: 11

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Monday, February 3, 2014: Tender Mercies

Well, I somehow managed to survive transfers! On top of leaving Picayune and saying goodbye to my companions and dealing with the crazy weather I don't know how I did it. We had to leave the night before transfers to sleep over in Waveland because the roads were possibly going to close and we wouldn't be able to get to transfer point. My companions and I stopped at the ocean while we were there. The shoreline had receded quite a bit while we'd been there, so we started picking up some of the seashells that had been covered before and throwing them...they just skidded. The ocean was frozen! That's how cold it was. It was crazy. 

Anyway, I was supposed to be getting transferred to Wesson, but President called me on the way to transfers and told me he was sending me to Red Star instead. Now I'm even more in the middle of nowhere...even more so than I would have been if I was in Wesson! Red Star isn't a town, it's a community, and it's pretty much all Mormons, so we're pretty much just doing member work while we're here. It's going to be a very unique experience, that's for sure. 

These past couple of days have been kind of rough for me, but here's a few things that show me that the Lord's tender mercies really are over all those whom he hath chosen. First of all, I was paired with Sister Dailey, my companion from the MTC! I feel so lucky to get to be her companion again. That happens very rarely, so we're pretty lucky. If I have to whitewash this area, I'm glad I'm doing it with her! 

Second, our little house (I've named it Mortimer) stays very cold. I don't handle the cold well at all, so it's been tough for me. We put our little space heater in our bedroom and try to avoid leaving that room because it's the only place in our house that will stay warm. I dread having to leave to go to the kitchen or the bathroom. The first night we were there, I stepped out into the kitchen and the hardwood was absolutely freezing. It was like stepping on ice. Then I remembered some slippers I'd gotten from a game we played at our Christmas zone conference. I'm not much of a slipper person, so as I was packing to leave I almost considered giving them away, but for some reason I packed them anyway. Now I'm thankful I had the thought to keep them, because it makes having to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night a little less miserable. 

There is always, always, always something to be grateful for.

Address Change

Sister Glenn's transfer assignment has changed! Here's her updated mailing address.

3156 Ellzey Dr NW

Wesson MS 39191