Family!
Well Cheney reminds me a lot of Lehi. I
told you about the trains and how every time we go to bed I hear them
and think of Grandma and Grandpa Shelton's house. Well they also have a mill. I'll
add pictures so you can see. We walk by this at least 4 times a day and
I
can't help but smile.
The other day while we were eating dinner we were watching the
Testaments (we can watch church movies like that during meals and
getting ready for bed). The scene changed and all of a sudden there was
the Butterfly Girl. I was like, "Hey I know her! Her name
is Whitley!" Sister Dickerman was like, "Wow that's cool!" Then I got
to tell her about all of the summer plays and whatnot. It was kind of
fun :)
I'm not nearly as picky as to what I eat. Sister Dickerman really likes
to cook and I have decided to just eat whatever she puts in front of
me. I am learning to deal with tomatoes. I still can only eat them cut
up small and with other stuff though. We
had potstickers for dinner the other night with noodles. We do really
well with what we eat. We get fed by members about once a week. The
singles ward doesn't really have time. It's usually the kids that live
at home that feed us. We definitely don't complain.
Looking
back on this last week I feel like we did nothing and everything all at
the same time. P-days are always great. I was able to print some
pictures to put in my little photo album that I keep with me. We also
played more rugby. It's a great game and tons of fun to play. We are
playing basketball and rugby today. I'm going to try and introduce the
Sound Game and see if anyone will play it. Some of the Elders will be
up for it but I think we may have to convince a few to play. Tuesday I
woke up at like 5am from a dream with tears running down my face. We
had received a call on Monday from one of the Elders at the Mission
Office but missed the call and he didn't answer our return call.
Someone made the comment that it was probably something about my visa.
My dream was about getting the call that said my visa had arrived. In
my dream Sister Dickerman and I were on our way home and met up with the
Elders and shared the news. We were all really bummed and crying in
the dream because no one wanted me to leave and I didn't want to leave.
When I woke up I had be literally crying. I was a little shocked at
how attached I have become to this area, the members, and missionaries
in just a few short weeks. It will definitely be a bitter sweet
experience leaving here and going to teach in Australia but I'll go
wherever the Lord needs me and I will be there ready to work at full
force when He needs me there. I still haven't actually received any
word on my visa but I will let you know when I do. Mission President
will call us when he finds out anything about it. Until then I'm just
going to enjoy my mission here in Cheney.
Side Note from Penny - We got her flight plans 4 hours later. She leaves in 1 week on her P-day which means we won't get an email from her but a phone call from the airport instead. Then it will probably be another week until she gets a P-day where she'll be able to email. So we'll see. -
Every week we are required to spend 3 hours on Mormon.org. We are
supposed to familiarize ourselves with the website so that we can refer
as many people to it as possible. I highly encourage everyone to get
on and check it out. Watch the videos, make a profile, and learn more
about what we believe. On Wednesday we were doing our "
mormon.org hour" (as we call it) and were checking out the different websites that we are allowed to visit. I was on
mormonchannel.org
watching Mormon Messages. There was one video that made me tear up.
It's called "My brother Hyrum." It's easily the cutest video I've seen
in a long time. If you are ever just wasting time on the internet in
one way or another I suggest opening up either of those websites and
watching those videos instead of pulling up Facebook for the 6th time in
an hour of browsing Youtube. They are so great! The "I'm a Mormon"
videos on Mormon.org are awesome! They just talk about normal average
day people and how their faith in Jesus Christ makes them who they are.
Some are fun and cute and others are truly inspiring.
One thing that we get to do as a service project is teach people
English. Brother and Sister Halloway are the coordinators of the Daily
Dose program here and we help them every week in teaching English.
Luckily Brother Halloway and Sister Dickerman are fluent in Spanish.
The first lesson we had last week went waaay over my head. I ended up
taking one of the worksheets home to work on my Spanish so that I could
help more in the lessons. I may end up learning part of a language on
my mission! haha It's fun to help these people work on learning
something new. It's great to see their faces light up when they
understand something. A smile speaks every language. I absolutely love
that. I have been complimented a couple times this week on my smile. I
have decided to have this prema-grin all the time. That way people at
least know we are friendly. This work is supposed to be fun. I want to
show people that this gospel brings happiness to people. I know it has
brought so many blessings of happiness to my life. This week we
nearly dropped every investigator we had. We got down to visiting a ton
of people and asking ward members for people to teach. We decided to
just be obedient, diligent, and hopeful. We decided to turn everything
over to the Lord. In a matter of days we had been given 7 or 8
referrals. We have some that seem really promising that we are going to
visit and meet with this upcoming week. The Lord is ever mindful of
us. All we have to do as missionaries and members a like is to live the
gospel. Find ways to more fully live the gospel commandments in your
daily life. As we strive to have the spirit with us at all times God
will put people in our paths for us to bless. All we have to do is open
our mouths and be ready to share the truths that we know. 20 seconds
of insane courage can and does bring forth miracles that we never
imagined possible. Keep the faith, read your scriptures daily, go to
church and serve others. Pray for opportunities to see and help perform
miracles. The Lord stands ready to bless us and bless all of the
people around us through our incredible strong testimonies of the
restored gospel. I love you all so much and know that you can help the
work move along. I'm grateful for your prayers. They are definitely
felt. Never forget who you are as a child of God. You are greater than
you think you are.
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