Happy June

 

June 2, 2014 Back in the Big City

June 2, 2014

Well here I am...I am no longer emailing from the Natchez library (for the first time in forever) but from Baton Rouge!!

Let's see. There is a LOT to say, I guess. I am right in the middle of the city (okay not really but still). 3rd Ward has President and Sister Wall, the Assistants, the Tiger Bend Elders, and us. our stake president is in the ward as well. We're in a district with Plaquemine, which is accross the river from us but tehy have their own branch. Elder Adkins is one of my zone leaders and sister Lindstrom is again my STL :)

Sister Baird is pretty legit...crazy, but legit. We're gonna get along really well. It's weird thinking we've only been together a few days because it feels like it's been weeks. We just mesh pretty good and it's been fun to teach with someone new. Very refreshing. I love Sister Hoskins but it's been 6 months :)

I think I'm just going to write up my journal entries because it's been a long week.

Wednesday: "Well, my new area is PRAIRIEVILLE in the Baton Rouge Zone. My companion is none other than SISTER BAIRD of Katie's Cedar City fame...

"Anyways. Today we got up and it wasn't raining, but we definitely couldn't get both minw and Elder Virgin's luggage in the Fusion so we packed it in the trunk and put the tarp over it./ Which was a good thing becasue when we pulled out it started to rain and proceeded to rain until after we got out of transfer meeting like 6 hours later. The tarp helped, but my clotehs were still very wet. Tender mercy though! My little suitcase, which had all my letters and journals and stuff, didn't get wet at all!

...Anyways, we dropped my stuff off and went to the Sants and helped cut fabric for her and choose fonts for her vinyl (she's stake girls' camp director and camp is Monday!) then we saw Nana and Mama and aunt Mame who are crazy. We had a good discussion about love. We ate at Canes and saw BJ and had a really good discussion with her on baptism. She was really easy to talk to, actually. No awkward transition at all. But that was it! Here I am in Prairieville!

Funny of the Day: If I stay longer than 7.5 weeks I will be sister Baird's longest companion."

Thursday: "Didn't do much today--we had to get the car inspected and we did weekly planning (more like transfer planning). It took ALL DAY. We went to dinner at Sister Welch's with the Assistants and Tiger Bend Elders (ti's the three of us in the ward). Elder Asuao [one of the assistants] leaves tomorrowso he was still there. But we had crawfish etoufee and that was yummy. But that was it!

Funny of the day: Sort of. We went and filled up the car. sister Baird gets out and starts it, and she calls to me and says" Hey sister, tehre's a KEYHOLE back here!" So we grab the keys and try adn unlock the gas tank, but we don't have the right key--Leesville forgot to give it to us when we swapped cars on Wednesday. So we're stuck on half a tank of gas until we can get the key in the mail."

Friday: "On account of miles and gas, we walked a lot today. We got up and studied etc, then headed to the library to go over the ward roster with the Tiger Bend elders, who were doubled in. We walked to the Sants and helped them pick the vinyl apart and talked for a while...sister Sant sent a picture of me to Mom, who didn't even know where I'm serving until then. She's a little by crazy, but cool at the same time. We stopped in at the Sanders, who are an active family, and the Spirit was super strong when we were talking about trek. We went from there to Brother Schute's [Shoo-tay] for dinner...and he gave me a HEAPING plate of food. Sister Baird, the hero of the night, swapped me plates. He's a very nice guy, if a little eccentric. We went from there to Nana and Mama's again, because they asked us too. But that was it!

Funny: Aunt Mame promising to spoil our kids anonymously--"who is all this crap from! why does it have 'aunt mame' on it? Who is aunt mame?!" "Oh, that's just some crazy woman from Louisiana. Give me that , it's not good for you." (Her words, not mine!)

Saturday: We had corellation this morning at our ward mission leader's home. He's not quite like Brother Epling, and he loves his numbers. So that was...interesting. BJ's lesson was a bit of a fiasco [I have to edit here because it involves another missionary and I don't want to talk bad abut her...so sorry for the no details]. But because of that, we were feeling down, so Sister Baird had a chili's gift card so we went to dinner with the Assistants at chili's. We ate and watched the Baylor/Kentucky softball game. I chose Baylor to win when we got there in the bottom of the 5th even though tehy were behing 6-0 and they DID! They won 8-7. yeah yeah!

Funny: Poor Elder Griffin [one of the Assistants]. He got into poison ivy on pday and it's gone from one arm to the other. People keep giving him advice that turns into worse situations. Now he's going to me for advice...good luck to him!"

Sunday: "Holy crap it's june. What the freak. Today was good, actually. The ward is very  friendly and very busy. But about 3x the size of Natchez (so there's like 150 people here). Testimony meeting was...testimony meeting. But I just felt at peace today! BJ wasn't there bt both me and Sister Baird felt like everything was going to be okay. Fasting is power, even if it's nto a miracle. Fasting is a way for God to bless you, Relief society was super good, super spiritual as well.

After, we were driving home when Sister Wall called and asked if we would get her iPad and scriptures from the bathroom of the church. So we did, came home, and studied, then went to Bishop's to go over the ward roster with him. He fed us, then we went over to the mission home where we chatted with President and Sister Wall for a while and shared a message. tehy gave us pizza and then we went to see sister Bergeron who talked....a LOT. But it was good. We got home, planned, and had a super spiritual discussion before bed. That was it!

Funny: We're flying rockets with President on the 21st of this month. Seriously."

For reals though, he has been asking me to fly rockets with him since December transfer. I'm half convinced that's why he transferred me down here.

I don't really know how else to update you! Elder Virgin is ZL in Pineville (Alexandria zone, so the same zone we were in).

Love yall! hope everything's going well at home!

May 27, 2014 Going, going, gone!

May 27, 2014

Yep, I'm getting transferred. It's taken me a while, but I'm leaving good 'ol vidalia for who knows where.

I don't have a ton of time this week, so here are the highlights. I'll update you a little better (hopefully) next week. 

We performed in both Alexandria and Oakdale, which was really fun. The programs both went well and the car rides were some of the most fun I've ever had (note...don't let Elder Virgin have chocolate in the car...he goes crazy)

They were even more fun until we hit a curb and blew out our tire and warped the rim.....awkward. Today has been spent getting it fixed because it figures that happened on memorial day weekend. Seriously, we had a hole in the tire the size of my thumb. Surprisingly, no driving violations on TIWI though. Tender mercy.

Interviews went well--we mostly talked about the area and how President is going to send more musical talent up here to keep it going. Elder Virgin and I are both being transferred so it'll be interesting! 

We took one of the Epling girls with us for a mini-mission for a few days. That was a blast. We got to see a bunch of people and had a lot of fun. our air conditioning went out (of course it would) so I was comfortable but the other two were not so much. It's still out, our landlady is working on getting someone over.

It has been such a crazy 7 transfers, and it's hard to believe I am moving! The way the transfer works (the way we do it isn't very common, it's just how President came up with and it works very well) is that on Monday, President or the Zone Leaders will call whoever is getting transferred and tell them as such. You pack Tuesday and then Wednesday the companionships the transfer is affecting drive to Baton Rouge and we have a transfer meeting where President will announce the area and the missionaries serving there. It's then you find out your companion and your area, then the people going home speak briefly, and then lunch and off you go! So we'll find out tomorrow exactly where I'm going. 

I also turned over 10,000 miles on the fusion yesterday! Not quite as big of an accomplishment as 200,000 but it was a nice milestone :) probably the last time I will drive something with under 10,000 miles.

I don't have too much else to report, so shoot me back with quesitons if you have them! have a good week and we'll see where I am next!

Sister Steele

Happy Cinco de Mayo

May 5, 2014

Which is really just an excuse for everyone to party. We need more excuses to party even if it's another country's independence day. But hey, I'll take Mexican food any day :)

Not too much to report this week, I'm actually trying to remember what we did. Mission time sort of blurs together, and especially as we are hurtling towards the end of my time in Vidalia (most likely) it seems like time is going faster and faster. 

Of course, congratulations are in order for Kaitlyn (buahahahahaha) on her college degree! That's pretty exciting and also a little strange :) Now you really are a grownup. 

I guess the coolest thing we did this week was where all the photos came from. I'm just going to share an excerpt from my letter to president this week:
We had a really cool experience this Saturday with a less-active couple who lives an hour away from us (but miraculously still in the middle of our area).
This couple moved to St. Joe about a year ago to take care of her mom who was dying. We had only recently become aware of them (read: November) and had been taking steps to reach out, but the response was always very cold. They didn't really want to be contacted, which was really sad because they had been temple workers in the San Antonio temple for a long time. Our ward mission leader has been trying really hard to even just be friends, but with no luck.
Last Sunday, however, they had emailed him and asked for some help moving things to their lake house, and we and the elders got to go along and help. Well, while we were there we got to not only help but a) I got to hold her pet macaw which was really awesome, I felt like a pirate, and b) we were able to share a brief message which just so happened to be the wife's favorite scripture and the scripture she had joined the church because of. They asked the elders to give them each a blessing because they were about to both undergo some surgery. We parted on friendly terms, and we and the elders had volunteered to come back later this month to help clear some ivy and trees out of their yard.
Cue this week. We were planning on Thursday and our ward mission leader's wife texts us asking if we can go out, again, to St. Joe on Saturday. Apparently the couple were really impressed by the service we were able to give and asked for some more help. So we were able to see this couple twice in less than a week when we had been trying to see them for 6 months! We finished helping them move and pulled up a whole lot of ivy, and really really strengthened our relationship with them. They weren't at church on Sunday but it was really amazing how just a little bit of service (and, admittedly, some cupcakes) could change hearts.

That was really the big thing this week. We perform on the 17th at the Natchitoches ward (which is about 3 hours from where we are) and then again in Alexandria on the 25th. Finally we are saying our last goodbyes (myself and Elder Virgin at least) on the 27th which is the night before transfers, to our ward. We're doing a program called "People of Faith" which is going to be really cool :) I'll attach the program once it gets finished up. 

Hey! We get to see each other this week :) Love y'all and see you Sunday! I was amused because back in December I was thinking "There is no way I will be here for mother's day..." and lo and behold here I am.

Sister Steele

April 28, 2014 I saw my first gator!

April 28, 2014

Not much time, there are four of us and only one computer and I take the least time so I got to go first :) Why is there only one computer?

Happy confederate memorial day.

Who knew, right? Not even the people who live here knew that was a thing, but apparently it is because the library was closed so we're at the church.

This week was a bit of a blur...we went on exchanges, and I saw my first real live wild gator! It was pretty small...but oh so awesome! We spent about an hour and a half with a less-active couple in alexandria looking for it. Exchanges were really good, and yesterday we got to go help a member family move about an hour away from where we are but still in our ward boundaries and thus our area. That's where the mccaw came from. and the lake pictures, no we were not on the lake we just were by it. 

Oh yeah! now that it's official, I can say it: We are touring our zone with the music stuff! We've got 2 performances lined up and another two in progress. It's gonna be AWESOME!
anyways, I might be able to respond in a bit but no bets so sorry this is short!

Sister Steele