Monday, April 20, 2009

Snow? Really?

I miss crazy Utah weather. Good old April snows - gotta love it. We heard about the Tea Party. Apparently at the Capitol here there were a few thousand people protesting - I was surprised because Tallahassee is so Liberal.

I'm glad y'all got to go to St. George - Taylor needs a break from school. And it's good to just go have fun. Guess what? I've actually heard of the "17 Again" movie - several girls in the ward were talking about it. Some have already seen it 3 times - oh boy.

And dad of course HP will save more money by flying you out and someone else in. Gosh you're supposed to be the math genius - the more you spend the more you have - or at least that is the attitude that so many people seem to take. If you can spend it you must have it. How's that for an explanation? That does seem lame - don't you have a great relationship with the people you work with in Utah? And they want you to try and transfer the relationship of trust to someone that doesn't even live in the state? That's like having an emergency transfer and having a golden investigator wonder where their missionary went.

As for my week - Monday after I'd finished writing y'all the weather turned nasty and it was pouring heavy rain. It cleared up for about 1/2 an hour and we and the FSU Elders made a dash for home - we played Phase 10. I somehow managed to pull out a win but it wasn't by much. At first I was losing - very badly in fact.

Tuesday - Elder Mahan called us early and asked us to explain to Elder Merkley that going out sick isn't a good idea. Sister Short took the lead and told him that we are called to teach and if we do not take care our selfs in order to be fully functional when we teach we are not fulfilling our calling. After he committed to stay in till he had lessons to go to - Sister Short heeded her own advice and went back to bed. We met with a less active and helped her get a blessing - she is doing much better now. In fact she came to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday - she hasn't been in about 4 months - so that was really good.

That evening we met with Erin. It had been nearly 2 months since we'd met with her last. She told us how some days she is sure it's true and then other days doubts plague her and she isn't even sure that the Bible or her Catholic beliefs are correct - let alone some 14 year old boy seeing God. We talked for a while and I finally asked her what she wants from life? She wants what we all want - Happiness. The Spirit was able to prompt me to change the way we will be teaching her from now on. We will be focusing on happiness. Tuesday night I had no idea how I was going to implement that idea, I just knew that that is what we were supposed to do. Then came Zone Conference and a flood of revelation just for Erin.

Wednesday at Zone Conference, President pulled me in for my interview before the meeting started. He asked what we were going to do with me the rest of my mission. To quote him, "You've been on campus forever!" He's right only 3 months of my mission were not on campus. I don't know if I want to leave. Campus is like home to me. He asked me what I thought of having another set of missionaries on FAMU. I think it would be great. Sister Short and I only make it up there once a week and it makes retaining investigators hard. President feels that many of the young African Americans want to follow in President Obama's foot steps and are disciplined to be able to keep commitments - he has a point. Anyway back to me - we also talked about my future education. I told him that math is the bain of my existence. He smiled and told me that I have learned how to rely on the Lord and He will help me pass my math classes, but that we'll talk more of that soon. I also asked him when I would be going home - either September or October. He said he didn't know - it might be sooner so that I could enroll in school again. And then again he said we will talk more about that in the future. So I'm wondering - is it the future yet?

During Sister Shorts interview President told her that her headaches were a blessing. She is in pain now to stave a greater pain down the road - neither of us really know what that means. After Zone Conference Carly and Krissie came with us and the Crawfordville Elders to Arby's - then we had a lesson with France. She requested a blessing and so the Elders and Marcus came and gave her one.

Thursday we had a great booth day at TCC. We found a new investigator, someone Sisters Scoresby and Stowers never followed up with. I met a gypsy. He was very well read and had read the Book of Mormon before - he wanted another one for his friend. We also meet a very strange girl who gave off bad vibes - she was kind of creepy. Later the Institute had an "Understanding Mormonism" seminar on FSU campus and three non-members came. It was good.

Sister Short was not doing very well Friday - we stayed in for a few hours before she dragged herself to Friday Forum 'cause we have two investigators that go every week and we wanted to have a brief meeting with them. After that we went to the Ronald McDonald House and Jacquline picked us up and we visited with a less active member. She seemed much happier than I've seen her in a while. She still didn't come to church on Sunday. I think that she subconsciously makes herself ill so that she can't come. I wonder if she notices that she is always sick Saturday and Sunday.

We then visited Cameron and Joe - they have a new puppy. We watched the Restoration with them and they seemed to enjoy it. Cameron made an interesting comment, she said something along the lines of being jealous of me for finding peace and knowing that I'm happy. She said she wants that too. Well yes she want's it but she's not willing to give anything up for it - happiness isn't free.

As we were leaving Cameron and Joe's ready to call it a night France called crying needing another blessing - we called the Elders Quorum President and waited for he and France to show up. We didn't leave the institute till 10:15 pm. It was good 'cause France needed us but it was hard - I was so tired.

Saturday we didn't get a break. The First Ward was having a Primary Activity that they wanted us to help with so we went to the church early to help set up and get the kids ready. Krissie and Carly came to help too - after the activity Carly requested a blessing 'cause she was nervous about having to speak in church the next day - she has great faith. She said that when the blessing began she felt peace. We stayed with her for a bit and watched that movie that G & G Wilcox sent me about Gordon B Hinckley. It was good.

Sunday Carly did a fantastic job speaking I was so proud of her. Totally cried through it but what else is new? After church we had a lesson with Amber - it was a good lesson and Sister Short asked her if she would be baptized - Amber cried and said she would - I was surprised - I was going to wait till next week but 'cause Shorts a rock star she knew she could do it then.

Mom I got your Easter package! The shirts fit great! I love the sleeves on the blue one! And the gluten free Pamela's package couldn't have come at a better time. My body is not happy with me. It's tired and wants to know when I will start taking better care of it - that will help immensely! I found some gluten free Honey Chex. It makes me very happy.

Well that's my week. Hope you have a great one this week. I love you all!

Kelli