Hey heyyy!
Guess what?! Today is my 2 month mark!!! The time is flying by!
Sooo I’ll tell you a little about my week. Um, last Monday we were able to contact Clara, a referral from headquarters (HQ) that the missionaries have been trying to get in contact with for about 4 months. When we were talking to her, I learned another reason why it’s so important to have a trainer. She said she was “going in another direction” now and I would’ve just been like “Um..okay bye.” But Sister Park was like “well, let us just get you those free gifts you ordered.” So we gave her the BoM and Finding Faith in Christ and she said she’d read it and pray about it. She was sweet- a middle aged black lady with no teeth on the top. She gave us big hugs when we left! She’s the one that lives on the street where there was a shooting…scary! I’m praying that she really does read it…it changes lives!!
After we got ahold of her, we went to FHE. We watched Together Forever. It was filmed in the 80s and its SUPER cheesy but I love it because it’s true. FACT: Families can be together forever and families are happiest when founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Yay!
On Tuesday, the 17th, we had training meeting for sites, which was awesome as always. It’s like spiritual refueling every week. LOVE IT! Then we had sites and district meeting. I gave the workshop at DM. Good thing I’d only seen 2 of them in my life and we didn’t have one of the week before because of Zone Conference. Anyway, I did my best and Sister Park told me I did well and then Sister Anderson, one of the sisters in my district was like “You gave a really good workshop! Sorry I didn’t participate more, I was kind of dead. But Sister Wright and I talked about it on the way home…it was way good.” That made me feel good because I wasn’t sure how it went. It was on the Book of Mormon and its role in conversion. It’s the most powerful tool we’ve got when combined with the Spirit! Duh.
Moving on, we had dinner with the Loveless family that night. They are so cute! Sister Loveless is the R.S. pres and she is such a sweetheart. Their kids are adorable too. After dinner, we called Elder Robison, our District Leader, to see if we could get permission to leave our area to go to Mutual. We wanted to go because Kia was going to be there and we hadn’t seen her in a week because we had been at sites so much the week before. Bad news! So…miraculously, the zone leaders approved us leaving our area to go to a bowling alley so that we could see Kia!
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| Sister Park being a gangsta & Kia, who refuses to let me take her picture. |
We had a talk from the Young Women’s Broadcast in April that we wanted her to read. It was so good that we got to see her. She told us that she’d been depressed because of family issues and it made her happy for us to be there. The talk that we chose for her was exactly what she needed! Coincidence? I think not.
Another miracle was that Sister Park decided we should check the mailbox at our apartment even though we never get anything but newspaper ads there because everything goes to sites. BUT…the people in the mission office got here the same time I did (so they’re new) and instead of forwarding our mail that is addressed to the mission office to sites, they sent it to our apartment! So I had 3 letters in there. JACKPOT!! One was from Haley my love and she sent me this awesome collage of pictures of us that says “Best friends for eternity!” It’s the bomb and pretty much I’ve showed it to everyone cuz I carry it around in my scrip scrips.
Wednesday (the 18th…happy birthday to Laura Johansen & Mason!)- We were at sites all day but we took 2 awesome tours. Both of them had kids in them and they were soooo cute! On the first one, the mom asked the little boy what he thought this thing in the Whitney home was. It’s a bottle but it’s kind of weird shaped because it’s made of pewter…anyway the little boy was like “the Liahona!!” Hahahahahaaaa it was hilarious. I’ll have to take a pic of that and send it sometime so you can see what I’m talking about.
Oh, also, Sister Reed has been in Kirtland since the transfer before me and she was waiting for her visa so she could go to Barcelona, where she was called. So she’d been in Kirtland for almost 2 transfers and on Wednesday she found out she got her visa and she left that night! Crazy. I’m sad because I really liked her but I’m happy because she’ll get to go to her actual mission now. It’s bittersweet.
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| Sister Park & I serve in Lyndhurst |
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| The whiteboard in the kitchen where they keep track of all the Kirtland sisters & where they're serving |
Then, we went and saw Kia. MIRACLE OF THE DAY: Kia is for sure getting baptized!!!!!!! So…a couple weeks ago, I really felt like I needed to share my story of trying to decide if I should come on a mission or not with her….you know, how I was soooo confused, and made the decision not to come and then I got really depressed and weird and when I broke up with Brady felt a million pounds off my shoulders and happy again and knew that that was my answer that I needed to come on a mission…yeah, that story. So, I told her and then we told her that instead of waiting for God to give her answer, she needed to make a decision and take that to the Lord. So, apparently she did. She told us that she prayed about NOT getting baptized and then all this bad stuff starting happening in her life and she got depressed! And she recognized that as her answer. I was so glad that I’d shared my decision-making story with her because she told me it helped her recognize that all of the bad stuff that was happening was her answer. Sweet.
Then after we visited Kia, we stopped by Latoya. The East Cleveland elders gave us her name. They’d contacted her on the bus. She was kind of crazy. Legitimately. She’s 23, has been married twice, and pregnant 4 times. She has 2 kids and one son that died and she’s survived a house fire that nearly killed her and abuse from her first husband that she cheated on. WHAT?! We think that the fire may have damaged some of her brain cells because she’s completely scatterbrained and ditzy. We didn’t even teach her really…she basically told us her whole life story and then we had to go because we had another appointment and she grabbed our hands like in a circle and we didn’t have time so Sister Park just said the prayer…while we all held hands. Again…WHAT?! We left her house and I was just dying as we walked back to the car because the whole experience was so odd.
After Latoya, we had an appointment with Daryl and Lynette who were also a referral from the East Clev elders but they had to cancel. Daryl said they’d come to church on Sunday and we gave them a card with the address but then they didn’t end up showing. Boo!
Oh, then to top off the day. We had dinner with Sister Evans. Evva Evans. It’s not like eeee-va. It’s ev- va. She is CRAZY! It’s legit. First off, she was like “I hope you like fish!” when we got there and I was like “oh no….” and then it got even better. She was still kind of cooking after she got us our plates so we starting eat. YUCK. Sister Park was like “What kind of fish is it?”
CATFISH.
SICCCKKKKKKKKKK! Mom…remember when we went to visit the Wainwrights in FL and we went to their uncles or something where there was a catfish pond? All I could picture was those sick faces and whisker things while I was eating. Ew ew ewwwwwww! The miracle of the day was that I somehow managed NOT to vomit right there on her table. It was SO DISGUSTING. And even the rice that she made to go with it was gross. And…to add to her craziness, she didn’t eat. She sat and watched us. It was creepy. And I was eating so slow because I didn’t want to be eating that. Ughhhhhhhh! And then she proceeds to tell us that when she signs up to have missionaries over for dinner, they stay all night. And we’re like “Um..sorry, the prophet says that we can only stay for an hour at members’ houses for dinner so no. “ And she just kept saying that missionaries need to support members too blah blah blah blah. And we were like YOURE CRAZY LADY! But not really. We just said we had to go and she’s like “I’ll let you off the hook this time because it’s your first time.” So basically, we’re never eating over there again. We will ALWAYS be cancelling, as long as I am in this area.
Oh dear. Friday was rough. Sister Park was really sick again and so we didn’t go do service and we didn’t even leave the apartment until 4:00pm. That meant I’d been up for 9 ½ hours just trying to study in the apartment. It was kind of hard. But I can tell when Sister Park is dying and she was seriously DYING that day. My poor companion! Mono needs to leave her body alone.
We went and taught Kia though, when we got out and it was a good meeting. Mom that’s when I had her text you! She did that to Sister Park’s mom last week…I was glad that you texted back while we were still there. Then we had dinner and correlation with the Messegees. They are such an amazing family and I really appreciate that they always feed us good, normal food.
Saturday was good. All sites. The miracle was that Sister Park & I were able to switch off every other room for the first time ever. That means I finally did the sawmill all by myself and it went well! Hooray! I like being able to switch and I like getting to talk about the School of the Prophets. It is such a special room! In fact, when President Hinckley rededicated Kirtland in 2003, he said that it was one of the most sacred rooms that we have in the church. And I get to be in there like every other day! Cool huh?
Oh, also, on Saturday, I discovered the problem with sites. The problem is that there are like 15 senior couples there. When you go to your grandparents’ house, they always have treats …and the senior couples are like grandparents. …and they’re always bringing us treats which is why every sister that serves in Kirtland gains weight! I WILL NOT GAIN WEIGHT!!!!! I refuse. It’s hard to eat healthy but I’m making it a point because I don’t want to get fat or have to buy new clothes. No thank you, you little senior couples you!
And then there was yesterday. Sister Park describes it like this, “Today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day! It was like God opened up the sky and said “I HATE YOU ALFALFA!” So, we had PEC…where we told the Bishop that Kia’s baptism was on for Friday at 7:00. He’s like “Great. What can the bishopric do to help, yadda yadda yadda”. Normal, right? Well then, drama went down. After sacrament meeting (where the Bishop has now announced the baptism), Sister Messegee comes up to us and says “Um, Sisters, there’s a surprise going away party for the Yearsley’s at the bishop’s house on Friday at 6.” FOR REAL BISHOP?! Could you not have told us that at PEC? So we’re like “No way!” and the Bishop’s wife walked by right then and was kind of a snot and she’s like “It’s fine, we’ll just CANCEL IT!”
Seriously?! This is someone’s salvation lady! Be supportive! And then, we found out that the Gervasi’s who are Kia’s main fellowshippers have an away football game that night at 7 in Chardon so they’re not going to be able to make it. I mean for real.
On top of that, my companion was dying because mononucleosis likes to KILL HER BODY and she’s pretty much always in pain. So, finally we met up with the elders so they could give her a blessing. We say a prayer and then Elder Robison is like “This is terrible.” And Sister Park’s like “I know! I feel sick!” and he’s like “No…I just realized we don’t have any oil.” OH COME ON ELDERS!!! The motto of Be Prepared took on a whole new meaning.
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| That was the kind of day yesterday was. |
We only live a little ways down from the church so we came home to see if we had some olive oil and we did so we brought it back up for them to consecrate and give Sister Park a blessing. Pretty much the blessing made it sound like she needs to go home. Oh, okay, that’s great. I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that even if she doesn’t go home, she’s going to get transferred. (Transfers are next Wednesday.) I don’t know what to do with this area all by myself! I can’t even read the dumb map…she manages that and just tells me where to drive! Aaaaah stress. To put the icing on the cake, we found out that Sister Talbot, who recently tested positive for mono herself, is going home on Tuesday. She’s supposed to come back out after about 6 weeks at home BUT STILL.
That would be 4 sisters gone in 8 days. That’s literally losing a sister every other day! What the heck?! So that makes Sister Park terrified to tell anyone that she’s not feeling well because she’s afraid she’s going to be sent home…but we can’t keep spending the majority of our days locked up in the apartment. I WILL GO BONKERS!
This morning has been better. Sister Park was able to keep morning schedule so we had companionship study for the first time in over a week. It was really good.
So anyway, that’s basically all that’s been happening here. I feel like I’m adjusting well. I’m loving Ohio! I’m getting used to all the diversity that’s here. It’s not weird anymore to be one of the only white people when we go into certain parts of area. I love it! My advice for the week is “be of good cheer”. The gospel is happy!!!! And the Lord is always with us. ALWAYS.
I love you so much and I keep you in my prayers!
Lots and lots and LOTS of love,
Sister Alicia Webb
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