I am so glad you are all doing wonderfully as the new year begins.
So, lots of stories this week. It started with a few special people that came to the visitors center.
The first is Hawkeye, a Navajo man who was looking at the nativities we had on display. He started touching them and picking them up so I nudged Sister Arias and told her to go tell him to stop it. She said no, that she didn't want to offend him. I was like, So? And got up to go tell him. So as I started talking to the middle-aged gentleman, he said that he was of the religion of the samurai. Okay. I asked if he liked the nativity from Japan. He replied that he was a ninja and started making sword movements. Clearly this man is not all there. So I asked if he had seen the big statue of Christ, out of fear of the nativities. He said no so I lead him in that direction. Unfortunately, the curtains were closed (b/c of a presentation) and we ran into Sister Rosdall's sister who had gotten married and was having her pictures taken. He was so excited, grasped her hand and said, I wish I had something to give you. I have earrings, would you like earrings? She was like, no, and I was like, Oh look the curtains are open! So as I led him into the Christus, I gave an apologetic face to the happy couple. When he saw the christus, he was in such awe, he went and knelt before it. Okay. I went over to Elder White, and said, I think he's harmless, but not all there. He replied with a, we'll keep an eye on him. So we waited for a while and eventually, he jumped on up and started holding the hand of Christ and giving it a hug. Yep, time for securitty. So eventually they coaxed him down and as they were leading him away, he went over to give me a hug. Awkward.
The next man became Sister Everrett's stalker man. We found out later that he was schizophrenic. So the deal was that if he showed up any time during the night we were to call security and have them take him out. Well, he showed up and then disappeared. So Sister Cottrail and I went looking for him. Probably against the rules but it was too fun not to. We found out (look at us, little investigators) that he goes to Beth Tanner's (former roommate and fellow missionary in the mission) ward and so the security, who were patrolling, were able to find out a little bit more. Eventually our friend walked back in, Sister Mckenna distracted him while Sister Cottrail and I went for security. Success! He was trespassing and told that if he came back he would be arrested. And he came back the next day.
From this fun sleuthing experience, Sister Cottrail and I decided that she and I would start up our own PI business (her dad is one) and she would do the footwork while I did the forensics. Sounds like fun, eh?
As for my investigators, now that we have more time in the area, we are able to see them more.
Cristina is now under house arrest and has court in Phoenix tomorrow. Hopefully that goes well. She has also agreed to marry Ricardo, the man to somehow came up with $5000 for her bail. Amazing. I would feel indebted to him too. We are teaching her. And also her ex-boyfriend Adrian. She is cool with it and he is making progress.
We have set a goal for Nancy and Manuel to get baptized this month, as well as Adrian. So now that we have more time, we are working more intently for that. We have a lot of old ivestigators that we are working on meeting up with to get them progressing. We had to put them on hold for Christmas Lights. Bugger!
On the 31, we sang at the christmas lights concert, as a whole mission. Do you have any idea what it is like to get 190 missionaries on a stage, and to learn songs they haven't ever sung. Thank goodness for the Gift of Tongues, seeing as music is a language, otherwise, we would have butchered it. It was so flippin cold too!
As for New Years Day, it was a blast. We went to breakfast with the Zone at IHOP and then played volleyball for a few hours afterwords. I have bruises and skinned knees! I didn't think that was going to happen again for a while. It was so much fun. Later that afternoon we went bowling with the VC. Arias, who had never bowled before, got a 106. Beginners luck. Most of us didn't break 100 but it was so much fun. We had a dinner of pizza and back to the VC for work.
Now that lights are done, we have more time to make the calls for the referrals that we got during the lights. Lots of work, have I.
Oh, btw, it snowed for 2 minutes the other day. It was amazing! We ran outisde to take pictures but alas, nothing stuck to the ground. But it did snow...I was looking out the window and was like, Sister, I think it's raining. Hernandez was like, no its not. And I said, No, I really think it's doing something outside. And she figured out that it was snow. It was fun.
And another fun experience that I had:
Yesterday, Sister Hernandez (my comp) and Watrous (Dyers comp) had ZLC in Scottsdale. So Dyer and I were comps for a day. And I had to take the car (Chevy Malibu, 2010) into the dealership b/c there was a problem. I don't even know what the problem was, but I was told to take it to the dealership in Phoenix. Okay, So I called Elder Stewart (fleet coordinator dude) and he said, this is the address and just go on the 101N until you hit that road. So off Sister Dyer and I go. Forever! We drove for a half hour and didn't see it. So we called the VC and sister Brox gave us directions (off of LDS maps, b/c we aren't allowed google maps for goodness sake!) so we got on the 202W and then onto I17S to Phoenix. About an hour after we started, we found Camel back road, and accidentally went W instead of E. So after turning around and eventually finding the dealership, we pull in. Bah Humbug! And then we couldn't find the registration or anything! So whatever, called Elder Stewart a few times and got everything figured out. So Sister Dyer and I chilled in the little cafe in the dealership. And had bagels, muffins, and hot chocolate while we had a 3 hour long companionship study. We talked about the book of revelations, prophets, the new testament, boys, companions, the Book of mormon, Preach my Gospel, Politics and who knows what else. Eventually we were let out (something was wrong with a camshaft, whatever that is) and we were released. The guy working at the cafe was starting to teach me some more Spanish too. Lol. So it only took us 20 minutes to get back (guessing which way to go the whole time) and I can neither confirm nor deny that we may have accidentally left the mission... Anyway, we picked up lunch at subway, it was almost 2, we were supposed to be there at 1, and a kind member payed for our lunch. So it was quite the adventure. It was by far the most exciting thing i've done on my mission. Lesson learned: get a gps or always carry a map. I have no idea why we didn't have one in the car...
I have also had my first real spanish food. It was pretty darn good. I've discovered that to make anything hispanic, add tortillas...
And yes, VC sisters are considered as tour guides and not real missionaries. So we get a lot of bahumbug for that. But whatever. All the VC sisters that go full-field say that vc is that much harder. So i'm not worried about it. I just know that I was called to work hard and serve a mission, no matter where I am at.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and I better get better emails next week
Love, Emily
No comments:
Post a Comment