This week has been exciting none the less... full of transfers and new companions, cleaning, shopping and finding new less active and part member families and a whole lot of listening to General Conference.
Monday and Tuesday, since Sister Duke knew that she was leaving, has to see as many of the "cool people" as soon as possible. We had dinner with the Mardanious family and we also taught Cameron outside on his porch in the pouring rain. We cleaned, organized and packed and I have been slowly cleaning and throwing out all of the junk in our apartment as part of the pre-moving process. Our fridge has never looked better! It also got super cold and I had to bring out my peacoat!! Winter is approaching and also, the trees are starting to look like the Northeast I saw in pictures in National Geographic. The bright reds of the maples trees are to die for!! We then continued to see the Clarks, Ivy's, Moore's, Merkels, etc. and take lots of pictures and share some parting devotionals. I am getting better at taking selfies. Count that as a win!
Wednesday, we were not able to go to transfers. We were told to stay and wait for them to drop off my new companion and then to pick up Sister Duke. She had a ton of stuff, so packing took most of Wednesday and I cleaned the whole time... and also redecorated. Cheesy 80's Ensign cutouts and a cool goalie hockey stick I found on the side of the road.. :) So yes.. I had a little bit too much time and re-did the whole apartment. But it has never been cleaner. Later that night, we ran some errands with the Elders and I made some calls to some new referrals that we got from Head Quarters, and Sister Branch finally came. I just love her already. She is a good little Arizona girl and loves pretty much everything about nature. W unpacked and got ready for the new transfer.
Thursday.. planning for days!! We redid our boards, weekly planned, called people and set goals. I blew her away with new information. She is only 4 months old in the mission and is the only companion I have ever had that is younger (time spent) in the mission than me. I am so old now! :) We had dinner and went to institute. Fun fact.. the more you know about Christ, especially about his pre-mortal past.. the more you begin to know more about yourself. "Ponderize" that deep thought. The teacher was just blowing my mind with deep doctrine found in the Pearl of Great Price and it was needed. I was slightly stressed about taking over the area and trying to fix problems. Trusting in the Lord, and accepting that we can't do everything on our own is so vital. The Lord understands my limitations, so I am grateful that He can accomplish just a few things with me :)
Friday, things started to pick up. We saw some less-actives, and had an STL call and try and help Sister Branch learn things. Thankfully, she is a fast learner! It was only 30 degrees outside and I wanted to hide under a blanket all day. ha ha, But thankfully, we saw Jelly (Abby's sister and had the first lesson) she may get baptized in a transfer or two if she keeps her commitments! I have noticed that all of my converts have been younger, 9 to 24 yrs.. so I might as well ad a 12 year old to the mix :)
Saturday! General Conference! It was so awesome! We went to a baptism for a kid in the Ward and watched the first session with the Elders and played this "Candy game" where if we heard the word "atonement", we got a sour patch kid. If we heard "families" then we got an M&M. We had a ton of candy! We then stopped by some members (The Grahams) and watched conference with them. They are so cool. They are super nice and their kids are very respectful too. I had never talked to them before, but they were untapped member potential. So, we are now friends and we watched conference with them. The talks were great. I loved Elder Nelon, Eyring, Durrant, Holland, Bednar, and the prophet's talks. (Poor President Monson, I almost cried. I do not think he will be around much longer) Okay.. Maybe I like more talks. But basically, what I learned is that we have to take Discipleship to the next level. We need to be in tune with the Spirit so that people can see the light in our eyes, be a good example and just go to work in this gross world. Stop complaining, keep the commandments, be good at getting better, follow the prophet, get down to the basics.. be a strong covenant people and utilize the atonement. Boom.. There you have it. Conference in a nutshell. Bro. Renlund is my new favorite apostle. Just saying :)
We then went to a new LA family... the Cowley's and they made us the best dinner ever and I was stuffed. They showed us all of their genealogy and after 2 hours of talking with them, we are going back this week and with some fellowship, hopefully they will come back to Church. I also introduced Sister Branch to the Scotts' and then loved showing her their farm. I have grown so much.. I could stand in a pile of goats and not freak out. We also got military camo rain coats from him so then we went home... hid in the bushes and scared the Elders when they got home from Priesthood Session. It was the best and funniest thing ever... totally works... camo!!
Sunday. More Conference at the Grahams and had a traditional conference Sunday breakfast of cinnamon rolls and berries. SO GOOD. Sunday session, very good. Set appointments, talked to the Teagues and hopefully we can teach them... because that would be a 4 baptism part member family!! and their 18 year old kids is super cool!! We then went over and tried some LA's and watched Conference with Sister Perales. She just got her patriarchal blessing on Saturday. Her husband was being stubborn and didn't want to watch it.. so she was glad she didn't have to watch it all alone :) We then had dinner with the Nillsons. I feed little Liam carrots out of a baby food far.. and he that was actually fun!
Today we have been to Watertown to go shopping. Sister B didn't have any winter or fall clothes. So that needed to happen ASAP.
This week is crazy full of appointments and mission conference and a Missionary Leadership Conference with Randall K Bennett of the 70's. He just talked in the Priesthood Session of Conference on Saturday and now I get to hang out with him. So Stoked! It will be a 24 hour spiritual kick in the pants.
In the words of Elder Christofferson, The gospel is true and the Church facilitates it perfectly, because it is Christ's church!
Love you all!
Sister Kylie Williams
