CDSM Transfer 6

Week 1

First thing that I want to announce: I got a Jeep for my birthday!!! Haha just kidding. Sort of. I got a jeep in my new area at least. No more dinky little cars that take a year and a day to accelerate. WAHOO!

Our TIWI (driving tracker) is dead so it just stays in this hat so it doesn't slide all over the dashboard.

Anyway, transfers happened and I didn't explode (barely). It totally wasn't cool that my birthday was on transfer Monday. But I really need to stop complaining about that because it's over and you've heard enough about it. Tuesday we were up bright and early to catch the transfer train. It goes form Denver to Grand Junction which takes upwards of 5 hours once you factor in stops. I had no idea how happy I'd be to be back in GJ even just for a few minutes. It felt like I had come back home. Then it was on to another 3 hour drive to my new area and I had to drive. Oh, and did I mention that I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before? Haha good times.

So yeah, I'm in the small college town of Gunnison and I love it already. For a split second I thought I could totally come here to college and then I remembered that I absolutely despise the cold. And it gets 30 below here (I'm not even exaggerating) so...HAHAHA NOPE! I'm just blessed to be here in the summer. Oh, another random fact about this town: a siren goes off every day at 12. Just because. It sounds like a tornado siren so the first time I heard it I was so confused. No tornado would be crazy enough to come here.

My companion is Hermana Iraia. She's a Spanish speaking sister so, guess what that means, mom? I get to do language study every day! I still doubt that I'll get switched over to Spanish like my mom thinks I will but hey, I'm still learning. My goal for this transfer is to be able to pray in Spanish confidently. Good goal, don't you think? Oh and I almost killed my companion the other day. I fed her something with oats in it and, well, turns out she's pretty allergic to oats (and some other foods) and so that evening and all the next day she spend her time doubled over on the floor. Whoops. It won't happen again, I promise.

The area we cover is...ginormous. It takes an hour and a half just to get to district meeting every week and the same amount of time to get to the farthest town in our area. The branch here is small but mighty. We had a fun activity the other day where we got to eat dinner around the campfire at the beach on the lake. I got to know some of the members and they're great people. Did you know that donut holes roasted over the fire is DELISH?! You should try it some time.

Then, yesterday, since it was a holiday and we couldn't email, we went hiking with our investigator, Star! It was super fun and exhausting (lots of pictures to come). Turns out that I still have my Philmont lungs tho. I ran/bounded up the side of that hill like it was a cake walk while sister Iraia and Star went a little slower. The funny part was when we were on our way down and one of the Assistants to the President (AP) called us. We don't exactly know why he did but when he found out that we were with one of our investigators he asked to talk to her. So, as we're basically falling off a mountain, she had a nice conversation with him in which he invited her to come to church and pray and such. It was quite comical really.

Investigators: We currently have many. Interested in progressing? Not...so many. But hey, it's fine. We'll keep working with them!

The best lesson that we have had so far was with Kathy. She is open to new truth although she is taking it in slowly. We did the Book of Mormon skill with her and answered questions about why we need another book of scripture and why "Joseph Smith was so special". We committed her to pray about the Book of Mormon to find out if it really is a book of scripture. At the end, we encouraged her to pray out loud. It took a little persuasion but she did it! Later, sister Iraia told me that she has never said a prayer out loud. Not ever her husband has heard her pray!
Last night, I had a strong prompting to go visit an investigator but when we got there, both sister Iraia and I felt very strongly that we shouldn't be there. We were extremely confused but we turned around and drove a few yards down the street and then I stopped the car. I felt that we needed to knock on one of the doors at the end of the street. We got out and tried the first door. After 3 knocks we almost left but a man came to the door. He happily helped us with the survey and said that he had had good experiences with LDS people in the past. We asked if we could share a message and he said he was busy at the moment but we were more than welcome to come back another day.

So yep, that's been my week. I took a loooot of pictures this week so...sorry not sorry.

Sister Webster

Week 2

First off, I want to welcome all my new readers! You gave me your email so that means that you're on my weekly mailing list. If you would rather not receive my emails, just let me know and I'll take you off (I will be sad but I will forgive you).

Speaking of forgiveness, I read a super good parable in the bible this morning. It's in Matthew 18:23-35. You should check it out if you haven't had scripture study today and if you already have, you could do it anyway. Basically, there's no point in holding grudges and not forgiving. Christ forgives easier than the rest of us and for much bigger things too. I just thought it was super cool and wanted to share.

Anyway, I'm continuing to adjust to lil' ol' Gunnison. Did I already mention that I love it? And did I mention that I love my companion, sister Iraia? Every time I get a new companion, I know that she is just what I needed that transfer. Sister Iraia easy going and loves this area. She is attempting to teach me Spanish and it gets quite entertaining. She loves drilling me and making me repeat myself 3453167653 times because apparently it's hilarious. I humor as best I can.

I haven't been sleeping super well since I got here and apparently it's affecting me. I'm sleep walking and/or talking almost every night now. Supposedly I was laughing hysterically one night and sister Iraia was about to punch me because she was so freaked out. So that's just super. Any ideas to help with that? Melatonin doesn't by the way.

In other news, she's been sick most of the week so I got a loooot of studying in. Both in the gospel and in Spanish. I will figure out how to conjugate verbs eventually. We did make it to the food pantry to volunteer for a couple hours and I got to use a couple Spanish words but I mostly just chickened out and gestured most of the time.

Fun fact: Star came to church and loved it! To show our appreciation, we gave her a dandelion bouquet. She told us that when a man brings you a bouquet of dandelions, marry him that day. It means he had the patience and love to successfully do so. SO, we decided to take her tip and do that for her...not to propose...but just to show how much we love her. Turns out, it isn't as easy as we thought. After we managed to pick a little bouquet, we got in the hot car and kept the air off and windows up. Thankfully, she didn't live too far from where we found the dandelions but sheesh, it was a steaming hot ride. It was all worth it in the end. She was so touched.

We also had another new investigator, Samantha, at church and then had a lesson with her later that afternoon. The crazy thing is that she has met with missionaries for about 20 years and has had 2 baptismal interviews but never go baptized. But she is determined to get over the barriers that has held her back previously and do it this time. We were amazed by her testimony, the desire to finally be baptized and the willingness to do what it takes to get there. The members who she is currently living with are also super helpful in continuing to encourage her and support her in changing her life permanently. We're super excited!

Not much else to report this week. Have a good one!

Sister Webster

Week 3

Phew. Glad I got those pictures out of the way. I guess I was super crabby at the end of emailing last week (when you've got 60 seconds left on the clock and your pictures aren't loading, you're gonna be crabby) so sister Iraia took me to The Gunnisack. I ate a hamburger and felt much better. The end.

So, I went on exchanges this week with my old STL, sister Messinger. ...Well...she followed me here and is STILL my STL. It was super great because she is still learning her area and I kinda sorta accidentally left the map on the table at home and so we were just two crazy lost missionaries wondering around Montrose, Colorado. It was wonderful. It was also hot. It got up to 100 degrees and I realized how blessed I am to be in Gunnison in the summer. Supposedly it only gets up to 80 degrees at the very highest. Ahhh I can live that that as long as I'm outta here before winter hits. Anyway, exchanges were great and we didn't actually get that lost. I've begun to realize that my sense of direction has improved quite a bit. I had only been in Montrose for district meeting a couple times and a few hours for exchanges when I started figuring out how to get around the town. So satisfying.

On our trip back towards Gunnison to exchange back, I was quite excited because this was the first time that I could actually look at my surroundings closely because I wasn't driving. When we got to our meet up spot, we got out and explored a little while we waited.

This week we decided to venture out to the farthest town in our area: Lake City. It's an old tourist town that is super cute. It was a little hard to tract there because literally no one was home. They're either working or out playing in the mountains like any normal person would and should be doing while on vacation. Nevertheless, we talked to some interesting people and walked the whole day. I got just the tiniest taste of a walking missionary's life. I also got super sunburnt because I accidentally left my sunscreen in my last area. Whoops. Also, I didn't get any pictures there. Hopefully I can next time but for now, just google Lake City. And to my family: we're totally going there after I get home. Here are some videos of how we entertained ourselves on the drive back.

Samantha is doing great! We meet with her several times a week and she basically teaches the lessons. Her testimony is so strong. People in the branch who knew her back when she met with the missionaries before hardly recognized because she has not only changed spiritually but her physical countenance is different too. They say she looks happier and more confident. We discussed the word of wisdom with her yesterday and she is going above and beyond by working on being very conscious of her eating habits. We love her so much and we are so excited for her!

Alrighty, I think that's it. Happy fathers day to you cool dads out there!

Sister Webster

Week 4

I just realized today that I've been companions with sister Iraia for a few days short of a month now. I don't even know what time is anymore. It is the strangest thing as a missionary. It warps all over the place, all the time. Faster, slower, hyperspeed, longest day of my life, oh would you look at that...I'm almost half way done with my mission. Truly a bizarre phenomenon.

We've been spending most of our spare afternoons helping a woman down the street to pack and get ready to move. She's a talker but she feeds us lunch and gives us work to do so it's great! She also loves sushi so she gave us some money to stop by the store and get some for lunch next time we go to her house. You know me and sushi...I'm kiiiinda excited.

This week we went to a town that is about half an hour away to try to meet with one of our investigators (who won't make appointments so we just have to go try them). Well, they weren't home so we decided to try a less-active member who we hadn't heard from in awhile. In fact, I hadn't even met her yet. The risk of knocking on their door is that her husband is not too fond of missionaries...at all. We knocked once. Nothing. We knocked again. We thought we heard footsteps. At this point, sister Iraia is shaking in her shoes, worried that we'd get shot or something while I'm just standing there not knowing what to expect. We knocked a third time and heard a dog bark and definite footsteps. A man opened the door and sister Iraia glanced over at me with horror in her eyes. To our great surprise, he cheerfully greeted us, told us that his wife was home and that he would go get her. We stepped in, in total shock. Miracles I tell ya. Miracles. The rest of the story is that we had a nice visit with this member and she invited us back the next week.

Friday we had our very last interviews with President Murdock. The Murdocks leave on the 30th when our new mission President comes. It's so weird to think that everything could be so different in 2 weeks. But, President Murdock hardly acted like it. He just went on interviewing us like nothing is about to change. Sister Murdock on the other hand had tears in her eyes every time a set of missionaries walked out the door, knowing that she may never see them again. I don't know about everyone else but I certainly plan on visiting them.

The biggest news of the week: Samantha had her baptismal interview (with President Murdock because he was in town) and she passed! He had actually interviewed her just over a year ago but then she didn't end up getting baptized. He said that he saw a huge change in her. Everyone who knew her before say that she's totally changed. It's so cool! We've got everything arranged for the baptism so all we have to do is keep praying for her and wait for Saturday. She is so excited and so are we!

We've been trying to meet with this former investigator named Carrie since I got to Gunnison and every time we tried her, it wasn't a good time but she kept telling us to try her another time. We decided to try her one more time this week and if she turned us away, we'd give her some time. Well, we showed up and she did in fact tell us that it wasn't a good time but that she really wanted to meet with us and set an appointment for the next day. The next evening we showed up and it was chaos at her house. She has such a big heart that she always has troubled and struggling family members and friends at her house. We were worried that she'd again tell us it wouldn't work but instead she said, "I am not going to turn these girls away again. All of you out so we can have some quiet." We sat there slightly shocked but then she turned to us with tears in her eyes and began telling us all of these sad and hard things happening in her life. She didn't have a whole lot of time to talk so we ended up just saying a prayer with her. As soon as the prayer was over, she asked us how soon we could come back when she would have more time to talk. We set up an appointment for a couple days later and thanked us for coming at just the right time so that she could feel some peace for a few minutes. When we came a few days later, we talked about faith in the Savoir and how he can carry our burdens. I think she is starting to remember why she met with missionaries before because she asked us again, when was the soonest time possible for us to come back.

Happy Fathers Day (yesterday)! Today I want to spotlight our Heavenly Father. We are His children. Children if God! How cool is that? Here are some of my favorite scripture verses about that:

Romans 8:16-17

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit , that we are the children of God:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Hebrews 12:9

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence : shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Acts 17:27-29

That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man€™s device.

Well, that should be enough for you to read this week. Have a good one!

Sister Webster

Week 5

It was a sick week around here. Like literally, sick in bed. But it was awesome too!

I woke up Wednesday at 1am to my stomach saying, "evacuating in 5...4...3..." Yeah, I didn't sleep well for the rest of the morning and by the time the alarm went off, my stomach was super empty. But we must press on! Sister Iraia and I had a training to give at sisters conference in a few hours for Pete's sake. Our bad luck didn't stop there. As we drove to Montrose, we got stopped by a whole bunch of construction and we were 15 minutes late. We finally made it and I slumped down into my chair and sat there focusing on not sliding down to the floor and laying down. When we got up to do our training I began by apologizing for looking like death, a phrase I've been using all week now (thank you sister Broederlow). But on the bright side, our training was really good! If you ever want encouragement to be more bold in extending commitments, just ask me. We had dinner with Samantha that night so we went straight there when we got back so we could help make the dinner. Well, I just cut up the strawberries and then went and laid on the couch because I had no energy left. After dinner we went home and I went right to bed. After almost 12 hours of sleep, I woke up the most rested I've been in 9 months! It was a beautiful feeling. Unfortunately, sister Iraia seemed to have caught what I had and it's much worse. So she's been spending all her spare time in bed. But enough about how sick we've been. On to the good parts of the week.

Picture with the sisters and I look like death.

Not doin' so hot.

First off, Samantha is baptized! She was just glowing on Saturday. We couldn't figure out how to get the water warm tho. Sorry, Samantha! Not much else to say except that we're so happy for her. It's been a 20 year journey and she's finally made it.

We had one crazy miracle happen this week. It was on of those times that you know couldn't just be a coincidence. So, sister Young (one of my STLs) decided last minute that our exchanges needed to be moved. It was a little crazy rearranging our schedule to get it to work but we managed. Sister Iraia and I got to our meet up spot half way between Gunnison and Montrose which is a little store called Blue Mesa Point. We sat there and waited and waited...and waited. Our phone didn't have any service so after about 45 minutes we decided to go ask if there was a phone we could use in the store. The woman running the store was sitting outside because not much was going on so we asked her about using a phone. She told us that all the phone lines were down because someone had bulldozed the phone line (true story). Well, all three of us didn't have much else to do so we introduced ourselves (her name was Shelby) and sat there and talked a little bit. Shelby told us that she had come from Texas to work in Colorado for the summer. She knew the owner of the store so she was working there until she found another job. She wanted to get away from the normal grind of life to "find stability". She had a 4 year old son whose father was abusive so she left him a couple years back and wanted to find stability for herself so that she could share that with her son. She then asked who we were. We began talking about what we do as missionaries and talked a little bit about some of our beliefs. Then, out of nowhere, a man on an ATV comes speeding around the corner and hops off. We find out that he is the brother of the owner of the store. He looked at us and said, " Are you Mormons? I love Mormons!" So, we started talking to him as well and found out that he had lived in Idaho and Utah so he had gotten to know LDS people and missionaries. Finally, an hour late, the other sisters showed up (turns out that they got lost and had to turn around for gas) and all 6 of us were standing there talking, with more than one conversation going on at once. Out of nowhere, Shelby asked, "so how does someone join your church?" That took me by surprise so I just told her that she had to talk to us for a few weeks and get baptized. Then she said, "I wish there was a way for me to contact you. I'm just looking for some guidance right now." If my jaw wasn't already dropped all the way open, it sure was now. I ran to the car, got a card with our number, handed it to her and told her that we would stop by next time we were coming back form Montrose. So yep, that's the story of our new investigator. We plan on stopping by on the way back from district meeting this week. 

Sister Webster

Week 6

Hey everyone! Sorry if you thought I died or something. Monday was a holiday and Tuesday was transfers. As positive as we were that neither of us would get transferred, Hermana Iraia is now in Denver. I'm pretty sure each transfer gets harder. Especially because I can't seem to hold onto a companion for more than a transfer. Yes, sister B, you're still the longest standing. I have enough time to get to know, become friends with and love my companion and then they're taken away to the other side of the mission. Every. Time. And then more sad news: they also took my Jeep away! *sigh* No one seems to trust me with nice things. Just kidding, our new car is super nice. Like, I don't think I'll ever own a car this nice. I still miss the Jeep tho... OK, enough whining. My life is great!

My new companion is sister Sanofsky. She is super chill. I love it. And from the stories that she has told me from her last area, she is going to bring fire to this area! I'm super stoked.

Monday was great! We spent the day window shopping with Star. Yesterday was long because I had to drive to Grand Junction and back. About a 6 hour round trip give or take. Not horrible but not super fun either. It won't be the last time I have to do it... 

4th of July attire.

Our matching planners.

Ummmm...wow I don't have much to report. Sister Iraia has still been struggling with sickness that's kept her in bed so we didn't get to do much last week. It gave me a chance to just talk to her (once she finally woke up at noon most days). I'm assuming that she made it to Denver in once piece. Haven't heard a whole lot from her yet.

Oh! We agreed to teach Relief Society (the womans Sunday school class) last Sunday. That was fun and interesting. I haven't ever taught a group quite like that before. We did great tho. *brushes shoulder*

And yeah, I got nothing. Sorry for a boring week. Here's a funny picture in honor of President Murdock. I miss you, dear Murdocks!