Hi everyone! Hope you had a great week!
So, we actually only had one lesson a night every night this week except Saturday. One day I know I'd be happy to even have one a day, but with how many we had scheduled... it was pretty sad. And three of those days were with the same person. Wait... Tuesday was not a lesson. Sorry about that. So we had a lot of cancellations.
One of our less actives dropped us. To be honest, we were going to drop her soon anyways, so we think she did that just so we didn't do it to her first. Luckily her ward is super awesome, and the relief society is going to keep fellowshipping her. We hope that we can start meeting with her soon, though!
The lesson that we had on Wednesday was one of the best ones we've had, especially with this less active. We are just reading the Book of Mormon with him while he is working with the bishop to get the priesthood, and it has been kinda hard. His eyes get really tired really fast, and he has trouble comprehending and retaining what we read and talk about. This week at Zone Conference we got him a large print Book of Mormon, hoping that it would help his eyes. It was the coolest thing!!! We didn't think too much of getting from the mission office, since they had an extra one that we exchanged for two children's Books of Mormon. He and his parents thought it was the nicest thing ever! When we showed it to him he was so excited, and kept saying "it's better than Christmas!" as he showed it to his parents. They thanked us so much for "going out of our way" and when we told him it was his to keep he was so so excited. It was so humbling to think of what that little gesture meant to him. And that lesson! He was so excited to read, he read a whole two pages before asking one of us to read - and he only did that because his voice was going out, not his eyes. Then, every time we paused to talk about what he read, he had answers, he asked questions, and he quoted the verses back at us!! It was such an amazing change from the past couple weeks!!!
We also had the first baptism this transfer: our nine year old friend and his little brother. It was really awesome! We finished the last two lessons on Sunday and Monday before his interview on Tuesday. The baptism was really great, even with the slight... glitches... but I won't talk about those!
And finally, the most awkward thing... we just had our district meeting, and we all go to lunch together afterwards. The AP's came to our meeting, and they had gift cards to this restaurant, so we decided to all go there. We talked to this super sweet lady in the parking lot and as we all went to head inside she ran up and gave us money to pay for our lunch. And, of course, she had to hand it to me.
It was so horribly awkward.
I tried three times to give it back, and she refused.
I feel completely guilty.
So I went to my trainer to ask her what the heck I was supposed to do.
It was out of my hands at that point.
Well, long story short, the money she gave us paid for all six of us in my district.
I am a despicable human being.
And we'll leave it at that...
What did you learn this week?
I learned that people actually do try and pay for missionaries' food. And that it is horribly awkward.
But besides that, I learned a lot about the topic of diligence, which is the Christlike attribute that I picked for my talk on Sunday. No comment on how the actual address went. But for the talk itself, I found this really neat article from the July 2011 Ensign. It is about these families in Peru who live on the Lake Titicaca on islands they make themselves out of totora reeds. The islands are four feet thick, and every ten to fifteen days they have to put another layer of reeds down because the ones on the bottom decompose, the ones on top either dry out or decay depending on the wet or dry season. My favorite line is : "the faith to build must always be followed by the diligence to maintain." The building and upkeep of these islands was compared to the building and upkeep of our personal testimonies and spiritual wellbeing. It was a really neat article!
What did you share this week?
I shared... air from my lungs in an intense dart battle between junior and senior companions for our zone activity today. I was the last one standing for my side. And defeated the last three people opposing me. They underestimated me.
I also shared my shoulder, unwillingly, with a little creature. We were helping our senior sister carry stuff out to her car and I had a tray with two pies on it in one hand and a box in the other. And I start feeling something brushing against the collar of my shirt on the left side. Anyone who knows about my run in with scorpions knows how I feel about things on the left side of my neck. So I was internally freaking out. I couldn't see it and I didn't have a free hand. Something was moving and I was NOT okay with it. Then we make it outside and this wasp flies past my face. I am so happy that I didn't have a hand free to brush my shoulder because the wasp would've gotten me, so instead I had to suffer for 30 seconds. And now my dislike of things on my neck has increased. I think this was payback for the wasp we killed in the MTC. Perhaps this was his brother. Shudder.
What did you teach this week?
I helped teach this really sweet girl that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will never give up on, even if her parents have. She has gone quite a ways astray and really really wants to turn her life around. She is a wonderful, strong young woman! I am so excited to meet with her again!
How are you doing with the language?
I like to think I'm doing okay. I have been reliably informed that I have a strange accent. Apparently there are very slight southern undertones but the rest is just kinda weird. I also "bounce [my] B's." I don't know what that means...
At least at this point in the game, an accent is to be expected. I sure I will get better soon.
What is something that challenged you this week?
Role plays. I don't like role plays. I can do the actual thing that we are practicing but when I am supposed to "act it out" I feel completely and utterly ridiculous and so so so so stupid. I very much dislike them. So I have had a lot of challenges with those things. I know that they help, and so I try to force myself to do them, but I literally can't! I know what I want to say, but the sheer power of how forced and awkward it all is makes it so that I can't even open my mouth. I have been trying so hard to get better, and it is honestly going nowhere.
Did you eat any authentic Utah food this week?
No, but I did meet someone who honestly, legitimately believes that vegetables are good in jello.
Yes.
I don't believe her.
She said that I have to try her jello because she makes it good.
Again, I don't believe her.
At all.
Jello is meh in and of itself, you don't add vegetables, of all things, in it!!
I was willing to listen to her talk about her jello when she was talking about jello salad and fruit in it, but I very much disagree with the rest of that conversation. Ugh.
That's all I've got for this week! Wow, that was actually a long email. Sorry for those short on time. The invitation to ignore my prattling still stands!
Love you all!!
Sister Milligan
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