Best trade off of my life! - August 29, 2016

Here's an update on my week.

So Monday was pday. We didn't really get to do to much because I had doctors appointments. So I went and did my blood work test and I don't know what that lady did to my arm but she gave me a bruise that starts half way down my forearm and goes past my elbow! It was super swollen for the first half of the week but the swelling has gone down and the bruise has finally started going from black to turning yellow. 

So this week my goal has been to try to follow the spirit and to be exactly where  the lord would have us be. We have seen some awesome miracles this week from doing this. So Monday night we knocked some doors and then I just felt like we should go see a member we are working with named Sster Cone. So we show up at the rehab center she lives at and we get there to find her distraught and in tears. It was awesome to see how she needed us at that moment and the spirit guided us there.

On Tuesday we had another experience like that. We were going to try to see our investigator named Jerry and we had a member out with us and the appointment fell through. So again I felt like we needed to go see another member we are working with and bring the member to that.  So we went to see Sister Capwell and it was awesome! She had a ton of questions that Brother Hays was able to answer and she just really appreciated the company and said we were an answer to her prayers that night.

Wednesday is where my week got exciting but super crazy. So we started our morning off by going to the Jax Beach district meeting. It was one of the sister's birthday so we had made a cake and brought it to her.  After that we had trade offs with the Mandarin 1st sisters. What a trade off! I went with Sister Tuivailala and let me just tell you, she is the best! 

So we start our trade off pretty normal we did some service for one of the members and then after we went to dinner at a members home. After dinner is where our trade off begins to get very interesting. So we start to drive to where we are going to do our golden hour and the check engine light comes on and the car just has like zero power. So I pull over and we call the elder in charge of cars. He tells us that we need to drive the car home immediately and don't drive it again until morning and to drive it straight to the shop to get it looked at. So by the time we get the car all the way home it is like 8:20 and we figured by the time we walk to the houses in their area it will be time to come home so we decide it is best to knock the houses in the elder's area right behind their apartment. To make this long story short no one was very nice on that road. We got every door slammed in our faces and to top it all off an old man brought his gun to the door and told us to leave. So by this point we are like, ok we are done we are going home! 

So we go home and in the morning we do just what we are told. We take our car to the shop. The shop is about 5 miles from their apartment. So the people there tell us that it will probably take like 2 hours before they can get to our car... We didn't know what to do because we were too far to walk home and the only member who could give us a ride was busy until around noon. This is where my poor judgement may have come in. We decided that we would walk across the parking lot to the Whole Foods store and walk around. After being there for about an hour we decide we would get some lunch and hopefully the car would be fixed by then and we could go home. So we walk down the street and eat lunch and during lunch they call us and tell us that the car is under warranty and we need to go pick it up and drive it across town to the car dealership so they can fix it. So we do that and we end up getting stranded there for another hour until Sister Johnson was able to come to our rescue!

What a day right? Well it's not over, so sister Johnson takes us back to her place and we do "service" for her. We pretended to help her clean out her junk room. We didn't get too far with that because she wouldn't let us throw anything away! My favorite part was when I found a few feather boas and some tights that had a cougar with diamond eyes on them.. I jokingly asked her why she had those and if they were part of a Halloween costume.. That may have been the worst question to ask because she the proceeded to tell me that she had bought them when her husband was alive and that they were so they could have some fun..Yuck! I may have been scared for life that day! 

After we did service we assumed we would not have the car for the rest of the day so we had Sister Johnson drop us off over by where we would be eating dinner so we could knock doors over there. Well, we had been knocking for about 20 minutes when they called to tell us the car was finished. So we called Sister Johnson again and she came to the rescue yet again and took us to get our car! Talk about crazy 2 day trade off!

Friday we had MLC. It was awesome! We had Elder Jörg Klebingat from the Seventy come and speak to us! He is awesome! He is originally from Germany. So we have this senior couple in our mission right now named the Rails and they were living in the same Ward in Germany at the time that Elder Klebingat was baptized and they were at the conference and Elder Rail walked in and Elder Klebingat paused mid sentence and started asking what he was doing here. He finally pauses the whole meeting so he can go say hello to Sister Rail. This was my favorite part. Sister Rail sees him and says "well I'll be damned" haha so he comes back in and shares this with all of us. Yeah, never thought I would hear a general authority swear! MLC was great though, he taught us all how to become better leaders and really stressed the importance of knowing the scriptures. He taught us how to memorize scriptures easy and told us that we need to have hundreds of scriptures memorize not just a few. Nothing else too exciting happened that day.

Saturday I went and got my MRI. That was a long experience. I will be going to the doctor this Friday for my follow up where they will go over my blood work test and my MRI to see what they can do for my ankle and what is wrong with it. Thankfully that topical gel they gave me for the pain is working wonders and I haven't been in pain all week! 

Ok, one of the best stories happened on Saturday night. So we went back to the rehab center to see Sister Cone and she really wanted a blessing so we call the zone leaders and they come by around 8:50 to give her a blessing. She explains to them that a year ago she had a stroke and she wants to ask to be healed because her right leg and hand are still numb. So the elders go ahead and give her a blessing and at the end of the blessing so says, "I feel like I can walk again." I was thinking she meant she felt like she would be healed and over time she would be able to walk. I was wrong. She instantly starts adjusting her bed so she can get out of it to try walking. Now let me just explain Sister Cone to y'all. She probably weighs about 400 lbs and hasn't walked in over a year. So she started to tell the elders that if they will help her she wants to try walking right now... Haha the elder's faces were priceless! They calmly explain to her that it would be best if the nurses came in to help her as well. So she instantly wants us to go get the nurses because she is sure she has been healed and can walk again. I could hardly make it out of the room with out bursting out laughing. This lady has some great faith!

Unfortunately none of the nurses wanted to come at 9:20 at night to help her out of bed to try to walk. So we promised that we would all come back first thing in the morning to help. Well we got there Sunday morning and she was sound asleep. So we will never know if she can walk. Sister Ruesch and I are going to go with her to her physical therapy this week to see if she can walk. It is going to be quite the experience! I think the elders are more excited about this than anything. They have called us like 5 times since to ask if we went back to see Sister Cone and if she has walked yet! Haha 

Well, I hope y'all have a wonderful week! This is the last week of the transfer! That means only 13 more weeks! What a bitter sweet thing that is! Thanks for all the emails! I love and miss y'all so much!

Love,

Livi