E-Mail #53
June 18th, 2012
Hello everyone!!
I hope you all had a wonderful Fathers day! I hope brandon, chuck, and gpa got my fathers day card and loved them!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Well lets just say this week has had a CRAZY amount of random twists and turns in our lives out here in chillicothe!! First off with one of the biggest news, Sister Larson has had some stomach problems for a while. So we have had a few doctors appointments and last week she had an ultrasound on her stomach and the tech found gallstones in her gallbladder!! He wasn't supposed to say anything, but he did. So the choas happened from there. Phone calls were made the nurse is all over it. So forth....well then randomly we get a call from President Keyes who tells sister larson that he wants her to pray about going home on July 19. Our mission had a mission fast on saturday-sunday. He told her he would be fasting to know what to do about if she should go home and she should fast for that also. Well after the fast it was apparent to me and sister larson that she needs to go home in July. :(((( We both cried a little and she talked with President Keyes. The nice this is that she was done with her mission in August, so she is not going home that much early and it will totally be noted as a full mission not a medical release, because she did serve a full mission!! So we have all that going on, its not easy, and its sad to see her in so much pain from food and the gallstones, but its for sure meant to happen for her to go home in july so she can get medical help sooner. So there is that crazy twist in things!! Then we get a call from President this morning telling us....because we asked him to warn us....but telling us that the likelyhood of him closing chillicothe is pretty high. So we might only have 2 weeks left in Chilli!! :(((
So it will be an interesting couple weeks to say the least. I just cant believe sister larson is leaving and i was hoping to be with her until she went home but if he is closing the area then we will both be leaving and we wont be together when she goes home. :( I know it is best for her, but still stinks she's the closest companion i have had on my mission and just love her soooo much!!
Soooo now to get to our other events of this crazy week. Well on monday we were at the church picking up our groceries....because we leave them there until we go home so they stay cold. Well Sister Larson is opening the church door and i see this weeeird looking bug flying around, i was looking at it like what the HECK is THAT?!!? and she see's my face and see's it is flying at her and moves quickly to get away from it, not realizing that she was right next to the corner of the building and WHACKS he head on the corner of the brick building. and starts to go down so i catch her. I'm standing there keeping here balanced while she gets her grounding because she hit her head pretty hard. Mind you while we are standing in front of the building me holding onto her....3 or 4 cars drive by!! yep.....we started laughing just thinking oh man, i wonder what THEY are thinking!?!? ohhh those mormon multiple wives get along....i thought mormons dont believe in same sex relationships....hahaha.....oh we were laughing. But we get in the car and i take sister larson home. Have the sperrys check on her and unload the groceries. We call the mission nurse, and she calls the other people and they decide that because she didn't lose conciousness that she is fine. So we go to bed and basically ALL day tuesday sister larson slept because of the bad headache she had from it! It was sooo sad! I felt so bad, all over this freaky looking bug that neither of us have EVER SEEN.....DUMB BUGS!!! Totally lame! Wednesday went by pretty fast because we had our district meeting and then went to the doctor for sister larson down in Liberty. But we were able to see our usual tuesday night family on tuesday and wednesday the dad/husband neal aggree'd for us to come over and just talk with him, so we did. It was good, but not at the same time, that family has some serious stubbornness in their blood. So that makes it hard to help anyone make changes! We pray that he will give in, and see that we are just trying to help him learn and understand more. Then thursday we spent most of the day in the house again. Sister Larson was not feeling well and then randomly i was not feeling well. It was just one of those days that all you could do was lay there and moan because you feel icky. Gotta love that!! But we did get to go visit some people later that night and talk with them and teach people. OH and we had the MOST AMAZING appointment with Shawna, whose husband we were teaching, but then haven't been able to for a while, and now we are teaching her. YEA!! the spirit was just amazing, we taught her the restoration, and talked a lot about how there are different churchs and how we can know which one is Christ church, just like Joseph Smith did! Oh, it was just soooo awesome!! Love teaching her, she is just such a strong spirit. AS we talked about going to church and if rusty would come it was very funny, she said well her better, i mean he brought you guys into our home its only fair for him to give it a try and come to church! haha, LOVE IT!! sadly he didn't come to church, but shawna and her two girls did and i think they had a great time!!! LOVE IT!!!! So saturday started our mission fast....which turned out way awesome! but saturday evening we saw miracles already from the fast and it was just soooo great!! First off we went to go see shawna and rusty, and rusty was there and he joined us while we talked about church things. WAY COOL!!! Then later we went to go contact a potential investigator, someone who had met missionaries before. Well the person didnt live there but another person did and we ended up talking with her for about 20 minutes. She told us how she has been trying to find a church she feels comfortable at, her church she grew up in just isnt the same and she wants her children to be raised believing in God. Just all this great stuff. Oh man, it was way awesome because now we get to teach her and help her find the truth for herself!! way exciting!! Then we decided to go talk with a person we tracted into a LONG time ago. So we stop by and are talking with her at her door. She is super friendly but just kinda giving us the brush off. Just like, yea sure you can come back. Kinda like whatever. Well sister larson gives her a pamphlet and in the pamphlet it talks about the sacrament and it just so happened that this lady flipped open to that page. She suddenly stood up straight and had complete attention. She asked how often do we take the sacrament? i told her every week. the sacrament is there to renew our baptismal covenants and we make misatakes weekly, so we need to have that oportunity to repent and do better each week. She then asked, so do i need to bring my proof of baptism to be able to take this or what?! we were like OH NO.... you can just come and take it. It was wayyy cool!! I have NEVER seen someones whole deamenor change so quickly like it did with her. Then as we were leaving she said to us, so wednesday at 2 right?! even more of a shocker becasue she was confirming with US!! Went from being nice, but not willing, to willing and confirming when we will come back!!! YAYYY!!! I love doing missionary work and seeing cool things like that happen!
Sunday during the fast was just awesome! i just felt the spirit sooo strong all day sunday. During relief society i just went on a craze...i was just writing all these thoughts and feelings i was having. Here are some of the things i wrote down. Sacrifice is not just giving up something for a blessing, but its being obedient! i sacrificed to serve a mission, the only one in my family, its not easy, no one to know what its like, the only one to leave home that same way. I was obedient to gods will...............I know my Father is aware of me, He knows me soo prefectly. I know he is always watching over me and willing to direct me the best way he can as i am willing to listen and TRUST HIM. ..............He is willing to carry me in my weaknesses and stregthn me in down moments. I take 2 steps forward and 1 step back, but i continue to take steps forward, i am making changes and improvments slowly................How i have made it this far is not by my hand, but by HIS!.............Thank you for helping me serve! i will always be in debt to you! I love you so much father! Happy Fathers Day! In the midst of all that i also realized how thankful i am for sister larson, she has had the most christlike love ever! She doesn't hate me for my emotional struggles and weakness' and she tried her best to just help me along, and ALWAYS shows love and care for me! I am sooo incredibly thankful for her being in my life! Such a wonderful companion!!
Considering the crazy week it has been, it has been such a great week at the same time! I am so thankful for continued learning and growing. This week marks 6 months left before i go home. I cant believe that. Time just goes and goes. But i am so thankful for the time i have had, and the time i will have to find those i need to talk and help those i need to!! Like i said earlier, i have no idea how i have made it this far, i know it is NOT BY MY HAND..........but by HIS!!! Because i would have given up a LONG time ago if he didn't love me enough to carry me so far! I will forever be in debt to my Father who does so much for me!
I love you all so much, and am so thankful for all your support you show me as a missionary. Its not easy, like i say a million times every week in my email. But i am so thankful that i have so many people to back me up and cheer me on! Thank you for that!!
Now i have to tell a funny story. I honestly cant remember if i email you all about the bird sister larson hit a couple weeks ago. We were driving and a bird hit our windshield, it was super gross its guts were on our window. nasty. Well since then we have been a little nervous about hitting birds. Well we were coming home from dinner last sunday and week ago, and as we were going around a curve this bird was flying in to land on the road, had no idea we were there, and then we just hear a THUMP....i look in the mirror and dont see the bird on the road. So i thought, i need to remember to check the car when we get out to see if its stuck. Well i forget...and forget. So monday we are grocery shopping and we come out walking toward our truck and sister larson GASPS and points at the truck. well as you can see in the picture....the bird was stuck to the front of the truck! HAHA. We both stood there staring at it for so long. super grossed out. Neither of us took it out, we made papa sperry take it out, but he forgot so momma sperry took it out for us! haha. It was so dang funny. We both were just super shocked it was stuck on the front of the truck, poor bird was not expecting it at all, just coming in for a landing and THUD!! bye bye birdie! haha, classic moments.
One of the other pictures is of this amazing fog that was settled on the ground as we drove home. It was soooo pretty! We had a pretty crazy thunder storm and after that, the fog just hung around for the whole night through the next morning. Makes for a gorgeous picture!! Oh and one last funny story. This morning i was laying in my bed half asleep. Sister Larson got up to get her stuff to go shower and as she was walking past my bed....thinking i was asleep.......i smacked her leg, she scream and fell in her bed! I started laughing SOOO HARD!!! It was the funniest thing ever because she didn't expect it at all! She got back up and beat me up a little but it was super funny! Sister Sperry heard the whole thing happen, she thought it was funny too. She always says 'oh you girls, i wish you'd just get along' hahaha. super funny.....because we do get along we just like to pick on each other. haha.
good times in Chilli!! It will end eventually. Probably on July 4th when we get TRANSFERED! :( I'm hoping for my next area to be OVERLAND PARK....i want to be my aunt/uncle/cousins missionary in their ward! that would be pretty awesome!
I love you all!! hope you have a great week! Keep Sister Larson in your prayers, he stomach hurts A LOT!!!
LOVE
Sister Brookie Barnum. :)
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