Coyotes wake me up at night

June 2, 2014

This week. This week has been hot. This week I have developed a major farmer's tan. My watch tan makes me proud. This week Sister Webb and I walked. A LOT. More than I walked in Ukraine. But hey, missionaries don't get seen from the inside of their cars. Side note: losing language study means one more hour of missionary work, and one hour has never seemed longer. Plus, now I push lunch an hour or two back, and instead of not leaving the apartment until after lunch, I've been slaving in the hot sun for a couple hours before I get to eat. To put it simply, it's an adjustment.

This week we said goodbye to Sister McConkie, and Sister Webb and I were left only to see each other's faces. I never thought I would say this, but I quite liked working in a trio. At least with us, it worked. But Sister Webb is great, and after hours of walking along the side of roads together (yes, we were those idiots), we basically know too much about each other.

In other news, I have never served with a companion who literally teaches entire discussions in her sleep. I couldn't help but say "amen" when she ended her lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her testimony and "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." In other, other news I am apparently a light sleeper.

I saw my first snakes this week. They were all dead in the road. Other California wildlife include rabbits, lizards, crows, colorful birds, and ground squirrels. Non-wildlife include dogs, cats, (no more strays!) horses, and goats.  Oh yeah, and sometimes in the mountains there are bears. And coyotes wake me up at night. Much more diverse than Ukraine.

Fun story from this week: We received a referral from a member of the ward, but all they could tell us was a name, and that they lived around "Cornell." Adventure time. So we drove to "Cornell" to discover there are actually about four different Cornell streets. We knocked some doors, met some people, but no one knew this family. We did learn that there was another Cornell street a little over, so we went there. Knocked one door...no one home. Knocked another...no one answered. We said one more, and then we would break for lunch. Knocked it...no one home. But then we randomly decided to knock one more door across the street. Knocked it, and a lady answered. "Hi! You don't by any chance know where the A family lives, do you?" "Umm... that's us." Found them! And they said we could come back the next week. Booyah :)

Not so fun story from this week: some of our investigators are struggling. But guess what? President has encouraged us to do this thing called a prayer list. We visit members of the ward and share with them a list that has the individuals we are teaching, and those needs we feel they have. And then we ask them to pray for our investigators by name and need. We update them weekly at least, and the added prayers have already helped. Plus it gets the ward involved with our investigators, and they're more excited about the work. Genius!

I think that is about it for this week. Shout out to Aunt Shari and Uncle Chris! Thank you so much for the package! Everything inside was definitely appreciated. The kids of the family I live with were so excited to deliver it to me, they made me open it right then and there. I think they loved it just about as much as me :)

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Tanner