Joined by "mini missionary"

July 14, 2014

You could say this week has been a pretty good week.

But first: it appears I may have emphasized dropped lessons a bit too much in a previous letter. Please do not think this has caused me any large amount of stress. It really is just a part of missionary life. I think due to a lack of other material to write about it may have been emphasized too much. Oops :)

But anyway...this week was awesome :) For one, and I failed to write about this last week, the Palmers got a puppy.  A little boxer puppy named Roxy, and it's been a joy to hold her and play with her these past two weeks. A puppy is the closest Sister Webb and I will come to holding a baby on our missions, so we hold her as much as we can. Pearl, the other dog, has had mixed feelings towards her, loving her one minute and trying to rip off her leg the next.

On Monday Sister Webb and I discovered a fruit stand. Not only was it cheaper fruit, it reminded me of Ukraine, which is great. And that evening we had an amazing lesson at the church with a new investigator. She loved the church building, and it was interesting to watch her walk around and look at all the pictures. It made me appreciate a little more the pictures we have, and also made me realize that I wish our church building at home had the amount of pictures the building here does. And then that night we had dinner with a less active family which loves to feed us massive amounts of Mexican food, and then loves to make me eat two helpings of dessert to make up for Sister Webb.

Tuesday we got a text from the Assistants to the President, informing us that the next day we would be receiving a new companion for two weeks. Sound familiar? Except this new companion was not from an evacuated mission, but rather a "mini-missionary." Apparently that is a thing around here. Teenagers can sign up to come out and "be" a missionary for two weeks, I guess to test it out. Anyway, Wednesday morning we received a new companion, Sister Contrarus. She's sixteen years old and from Highland, CA. I feel bad for the poor girl, because she "walked" into one of the most walking companionships in the mission (get it?) In fact, Friday morning we got permission and took her against her will to go get some good walking shoes. I also feel bad because her second day "in the field" was weekly planning, which meant she got to sit at a park bench with us for four hours. With the addition of Sister Contrarus, Sister Webb and I have discovered that we ourselves are weird, referencing lines from "The District" and Preach My Gospel often, and thinking naps are the ultimate fun. Oh well.

In other news, our consistent practice of teaching about the Restoration in 10 minutes came in handy Wednesday night when a lesson was set up for us at 9:00pm. Our extended curfew (if we have a lesson) is 9:30pm. And then the people didn't show up until 9:10pm. So we literally taught the Restoration in 10 minutes, left the rest to the members that were there, and booked it home. We shall have to do a follow-up lesson for sure.

Saturday morning we picked up trash again, and at one point a member came by and gave us lemonade. Good times :)

And Sunday was just perfectly wonderful, as all plans just seemed to work. Oh yes, and as I walked through the chapel to leave after a meeting, I met the Tanners of Highland I've heard so much about. That was quite the surprise. A man just was like "Sister Tanner...do you remember me?" And I had to admit I didn't, and then it turns out we're related. Pictures were taken.

Diana with Troy's cousin Pat and his wife Jolene

I don't know, this week was just really good because we were able to meet with people, and seeing the gospel bless their lives just makes you happy. Sister Contrarus was our lucky charm this week, as we got into several people's homes who we have not been able to see in a long time. It's just great to see people make good choices - the ones you just know will make them happy - because that in turn makes you happy.

 

So yep! All is well that ends well :) Love ya!

Sister Tanner