One quick addendum to last week's letter:
When the Palmers came home and we told them about the
chicken, Brother Palmer was like "well let's just shoot it."
Awkward silence.
Then Sister Palmer: "after they put in all that hard
work?"
Wish we had known that earlier.
Regardless the chicken lives, as happy and stupid as
ever.
This week we got a new investigator! He is five years
old. So I guess not technically an investigator. Darn.
Actually, funny story about that one: We were at the park
making phone calls and this guy walks up and says, pointing to a bag hanging in
a tree, "Did you notice this here?" We say no. He says "You'll
never believe this." And I think he's about to reveal a drug drop or
something for other people. Instead he pulls out a beer. I guess he hung a bag
full of beer in a tree for himself. Then he starts telling us that we need to
rethink our religion and study more about "Joe Smith." But then he
told us if it made us better people, "more power to you."
Conflictions. Anyway, at about this time we notice a young mother at another
table across the way. She has a very young baby who is beginning to walk, so we
strike up a conversation. Then she tells us that her five year old son is
beginning to ask questions about God, and what happens to the soul when we die,
and what if we do bad, etc. She didn't feel like she knew enough to answer, as
she is not very religious herself. So we told her about Primary, and we also
said we could come over to answer any questions. She agreed, and we set up to
come over the next day. The next day we pull up and we're like...seriously?
Turns out, we've been referred to this house before by their neighbors, who are
members. Last time we knocked the dad answered and was like "JWs?"
nope. "Mormons?" Yep. And then he was nice but kind of made fun of us
at the same time and said no thank you. So we knock and the dad answers and is
like "Mormons?" Yep. Then he tells his wife "Did you make an
appointment with the Mormons?" And she's all "Yep! For (the
son)" So we have a REALLY quick and simple lesson with the son.
Because he's five. And he showed us many of his toys. But he said he wanted to
learn more. So we have a 5 year old investigator.
Wednesday was Sister Magleby's birthday! She's no longer
a teenager. For her birthday we delivered caramel popcorn to some less active people
and investigators. She also got Thai food, thanks to the Palmers, for lunch.
And we had our lesson with the 5 year old. And she got lots of presents from
her family and ward members. Spoiled. We are all spoiled here. Oh yes, and we
had a birthday dinner at the Fry's. They invited their friends next door, who
are now our friends too. Perfect present for a missionary.
Thursday we had our long awaited interviews with
President Van Cott. Mine was rather short, because, as he said, I'll be having
my departing one in about 3 or 4 weeks and he said I could have as much time as
I wanted then. Crazy town. Right after, we weekly planned some with Sister Van
Cott. She told us she wanted to come plan with us sometime, so we invited her
this week. Weekly Planning with her is the best because she brings homemade
Peanut Butter and Pomegranate jelly sandwiches. We also had two lessons with
investigators that night, which just rounded out a perfectly wonderful
Thursday.
Friday was Halloween! It was also chilly. Plus it rained
that night! Right during the trunk or treat. But it didn't ruin it at all. The
trunk or treat was great. People kept asking us "what are you going to
be?!" And we would tell them "missionaries!" Let me tell you,
our costumes were pretty authentic looking. I did wear my MTC tag, so
everything except "Tanner" was in Russian. And my contacts were
bugging me so I wore my glasses. But the activity was pretty superb, plus we
had a great conversation with this less active couple we've been trying to see,
and they ended up giving us a ride home. Perfect.
Re-winding to Wednesday for a second. We were driving to
this one lady, and we passed the Mousley Museum. It is a museum of Yucaipa
history and I've always wanted to go in but it's closed on Mondays. Well,
as we drive by I see it's open and half joking suggest we go in and see if we
can volunteer. Sister Magleby's like "let's do it!" So then it
becomes a reality. We go in, and no one is there except older people
(volunteers). They readily accept our offer to help, plus we can just come and
go when we please during the open hours. First the house on the hill, now the
Mousley museum. Dreams really do come true. So Saturday we go for our first
morning of volunteering. It was great because it started pouring that day. We
are put in the back room and asked to organize some files. For what turns into
the next two hours, I am sorting through newspaper clippings of mostly
automobile accidents, and airplane crashes. Poor Sister Magleby got stuck with
the file labeled "Susan Anton." Apparently she is a native Yucaipian.
Small town pageant queen gone BIG. Tabloid clipping after tabloid clipping
Sister Magleby had to sort through. I now know a little more about the history
of Yucaipa; Sister Magleby knows entirely too much about the history of Susan
Anton. But get this: Susan Anton has a brother named Greg. We have a Greg Anton
listed as a (less active) member. We had actually planned to try and visit him
that day, but he lives in Oak Glen and we deemed it unsafe to go up there
because of the rain. One day though.
So yeah, the rain messed up our plans for the day, but we
are certainly grateful for it. Plus it all worked out.
Plus it made Saturday and Sunday COLD. Maybe I've become
a southern California wimp, but it felt like early winter. Boots were not
overkill. And the Christmas music which we started officially playing November
1st did not seem out of place.
Sunday was productive. Nothing much to share beyond that.
Except that our phone got left at our last appointment for the night and
by the time it was discovered it was too late to get it. Luckily we have
Brother Palmer looking out for us and we got to use his phone to call the
District Leader and report our numbers. Except they didn't pick up and so we
left a message, but then they must not have checked their messages because when
we got our phone back they had called us five times.
So that was the week! Happy November everyone. Hope you
are doing well :)
Love,
Sister Tanner
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