18 August 2014

Hola,

Today I am saying bye to an old transfer and hello to a new one even tho' my companion and I will still be here in Willits. I am excited for what this next transfer brings. There is much to do and though it is hard, it is time to do it! I am also not an STL anymore.  I am so excited for the new Sister because I actually requested that she was an STL so I don't mind at all!

Last Monday we had the fun activity of going to the beach. We went to Fort Bragg. It was fun, definitely not a Southern California beach, but it was good. Sadly, I left my camera at home.  Pictures will have to come in the future. The Elders are kind of cut off out there so we were there to cheer them up a little bit! 

 

Sunday we had been reminded that the Bishop's neighbor spoke spanish so we saw them on Sunday, with a return appointment for Monday. SO, we came back and offered a house blessing for them. It was a great blessing! The funny thing was that while we were inside the Bishop's kids came up to the door to give them a loaf a bread. We thought about how cool it was so we went up to Bishop's after and they said they had seen us pass by and wanted to give the loaf to us, but the couldn't find us so they gave it to the neighbor, while we were inside. So great and spiritual!

We had our last district meeting, which is always sombre and then we had a fun lunch together with some of the Elders! When we got back to town we had a very simple day. We tracted into a less-active member's home. She was very nice and welcoming, so we offered a house blessing. She told us that she does visiting teaching and she is even a visiting teaching supervisor.  She just doesn't come to church. We thought that was a little weird, but that at least she hasn't put it away entirely. Later in the evening we went by one of the less-active members with the last name Cornwall, to see if having a missionary with her same name would spark some interest, but it didn't. She was not open to coming back, but at least we made the connection. She said people just keep coming to visit her and I said that we probably would continue doing that because we still have her records!  It was interesting. We had these spare 20 minutes before English class, where we didn't know what to do.  I just thought lets go out and work!  We went to our favorite trailer park and there was a couple we had met before, they were sitting on their front lawn. So I asked them if we could share a short message and they said yes! We shared Because of Him and it was great!

On Wednesday, I MILKED A GOAT!  It was awesome. There is a less-active member who has a goat farm and she makes goat cheese. We went out to help with the milking. It is quite an interesting process. We get them in pens and then have some food for their enjoyment and you have to get the milk going with one squirt and then you put on the milking machine.  When the milking machine is basically done, you have to finish milking them. It took a while to get the hang of it, but it was fun! I was so proud that I could actually do it! After dinner we went to one of our potentials homes and again just offered to share a short message and he said yes! It was great!

Thursday we did service for a single sister in the ward! She is trying to set up a tutoring room so we were helping her organize and decorate! In the evening we talked to this man and he invited us to his backyard with his personal bar.  It was a little weird.  I think we answered some pretty good questions.  We said a prayer with them, so it was good!

 

Friday we had planning and after dinner we had a practice lesson with the same sister we did service for the day before! Then we just went out again finding people to teach. Of course it was the Day we got transfer information, which is always exciting and crazy!

On Saturday we helped on a boy's eagle project at the cemetery. We were cleaning the headstones of veterans to put a veteran sticker on it! It was fun, a little warm, but manageable. Then we were finishing planning and just thinking of ways we could improve our area and our inspiration was to involve the members. We are giving the members spanish pass-along cards and simple spanish phrases and it is just going to be great!  We had our regular coordination meeting with the Ward Mission leader. When we got home we had some excitement, but it was much better in the words of Hermana Hooton, so here it is "Oh, Saturday night, there was a fire! We got home from coordination, smelled smoke (more than we usually smell. The Laytonville fire blazes on), looked over, and saw that the balcony of the apartment where the apartment manager lives was on fire! Very small flames, but still fire. The manager was gone, so one of our neighbors that's recently finished marine boot camp broke down the door and put it out with a fire extinguisher. It looked like minimal damage was done. In the meantime, Sister Andreasen was on the phone with 911. One of our other neighbors apparently does not do well in a crisis. Sister Andreasen was trying to answer the question "What type of fire is it?", and this lady snatched the phone out of Sister A's hand and started shouting at the 911 lady, swearing, and telling her "the red kind! the kind that burns apartments down! Get a fire truck here now!" And then she hung up on them. It was ridiculous. Mid-way through the excitement, Mike the manager shows up saying "I've gotten like 15 pages that my apartment is on fire! What is going on???" But it all worked out, we don't know why the fire started, and no one got hurt. We had some bonding time with our neighbors in the meantime. They actually seem friendlier to us since that night." It was great!

Sunday was great also. After church we presented our idea of involving the members to the bishop and he counseled us of how to improve it and so now we are very excited! I love the ward here and I am so excited to continue on serving! Thank you so much for all that you do! I feel your prayers and support!

Love,

Hermana Cornwall