Travel Bug

This week has been just a week of travel, which is quite unusual for a missionary. On Thursday we went to New Orleans for a Doctor's appt, Friday we went to New Iberia for ZTM and Saturday we went to Baton Rouge for a Stake Youth Temple Trip/Activity. Needless to say, I'm sick of driving and just want to visit people :) 

 

A summary of my week-

Monday-

Preparation Day. Honestly I can't even remember what all happened. So many things happened this week and it's all running together. I think we just ran errands and stuff. We also used part of the day to help a member move.

 

Tuesday- 

More moving. Then a few awesome lessons followed by dinner with all the missionaries at Sister Vinning's house. She is the Relief Society President and she's awesome. She told us all to be at her house Tuesday night for dinner and to discuss her new idea for missionary work. Well, dinner was delicious. Homemade gumbo, potato salad and rolls. I love me some good gumbo!!!! I know I'm going to miss gumbo when I come home. Then she proposed her idea. She wants to start with one inactive/less active family at a time. We will all pray and discuss which family should come that week then the appropriate missionaries will come to Sister Vinning's house to have dinner and a lesson. Yay for member missionary work!!!!!!!!!!!! We are all super excited by her desire to do missionary work! 

 

Wednesday- 

A few awesome lessons with some less active members then an incredible youth activity at night. For some reason they call it youth activity here instead of mutual. Anyway, we arranged for President Jordan to come down (he lives in Franklin, about 30 mins away) so he could do temple recommend interviews with the girls so they could go on the temple trip. We had three girls that came, (which is huge for here). All three had their interviews and we had an awesome lesson about the temple. After youth activity we headed to New Orleans. The drive was super scary. The fog was so thick that you could barely see a few feet in front of you. Plus we live out in the middle of nowhere with no street lights. Thankfully we made it safely to the New Orleans area. We stopped at the hospital to see Hermana Hillstead and Hermana Walker. My new companion, Hermana Toleafoa was Hna Hillstead's trainer and I was with Hna Walker for 7 months. Hna Hillstead is a visa waiter trying to get to Argentina but it's a good thing she was here in America to have an appendectomy!!!! We were both so grateful to be able to see them during this time! 

 

Thursday-

The morning started with a doctor's appointment for me with my neurologist. He wants me to have Botox. Yes, I'm 22 and getting Botox. haha. Not your normal Botox to get rid of wrinkles, but to paralyze the nerves to try and stop my constant headache. Then we went back to visit and help Hna Hillstead and Hna Walker. She was released from the hospital but President Wall asked that they go to the mission home for a few days while Hna Hillstead recovered. It was perfect that we were there to help them. Hna T stayed in the car with Hna Hillstead, since she couldn't walk up 3 flights of stairs, and I went upstairs to help Hna Walker pack suitcases for them. Then they headed off to Baton Rouge and we headed back to Morgan City. It was such a blessing to have my doctor's appt when I did. It was wonderful to see them both! and I pray that Hna Hillstead recovers quickly! 

 

We have a new Spanish family that we are teaching!!!!! We are both super excited about that. We have an investigator, Maria, that lives 2 apartment buildings down from us. The sisters had been teaching her for awhile but we decided to ask if she knew anyone else that might be interested in learning about the Gospel. Her response was, "Yeah, go teach all my neighbors." There are 4 doors on that floor and we are now teaching the people behind 3 of those doors. We have plans to contact the 4th door this evening!!!!! We have so many new Spanish investigators which is super exciting! 

 

Friday-

We headed to New Iberia for Zone Training Meeting (ZTM). It's always fun to be able to see the other missionaries! We had an awesome meeting. The focus was on repentance and becoming a Spirit Led Mission! The Spirit was so incredibly strong through the whole meeting! It was probably my most favorite ZTM that I've had on my mission! 

 

Saturday- 

We headed to Baton Rouge for the Stake Youth Activity/Temple Trip. My GPS got us completely lost but we eventually found our way to the Stake Center! It was so incredible to see all the youth there. There were probably about 70 youth that took time out of their Saturday to attend the temple. Hermana Toleafoa and I were able to help in the baptistry. It was so fun to see all the youth perform the ordinances. There were a lot of first timers!! They were so cute and nervous! It was so rewarding to be able to be in the temple and to help guide the youth. 

 

We also got a new car!!!!!!! That was pretty exciting! The Office Elders met us at the Stake Center and gave us a brand new 2014 Chevy Cruz with only 28 miles on it. It's a huge upgrade from the Malibu that I've been driving that was trashed by previous missionaries. The new car is white with black interior! It's beautiful!!! We are still trying to decide on a name :)  

 

Saturday night we had a lesson with a less active named Debbie. She went on and on about her love for animals. She is also part of an exotic animal lovers group on Facebook. She showed us pictures of Devon, her pet monkey. Yeah! some people actually have monkeys for pets. So bizarre. She showed us tons of pictures of him with bottles, pacifiers, dressed up in normal baby clothes, eating at Subway, etc. He was literally like a son to her. It was nuts!!!! She even had pictures of past missionaries with him! 

Sunday- 

Church was awesome! All of the talks, and lessons were just wonderful. And to top it all off, the Alberts invited all the missionaries over for lunch. They had their grandson, Pudge with them this weekend and he wanted a special dinner for Sunday. After Sister Albert bought all the food he wanted she asked him who was going to help them eat all the food they bought. He told her to invite the missionaries, so that's what they did! We ate TURDUCKEN! hahaha I'd never heard of it but was delicious!! It's a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken then covered in stuffing and herbs. It was awesome! We also had yummy crawfish etouffee. I love me some good southern cookin! 

 

I hope everyone else had a wonderful week! I love and miss you all! 

con amor,

Kim