During the Week of Craziness

On this weeks' episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-Sister Cale was brave and drove clear to Galloway for the Musical Fireside, Exchanges were a Dream, The Sisters learned that everything is about God's timing, and things ended out more than okay. 

Hello My Friends!

I can't believe how fast time goes. Monday's are the best because I get the chance to write to all of you and I get to grocery shop and all of that other good stuff. I'll be honest, I'm glad that this last week is over, if only because it means that we get to try again and continue working towards being better missionaries in this Ohio Land. 

But really, let's just talk about the good things. First, this week had such a remarkable miracle. On Monday night last week while we were planning, I felt like we needed to go contacting on Moore Street. This was pretty funny, because the fact of the matter is that I feel like knocking doors is in general an ineffective use of missionary time and often leads to few results. Planting seeds is so important, but when you have a whole garden to take care of already, it's hard to justify spending a ton of time knocking doors. So, I suggested to Sister Brown that we go and knock on Moore Street and she couldn't decide if she felt like it was a prompting from the spirit or not, but said that we could try it. I knew that it had to be a prompting, because I would never just suggest knocking. When we got to Moore Street on Tuesday evening, we knocked on one door and met a very nice girl who wasn't particularly interested in learning more about the church. We asked if she knew anyone else around who might be interested in a message about Jesus Christ and she pointed to a house across the street and her next door neighbor. We knocked the next few houses and as we were walking towards one of the houses that she had pointed at, Sister Brown waved at an older gentleman in the backyard. Surprisingly he walked up to the fence and started talking to us, and then invited us to come share more of our message with him. I cannot even get over how specific the timing needed to be for that particular interaction to work out. If we hadn't talked in the car for a few minutes about what ways we wanted to approach the doors and what tools we wanted to use, we might not have met Dennis at all. And I also don't know what would have happened if we hadn't happened to catch him outside in his yard. Who knows if he would have answered his door? I thought that we remarkable. And built my confidence in myself that Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. 

We had interviews with President and Sister Daines this week as well. That was such a wonderful experience. I just love them both so much and it was brilliant to be able to receive counsel from them for our area, our companionship, and myself. I don't know if I could be a missionary without a Mission President and his wife. They are just such warm and loving people. And it was wonderful to be able to hear from them that as long as I'm doing my best with training that is all the Lord expects of me. I needed that particular reinforcement from a lot of directions (shout out to Mom and Scott who also sent the same message). Clearly Heavenly Father wanted to make sure that I knew that he accepts my efforts. 

Another lovely wonderful thing this week was exchanges. I really love the Sister Training Leaders who are over our area and it was so nice to be able to talk to someone who has trained and just see what advice she had regarding the process. It was also fun to be with Sister Meecham again, because the last time she came I was so nervous to be in charge of the area and now that's just my life. We got to to go an exercise park by our house for morning schedule, and it will be even more fun to go there when the different challenges aren't frosted over. When Sister Ogletree and Sister Brown came back to Delaware we all went to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (which kind of just made me miss the lost boys, but whatever) and had an awesome conversation about the gospel with our waitress. I love that I'm starting to have relationships with lots of the missionaries. 

Friday I had my first ever kind of tricky companionship inventory, but I'm grateful for the solutions that we were able to reach with each other and the ways that we're going to grow as we work over the hiccups in our companionship. We wrote letters for one of our investigators who is in Michigan this week and she was tickled. Karen is among the sweetest of human beings here in Delaware. She lifts my spirits so much when we go and see her. 

The final awesome thing of the week was getting to sing in the missionary choir for the fireside. I love singing and I don't know why I let myself forget that. It was seriously the best idea ever to go to choir, even if it meant having to drive on Ohio freeways with a gps that doesn't always give the world's most reliable directions (we fondly refer to him as Elder Garmon). 

Well, I love you all. I hope you know that you are amazing and that I think of you often (in a non-distracted fashion). The church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you. 

Love,

Jessica

A Mission in Ohio

Hello Wonderful People!

I honestly am losing all concept of time. I blink and then a whole week is gone and suddenly I'm sitting back at the library getting to hear from all my people. I'm starting to get worried because even though I should be receiving mail and packages, that doesn't appear to be the case. Hopefully Sister Hibbert will let us go to the Post Office after we finish here so we can see what's going on. Please keep trying though. Maybe a miracle will happen and something will get through. 

This last week was an interesting and good one. Our Zone Activity was actually pretty fun (mostly just minute to win it games, and a game of dodge ball that I'm certain was not "white handbook"). I'm glad that we went even if it did mean having things happen a little differently on P-day than we had anticipated. 

I went on my first exchange with Sister Austin, one of the sister training leaders, on Tuesday. It was actually pretty awesome. I'm grateful that I had the chance to see how another missionary approaches the work and how she approaches teaching. It was just cool to have another perspective. Sister Austin is absolutely a kindred spirit and we were fast friends. I've been so grateful for all the times that I've made fast friends as a missionary. It's funny how Heavenly Father works because I really did need to be in Marion with Sister Austin that day. We went to visit a part-member family whose 16 year old son hasn't been baptized because he's terrified of water. It was only when we started visiting with the mom that she explained that he's autistic. I'm going to e-mail Shandra after I'm done e-mailing here and hopefully she'll have an idea about how we can help him. I also got to teach my first restoration lesson while in Marion. It's true that reciting the first vision verbatim really can bring the spirit unlike anything else. It was such a remarkable experience to be able to share the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with two people who had obviously been prepared to hear it. 

The rest of this week has also been really good. In our coordination meeting with the ward mission leader, he mentioned that he thought there were still sisters in Delaware to help a particular inactive family. It was funny because as we were sitting there I felt very much impressed that I was going to be able to be of particular help to this family, even though I really knew nothing about them. When we stopped by to see them on Friday night it became clear that I had in fact been blessed with skills that would make me particularly effective in helping their family. As we talked with the parents, their son came downstairs. Initially it was apparent that he had special needs, but I wasn't sure how I could ask and see if he was autistic without potentially offending the family. Luckily I didn't have to ask and the Dad told us that he is autistic. It was in that moment that I had an even bigger push from the spirit telling me that this obviously was why I was going to be able to help this family. 

I had hoped that I would be able to use my therapist skills as a missionary. The special needs, and particularly the autistic community have such a special place in my heart and it's been really weird not coloring and playing with trains several times a week. I knew it was a miracle when I got the job working for ABS. I knew that Heavenly Father had softened Jeff's heart so he would consider hiring me despite my lack of on paper qualifications. I had never fully understood that getting me out of the call center was not only about helping me be at a place in my life where I could consider going on a mission, but was also about preparing me to be the instrument that the Lord would need in Ohio. Heavenly Father knows exactly what he's doing, and I take great comfort in that as I often have no idea what I'm doing. 

I finished the Book of Mormon this morning. My challenge to all of you is to go and read Mormon 7. It might be my new favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I love how Mormon tells us those things that we need to know and what we'll do as we come to know them. 

Well my dears, the church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you!

Love,

Jessica

Greetings Children of Eden

Hello Remarkable Humans,

I decided to send one of those lovely "send the e-mail to everyone" e-mails this week. I'll try to write the rest of you back individually as well. Time flies during e-mail time. It's super ridiculous. 

In the last week I have survived my second Ohio snowstorm without being converted into a Popsicle (thought I may have discovered that my cute ankle boots aren't really for snow), experienced my first zone training, and checked the air box (what we call our mail box) to find just that...air. Snail mail would be absolutely appreciated for those of you who have a spare moment. (Side note, I was wrong last week when I said that they can forward parcel packages. They can't. They can forward priority packages and first class packages). I know that I'm weird in this way, but things get worse for me as I go longer without hearing from people. I know that other missionaries have the opposite problem, but we always knew that I was probably going to be a little different from the norm. 

With each day I am falling more and more in love with Delaware and the people here. We are currently teaching a handful of people. This is such a blessing because our evenings (when it's coldest) are spent inside the homes of wonderful people, which is preferable to the alternative of trying to contact outside at night when no one wants to open their door to the cold, let alone to two young adults wearing heavy winter coats and black name tags. I am in awe of the capacity that Heavenly Father gives me to love and teach these people as he would have me do, rather than leaving me to rely on those skills that I have previously developed. I am beyond grateful for the skills that I developed before getting out here, but I know that the Lord has magnified them on many occasions to help me be more effective.

Sister Hibbert is awesome. I know that she really was always meant to be my trainer. We have such a great companionship and I'm grateful that we feel comfortable enough with each other to share those things that we're having a hard time with and then lift one another up. I'm impressed by the fact that no matter where our conversation starts (family, friends, musicals, Doctor Who) we always loop back to the gospel. This is funniest late at night (that is to say any time after 10:25) as we are trying to finish up journal writing and go to sleep. We just always have more to say to each other and often just have to make ourselves stop talking so we can wake up the next day as slightly coherent human beings who will be able to be focused missionaries by 8:00 for personal study. 

We got to volunteer at the Delaware Historical Society this week, which was super fun. It was a little weird when Ralph had us get on computers to attach images to the documentation about each artifact, but it was also really cool. I loved seeing the pictures and wondering what the stories were behind each item. While we were there the other volunteers were busy identifying an army uniform that ended up being from the Spanish American War. I thought that Dad would have loved to see that and all of the other things that they have from different time periods. 

We can do family history for a few hours a week, so if any of you would like to find me stories to type into Family Search that would be great. I finally got Grandmother connected to her parents on my chart which felt like a major success. We are probably going to try to meet with our ward  family history specialist so we can get an intro into how to actually do family history work. It would be cool to know enough to actually get things done. Dad, do you remember which family history site had the information about the writers and what not? I would really like to look at that again. 

Today we have a Zone Activity. It should be fun, but it does mean that a large chunk (try four hours) of our P-day has been commandeered by missionary pirates in the name of what sounds like Fear Factor Games and Bowling. So that will be good. It's not like I wanted a nap today or anything :). It honestly really will be good to have a chance to get to know the missionaries in our Zone in a more casual setting. We also have exchanges tomorrow. It seems pretty likely that I'll be going up to Marion for twenty-fourish hours as Sister Hibbert is the designated Delaware driver.

I want to hear about what is happening in everyone's lives. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I need to know what is going on in people's lives. Like I said earlier, I'm a weird one and I get more homesick and less focused as I don't hear from people. I believe in snail-mail! And I believe in all of you :)

I hope everything is going great at home, with work, and with those people you get to associate with. I love you all!

The Church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you.

Love,

Sister Cale

P.S. If you want something kind of nifty to think about go and find the chapter in 3 Nephi where the people start to reason away the signs that they saw that were in preparation for Christ's birth. I think it's really interesting that the only thing that we can't reason away is a personal witness of the truth of the gospel. All the signs in the world will amount to nothing sooner or later if we don't have a personal knowledge. 

First Week in Ohio

Hello Wonderful Humans,

Being in Ohio is simultaneously one of the strangest and one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. So let's start from the beginning and I'll see if the MTC Brain is going away yet. Monday night was a weird mixture of pride and sad as we said goodbye to our Elders who were going to be leaving for Utica at 3:30 the next morning. It's funny how quickly you can grow to love people as you spend time with them. I feel like I've known the peeps in my MTC district for very nearly my whole life. Tuesday night we had a second apostle for our devotional. Elder Ballard came and spoke to us about, you can guess it, missionary work. It's a good thing that I'm starting to enjoy this work, because I honestly don't know if I could stand to hear about it so often otherwise. Tuesday night we finished our packing and were miraculously able to be in bed for a four hour nap at 10:30. 

Talking to you guys at the airport was such a tiny miracle for me. I know that for other missionaries, they wouldn't be able to remain focused on their work if they were allowed to talk to their families every two weeks, but man it would sure work out okay for me. Being the travel leader was stressful. I kind of doubt that other missionaries would feel as stressed out by it as I did, but it was stressful all the same. The height of the stress happened at the Detroit Airport when we had to get from Gate A7 to C11 and only had forty five minutes until our flight was going to take off. THAT AIRPORT IS FREAKING MASSIVE. We didn't realize that there was a tram until we were very nearly to the location where we would have gotten off anyway. Then a bunch of the Elders in our group wandered off to find food even though our plane was going to be boarding in all of five minutes. Conveniently our second flight was a tiny commuter flight, so it wasn't a long boarding process. We did spend nearly an hour on the tarmac before take off to get our wings de-iced and all that jazz. The flight was smooth and I was a neurotic mess. During our first flight, I had slept on and off and was fairly calm. By the time flight two was happening I was all but convinced that it would be okay to buy a plane ticket to Nashville and call you and tell you that this just wasn't my thing and that I was coming home. I'm such a scaredy cat sometimes (and let's be real, Satan REALLY doesn't want me on a mission). But Cales are woosies, not quitters, so I didn't do that. 
At the bottom of the escalator where we would pick up our luggage President and Sister Daines were waiting. I absolutely love them. Their sixteen year old daughter Emily was there to take pictures of us and help with our luggage. After loading our luggage into the trailer, the assistants took us to OSU. We went to the institute building where I momentarily felt like I could breathe because it seemed that we were just going to do some sort of orientation or what not. No such luck. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by the fact that they were going to have us get to work immediately. Blah. They assigned us temporary companions in experienced missionaries and had us go place Books of Mormon. Not like that's at all stressful. I'm honestly finding that being a missionary is about opening your mouth without worrying about how the people you talk to are going to respond. Our trio was one of the only one to place every Book of Mormon we had been sent out with (one apiece). The first guy that I talked to was totally disinterested in the Book of Mormon, but he did take our phone number in the event that he needed help with something or changed his mind. While the idea of the experience was painful, the actuality of doing wasn't that bad. It was planting seeds. I'm a good planter. 

After our OSU throw you in the deep end of the pool experience we went back to the mission home for pictures and dinner. President had smoked a brisket for over fourteen hours in preparation for our arrival. Since all I had eaten all day was some hummus and pretzel chips with some Dr. Pepper, I was pretty excited to eat. The food was not only absolutely welcome, it was real and delicious and not MTC food, so that's brilliant. After dinner we had some additional instruction time and role played extending baptismal offers. It turns out that I'm absolutely on board with extending the offer of baptism in the first lesson because of how we do it. If I had been smarter and read Preach My Gospel I would have known and consequently wouldn't have been so alarmed by the proposition. After our brief instructional time they sent us to bed. I showered, briefly wrote in my journal, prayed, closed my eyes, and then next thing I knew it was morning again. 

We got ready for the day and went to transfer meeting. Transfer Meeting is seriously insane. Tons of missionaries, tons of luggage, and changes. To start we had another quick meeting with President and the other couple missionaries to give us some additional information about our Missionary Funds, apartments, and general expectations. President Daines loves the rules, but he loves the rules because they provide blessings and safety. (I'm also happy to report that the crazy lists were written by the previous President, President Nielson/Nelson?). After we had our brief orientation they invited the trainers into the room. We role played more baptismal offers with random trainers and that was okay too. There's so much about being a missionary that is just accepting what is about to happen and doing. For the actual transfer meeting we went into the chapel and sat down. It was really interesting to watch all the missionaries who know and love each other. The people of Ohio love their missionaries so much that they come to transfer meetings to see who is going where and see missionaries that have left their areas. I never even considered going to a transfer meeting in Utah. The new missionaries sat on the left side of the stand and the departing missionaries sat on the right side of the stand. It was kind of awkward to be sitting there staring out at the rest of the missionaries sitting in the pews. The Assistants took turns reading out new assignments and people shuffled around and made room for each other. My companion is Sister Hibbert and she is a kindred spirit. She loves Disney, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. We get along swell! After all the transfers were read we sang the mission song, which was also way cooler than I had anticipated and then the departing missionaries bore their testimonies. We sang "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again" which seemed fitting as they say that if you are companions with someone the transfer before they leave you "kill them off". In twelve weeks I'll be committing missionary murder as Sister Hibbert goes home. 

Our area is Delaware. It's a cute town, though I'll be honest I really have no concept for the size. I love our investigators so much already. They are remarkable humans and it is such a blessing to be invited into their lives and homes to share the gospel with them. Our ward is incredible. We have had meals from members every single night so far. They are really excited about missionary work and have a ward mission plan. We get to go to the Relief Society Activity tomorrow night and help the sisters with their Family Mission Plans. Somehow I feel like Utah understands just how involved members can be in missionary work and how instrumental they are. They seem to really understand that here in Ohio. 

Last night we got to sing in the Missionary Choir at the Missionary Musical Fireside. Our guest speaker was Elder D. Todd Christopherson. Yes, you read that right, this sister missionary heard from three general apostles in three weeks. How spoiled am I? He was incredible and really said some things that were applicable to the concerns and blocks that our investigators are currently experiencing. Two of our investigators were even there, so that was perfect. Our recent convert got to shake Elder Christopherson's hand and say hello. It was a really cool evening. In addition to the awesomeness that was our missionary fireside, it snowed last night. The children of Ohio are enjoying a snow day today.

How is unpacking going?

Ethan, tell me about school! (assuming you figure out the immunization thing). How is early morning seminary? And the guys in the ward? 

I'm so glad to hear that you're all doing well. Keep sending scriptures that you like. I'm keeping track of the things people send to me :)

I love you all so much, but I forgot that I'm supposed to write President first, so I have to go do that now. 

The church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you. 

Love,

Jessica

The Sister Missionary and the Tower

Hello Wonderful Human Beings,

I can't believe that it's Monday again! I really am sort of convinced that the MTC exists within some sort of temporal wormhole or something. Things here are honestly very wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey. The spirit here really is incredible. It's this omnipresent experience, which is honestly pretty cool (even if it is weird to go to the temple and not feel this rush of peace). The MTC, for all of its goodness is also a place where if you don't intentionally plan to see the sky, because of the covered walkways, you won't. Yesterday the sun was shining and the weather was warm. It was honestly so beautiful just to feel the sun and breathe fresh air. I think we're starting to get used to the schedule. I think I'm just going to have to accept that six-thirty is always going to feel inhuman, even when you go to bed at ten-thirty. The waking up and going to bed on time are easily the hardest parts of the schedule. Six hours of specific class instruction time a day is a lot, but I'm a good student, so it's honestly not that big of a deal for me. Lessons with investigators fly by. Study time can often feel long, primarily because we need to study Preach My Gospel in order to be more prepared for our lessons, but what we'd really like to do is just read the Book of Mormon. By the time you get done with all of your daily schedule things you have so much thinking and writing to do that it's really hard to shower, get ready for bed, and be done writing in your journal by ten thirty. We did way better on that front this week than we did last week. Despite our improvement on that front, waking up got harder and harder every day, but we did it and now we only have two more wake up's at the MTC (one of which has to happen at two thirty in the morning, so that's chill). 

Our devotional speaker on Tuesday night was Elder Russell M. Nelson. He talked to us about how the message of the gospel is one of joy and that we should make sure to reflect that in our countenances. "Who would want to be like someone who is grumpy?" he asked. I think it really is a fair point. I've been trying to catch myself in those moments where I haven't been as happy to remind myself that what is happening here really is about joy. 

I was one of the "lucky" two people in our Branch who got to speak in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. I was once again grateful for all the practice I had giving impromptu speeches in debate and was even more grateful that this last week's assigned topic was the Book of Mormon. It's hard not to have good things to say about the Book of Mormon. I decided to talk about how I know that the Book of Mormon can transform the lives of our investigators because without it, I wouldn't be standing and speaking at the MTC. I would most likely sitting in a car next to my little brother, driving to Kentucky. Even though I really would have loved to be with you guys in moving, or maybe with Tiny in Utah, I am in many ways grateful to be here as a missionary. I wouldn't say that I'm totally sold on the experience thus far, but I have felt confirmation of my decision in many different instances. Sometimes I wonder if Heavenly Father is going to get sick of me asking if I'm doing okay and doing as he would have me do, but at the same time, I feel like he knew that was going to happen when he asked that I serve a mission, so I don't feel all that bad. I'm giving the experience everything that I have and then some.

I've been thinking a lot about our family in the last few days and about all the ways our lives have and are changing. I look at all the changes and I am dumbfounded by how much is changing in such a short time. I also look at all our changes and I feel such a calm reassurance that what we are doing is what Heavenly Father has planned for us. I'm not really sure what it is about Utah for the Tiny (okay, I kind of have some idea that it probably has to do with a certain Ginger boy), Kentucky for the parentals and the baby brother (I really have no idea on this one), and Ohio for me (okay, I have a lot of an idea about this one), but I know that God can see the whole plan and it is what each of us needs. The greatest comfort for me during the last week has been that even though I can't be there to help, I know that Heavenly Father is watching out for and taking care of each of you. If I didn't know that I might have pulled a Princess Jasmine and climbed the palace walls to make sure everything was okay. 

Please keep sending mail! Mail is the life-preserver that keeps me afloat on this sometimes calm, and often stormy mission sea. It was perfect to feel connected to my dear ones. Dad, I'm seriously so glad that we were safe driving to Kentucky. I am even more glad that you are safe now. Heavenly Father must know that if anything happened to you, I'd be outta here. Mom, it sounds like your week was crazy, but good. I'm glad that Alain wanted to help but I'm also glad that you recognized that it was okay to allow the movers to do the packing as that is what they are paid to do. How did everything go with the move? Did the house-signing-away meeting go okay? How are my tiny humans? Ethan-thank you SO much for the message, even if it was just a short one. I hope that your math test went well and that Putnam rocked (you'll be happy to know that I've been singing it in my head all week, but only this part, because this is what I know "at the twenty fifth annual, Putnam County Spelling Bee..."). I e-mailed grandmother back at her outlook e-mail. If someone could do me a solid and just make sure she got it, that would be splendid. 

Our investigators here at the MTC are either people in our district, our teacher pretending to be an investigator they had while on their mission, or members being themselves before they were converted or without the gospel. In a lot of ways I'm really grateful that they don't just let rookie missionaries loose on people who are truly interested in the gospel. We make way way way too many mistakes to be effective. I'm also really grateful for the practice of teaching. Sister Gustaveson and I have gotten pretty good at being able to share the teaching time with one another and look at each other when one of us gets stuck so the other person can pick things up where we left off. Companions are essential to successful teaching. I'm learning that as I focus on how the Savior loves my investigator, everything else seems to fall into place. It's a tricky lesson for me, because I do love words so much that I want to say things in the perfect way, but as I act in faith the spirit provides the right words for me and we make progress. 

I've been praying a lot for all of you this week. I hope that the heartache and ugh-ness of the move and everything are okay. Starting Wednesday I'm going to be in Ohio! I bought a calling card, so expect a call from the airport sometime Wednesday morning. We are flying Delta first to Detroit (flight 1950 departing at 7:30 and arriving at 1:03) and then onto Ohio (flight 6115 departing at 1:45 and arriving in Columbus as 2:44) . 

Well, my brain is officially fried and I'm not honestly sure what else I should say. I really love you guys! I know that things probably feel hard and awful right now, but Heavenly Father is watching out for us. 

The Church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you!

Love,

Jessica

P.S. Plan on pictures when I'm in a place where computers actually work :)

Tiny Miracles and My Life in this Place So Far

Onward Ever Onward Onto the Stuff that is my Life

Like I said in my quick e-mail home, my companion is Sister Gustaveson. She reminds me of Kilee Quigley, which made things feel super familiar and comfortable right away. I am so glad that we get along and don't have issues the way that some companionships do. We currently have two "investigators" that we're working with-here at the MTC they aren't super big on letting you tip-toe into the water. Instead we've been thrown out into the middle of the ocean and have to find our way to the lifeboat as we teach. Things are getting better as we have more class time instruction too learn about the fundamentals of missionary work. Each class you learn something that leaves you saying something along the lines of, "Well wouldn't that have been cool if I had known that two hours ago". The role playing really is effective in terms of learning how to do things though and I have been increasingly grateful for all the time I spent in debate learning how to talk to walls without feeling dumb and faking it until I make it. 

Our district is split exactly in half-our four Elders (Elder Burton, Elder Saunders, Elder Peterson, and Elder McCausland) are going to the New York Eudeka  Mission; the sisters (Sister Roundy, Sister Taysom, Sister Gustaveson, and I) are going to Columbus. It's been really nice as we've gotten to know each other to know that we will also get to see each other in the field from time to time. We are officially to the place where everything and anything is funny and had our first district prayer the other night where we were all laughing so hard that it took an extra five minutes to make the prayer happen. Elder McCausland loves musical theatre so he jokes that we're basically the same person. It's nice to know someone else who will catch my musical theatre jokes. I'm keeping a list of the funny things that have been said that make us laugh, because as time goes on we are getting more and more ridiculous. I think those moments are so important because they remind us that we are, in addition to being missionaries, human beings. 

I saw Sister Tyler (one of the Sister's from my mission prep class) on my first day here. She was being a host so I got to say hi. It was so nice to see a familiar face and get to talk to her, even it was only for thirty seconds. My big tiny miracle happened yesterday after Relief Society. All day long I was feeling so drained and exhausted by all the work we've been doing (our time here is all about learning and we don't have any free time or honestly even enough time to write hurriedly in your journal at the end of the night). To give you a specific sort of idea about where I was mentally and emotionally, as we walked up to our classroom for personal study time I told Sister Gustaveson that I was feeling like a princess locked in a tower. So as Relief Society got over I heard someone calling my name, "Sister Cale!" and I turned around and there was my Souer (Sister) Kylie Wilson friend. I cannot even begin to say how much it felt like a miracle to see one of my people and get to hug her (even though technically we're not supposed to hug because it's flu season...we did anyway-we live dangerously). It was so nice to see someone that knows enough about me that I don't have to give an expositional statement before I tell a story or give a comment. 

The Sunday Devotional last night was given by Victoria's father-in-law President Heaton. Jeff's little brother Russell got up and bore his testimony to this massive gymnasium full of missionaries. It was one of the sweetest things that I have ever witnessed. It also made me miss all of my favorite Tiny Humans (even though he's obviously way older than them, I'm sure you get it). After that my other big tiny miracle happened during our "Sunday Night Film Viewing Time". Initially our district had planned to go see "Meet the Mormons" as several of our members hadn't seen it yet, but the missionaries from the other district in our branch said that "Character of Christ" is not to be missed and is so good. I had read that on a blog post somewhere or other and our district decided to go. I'm so glad that we did because it was honestly exactly what I needed. "The Character of Christ" was a Christmas Devotional at the MTC given by Elder Bednar. Go look it up and watch it, because even though he was speaking to missionaries, the principles are the kinds of things that can change our lives. Like I said earlier, I had spent my day feeling frustrated that I hadn't had enough time to recharge and that things were so busy that I felt super spent. Teaser trailer for the devotional at one point Elder Bednar very directly said, "Get over yourself. It's not about you, so get out of the way". I love the way that apostles of God can say things so directly while never making you question their love. Anyway, I don't think I would at all be exaggerating to say that my life was probably changed by that talk, and my mission absolutely was. 

I'm starting to understand that P-day is secretly a code for day full of lots of stuff to do where you still have to have class at 6 PM. This morning we got up and got ready at 6:30 as usual and then had our personal study time and breakfast. We had a little time after that to do as we wished, so Sister Gustaveson and I went and cleaned up our room a bit...and by cleaned up our room I mean that I took a nap and Sister Gustaveson wrote in her journal and fixed her hair. We walked to the temple and did an endowment session. I LOVE THE TEMPLE. I also love walking to the temple because there is something incredibly liberating about being outside of the MTC gates for even just a few minutes (on Sunday's we get to go on Temple Walks, so we've done that twice now). It probably feels so liberating because most of the pathways here on the MTC campus are covered, so unless you make a concerted effort, you can pretty much go all day without seeing the sky. People need to see the sky. It's good for the soul. We came back and had lunch, had some companion study time and now I'm here writing you. At 3:30 we get to go and do laundry, which should be super fun, after which we have dinner and then class. 

Even though things here are really hard and exhausting in every possible way, things are also really good. Sister Roundy made an interesting observation as we sat in the waiting room of the temple for the Elders to get dressed again. She said that the spirit of the temple still felt good, but she didn't feel as much of the overwhelming difference as she would when she was home. And for all my joking about being locked in a tower and the reality of feeling exhausted by the demands of being a missionary, I'm here learning on sacred ground and that feels pretty remarkable. Our teachers are always telling us to ask Heavenly Father for the answers that we need and make Him the person that we turn to first when we have something we would like to further understand or know. It's amazing how that shift in perspective opens the windows of heaven for us to receive revelation. 

I hope that everything goes smoothly with the move this weekend and that the Tiny one is okay. Tell my sibling loves that I really love them and miss them like a million. I mean, I feel that way about all my friendlies actually. Tell Ethan to tweet the roadtrip to Kentucky and keep the same hashtag on everything. I want to be able to read about it when I get home. Oh, and don't forget to play eye spy in Wyoming and Nebraska, it's a total blast. 

Things are crazy here and I fear that I'm already starting to have missionary brain, but I'm really grateful for the experiences that I'm having and more than anything for the strength of the Savior's love that is present in this weird place. 

The church is true, life is good, God's in charge, and Satan hates you. 

Also, I really love you!

Love,

Sister Cale

P.S. Tell the friends and the sibling peeps to write. I miss them and want to know how their lives are. 

P.P.S. Also, I wrote E-bugs candy gram note in the car on the way to the MTC and put it back in the front of that notebook. I hope you still have it or have already given it to  him. 

The Week. Cool

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-Sister Cale taught a two year old to love Ammon, we saw the miracle of divine placement, Sister Cale found the TARDIS and resisted the urge to run away with the Doctor (pictures to follow on a week when I remember to bring my camera cord), Sister Cale continued to have no idea what she was doing and looked forward to exchanges for the first time EVER. 

Hey Wonderful Humans,

It has been a seriously crazy kind of week. Being a trainer is rough. I don't think it would always necessarily be rough, but the last week with Sister Brown has been trickier than I initially anticipated. I think there were two days this last week that I didn't make her cry. Yeah, I've become the kind of person who unintentionally makes people cry when trying to help build that person up. It's been a special kind of hard. I think it's remarkable that Sister Brown is here on her mission as a convert. She forgets that she does in fact know enough, so when I ask a question (trying to set her up for success) and she doesn't know the answer, she cries. I get it. I would cry too. I just hate that my questions seem to be the catalyst for that particular reaction. If it were possible to just not teach the doctrines in Preach My Gospel, I would drop it entirely; however, it is crucial to know the doctrines within the Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want her to see that she can and does have the understanding that she needs to share the gospel with those we come in contact with. She has such a wonderful perspective to look at our investigators and empathize with how they feel. And I know that if she will just trust herself, and trust Heavenly Father that she will be able to have the understanding that she needs. Needless to say, any prayers sent in our direction would be greatly appreciated. We need all the the help we can get. 

Aslan has finally arrived in Ohio...sort of...and spring seems to be here. I don't know if I just didn't notice blossoms on trees before in Utah, or if we just didn't have as many blossoming trees, but things here are getting gorgeous. I find that I particularly love magnolia blossoms. SO PRETTY! I have been so excited to see that Ohio really isn't just a wasteland with skeleton armed trees and dull skies. Things are getting green, we see the sun from time to time, and I haven't had to wear my coat in almost two weeks. Major wins my friends. 

One of the coolest things that happened this last week was that when we went to teach Gabbie, who is a recent convert, she had invited a non-member friend over. The way that everything worked out really was through divine help. The whole way over to Gabbie's Sister Brown, Sam, and I had been discussing what message to share with Gabbie and couldn't really come up with anything. When we got to her home and got out of the car I looked and them both and told them that this was clearly one of those instances where we just needed to have enough faith and the spirit would direct us as to what message to share. They both looked at me like I was insane. I'm not. We're promised as missionaries that when we have the spirit and open our mouths that we will have the words given to us that we need. When we got inside Gabbie told us that she had invited Donna to come over and we still didn't really establish a specific message to share with her. When Donna came I was able to witness and take part in the miracle that was being an instrument in the Lord's hands. We ended up teaching about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible are meant to complement and testify of one another and bore testimony that she could know that the Book of Mormon was true for herself. Sam (who is actually one of our investigators who can't be baptized because her parents want her to wait until she's eighteen), shared the story of Lehi's dream and about how we are best able to reach Heavenly Father by holding onto the rod. It was one of the coolest teaching experiences that I've been part of up to this point in my mission. I'm really excited to get back together with Donna and teach her The Restoration this week. 

Among other cool things that happened, I taught the Law of Chastity for the first time ever to a sixty four year old man and his recent convert step-father. That wasn't awkward at all...haha. It was honestly really okay. Sister Morgan came to our lesson with us and was such an additional support when Dan was giving us push back about what the difference between pornography and classical art is. He was of course just being stubborn to be stubborn, because that's what he does, but I was glad Sister Morgan was there all the same. 

One of my favorite people in all of Delaware is Karen. She is seriously the sweetest little old lady. She has actually started listening to us teach the lessons, and even though the only thing that we got through this week was The Pre-Earth Life, it is still such a pleasure to teach her. She wanted to know if the doctrine about our forgetting before we came to Earth was something that was revealed through Joseph Smith or if it was in the scriptures. I didn't know at the time, but now I know that we can find talk of the veil in Ecclesiastes, Hebrews, and Ether. I'm so grateful for the scriptures, and especially for the topical guide, index, and bible dictionary. I'm also glad that I don't have to have all the answers. Karen is honestly one of my Ohio Grandparents (I'm going to have to start a club and they can get t-shirts or jackets or something). She is so sweet and helped to lift me up and make me feel good about my efforts in a week when I have otherwise felt rather lowsy about everything. I'm grateful for the angels that Heavenly Father has placed in my path to tell me to keep going and that I'm doing great. 

On our way to the mission office on Tuesday, Sister Brown and I drove past the TARDIS. Of course, we had to stop on our way back. There was no sign of the Doctor, but that's probably best as I would have been tempted to kidnap him and run away. People in time and space probably need the Gospel of Jesus Christ too, right? It was fun to find a little bit of wibbly-wobbly magic in my corner of the world. 

Well friends, it's been a crazy sort of week. Hopefully this next week will be a different kind of crazy and I won't sound so melodramatic in my e-mail. I love you all so much!

The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge, and Satan Hates You (trust me, as a missionary I get to see how much Satan hates us, but I also get to see the mercies of Heavenly Father and how much he loves us. It ends up being a pretty fair exchange). 

Jessica

The Week Where I Might Have Been Done Training‏

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Delaware: someone thought it would be a good idea for Sister Cale to train a brand new missionary, it rained a ton (which was AWESOME), she realized that her Dad wasn't in the house to protect her from the super loud thunder, she sent her first companion back home to Idaho, she found out that driving, like jeans, can be kind of humanizing, and groceries just got a whole lot more expensive because her companion would rather just buy her own stuff. 

Wow Guys!

This week has been a seriously crazy sort of thing. After e-mailing last week we got a call from the Assistants and they asked for me. At first I kind of had to wonder what I had broken. They asked about how training had gone and wanted to know how I was doing. I should have lied and said that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing and then maybe things would have gone differently (I doubt it, but I can pretend). Well then he said that he had someone who wanted to talk to me, which mostly just had me confused. A moment later, President Daines got on the phone and asked me basically the same questions. Then he said that they would like for me to train a new missionary. I was so shocked that I honestly didn't even know how to respond, so I said yes, because that seemed the most appropriate. I had thought that I was either going to be transferred out of Delaware or I would be receiving a new companion who was an experience missionary in Delaware. So that really changed how I had felt about the upcoming transfer. Instead of feeling freaked out, I felt super freaked out. So I prayed a lot and things ended up being okay. I just think that this much prayer will likely become the norm in my life. 

Since I was asked to be a trainer, that meant that our last actual day for proselyting was kind of thrown off because I had to be in Powell for a training at the mission home. Training at the mission home was both good and alarming. It's a really big responsibility to train a new missionary and it was super scary to know that even though I have honestly just been pretending that I know what I'm doing and listening to the spirit as it directs, that I was going to have to do that and hopefully not mess up another missionary's entire mission (they seriously said that could happen). The rest of our Tuesday was pretty and we were able to get around to see a lot of our sweet people so that Sister Hibbert could say goodbye. 

Wednesday was some kind of wonky and crazy as we prepped the apartment for a new missionary and got Sister Hibbert packed to go home. It was bittersweet and we were both just exhausted. As a fun part of our day we did buy a lego set together that is now sitting on my desk (Rapunzel's tower). We had a Harry Potter themed dinner with one of the families in the ward with bangers and mash (circa year five), Fleur DeLacouer green beans, super yummy chocolate cake, and of course butterbeer. It was so fun. And they have an autistic son so I was having a blast talking to him as he showed me his homework and what not. 

Thursday was transfers and it was all sorts of crazy because we had to be there early for me to be there for the new missionary orientation part. It was really sad when Sister Hibbert had to go and sit on the stand, but I was excited since I had met the three new Sisters. Transfer meeting is really fun. I love getting to watch all the missionaries react when they hear their new companion's name announced. Elders are so funny about who they get paired up with and there were several assignments that had the whole room laughing at their reactions. 

My new companion is Sister Brown from Gig Harbor, Washington, which is near Tacoma. We've seen a lot of really cool things happen as we have gone out and gotten to the Lord's work. Honestly, I have no idea how we accomplished all the things that we did in the last four days, especially because I'm honestly still figuring out the swing of things myself. We found two new investigators and have had chances to teach so many different people. I feel such an added pressure to make sure that we are doing everything right and according to Preach My Gospel as a trainer. I want to make sure that Sister Brown has the best start of her mission possible. 

One of the coolest experiences of this past week is that after we had stopped and taught a less active sister that some of the Elder's found back in January, we were walking out of the building and found one of our new investigators. I almost just walked out the door, but had a very distinct impression that I needed to turn around and talk to the woman sitting on the stairs. I had no idea why and at the time chalked it up to needing to be a good example to Sister Brown. As we talked to her we were basically able to teach the Plan of Salvation in the hall and were able to schedule a return appointment with her. Since when do things like that happen? 

It's been really cool to see how much good Sister Brown is going to be able to do for the people that we are working with, once she decides that she feels comfortable talking in front of them. I know that this is really going to be quite the growing experience for me and I'm excited to see where I'm at when the next thirteen weeks are over. 

The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge (no seriously, God is really in charge and sometimes he does things that you never even considered as possibilities and it changes so much and it's wild and crazy, just look at my week), and Satan hates you. 

Love you!

Jessica

In The Week of Ups and Downs

In this week's episode of Sister Cale in Delaware-Sister Cale self-prescribed some retail therapy and bought a stuffed animal lion (and maybe a unicorn), General Conference Rocked the World, Sister Cale got to see two of her best friends sing, there were moments of stress and moments of complete joy at the miracles God was working, and there was even cheesecake and sugar cookies. 

So, this last week started with our Mormons, Movie, and Munchies Oh My! Movie Night. All I know is that by the time the four of us got to OWU Campus we were clearly all stressed out messes masquerading as composed disciples of Jesus Christ. We had all been working so hard to get word out about our event and things had been so busy and we all knew that despite all of that, that things really could just go wholly and entirely wrong. We were worried that we weren't going to have enough treats, the Elders were worried about making sure that Meet the Mormons was going to work, and we were all concerned that we weren't even going to have people show up. Add that on top of a day where we had all been scrambling about trying to get all of our normal p-day things done and it makes sense that we were all kind of over it. Of course the movie night ended up going well. We didn't have as much student attendance as we might have hoped for, but we did have a great turn out from ward members, less actives, and investigators. And beyond that, I'm pretty sure that a large part of the reason that we needed to have the movie night was so the four of us could be reminded of those things that the spirit would teach us during Meet the Mormons. I have to admit that I teared up during the Candy Bomber as I thought of Dad and the Missionary Mom hit me much harder this time than it did at the MTC. But I was also reminded by Vishnu that we just need to be perfect in trying and was grateful to be reminded that even though this mission separation thing is very real, it is not final. 

In spite of the stress from the day before, after pulling together some thank you notes for everyone who had helped with the event, we went out to work on Tuesday. I know that when we go and do the things that we have planned as missionaries, even when it's hard, and maybe especially when it's hard, we are blessed. We met a man named John who had the coolest cross necklace that I have ever seen. It's a silhouette of the cross, so it looks like what one of the other men who was crucified at Calvary would have seen looking over at the Savior. We gave him a "Because He Lives" card and were grateful to have met him. We had dinner with the adorable George Family that night and Sister George sent us home with cheesecake. 

We had an awesome Zone Training Meeting Wednesday morning where the Elders told us that it was good that we had done our movie night when we did, because Meet the Mormons isn't going to be able to be used for proselyting because of copyright. I'm so grateful that we had our movie night when we did. Wednesday was incredible because the weather was finally warm enough for us to teach outside. We had both of our lessons outside in the sun and it became very clear that getting people into physical light increased their ability to recognized the spiritual light that we were sharing. Sister Hibbert's primary had sent her the Easter Egg activity with all the different symbols surrounding Christ's birth and death, so we used that for multiple lessons and were grateful to see that we seemed to have better responses when we had visual aids for many of the people that we're working with. I'm not sure how that's going to play out entirely, but I'm excited to have the chance to be creative and get to work. At coordination meeting that night I asked Brother Mills, our ward mission leader, for a blessing. I was still seeing some of the residual effects of the stress that I had been under nearly constantly and knew that it was time for additional Heavenly input and help. I am so grateful for the priesthood power and the way it illuminates my life. I was promised in the blessing that there would be specific counsel and talks given for me during General Conference if I would listen. 

Easily the highlight for me this week was General Conference. I was given the counsel I had been promised and more. I so grateful for Modern Day prophets who receive revelation for the church. I am also very grateful for the families in the ward who let us come and watch conference with them. Being around the families in the ward is one of the biggest blessings, probably because they're the closest I can get to being at home. I can't believe how much I have been blessed with good people to surround me and love me while I'm here in Ohio. Though none of them could ever replace any of you, I'm glad to have found more people to love. 

I'm both excited and nervous for this upcoming week as we have transfers. Please send mail, but if you send it before Wednesday, send it to 19 Clairedan Drive Powell OH 43065. I won't know until sometime Wednesday if I'm getting transferred or not. I'll try to send out a quick e-mail Wednesday afternoon just to let you all know what the status of things are. 

I love you all so much! 

The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge, and Satan Hates You!

 

Love, 

Jessica

In the Week Where We Did EVERYTHING‏

In this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus-Sister Cale and Sister Hibbert worked very hard with the Elders to pull off a movie night (happening tonight-send prayers), taught the Restoration on a doorstep to a teenager who was probably high, tried Whit's Buckeye Madness Custard, taught all over the land, and were amazed by the way that Heavenly Father carried them through everything. 

Hey Loves,

So, basically, having a companion who is going home in a week and a half is tough sometimes. It's hard to help the departing missionary balance between frenzied freakoutness and what not. That's really not too much of struggle for us here, because Heavenly Father has given us so much to do. I don't think there was a single day in this past week where I didn't get home and think, "Wait. What just happened?" After getting home we'd start planning and as we were writing our numbers down for the day it was always rather astonishing to see just how many people we had taught and all the things we had accomplished. I know that we only were able to do those things because we had the help of the Lord.

I am so grateful for all the good things that have happened in the last week. I know that we have seen tiny miracles. Here are just some of them-

In preparation for the movie night on campus tonight "Mormons, Movie, and Munchies Oh My!" (no, I did not title the event...just no) we got to go to Culture Festival last night on campus. Chaplain Powers announced to all the students in attendance that they should come to our event and had us wave. When we got to talk to him after some of the performances, he told us that he had shared with leadership from universities across the U.S. that the Mormon belief system helps guide members in making career choices. He had been presenting at a workshop regarding helping students make career choices for a more fulfilling life and shared with the advisors there about how we believe in personal revelation. Chaplain is easily the best non-member missionary that has ever walked this earth. More than that, I truly am grateful for the knowledge that we're never expected to just rely on what others would tell us, we can and should gain our own personal revelation. 

We also got to start sharing the "Because He Lives" video with people this past week. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, go to helives.mormon.org. It's really cool to be a missionary during the Easter Season, because it seems that people are more open to talking about the Savior. I know that we've been able to testify of Christ much more as we've discussed people's Easter plans and traditions with them. 

In the land of totally new and different experiences for me, we taught a less active family early in the week and I was much more bold than I have previously been. This family had been offended by a Bishop and have not been back to church for nearly seven years. We had felt inspired to share with them a message about the temple and how it brings our families closer together. I know that the things that I said in that lesson did not come from me. I truly was able to see the fulfillment of the promise that as missionaries open their mouths, they will be filled with the necessary words and we'll be able to teach by the spirit. That was very humbling for me. 

General Women's Conference was a bittersweet thing for me. It was very weird not to be sitting with the family and I just missed Mom and Tiny. This missing was not made any easier by the fact that all of the talks were centered around the family. So I miss you all, my family and my chosen family. So much. But I also know that I'm supposed to be here in Ohio right now, even if it is occasionally super hard. I know that doing hard things helps us become who Heavenly Father wants us to be. One of the best realizations that I had as they talked about how our families help us become who Heavenly Father wants us to be is that I have family here in Ohio who are going to help me to become more of who I'm supposed to be. And I really do love my Ohio family. We are surrounded by amazing people here. 

The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge, and Satan hates you!

And I love you all, so much!

Jessica

The Week that Flew By‏

On this week's episode of Sister Cale in Delaware-the sisters worked so hard and did so much that neither of them is entirely sure about what happened during the majority of the week and then performed the Sister's Show ALL Weekend. 

Hello Wonderful Loves!

I am so grateful for the genius that is the modern communication of e-mail. Seriously, I really think I might die if I had to wait for letters all the time (this is by no means a suggestion that anyone should stop sending letters via mail. I LOVE getting letters in the mail. Opening an empty mailbox at the end of a really long day is basically a punch in the face from Satan...or at least, it can become that if you aren't smart enough to tell Satan to shut up.) 

Good and wonderful things have happened this week. We've had the opportunity to teach the first lesson a few times and have been where Heavenly Father needed us to be. I think that's one of the craziest parts about missionary work to me-when we pray about where we're supposed to be, Heavenly Father puts us there. Every single time when our plans change we get a little skeptical and have to wonder if we're doing what we're supposed to, but inevitably we end up being where someone needed us and that really is a remarkable feeling. 

One of our biggest projects this week was getting things pulled together to have a movie night at Ohio Wesleyan. If I haven't bragged about how incredible the Chaplaincy Staff is at OWU, let me proceed to do so again. They are seriously brilliant! I can't get over the fact that they are so willing and excited to help us put on an event. We're calling it "Mormons, Movie, and Munchies, Oh My" and hope that we'll be able to show "Meet the Mormons". The Elders in our ward, Elder Farr and Elder Morris are on movie acquiring detail, so if that doesn't pan out we'll be showing The Testaments. Sister Hibbert drew an amazing sketch of the four missionaries hosting the event (so us and the Zone Leaders) and the Catholic Chaplain Mary printed them out on her big printer for us. We've invited members and they're going to help bring the munchies part of the evening. That will be next Monday night, so stay tuned on how that all turns out. 

This weekend was kind of the Sister Missionary Show. The ward had a talent show on Saturday night, and Sister Hibbert and I signed up to sing after much needling from Sister Padula. With the help of the Gayer's and the Johnson's we were able to sing "For Good" from Wicked. The ward seemed to really like it and it was such a fun event. The Delaware Ward is seriously the coolest ward in all the Great Ohio Land (disregard my current lack of experience in other wards). On Sunday we were able to speak in Sacrament Meeting. I told you, this weekend was the Sister Missionary Show. I spoke on finding spiritual light in General Conference using President Uchtdorf's last General Conference Talk (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/receiving-a-testimony-of-light-and-truth?lang=eng). Go and read, it's a great talk! Last night we got to sing in the Missionary Choir at the Missionary Fireside in Reynoldsburg...which is somewhere in Ohio about an hour away from us. At the fireside they showed the new Easter video that the church is putting out this year-Because He Lives. Be excited! It's genius! 

We had a Zone Activity this morning and now we're at the library e-mailing. I'm excited to see what happens this week. Surely some sort of silly adventures. 

I love you all so much! Write the snail mail. It makes missionaries happy :)

The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge, and Satan Hates You (seriously, Satan really hates all of you...like a lot. Don't let the jerk win). 

Jessica

A Week in Which I Refused to Wear My Coat (except for the days it was raining)‏

Hello Wonderful Souls!

In this week's episode of Sister Cale in Columbus- the sun was shining, we got to go to the temple, Judy urged us to write a children's book together, and I finished the Book of Mormon. 

So, last week was absolutely crazy. Tuesday we both woke up very sick and consequently spent the day in our apartment. While being sick wasn't fun at all, honestly, I feel like we needed the day to recoup from emotional exhaustion in addition to physical illness. The work of missionaries is a great work, but it is also a work that takes a lot out of you and doesn't always replenish as one might hope. It was good to have extra time to study the scriptures and rest. Sister Hibbert drew more amazing things and we had a good time talking, even if we didn't eat all day. We were supposed to have exchanges on Tuesday, but as we were both sick, we rescheduled them for Friday. 

Wednesday ended up being pretty great. We did some geneology in the afternoon and I was able to trace our family back to Adam and Eve through Grandmother's lines. It turns out that we're related to some pretty important royal people...like King John Plantagenet, William the Conquerer, Emperor Charlemagne, and a host of other important people (like Roman Emperors and Visigoth royalty and Ostragoth royalty). I always knew there was a reason that I thought I was a princess haha. It was very cool to get to see the years go further and further back until all of a sudden I was looking at the name Abraham, father of Isaac. Then of course it just kept going back until I found Shem, Noah, and the rest is history. I mean, I know we're all connected to Adam and Eve, because duh, but it was really cool to actually trace the line back. 

Thursday's p-day was largely commandeered by the temple, but I would say that it was easily the best commandeering of p-day time that has occurred thus far in my missionary world. Wednesday night Sister Hibbert and I were going through our temple bags to make sure that we had everything when she realized that she didn't know where her temple recommend was. We called President as soon as she had looked for it in every possible place and he told us to come to the mission home the next morning and he would do an interview. We were so grateful that President was able to fit her into his schedule so we could go to the temple. We got to the temple without getting lost and it was brilliant. There was a girl in our session who was going through for the first time in preparation to leave on her mission soon. One of the sisters in our district ended up sitting next to her and was able to tell her that she was in a room full of missionaries. There was also an older couple going through for the first time who were also sealed that day. It was one of the sweetest things to see them making those covenants for themselves. One of the tenderest moments for me was watching the daughter reunite with her mom and dad in the Celestial Room. It was the smallest glimpse of what I'm sure we all looked like just a few months ago when we went to the temple before Dad had to leave back for Kentucky. I had to stop looking because it was going to make me cry. So shout out to my parental people for loving me so much and being examples so that we could be in the temple together, that is something I will always cherish. 

Exchanges happened on Friday, which was the rainiest day I have seen in my whole life. I love Ohio rain, primarily because it isn't Ohio snow. Sister Meecham came to Delaware and Sister Hibbert went to Worthington. Exchanges are such an interesting experience. It's really cool to see how other missionaries teach and handle different situations, but it's also really frustrating in some ways because you just want your companion to be there. One thing that Sister Meecham did that I thought was really cool was that she would ask the people we were visiting what they felt like they needed prayers for before she would pray at the end of a visit. That is something that I've been trying to incorporate when appropriate into our teaching and it's been really cool to see the tiny miracles and the ways people just open up about their concerns when you ask them that specific question. We had a good time together in our matching coats with our matching water bottles, but I was also very happy to have Sister Hibbert back on Saturday afternoon. 

Saturday evening after getting to teach Dan and Clarence, we also got to go and see Judy. Judy is seriously my adopted grandmother here in Delaware. She is the sweetest. We talked about how our talents are things that we will take with us after we leave this life. Judy is so supportive of Sister Hibbert and me in our respective art and writing talents. She wants us to write a children's book together, which is something we've been thinking about. It'll be adorable when it happens. 

My favorite lesson that we taught this week was with Sam, who can't be baptized until she's eighteen. We read about Moroni and the ways that he prepared the Nephite people for the battle with the Lamanites that inevitably was going to happen and the blessings that came from that preparation. We then related that to our own lives and each of us thought of a long term goal and then started to brain storm where we needed to fortify our faith, what our weak places were, and the other places that we would need to fortify. I used to be so frustrated with Mormon for including the war chapters in the Book of Mormon. I can see now that I was wholly and entirely wrong to be frustrated as they give a lot of really important instruction as to how we can face Satan and be prepared for the battles that will inevitably come. I know that the things that are in the Book of Mormon really are there for our benefit and I'm so grateful that I wasn't responsible for abridging it. I think I might have left some important things out, not realizing how significant they are. 

 

The Church is True, Life is Good, God's in Charge, Satan Hates you. 

And of course, as always, I love you all!

Jessica