I
am now in - ha. Wait. I'm gonna make ya'll wait. Til next week. For
now, I'll finish up Florence. The final week in my precious small
town. I will, however, include a photo of my new companion. I'll miss
Sister Dailey, but now she gets to stretch her little wings and fly
around Florence with someone new, who hasn't tracted the entire map.
We tracted all the rich hoods this week because -
why not? I'm leavin. I may as well spare the next sister the common
experiences of rampeumptom row. We had one last district meeting, and
with the new car share we share with the elders, which means we have to
drive them home afterwards. We're girls and they're like barely out of
high school so it's sufficiently awkward. We had one last McAllisters
dinner out with Sister N, one last Book of Mormon class with Brother J
(our recent convert who's doing great, by the way), one last day in
Mendenhall with the C family (my adopted Mississippi family), one last
lesson with the spiritual-giants missionary-minded N family who gave us
the referral that got baptized, one last service day cleaning out
cupboards with Sister R who rewarded us with the best banana pudding
ever.
At our one last taco night at Bishop's (aka the Last
Supper), we helped them with their ice bucket challenge, if ya'll have
heard of that. If you get challeged, you have to dump a bucket of ice
water on your head and donate to a cause, finding the cure for ALS I
think it's called. Then you challenge 3 more friends to do it, video
it, and post it online. I believe it's raised a few million dollars
already. Anyway. That's why Sister Dailey and I poured a bucket of ice
water on bishop's wife, and the elders did it for bishop. Also, the
elders gave me a 2013 Chinese calendar from a sushi buffet in their area
as a going away present. Yes, 2013. You have to remember they like
just finished high school and that counts as a thoughtful gift.
Brother D, a 60 year old recent convert, blessed the
sacrament for the first time on Sunday and I wanted to cry, I was so
proud. He has such a reverence for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, it
was evident in his reading of the prayer. The spirit was so strong. We
got to see one of our crazy investigators again (an enthusiastic but
flaky one) who loved our Restoration cup demonstration (where we build
the church, take out the foundation of apostles and prophets to show the
apostasy, and rebuild it to show the restoration). He's still hung up
on the 2nd coming because he thinks it's already happened and we're in
the midst of the "first millenium" at the point of "the great deception"
where Satan is loosed for a season and now we're waiting on a "3rd
coming of Christ." We didn't contend. Just handed him a gospel
principles book and referred him to the last chapters. He said he'd
been praying before our arrival and almost answered the door with
"Where's my book?" because he knew one was coming. I have a most
interesting mission.
In Mendenhall, we got let right in at one house,
which never happens. But like the woman was telling us all their
struggles. Living off social security, no jobs, no transportation, no
family support, husband passed away, have to go without food or nice
clothing a lot of the time. And they got "kicked out of every church
they've ever gone to because they weren't wanted there I guess. And I
was like, gosh. I know nothing about real world problems. Like, this
happens to me a lot out here.
A member family we visited was like a poster-perfect
family. Nice house, attractive kids, young-looking parents, glamorous
jobs, all. They have it all. But as we shared a spiritual thought
about scripture study, she told us she tried having family home evenings
but the kids just didn't want to do it and the spouse was no help. So
they just don't have family home evening. Or family scripture study.
Because the poor mother doesn't want contention or forced-anything. It
was so sad.
Without the word of God, how is your family to be protected?
The Spirit is in the Word and the enemy is in the world, and if you're
not inviting the Spirit into your home with the Word, the world is going
to take over. Because the enemy never sleeps and he comes in with
absolutely zero invitation.
Transfers yesterday was bittersweet, I kinda feel
bad that I didn't cry because I was too excited. But I'm just so stoked
to be on a new adventure. Kyle Dalton goes home today, I told him to
hug Brosk for me, let's see if he remembers to. Chatting with the
greenies (fresh out the MTC) made me feel older than old. I'm one of
the vets in the mission now, and that's super weird. 13 months sounds
ever so much longer than 12. And 5 months left seems like way less than
6. I talked to Sister Borja on the van all the way to our new zone,
she and I are the only hispanic sisters in the whole mission. She's
from Paraguay. By the end of the four hour drive we were like BFFs.
And we're in the same district, so this is gonna be a good one. I can
tell. Also, I'm killing my new companion (that's mission lingo for this
is her last transfer) so, ready set make it count! Can't wait to show
ya'll pictures of this place!
Sincerely,
Sister Valdez
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