“Be not afraid… For the Lord thy God is with thee”
I’ve grown up hearing stories about missionaries being chased by dogs or having to kick dogs or getting bitten by dogs, and so far on my mission I haven’t encountered anything but sweet friendly dogs. Until Saturday.
We were walking around a neighborhood and decided to go up to this one house and knock. I was in front so I started walking up to the door first, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something round the corner of the house and I thought “just a dog, no biggie”. Well, the fence to the backyard went alongside the pathway to the door and when that dog hit the fence, it moved about a foot toward me. I ran the few steps left to the porch and turned around to see the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life hanging over the fence trying to bite my face off. Sis Stockdale had seen the dog before she had started up the path, so she was out of the danger zone. I had two options: stay on the porch until the dog got bored and left us alone, or walk through the valley of the shadow of death past the dog to get to my companion. I gathered up my courage and inched along the side of the house as far away from the violently shaking fence as I could get. Thankfully, I made it safely out and I am here to tell you this story today. I have never really been scared of a dog in my life, but I could gladly go the rest of my life without seeing that dog again. I am now officially a missionary.
Another scary thing that happened this week is that Stabby McStabster might be back (that’s what Sis Williams and I named our ghost in our haunted apartment in Lancaster). Sis Stockdale and I got back last night and the gate to our backyard was wide open. I thought maybe the sisters left it open when they got the bikes out that morning, but Sis Stockdale distinctly remembered closing the gate after them and I didn’t remember noticing it open when we came back for lunch. So we went inside and I thought it was no big deal because the door to our backyard is locked… or so I thought. We got out our pepper spray and walked through the house opening every closet and turning on every light. No one was inside. It’s possible that the back door could’ve been left unlocked, but I remember locking it about a week ago and we haven’t gone out that door since. I don’t know what’s going on, but for now I’m chalking it up to forgetfulness and the wind. I’ll let y’all know if any other strange things start happening and we have the haunting part 2.
Other than that, the missionary life as been the same old same old. I was sick for a few days this week and sickness and bikes don’t go together so we used that time to draw a map of our area on one of our giant whiteboards. Sis Stockdale drew it and it looks fantastic. I don’t think I have a picture of it, but I’ll send one next week when it’s completely done. We’ve been spending a lot of time visiting members and letting Sis Stockdale get used to the new area. I’m hoping to find some more people to teach this week because we aren’t teaching anyone right now. It’s hard to be a missionary when no one wants to hear about how amazing the gospel is. That’s alright though because I know there is someone in our area just waiting for us to change their life.
As I’m sure a lot of you know, last week was my birthday. Although it was a few days late, I got an amazing present from Sis Evans who y’all might remember from a few transfers ago. It was around 10:20 Thursday night when I heard some voices near our apartment. I locked the door because I didn’t want to die that night, and a few seconds later someone knocked. I couldn’t think of anyone we knew who would be knocking on our door so late, so I got the pepper spray ready and Sis Stockdale opened the door. I can’t think of a single time my brain has gone completely blank from shock, but now I know what it feels like. Megan (aka Sis Evans) was standing on the other side of my door. I stood there for a hot second before running outside and hugging the snot out of her. She said she didn’t know what to get me for my birthday and thought “why not have the present be me?” She was going to come in the morning, but said she couldn’t wait. We talked for a few minutes before she left and then her and her friend Hailey took us out for lunch the next day.
I have a testimony that Heavenly Father loves me. There is no denying it. He knew that seeing Megan and getting a chance to talk to her would mean the world to me and so He made that happen. There are no such things as coincidences because there is a God in heaven who loves us more than we can comprehend. He has a hand in our everyday lives, we just have to have our eyes open enough to see it.
Ciao,
Sister Schroeder
It was quite toasty on Sunday:
Me and my birthday present!
Megan also brought me a bundt cake when she came:
The tiny lizard that was on our door:
My new companion, Sis Stockdale:
Me and Sis Stockdale and the Williams duo:
Not sure if you can tell, but that dark thing in the shadows is the giant scary dog:
