10/09/2017 – Sister Schroeder's Mission Blog

Dust, dirt, and discipleship

I made it to California in one piece!

Our flight left at 7 AM, but we had to be checking out of the MTC at 3:30 AM. It was funny (and a little sad) because we accidentally locked Sis Woodland out of the room. Sis Jackman and I went to the bathroom and when we got back, the lights were off and we thought everyone was in bed so we shut and locked the door. The alarm went off at 2:45 and a few minutes later we heard a knock on our door. Sis Jackman opened it up and Sis Woodland was standing there. Sis Jackman was like “what are you doing? Get in here girl!” Apparently she had gone into the hallway to write in her journal cause she didn’t want to disturb us by keeping the light on and she didn’t bring her key and was scared to knock and wake us up. Her adventure started before we even left the building!

The flights were uneventful (Salt Lake to Phoenix to Bakersfield) and the mission president and his wife, President and Sister Layton, met us at the airport. They’re really cool people and President listens to the spirit so well. In my interview with him he just sat and stared at me for 30 seconds before he started talking, and I was a little worried. My new companion says that he has lots of pauses when he talks because he really listens to the Spirit and wants to say exactly what he should. I haven’t been in the mission long, but he seems like a really good mission president (and his house is awesome too!)

We got assigned companions and areas on Tuesday and I was sad to see Sis Jackman go. I’m really gonna miss her and I hope I’ll see her during transfers and stuff. It was cool when I got my new companion though, because as soon as President said her name, it felt like Sis Jackman wasn’t my companion and she was. I didn’t feel the need to follow Sis Jackman everywhere anymore. It felt like we are now friends, not companions. My new companion’s name is Sis Sandorf (we get to be the quadruple S) and she is awesome! She’s different then Sis Jackman, but we get along really well and I already love her. She is such a cutie!

I guess I should tell you all where I am, cause I’m not in Bakersfield. I am in a town called Ridgecrest, which is about 2 hours east-ish of Bakersfield. It’s the weird zone of the misson (there are 7 total zones) because our zone is also our district. A district is 3 or more companionships and a zone is made up of multiple districts. Our zone area is really big, but not a lot of people live up north in our area where Bishop is. There are only 5 companionships in our whole zone. It’s pretty fun though, because our zone/district is close to each other since there are so few of us. We’re actually going to go play Phase 10 as a district activity today.

This week was a lot of me meeting people and teaching a few lessons. I’m just going to list people and write a short thing about them cause I don’t know how to transition well from person to person.

-Bishop Washburn: I met him in the first couple days of being here. He’s really cool and apparently he only has one eye, so Sis Sandorf wants me to ask him to take his fake one out so I can see, but it’s seems a little weird to ask someone to take out their eye so I’ll wait until I know him a little better before I ask.

-Sis Applequist: I’ve seen her a few times since I got here. She is an older lady who is a recent convert and she’s pretty fun. I’ll probably be talking about her more because the bishop has asked us to visit her often.

-Brother and Sister Sturgeon: They are an older couple who are adorable. Bro Sturgeon pretended to know my dad when I first met him, and I was so excited and already making mental notes to tell my dad I’d met him. Then he started laughing and Sis Sturgeon rolled her eyes at him so I caught on. Apparently he does that to people. Sis Sturgeon comes up to my chin and she was wearing 3-4 inch heels when I met her, so she is a tiny lady. She is super sweet and made me feel right at home.

-Diana Pearson: Sis Sandorf told me on the drive up to Ridgecrest that she is like our grandma and she totally is. She is also an older lady (I feel surrounded by old people up here) and she is really fun and sassy. You’ll probably hear lots about her too because she is just so fun to visit.

-David Fallgatter: He is one of our investigators and Diana’s “friend”. You’ll probably hear lots about him too cause he’s over at her house a lot and we’re teaching him. He’s really funny and made me feel really welcome here.

-The Williams family: I haven’t done much with them (it’s a woman, Michelle, and her twin daughters, Cheyenne and Sierra) but they are just tons of fun. Within 5 minutes of me meeting them I was told that they are the least black family they know because they don’t eat traditional black people foods (greens, sweet potato pie, etc) I hope we spend more time with them cause they’re great.

-The Herrera family: We found them on Thursday and are now teaching them! It’s kinda confusing cause the people that live there are: the mom Laura, the daughter Maya (16), the daughter Alissa (11ish), the son Ryan, the other son something, the cousin Ashley (who’s pregnant), Ashley’s boyfriend Kalil, and their daughter Hazel (adorable!). Their schedule is crazy so we’ve been trying to find a time to meet with them all together. Maya seems the most interested out of the kids, but it’s kinda early to tell cause we’ve only stopped by 3 times and actually taught once. There will definitely be more about them in coming emails.

That’s pretty much it for this week. I’m just going to end with a plug for people to send me stuff to put on my walls (pictures, painting, quotes)! As you can see in the pictures, our walls are completely bare and it makes me kinda sad. I want some stuff to put up to make it homey. I love it here and I want it to stay that way!

My address:
824 Capehart Apt C
Ridgecrest CA 93555

Ciao!
Sister Schroeder

Photos:

Last picture with sista friends: