Delight in fatness
This week started off on a great note known as food. Every Sunday we have to meet with the Ward Mission Leader, Tim, after church and I’m very hungry after 3 hours of church, so Tim started to bring us snacks. We have decided to make after-church snacks a tradition and he became one of my favorite people that day.
Last week you got to hear (technically see) all about our trip to the Pinnacles on Monday so I won’t retell it. It was a lot of fun and us sisters only almost died once. It threw off the rest of the day though, because Sis Sandorf and I were really tired afterward. We got some ice cream with Diana Pearson (who is one of our mission grandmas) then went to dinner and had a game night. The game night was totally kosher because we played with the McFarlanes and a less active recent convert. We played a card game and Amy (Sis McFarlane) and Anish (the less-active recent convert, LARC) got really competitive with each other. Tim (Bro McFarlane) told us that it happens a lot with them. It reminds me of 2 other people in my life I’ve played games with…
Most of Tuesday was zone conference. President and Sister Layton came over to Ridgecrest and the elders from Bishop came down and we met from 9-3 (interviews with President went from 9-10). There was some good stuff said, and President was really excited about his Brother of Jared object lesson (he had a light that he shined on 16 clear stones) and he told us to plan like the Brother of Jared (see Ether 2:22-3:6). After zone conference we went and picked back up a family and started teaching them again. After dinner we went and talked to a lady that we “tracted into” last week (tracting is where we walk around and knock on doors– the quotation marks are because she was actually a referral from a member who works with her, but she doesn’t know that). Sis Sandorf told the young women this week that being a missionary is basically being licensed to stalk people and it’s true.
We got to be part of a miracle on Wednesday, which was so awesome! On Tuesday we heard about a member’s dog who got really sick. We had ice cream with her that night and learned that the dog couldn’t even hold herself up: she was so sick and the doctor didn’t know what was wrong with her. There was a very high chance that her liver was failing, which would mean they would have to put her down. They were all really upset (especially Sis Hamlin) because Duchess (the dog) is only 2.5 years old. She told us that she would call us on Wednesday and tell us what the doctor said. We were all praying really hard that Duchess would be alright. That family has been through a lot and Sis Hamlin does so much and works so hard. She called us Wednesday night and, lo and behold, Duchess had a weird pancreatic disease and is going to pull through! Sis Hamlin just has to stay by her side forever (St Bernards get really attached to their owners and will make themselves sick if they get left alone too long so that’s what Duchess did). It was really cool to get to see that happen!
On Wednesday morning we got to teach a new investigator and it was awesome! Her name is Susan and she is already super spiritual and has a really firm belief in God and she agreed with everything we said because “it makes sense”. She said she needed peace in her life when we first tracted into her last week and she can see that she started to get that after she talked to us. The gospel really does bring peace into people’s lives and it was great that she recognized that! It was a little sketchy when we first met her though, because when she opened the door Sis Sandorf said “Hi we’re the sister missionaries and we felt inspired to be in the area to share a message about Jesus Christ” and Susan said “I bet you did, come on in.” The way she said it either meant we were about to have an awesome lesson with someone really prepared, or we were going to die. Thankfully our bodies were not discovered later this week. The only sad part is that she’s in the process of moving (she honestly might’ve already moved cause we haven’t been able to get a hold of her), but it’s in the Lord’s hands so he’ll take care of it.
Thursday wasn’t very exciting. Sis Sandorf and I went to the young women activity because some of them said they were going to bring their friends (that didn’t happen) so we wanted to be there to casually meet them as people and not missionaries. We played a game called Loaded Question and one of the questions we had to answer was “who in the room has a quality you want– name the person and quality”. I didn’t put this, cause I wasn’t sure how it would be received, but I thought about putting “Sierra-black”. I thought it was so funny and when I talked I talked to her and her twin afterwards I told them I thought about putting that down (which I thought they would find funny) it was just super awkward. Apparently we don’t quite have the same sense of humor. But we talked about Marvel movies, especially Civil War, and they’re huge fans of Captain America so I had redeemed myself by the time we left. *fist pump*
We had lunch with Larry on Friday and later that day he texted us to thank us (cause he’s a cutie) and he said “thanks for lunch and help with nemesis phone”. He has an iPhone but cause he’s old and can’t see very well at all he hates it, so when we see him we try to fix whatever new problem he’s having. He says that some day he is going to run over it to get his revenge. We then went and made cookies with Ginger Rosser (who our car is named after) so give out to investigators. It totally worked because we brought some to a LARC family and picked up 3 new people to teach. At dinner that night the Morans took us to some neighbors that had just moved in down the street to deliver brownies. I wish more of the members would introduce us to people. I think they don’t understand that we can be people too and not just missionaries (we can talk to people without giving them a Book of Mormon or asking them to be baptized in the first sentence).
Sunday Tim brought us snacks again (he is definitely my favorite person between 12 and 1 on Sundays) and we got to teach a lesson at 3. The people we are teaching having a tiny dog named Cupcake that I can hold in one hand and she is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! We had dinner with the bishop and his family and their neighbor. They call their neighbor Grandma Tammy and she is super cool. She told us that when she was younger she would play in the woods behind her house and sometimes her and her sisters would find baby bear cubs and try to get as close as possible. This, of course, would make momma bear angry so they would climb up a skinny tree (the best way to get away from a bear because they can’t grab it to climb it) and the bear would shake the tree and they would pretend they were in the rodeo. Now that is someone I want to hear more stories from!
I have to put a little blurb in here about Sis Sandorf because she is amazing and makes me laugh. She said she has gained a lot of weight on her mission so she doesn’t fit into her skirts very well. This week she decided to wear them to show herself that she needs to do something in order to fit into them again. The only problem was she had to unzip/unbutton them when she sat down so that she didn’t cut off circulation to the bottom half of her body. We’re going to go clothes shopping today so that she can find a few skirts that fit her. We decided we’re both going to be better about our eating habits. She also makes me laugh whenever we pass people in our car. She’ll look at people that are walking or the person across from us at 4 way stops (which is a really big thing in Ridgecrest) and say “do you need the gospel? That’s a stupid question…everybody needs the gospel!” Now she says the question and I say the answer. We’re so cute together (something we tell each other constantly)!
That’s it for this week! Sis Sandorf and I scheduled in naps today and I am so excited!! Missionary work is hard work, but it is so worth it! “I am convinced missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.” -Elder Holland
Ciao,
Sister Schroeder
PHOTOS
Sis Sandorf and I dressed for the cold weather (61 degrees):
Me opening my package:
Sis Sandorf and I with the bishop’s kids:
Our after-church snack with Tim:
