December 30, 2013 titled " WOAAAHHH WE'RE HALFWAY THERE"
WOAAAAHHHH LIVIN ON A PRAYER
Seriously though, it's been 9 months. As I expressed to my beloved family over skype, I LITERALLY COULD HAVE BIRTHED A CHILD BY NOW AND NOBODY WOULD EVEN KNOW. That is what I call "a long time."
This week was super long. Christmas was awesome with my Christmas card from the prophet and such. The skype home was heavenly. almost too good, if you know what I mean. It was just so normal, talking about unimportant things and getting to look at my mom and my sisters. Meg looks so grown up.
Elder Linford was over at my apt yesterday and I casually pointed out Tori in the Christmas card pic as the sister he is going to marry. He was really excited and made me promise to set him up. I don't think Tori or Elder Linford appreciate how serious I am about this. I know we're talking first date in fall semester of 2015, but this is happening. Their children will have the best dimples. FINALLY I CAN ACCOMPLISH MY TRUE BYU DREAM, to make people I love marry each other.
The Lord knew I was out of steam after Christmas, so He graciously started blessing us with a billion miracles. It's kind of crazy, actually.
1.) We found a family on Christmas night- looking for somebody else but had the wrong address. So we taught this family instead and now the mom and all the daughters want to get baptized. (Ages 10, 9 and 6.) The dad probably wants to get baptized too, we just haven't been able to see him again since the 24th. hopefully tonight he'll be there.
2.) I got a letter from Katy Voyles the day after Christmas. It was so needed. I like that she says YOU ARE LAUREN SIMPSON like that means something haha, and I like that our handwriting is a little freakishly similar. Just perfect timing, perfect everything. Thanks, KTV. <333. a lot.
3.)And we taught some awesome less active families and the one we had stopped working with just showed up at church this week!
4.) So, Martin Luna isn't our investigator, but he came to church.
We met Martin on the way back from a lesson/cena that was outside our area. We were walking to our car, stopped and talked to him just like any other street contact, and he was very drunk. But like, an emotional drunk. "I want to die! I need help to stop drinking!" etc etc. He asked if we had come from heaven and I didn't say no, because I had had a really bad night and when I am feeling down, I freely embrace compliments from drunk people.
Anyway, I gave him the number of the guy who runs the addiciton recovery program, said the elders would call him in 5 minutes and they could come over to his house, and said he had to throw away the giant bottle of vodka he was holding. Then we went in our car and drove back to our area. At 4:45am Martin calls us again, telling us we are angels, etc. Which actually, I didn't mind as much because if you are going to call me before 5am, you better be telling me I'm an angel hahaha.
So this happened like 2 weeks ago. We saw the elders at district mtg the next morning and I was like Elders, I know you have a new family to work with and I'm sorry/you're welcome. They were like yeah, we were there for 2 hours last night hahaha
So this happens. I'm pretty sure the elders dropped Martin before long. But yet, he and his whole family just showed up at church on Sunday. Idk. They said they'd come back next week, so we'll see what happens with them. But people don't just show up at church. ever. It was the craziest.
Of all the drunk guys I've met in California, I did not think Martin Luna would be the one to show up on Sunday with his wife and 3 kids.
5.) Marta had a priesthood blessing after church yesterday to help her stop drinking coffee. Her baptism is scheduled for Jan 12.
6.) Our CD player in the car is smarter than the one we have in the house b/c Tyler's CD works in it!!! It's very, him hahaha. I love it.
So yes. Things are normal and life is normal but it is still good.
It has been fun to evaluate my expectations at the beginning of my mission with what I've learned thus far, at the halfway point.
I remember when I first came to California, I was like OH man, companions. I am really going to learn a lot about marriage. In some ways, that is true. My comfort zone of open communication has been forced to expand wayyy out haha. But mostly, what companionships have really taught me about marriage is:
1. I do not want to marry a girl.
2. Also, I would like to marry someone who can make a meaningful contribution to Fat Dog Cody, the band I plan on starting immediately after my return. This is important because I really need a banjo player, and for some reason aquiring a spouse with musical talent sounds a lot easier than aquiring and learning how to play the banjo myself.
So yes. Feliz Ano Nuevo, everyone.
XOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXO
P.S. I gave a talk and played the piano in church this week. I was way more nervous about the piano haha.
Letter dated January 6, 2014 This weeks real letter.
Hahaha okay, so this is hilarious. So last week I was emailing Hna Hudson and she asked what was with Lindsay and The Boy. (These are the kinds of things we like to freak out about.) And even though I had sworn to myself I would tell NO ONE EVER about the visit... I was like YOU CANNOT TELL A SOUL BUT ACTUALLY I SAW THEM IN THE FLESH AS IN THEY CAME TO MY HOUSE!!!!
And THEN she told her how her brother had done the same thing a week before!!! hahahahahahahaa I died. Soulmates.
This week was good. Milagro family has the most prepared little girls I've ever met- but they have been flaking out these past few days. The good news is that Marta is getting baptized on Sunday!!!! Last week after church she got a blessing to help her give up coffee and yesterday we all fasted for her. It's like... still not real yet. Kind of too good to be true.
Reseda is so good. There are just a lot of classy women in this ward. Really solid in the gospel- such good examples to me. I'm grateful for the time I've had here to learn from the members here.
So these past few weeks Hna Watts and I have kept feeling like we need to be prepared for an earthquake. It's like it just kept coming up a lot. So now we have our emergency bags ready to go and we keep our shoes underneath our beds. I don't know if anything is going to happen, but we have just been receiving SO many- 'warnings' sounds a little dramatic, more like 'reminders' to be prepared. So this week we got our stuff together and figured out the safest place in our apt, things like that. So we're good to go, should anything happen.
One of the highlights of my week was also the fact that Hna Hartt's brother sent her a Lowe Lights CD. I felt like I was on a rooptop in provo. Soooooo good.
We're being blessed with finding. Pres Halls' training that he recieved from Elder Ballard was focused on "A Culture of High Expectations," and it's been really really good, implementing it. I can tell the mission is different from when I first started. I can tell I as a missionary am a lot different from when I first started, and I like that. I like that missions give you so much liberty to change who you are as a person, as a disciple, as a companion, etc. Haha I was thinking the other day, "If only I could start my mission over from the beginning! I would do everything SO much differently and so much better!" But asi es. You learn, you grow, and by the time you've got it all figured out, it's time to change.
Speaking of change, transfer calls are this week. I'll tell you next week as much as I know.
As far as New Years Resolutions go, I am just thrilled that it is now 2014. I love even years. My only goal until the end of my mission is "Be a Woman," because I think it's kind of depressing when missionaries let themselves go. Maybe you have to have been a sister missionary to know what I'm talking about, but it still stands. Be a Woman.
Instead of resolutions for post-mission life (because I can't even think about that; I have no idea what to expect) I just have a bucket list of things I would like to do before the end of the year. And a reading list that there's no way I can accomplish haha.
One lady we taught this week said we couldn't come in the first time because she said there's a dog in her house that bites. I thought she said she had a dog in her house that was dead. And I was like, okay, awesome, we'll come back on Fri when that dead dog is gone!
Nope. Wrong again.
My whole life is Spanglish.
XOXOXOXOXXOXO
Hna SImpson
P.S. Is it true that Beyonce cut all her hair off?? Tell me it's not.
P.P.S. Sorry I'm so worldly.
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