March 24, 2014

OH, I just love you all so much! You are all so wonderful! 

RIGHT ON RYAN WHITE!!! That is so awesome! When does he report?  Also John Harvey has been gone for a million years.  I bet he is happy to be home.  So dad, you asked for me to elaborate on my living arragement here.  So I was with Sister Baird living with a member, then moved back with Sister Session where we also lived in the basement of members.  BUTTT their contract thing was up for housing missionaries, so we moved to yet another member's house.  They are really sweet.  It is a couple in their 60's? I think?  So they have no one at home or anything. They blocked off a hallway that has a bedroom, bathroom and a study room for us.  They are really sweet. 

Anyway, this week was wonderful! We had zone conference on Tuesday.  I got to see Elder Coleman ( an Elder in my first area ) again. He is hilarious and we became good friends in Bozeman, so I was happy to see him again.  But the whole conference was about the Book of Mormon.  They split us into different groups and had our groups read 40 pages from the Book of Mormon and by the end of 40 pages, collectively we had read teh whole Book of Mormon.  It was totally what I needed at the time as well.  I have been focusing on how I can improve my teaching so I have been reading in Preach My Gospel the section all on the converting power of the Book of Mormon. It inspired and motivated me to be better with using the Book of Mormon and knowing my Book of Mormon better so I can use it.  

Thursday I went on exchanges again.  Sister Session and I went with Sisters in the Missoula 5th ward. There are two sets of Sisters there so we each took a set. I was with Sister Adams and Sister Memmot.  What stellar missionaries.  They work like dogs going to find people and teaching.  They have 2 people on date to be baptized and are planning on putting 4 more on date this week. WHAAAA!?  Right on! Sistaaass! But really.  Sister Memmot is hilarious. I don't evven think she means to be.  She is a quirky girl with a dry sense of humor.  She introduces herself like, "Hi, my name is Sister Memmot....like memmot, memmot (she says is like a frog going, ribbit ribbit)"  I DIED! I DIED! I was not expecting that! OHmygosh.  And Sister Adams is INCREDIBLE.  She has had severe depression since before her mission that caused all of her hair to fall out. She has no eyelashes, eyebrows, and is just starting to grow some hair on her head.  She has to wear a wig everyday.  That girl amazes me.  Her testimony is so powerful.  When she testifies of Christ and the Atonement, there is no doubt that the Spirit is in the room.  She is so positive and works hard.  I interviewed her and she just says what makes her happy is doing what the Lord asks of her. She is just wonderful.  Hahaha Sister Memmot and I were saying how we really needed to pluck our eyebrows and Sister Adams was like, can I do it?!  I don't get to pluck my own so can I pluck yours?  Kinda weird, but I was all about it! Hahaha so we bonded over plucking eyebrows. hahaha just the sweetest sister. 

While I was with them we met with an investigator of theirs. I am in love with him.  His name is Will Williams.  He has the most gnarly mustache of all time, that sold me right off the get go, and he has super long hair.  P.S. this man is in his 60's. So he has long curly grey hair about shoulder length, he wears a beret glasses, a corduroy blazer and suspenders.  I was absolutely in love with his style and it sold me when he answered the door and saluted us and said, "come on in Sister dudettes"  YES! We taught him the plan of salvation and he agreed to be baptized. RIGHT ON! WOOT WOOT! 

So the we had to cut the exchanges short because I got a call from Sister Drama's companion.  Sister Drama was with Sister Montjoy, and there was another set of Sisters, Sister Newell and Sister Silata.  So last week they just swapped companionships. Sister Drama with Sister Newell and Sister Montjoy and Sister Silata. Confusing, I know. All you need to know is that she is with a new companion.  And her companion, Sister Newell, called me and said that the day was going great, they were planning and then Sister Drama snapped and she was refusing to get out of bed and wouldn't talk to her.  OHMYGOSH! WOMAN!  We went after dinner with the intent to take Sister Drama's Ipad from her.  We got there and she is in bed with the covers pulled over her head and I tried talking to her and she ignored me.  I tried talking nicely to her and getting her to tell me what happened. But she wouldn't move, she wouldn't aknowledge us being there at all.  So I asked her where her Ipad was and that we needed it.  No response, so I told her that she could either hand it over or I would go through her stuff until I found it........that did not make her happy attttttttt alllllll.  But hey, it made her talk to us! hahaha  Out of control man! Out of control! After her yelling at us and having to hold Sister Session back from punching her in the face we got her to talk about what happened.  She just didn't like her companion and felt like her companion would get upset with her over the dumbest things so she decided to give her something to really get upset about. CHILDREN! OHMYGOSH! CHILDREN! So she talked to us for forever and then I brought in her companion and we conducted something that we call a companionship inventory. Each week along with our weekly planning you are supposed to have companionship inventory where you talk about eachother's strengths and then discuss things that may be hindering your companionship.  So we did just that.  I had Sister _____ say things that her companion does that help the work and help the companionship and I made Sister Newell do the same thing and then we talked about what was hindering the growth in their companionship.  Luckily we were able to iron out a few things and come up with ways to resolve the conflicts.  I am telling ya, if only girls would freaking communicate with one another, none of this would ever happen.  So that night was exhausting.  Poor Sister Newell. One of the issues was that Sister Newell likes having companionship prayer before bed. You don't have to do it, it is not required, but I can see why she would want to do that.  But Sister Ayala refuses to do it and doesn't see the point and gets mad when she asks her. I am never having girls.  Ridiculous.  

SO! Are you ready for some more drama!? After that episode we had a lesson with James.  We were planning on teaching him the Word of Wisdom. We go over there and his wife, Gracie is there.  James was so excited to have a lesson so we started teaching when Gracie stops us and says that she needs to let out what is on her mind.  Basically for the next 2ish hours she voiced to us that she doesn't want James to be baptized.  She feels like it would make their marriage unequally yoked.  Their marriage is rocky and she said that she wants to stabalize their relationship before he starts throwing a new religion into the mix.  She said she could compromise and let him come with us to church one week and with her to church the other week.  When I asked if she would be willing to come to church with him she flipped.  She started yelling at me and started crying and all this crazy stuff. And said that she knew a lot more about us mormons than we think she does. That she knows all about our temples and what we do in there and our under garments blah blah blah. When Gracie goes off there is no turning back. I just sat and listened to her as she yelled.  James said he loves Gracie but he also loves the church.  He said that he loves the man he is becoming and is ready to take that next step to baptism.  Gracie told him that he could still go to church even if he wasn't baptized and that we would still meet with him and fellowship him.  She got so upset with James and us that she left the room and said he couldn't go to church on Sunday.  I wanted to cry. Especially with how emotionally exhausted I was. But I stayed strong and didn't.  After Gracie left he room James looked at us and saw our pamphlet we had out and asked if that was the next lesson and if he could still read it.  I went and apologized to Gracie told her that I appreciated her telling us how she felt and speaking her mind.  As we left James told us he was going to call us in the morning.  He did and said that he didn't care what Gracie said, she didn't understand and he wanted to go to church.  James bought a white shirt, two ties and black slacks and even did his hair for church. When we pulled up with our member to give him a ride, he looked so good! And church could not have been more perfect for him.  All the hymns were Do what is right, and choose the right.  Sunday school was all about baptism and he had questions about the atonement and the speakers all spoke about the atonement.  James told us that he still was going to be baptized and nothing could stop him from that decision. I am INLOVE WITH HIM! JAMES IS SO SOLID IT IS UNREAL! 

Dad, you asked about how it is to be married to someone with MPD. Their relationship is really weird.  Not like a marriage really, more like good friends.  And Gracie doesn't change all the time.  It's weird, it is definitely a mental thing, but I was asking someone and they said that MPD is rarely diagnosed because most times it is not real. And Gracie is not technically diagnosed.  It's like playing pretend a lot of the time.  No one comes out unless we get talking about one of her personalities.  So she mostly stays Gracie.  But I have met her alters Ashley, Izzy, Maggie, and Kris.  It is hard to explain.  

Other than that I think that is all that happened this week.  I can't believe this month is almost over. Where the heck did March go? Next week I will hit my 7 month mark and will already be in my 8th month of my mission! I seriously have no idea how that even happened.  

I love you all! Until next week! Prepare for some crazy stories!

LOVE YOU!

Sister Moline