Week 54 (4/14/14)

Missions are such roller coasters! I feel like that is one word... But

I guess it's not.... Eh.

On Monday I wanted to write about how emotional I am and how much I

miss my family crazy. It was a hard day emotionally for some odd

reason. But guess what- the next day I was fine. Then Sister Upshaw

was having a hard time missing home and stuff. 2 emotional days in a

row... That's rare for us. But that day was busy and hilarious at the

same time. One of our gators was sticking RAW ONION in his eye balls

like contacts.

This... Is not a joke.

Then he asked us if we wanted a bite...

We said uh no thanks...

He then stuck that onion in his pocket, stood up, and said- "excuse me

ladies, I'm going to go and hug a tree"

It took everything in me from busting a gut laughing!

This is all totally for reals!

We aren't really teaching him- we're teaching his

fiancé/girlfriend/caretaker who's pretty solid for what we've seen so

far...

This is the same one who ran out of the church telling us that the

internet is in his head and we're all in this hug bubble where we

control the weather and the smell in the churc is controlling us

all....

Let's just say we get some *really* good laughs with these ones :)

We laugh a lot :) it gets us through the hard times :)

The roller coaster...

We had an AMAZING busy day on Wednesday! We have everything planned

for Terri's baptism! Ah! I just LOVE HER!

Let me just take a second-

Terri is one of thee kindest, sweetest, deepest, most caring spiritual

and loving person I've ever met! She has influenced my life more than

I can ever explain. She just keeps fighting! Satan throws everything

at her and she just has the firmest testimony ever! Gosh... I love her

and her husband Ken!

She's getting baptized on my birthday! :D

Pause.

We just had transfer calls, everyone, including us thought we were staying.

I'm getting transferred!!!

Of course. Because I have my very first baptism this weekend, and it's

my birthday and Sister Upshaws birthday. All we wanted to do was stay

together! If I just had one holiday where I didn't get transferred

right before or had something change... That'd be nice! Ugggggghhhhh

birthdays out here are already super lame. My last one I had been out

days and no one knew who I was. We had it all planned out, run the

color race, go to the baptism, and then party. Best birthday.

Huuuuuhhhhh.

I'm so upset. I love everyone here and I love Sister Upshaw SO much!

We didn't even fight or argue one time. That's a good marriage right

there.

Why is this the hardest part? It's like leaving my family all over

again on a much small scale. I get attached easily and have a hard

time with this stuff. I'm gonna kill Sister Andersen... She said she

was praying I'd get transferred so that she'd see me...

Just to let you know- I have a lot of faith that I'm going where I

need to go. Change is just hard on us pathetic people.

It doesn't make sense, but I guess that just means I can know even

more that it's Heavenly Fathers will. :)

Butttttt.... We are going to fight and see if I can come down to

Terri's baptism. She's driving us up there, and she will email her as

well.

And we are celebrating our birthdays today :) we even sang all the

birthday songs in the children's songbook....

We had someone totally bible bash with us this week. FIRST TIME ON MY

MISSION. If you can believe that. But the reason she did was because

she's our neighbor, and she's always saying stuff about it, and this

one time we just had to stand up for ourselves. SOOO it's not that

I've never had the opportunity, we are just told to be Christ-like but

this lady just keeps going at it! There is only so many times I can

handle having someone tell me that I'm wrong and going to that really

bad place because I don't believe in the trinity. All we can do is

bear our testimonies, and tell her that we know because we have asked,

and we can't deny it. The same way she knows, we know, so you can't

question that. Remember that when you're bashing with someone, they

know what they know, just like you know what you know.

So... Actually... Don't bash. Just stand up for yourself in a Christ

like way :) it's really hard though. I just want to scream with all my

might that I know what I know and you can't tell me I don't. But...

That doesn't do anything.... Sadly.

I did notice the more I thought about it and the more we talked to

her, I knew even more that what I was saying was true. It didn't shake

my testimony one bit, it only made it stronger. Wanna know why? Cuz I

am building my rock! :D Helaman 5:12 of course :) the devils has NO

power over me because my rock is built :)

Build it up. But do it with the right stuff. :)

I'm soooo sad to be leaving Sarasota especially cuz the people here

are like family and this has been one of the greatest weeks of my

mission so far! Even the hard stuff! I guess good things are ahead :)

I hear everything gets better when you turn 21? I guess we'll see cuz

I didn't think it could get better than this :)

The church is super super extremely true.

I love you all so much :)

Love, Sister Calder

after the mail drought

creepy

sister Hill

floating name tags

watching conference in a hammock

we're good at jumping

fun pday at the beach with my favorite people :)