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 :) |
