Seasons

Seasons are a prominent role in many ballets - yes, roles. Spring, summer, fall and winter are all characters in a ballet. Spring is always bright, rapid music, summer's is more lazy but still happy. Fall uses a lot of minor tones but like Spring is extremely quick. Winter reminds me of blowing snowdrifts. You can hear the wind in the music, and the tone is very chilly. It's such a contrast to listen to the season changes in the ballets, and your mood changes with it.

This past week has been a big change from winter to spring. Not only has it begun to be very warm out, but the whole mood has shifted. It's bright and hopeful and new. Oh, the beauty of transfers. Fresh starts and challenges, but it has a new helpful tone.

Anyway, this week I said goodbye to Sister Oliver and hello to Sister Schumacher. Pronounced shoe-mock-er. She's from Oregon and is a huge SuperWhoLock fan. We're going to have an awesome transfer together :)

We're seeing good things in the area and we have some awesome plans up ahead. Hayfever needs to just hurry up and end already. I've been counting, and I have literally sneezed 67 times today, typically in threes, but my record was six in a row. 13 of those sneezes have been since we've started emailing. Sister Schumacher put it pretty accurately. "No, no more blessings for you. Just stop sneezing."

Good thing I have a bunch of meetings this week. It'll keep me away from the pollen :)

I love being a missionary, and though I don't particularly love the challenges I face, it gives me the opportunity to turn to the Lord to overcome them. I'm so excited for conference this weekend. It's probably my favorite time of the year. I love the revelation that comes. I challenge everyone to be ready for conference by asking Heavenly Father for the answer to a question during conference, and to also pray to know if you are asking the right question. As President Ashton says, "It doesn't matter what the answer is if you are asking the wrong question."
In other news, hump day is Thursday. I can't believe that's here already. It just doesn't seem real.

Goodbye to Sis. Oliver

Hello to Sis Schumacher

Waiting on costumes

For me, waiting for costumes to come in was always such a pain. Not really, but the anticipation was killer. You would see the costume for one class come in, then one dancer would get her solo costume. It always felt like mine would never arrive. Some of the best days ever was when the lady at the front desk brought in the newly arrived costumes to try on. Then we would practice the rest of the day in the costumes. 

There has been a lot of anticipation this past week. Will so-and-so come to church? Will they be able to meet with us? How on earth is this going to work out? What does Heavenly Father want me to learn?

I've seen some different areas this past week. Hooray for back to back exchanges! That was actually really tough. It's a lot of work to coordinate something like that.

In addition it was also week 6. Meaning as of today we are in a new transfer. So transfer calls came this morning. There is always anticipation involved in that. Who is leaving and who is staying? Not many people from the zone are being transferred. My District Leader is leaving. That's really sad. But I'm staying put. Again. I have never been transferred.

Crazy right? And April 2 is my hump day........!!!!! Yeah. I know. When did that happen???? So I'll have been in Rosenberg for 10 months by the time this next transfer ends. So who knows how long I'll be here? Only Heavenly Father. It's all cool though. I'm good not to leave. There is still more I need to accomplish.

I'll let you know who my new companion is next week!

Have a good one!

Searching for bobby pins

Mom's note: It seems I am always late getting this out...and I am not going to apologize anymore.  At least all of them are finally in order!
Mom's second note:  she has had five different companions, and has moved her residence to a new apartment 5 minutes away, but has not yet been technically transferred.

Dance bags are not organized. At least, mine wasn't, despite my best efforts. I would end up with everything everywhere, meaning that when I needed something, it wasn't there for me to find. And one thing I always needed was a bobby pin. It was always a difficult search because they would end up at the bottom of my bag or in a shoe. It took a lot of digging, or going without it for a time. But if I searched hard enough, I would always find at least one bobby pin.

This week has involved a lot of searching. Searching for names, addresses and time. Also actual searching, the searching that happens when there are no names on familysearch ready to go to the temple. So you have to dig. A lot. So far all I've found is rocks and roots. No treasure yet.

But yeah, it's been a good week. I've been doing a lot of exchanges with the Sisters in the zone. It's been awesome to see some different areas and meet new people. Especially since I've been on my mission nearly nine months and still have yet to be transferred *knock on wood*.

It's also been a bit of a harder week. A lot of our investigators were out of town for Spring Break. So we've had to put in more effort than normal to find people to teach.

But we also had an amazing miracle. One member rents out rooms in her house to tenants, and because she is awesome, she always shares the gospel with them. One tenant has been interested but not super open. Last week we told him about what we do and asked if we could have a lesson with him. He said yes and we came back on Saturday night. It ended up being a super powerful lesson and he accepted a date! The member he lives with was so shocked. So please pray for R.

Also, if you could pray for B, C and G-ma G, that would be awesome. Thanks!

Getting into the music

Mom's note:  My fault, I forgot to post her blog.

Some exercises in ballet class are really long and exhausting. Some of the most beautiful variations are beautiful and exhausting. Basically, my point is that dance is really exhausting. But even the most tiring dances have their conclusion, and if you focus on the artistry, on getting into the music, it ends sooner than you thought it would.

So basically this week was exhausting. It was crazy! Oh my goodness. But time also flew. I mean, looking at my planner, I can see where time went, but looking back on my week, it just doesn't feel that way.

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday. That was amazing, it always is. President talked for almost the whole time and I just had my mind blown over and over again. We talked about Priesthood Keys, the Atonement, My Family/Family History, The new mission president, change, testimony, Second Coming... ah, basically everything. We didn't really do anything else that day, but it was well worth it.

I'm also officially with a new companion for the rest of the Transfer. So I'll be with Sister Oliver for about two weeks until her mini-mission ends and she goes home. At that point...I have no idea.

So Thursday we went and got her stuff from her old apartment in Downtown Houston. It was cool to see a new area.  We got stuck in traffic for almost an hour though, for a 20 minute drive. Insane, right?

And Friday we went on exchanges. There has just been so much going on.  It's keeping us very busy, that' s for sure. 

Fun story. We also were completely unaware that Daylight Savings was yesterday. So when we woke up and had different times on half of the clocks in the apartment, we had a hard time figuring out what had happened!

We're also working with some wonderful people. I love watching people progress and come nearer to the Lord.

I love this work, and I love this experience. I love being a missionary. I don't know where the time has gone, but that's ok. I just love focusing on the music.

Pulled muscles

One potential injury that comes from any intense physical activity is the possibility of a pulled muscle. Pulled muscles are really annoying. They aren't a major injury like a sprained ankle or broken bone, but they still really hurt and limit what you can do. It's so tough, because you feel like it shouldn't hold you back, but it does. You wonder how much farther you can push it and regret when you do. The only solution is really to let it rest for a time. Letting it rest is tough, but it gets you back to your full potential. 

So this week has been awesome. But it has also been tough. I've been having wonderful experiences,  but there has also been things that pull me back a little. They challenge me to keep pushing, keep working. 

But I'm paying a little for pushing too hard.

I've had a cold this past week. Not a bad one, just a runny nose and sore throat. And lots of sneezing. And a tiny bit of light headed-ness on the second day. But it's ok. I'm on the mend. 

This week has been amazing because of everything I've learned. I got to go to my first MLC this past week - Mission Leadership Council. I don't think I've ever had my mind blown so many times in the same meeting. I just loved it so much.

The hard part was that we didn't have a single "normal day" this week.

Monday was p-day. Tuesday was MLC. Wednesday was weekly planning. Thursday was New Missionary Training. Friday was Zone Meeting and Saturday we did service with the fire department. I learned so much from this week and had an awesome time, it just made it hard to visit people. By Friday I was a little tired of meetings. 

Investigators have still been a little AWOL this week too. It's improving - but we still haven't really gotten to see many people. But that's ok. This upcoming week will be better.

Final news to report for this week, I'm currently on a 3 day exchange. I'm here in Rosenberg and Sister Smith will be back in a few days, but in the meantime, I'm companions with Sister Oliver. It was really last minute and stressful, but we've been having a good time.

As my District Leader says (and for any Spanish speakers, I know this is horrible grammar) Pas Fuera! Peace Out!

Out sick

Mom's note: I have been sick this week :), forgive the late post.

Let me begin  by saying that I am not  sick. No illness in my body or companionship.

One of the hardest parts about dance is when another dancer is sick. Sometimes it's just a cold which results in flying boogers during turns. Other times the sick is a little more serious - like the flu. Then they're out for at least two classes, miss a bunch or choreography and/or technique and half the time nobody has any idea that they're sick. It makes things hard but you just feel so bad for them.

Ok, so there has been some sickness, but not on my part. It's not in the companionship either. One of our investigators has been sick for the second half of this past week. His is a fun story. So he's married to a ward member. They've been married for a few years now and he's met with missionaries before, but I don't think it was ever that serious. But now it is. We taught him the Plan of Salvation a couple of weeks ago and he's had a TON of questions since then. We went over Wednesday night and taught him the Restoration. It was  such a cool and powerful lesson, then we extended a baptism date. He said yes!! He's preparing for the 14th of March. But... we haven't been able to see him for the rest of the week or come to church because he's sick. Along with a couple of the kids. So he is really sick, which is comforting. But I'm super excited to teach him the rest of the lessons.

Our other investigators have also been "out sick." Not really sick, but it's like that part I talked about earlier, where half the time someone is just missing and you have no idea why. The rest of our investigators have basically been awol this week. They had reasons, but they weren't able to meet with us. So we've really focused on finding this past week. 

Although it has been hard to see people, we've had some fun adventures. One guy we visited was not interested and made that very clear. We've talked to a lot of kids this week. We usually give kids pass along cards when we see them. Kids in this one apartment complex now run up to us and ask for pictures of Jesus. We've had the young women come out teaching with us this week. That has been awesome. And we've also just been having a great time as companions. We're super similar - we both dance and sing and our sense of humor is similar too. We've decided that we're going to riff-off. Anyone who has watched Pitch Perfect knows what that is. We've tried it with Primary Songs and Hymns - it's so fun, but so hard! We're still just trying to figure out how to do it, but it's fun trying.

So basically, I'm super happy as a missionary. Life is good, even when people are out sick.