Waiting on Results

Mom's note: She didn't tell about other "waiting" that frustrated her: Their bikes and car are still not repaired (estimates have been done), AND their rent hasn't been paid...the housing coordinator isn't answering his phone...planning to call Pres. Hall if they don't get him soon. Eviction proceedings start tomorrow! 

There are a couple of hours in a competition day that I absolutely dread - and that's the time between performing a solo, and the awards. Why is this such a difficult time for me? Let me tell you - the sense of anticipation while waiting on the results. This time gap is different for a group dance, because there were others on stage with you that would affect the scoring. But in a solo, it's just you, so every single movement made a difference on your score...So waiting on those results are killer. At least for me. I end up replaying in my head everything I did, good or bad. Usually that stresses me out even more. But the constant replay usually ends in relief when the results are finally announced and I am able to see how I did from the eyes of others. 

There has been a lot of waiting this past week - waiting on verdicts and decisions. 

M had a court date this week for a past indecent - she was given probation. So a lot of this week has been spent trying to figure out if she'll still be eligible for baptism in October. As far as we can tell, she still is. Now we have to help her and P be fully committed to living the gospel and becoming converted. It's been hard because most of our appointments this week have dropped - but it's just an obstacle that we can overcome :)

Quite a few other appointments have dropped this week for the various reasons, but there have also been a lot of miracles we've experienced :) One was an awesome new investigator named Miss T and her husband L. We contacted them a couple of weeks ago, and we were finally able to visit and teach. They are super interested - their niece was taught by missionaries a few years ago and they listened in sometimes - now it's their turn to be taught :)

The women's conference this past week was a wonderful experience - I greatly enjoyed it. I particularly loved President Uchtdorf's talk. Sister McElroy and I discussed it for a while Saturday night - he must have prayed long and hard about that one. But it taught us both so much - it was a beautiful message that can apply to so many situations. I'm even more excited now for this upcoming weekend to hear at greater length from the Prophet  and the Apostles. 

Feeling sick

There are two different kinds of feeling sick in the dance world. There is true nausea, and the nausea that comes from nerves. Dancing when really nauseous is not a fun experience - I was called in to substitute for a dancer once who had woken up sick that morning, but trooper that she was, she came and danced anyway. She came off-stage completely exhausted and shaky. Not fun.

But the nice thing about nervous nausea is that it goes away once on the stage and dancing. It's just the anticipation that causes the feeling, and it often helps me to perform better. It's the pressure to do well combine with the excitement that really gives me the thrill for competing.

So the bad kind of nausea was the culmination of our week this week - not for me or my companion, but for M+P. They ended up in the emergency room. During church. She's doing fine now, but we felt so bad - she was throwing up for a couple of days :( 

So we will be pushing their baptism date back until after General Conference. But in the end, it all works out - their road to baptism will be a lot less pressured and congested, and it will give M almost three full weeks of having quit smoking before her baptism. The Lord works in mysterious ways :)

We still had a good week. It's been a lot harder being in the car now instead of our bikes. It's so strange - when we started out, I hated my bike. I hated the heat and the sweat and the time that it took. But now I recognize that it allowed us to talk to so many more people! And I can actually say now that I'm excited to have my bike fixed :)

But there has still been tons of good happen. We have had a wonderful time getting to know the branch members better this week - especially having the opportunity to serve some of them. And one super awesome Sister in the branch had M+P over for dinner mid-week - they had a wonderful time :) This same Sister also introduced us to a friend of hers who will be coming with her to watch General Conference.

We're also seeing a lot of progress in our area, especially with ourselves. President Hall has a big emphasis on efficiency, so he's encouraging us to rethink a lot of the ways we do our missionary work - it's not the smoothest process, but we're seeing a lot of results :)

Looking forward to this week, we're excited to invite another investigator to prepare to be baptized. I've talked about T a little bit - we're going to be extending a date to him on Thursday for October 17th. He's come to church the past three weeks in a row and we feel like he's really ready. Please pray that he'll be comfortable accepting the date :)

The work is awesome, and I'm loving it. I'm very excited for General Conference to come. I love the chance that we have to listen to the prophet's voice and learn how we can better live the gospel.

Collision

I love turns. I think I've said that many times in the past. My favorite exercise during any given dance class is when we get to do turn combinations. They are so much fun, and they are something I feel that I am proficient in. I especially love turn combinations like  chaines or pique turns that carry me across the floor in a straight line. However the one thing you have to beware of when doing these exercise is that you don't collide in to other dancers or that they don't crash into you. Because, believe it or not, it's actually really hard to stay in a straight line sometimes. But it's all good. You just have to look around you and watch your speed and direction of travel. Collisions are not fun and are potential dangerous, so it is always good to avoid them.. 

Except when you can't. Yep, that's right, we had a collision experience this past week. Ready for the story? It's crazy.

So we were in church yesterday. Yes, church. We had just finished Sacrament Meeting and were introducing our investigators M and P to different members. Then one of the members comes up to me and says "somebody just smashed into your car." Wait, what??

Yep. We had pulled through a parking spot, and somebody came in to park behind us and ended up rear-ending us. Our bikes were on the bike rack, so they really hit our bikes, not the car. However, the bike rack was pushed inward, sending our bikes and the rack into the trunk. So it's all warped and dented. And our bikes are damaged. Not serious damage, but enough that we won't be able to ride them for a while. We were able to get all the information we needed, and the car is still drive-able, but it took us all of Gospel Principles to figure things out.

Isn't that an adventure? But even with that, yesterday was still a fantastic day. M and P came to church for the first time and they absolutely loved it. They're on track for their baptism date of Sept 26. The only thing standing in their way at this point is M's smoking and them coming to church one more time. But M got a blessing yesterday and we've started her on the stop smoking program. She's going to make it, I know it. Please pray for her though - it's not going to be easy.

Other than that, it's been a good week. It feels so busy, and I can't honestly remember what happened during half of it. But one thing I do remember is the Relief Society service project that we helped with on Tuesday - Operation gratitude. We made Paracord Bracelets and Cool-Ties to help them out. It was a lot of fun.

I also made an amazing discovery in the past few weeks, but now it's official. After spending my whole mission trying to find family names to take to the temple, I found and individual a few weeks ago who needed all of her work done. It was a golden discovery. However, through the help of Ancestry.com, I've been able to find her husband, his parents and grandparents. So I have six individuals know who all need their temple work. I'm so excited to be able to go perform this work - hopefully during M and P's first trip to the temple.

T is also doing well. He came to church again. We invited him to be baptized when we met with him this week and he accepted - not a date, but that won't take long. We're super excited for him as well - he's so ready!

I'm loving the work - as always it's work, so it's not easy. But I love it. It's the most worthwhile thing I could be doing :)

New Dance Studio

I can still remember the day that I went to get the mail and I saw an advertisement for a dance studio that had just rented new space in the area. It was the push I needed to finally get back into dance after a break of a couple of years. We visited the studio, I took a trial class, and off we went. It was a new beginning that brought me the chance to compete, do a couple of solo performances, take pointe classes, and make awesome friendships. All these amazing things happened, all because Dance Concepts moved into a new studio.

Moving can change a lot of things - location, people, neighbors, etc. Our week has been characterized by moving. We finally moved into a new apartment! We don't live on Galveston anymore, but now we're up in Texas City. I was both sad and happy to move. And the new place is awesome. It's bigger and is more roomy, but that may be in part that it's only us there. It was sad to leave the Hermanas. It was like a big sleepover - but now it's just quiet coming home.

But it was a crazy week- totally crazy. I wasn't even technically part of the move since I was in Sugarland for MLC. Sister McElroy and an exchange companion (with help from the Elders and the Mission) got to set up an entire apartment in the pouring rain - all the furniture, all our stuff. They were completely soaked. I felt so bad for them, but I was glad not to be in the middle of it.

Thursday we had zone meetings. And because I'm a Sister Training Leader for a zone other than my own, I actually had two zone meetings to attend. So we went to League City to start and stayed until after my training, then we booked it down to Galveston for our own zone meeting. But we had to leave early from that so our apartment could be inspected. We also had to weekly plan that day. Ugh. Insane.

Friday we ended up doing service all day. No joke - all day. We got to this member's house at 10:30 a.m. to help her pack up and move her trailer. But stuff kept happening and we were there a lot longer than expected. It was a very muddy experience.

So yeah. And that's just a taste of the week. But with all the crazy, there's always the good.

Good news :) Transfers have come once again, and I get to stay in Texas City for another transfer. So does Sister McElroy :D This will be our third transfer together. We're both super excited. We have a lot of good things planned.