A missionary leaves her family for a short time, so that those she teaches may be with their families forever!”

Monday, August 1, 2016

Bed bugs. Trunks. Passing out. Flying copies of the Book of Mormon...Missionary Life

Gosh, y'all sound like your having a lot of fun. Did you know that I make little bowls of fresh tomato toss every now and then. And it's really good. I even did parfait once.
But we've been running around too much in this new area to be able to completely settle in yet. Can I just  say, this week was crazy. Missionary work, and life wise. We had a lot of amazing lessons this week. We are teaching some pretty amazing people who need the gospel and I can't wait to share it with them. I love how excited the ward is for missionaries, we had so many member presents this week. We really only had maybe one or two lessons without a member present. It was so good. Also we had someone to church yesterday!! It was so cool. She really liked it. I'm excited to continue teaching her. We also went on splits for my first time actually. And we did it twice! Because there is so much to do and the members are so willing to help out. I love it when during dinner the members tell is to bring them to lessons and are basically begging us to take me out. It's so fun to have so many want and ask to go with us. Also having a ward missionary who drives and has no job currently and doesn't have anything to do is super helpful. Unfortunately she leaves for Samoa tomorrow and then off to college a few weeks later. So she's is off having a life now. :/ but we are really excited for stories about Samoa before she goes to college.

So, this week we moved out of the hotel because the bug guys said that they couldn't find anything in the apartment. So we moved into the apartment, despite our trepidation. And we definitely have bed bugs. We saw a few. We are getting bit every night. No fun really. So we are living out of garbage bags that hang out in the car. Ahh, the stress of bed bugs. So the next huge drama that happened was because of our living out of the car is that we have to get our clothes out of the trunk every night for the next morning. And Friday night, Sister Evans accidentally closed the trunk on my finger. And then Sister Esplin dropped her iPad, she now has a crack in the corner. We opened the trunk quickly, and my finger looked a little squished. And it was bleeding a bit. So we went inside. It didn't look too bad, just pretty squished. We weren't sure what to do, so we called the mission nurse to ask. She said to send her pictures and if it looked like it needed stitches. I said no, it looked ok, but we weren't sure. So we hung up and took some pictures to email. Meanwhile Sister Evans said that she was feeling lightheaded. So Sister Esplin told her to sit down and drink some water. Then while Sister Esplin was trying to send the email of pictures Sister Evans passed out!!! I was stuck at the sink with my finger so I couldn't do much. Sister Esplin was a boss and told me to call Sister Thompson (mission RN) and was helping Sister Evans trying to wake her up. So I called Sister Thompson right back and told her what was going on. Sister Evans is ok, just no gore or anything for her - ever! And my finger started looking less squished by this time, so everything turned out ok. My finger is fine, just a cut and a bruise. Sister Evans is ok, just not around fingers stuck in trunks. And Sister Esplin handled everything like a pro. Our greenie has had a dunk into missionary life from the very beginning. (Not that finger getting squished in normal.) So everything is ok.

But, funny story, on Saturday we were driving out of a parking lot and our windows were down cuz it was hot. and Sister Evans had her Book of Mormon and Bible and iPad on the dash and when she turned they flew towards the window. She barely caught the iPad and Bible, but the Book of Mormon went flying out. It was pretty hilarious.

For real, this week has been an adventure. Guys, missionary life is weird. And super fun. I love it.

Love, Kimber
Sister Beckstrand

She and I went back and forth a bit by email, and she explained that her mission president was aware that they were living out of their car, and that he had just given them permission to get a new apartment. Whew, on that.  I also sent her a picture of three teens sleeping through family scripture reading, and she wrote back, "Haha, I remember that :) I don't do it anymore though. Study time is too valuable for sleep." My response, "Yeah, your study time has a real purpose now, huh!?!" Her response, "Yep!" What a new life she's living, love it!!

This came in a text message Saturday from "a ward missionary serving with your wonderful daughter...I know parents like pictures... Your daughter loves and misses you!" :)

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