Sister Beckstrand, the Missionary!: Moving, President Wakolo our Companion, and a baptism!!!!!

Guess what we got yesterday (Saturday afternoon)?!

Hey, I'm emailing today, right now, cuz Sister Evans goes home on Monday...

This week has been crazy!! Monday was nuts! We finished emailing, and were driving up with our groceries when the office elders called, and told us we were moving. The next day. So we rushed home and started putting everything in ziplock bags and garbage bags. And we had to vacuum and lay out all our drawers and get the whole apartment ready for spraying. Our plans went down the drain and we cleaned and packed all evening. The elders came and sprayed the apartment. We slept without sheets because we didn't want to get them dirty (get bed bugs on them and have to wash and dry again, like we've been doing everyday since we've had them).

Giant garbage bags!

Then on Tuesday we had to cancel most of our plans. We did get to see Donna and Chelsea. So two lessons all day. Yay! They were really good at least. Then we had to go to the laundromat to dry ALL of our clothes and kill any bugs still on or in our stuff (that took two days). Then we actually moved to our new temporary apartment while they look for a new one for us to move into. It's a nice apartment. It's the apartment meant for transfers/trainers. So next week there are going to be six sisters there, (if we're still there).

Wednesday was cool. Seriously. We had a great lesson with Donna. She has changed so much! You wouldn't believe how different she is now. She laughs and she smiles. She loves it when we come over. Then we went to the church and had a great lesson with a less active couple with President Wakolo. That was a wonderful lesson. It's so inspiring to be with President and to watch him teach. The Spirit there reminded me of the temple. It was amazing. Then Donna came to the church to have her interview. We were seriously with President pretty much all day because after that we had to go back to the laundromat and then the apartment to catch up on 12 week. (?)

Thursday was another adventure. Just before studies we read an email about MLC (missionary leadership training) and found out that we had to be at the church to get two sisters who weren't part of it for the end of the morning until mid afternoon. So we went there and studied with them. Then we found out that we had to do some more cleaning in
our apartment and get ALL of our stuff out so they could spray again before they shut down the apartment. So we had to go on splits with Sister Lange and Sister Kirby (the two sisters we had to be with). Sister Esplin and I cleaned while Sister Evans took the other sisters to our lesson. After that we went to a lesson that fell through, so we went back to the church to figure stuff out for today. We got to see all the leaders on the mission. I saw Sister Hirschi!! And Sister Decker! And Sister Pochop (who goes home with Sister Evans)! It was so great. We also saw President again. Super fun.

On Friday we ran around trying to meet people, but not much happened. Then we had a lesson with Donna and her home teacher and visiting teacher. It was so good they are perfect for her. They have so much in common. Then we went and had dinner with a less active. We went home and did preventative measures against bed bugs at the temporary apartment.

Today Donna got baptized!!!!! It was so good. There were a lot of people there. What a great way for Sister Evans to end her mission. Donna is the best. There were so many people there to support her. There would have been a lot more, but a lot of people went down to Louisiana to help with the flooding this weekend. It was a really good baptism. I love Donna.

It has been such a good week. So much has happened, and we have all learned so much. It's going to be so hard when Sister Evans goes home. We have had so much fun. I just love it here! And I love learning so much from the scriptures and being able to read them so much. Every verse truly does apply to us. It's so cool. The other day I was reading Alma 19:36, and I was just thinking that right there it tells us how to get that blessing to "pour out his spirit upon them,...his arm is extended to all..." That whole chapter just describes ways of receiving those blessings. It says "and thus..." It just tells us what to do! I love it. So many learning opportunities.

Love Kimber
Sister Beckstrand