Thursday, September 9, 2010
Kaelynn's Mission Return, September 8, 2010
Kaelynn returned home! She looks great, she had a wonderful experience and is ready to move on. We had a lovely dinner with many family members that night. Also, Andrea and Chris called her. Thanks to everyone for making it a great day. First day back started well--we started the day with a three mile run and then scripture study.
Friday, September 3, 2010
3 September 2010
So I just found out the libraries will be closed on Monday and Tuesday morning I have to go to the mission home first thing because Sister Thomas is picking up a greenie. Long story short, I won't be able to email after today, so here it is, my FINAL EMAIL from the mission field. Craziness.
The Boston Temple was absolutely wonderful. I left feeling very reassured. I still have only a few vague ideas about what to do with my life, but I know that if I stick with those the rest will be given to me in God's time. I have a lot of faith and hope and excitement about my post-mission life. The last few days have been very emotional. I go from one extreme to the other very quickly. Either it's "I can't stand this anymore, get me on the plane this second" or I feel as sad and depressed as if someone just died. Someone is dying! My mission is dying! I'm leaving these people that I love so much. But such is life. Change is good.
Mostly I'm just grateful. Grateful for this whole experience. I'm so blessed to have been here.
See you very soon. Love,
Sister Monson (until Wednesday)
The Boston Temple was absolutely wonderful. I left feeling very reassured. I still have only a few vague ideas about what to do with my life, but I know that if I stick with those the rest will be given to me in God's time. I have a lot of faith and hope and excitement about my post-mission life. The last few days have been very emotional. I go from one extreme to the other very quickly. Either it's "I can't stand this anymore, get me on the plane this second" or I feel as sad and depressed as if someone just died. Someone is dying! My mission is dying! I'm leaving these people that I love so much. But such is life. Change is good.
Mostly I'm just grateful. Grateful for this whole experience. I'm so blessed to have been here.
See you very soon. Love,
Sister Monson (until Wednesday)
Monday, August 30, 2010
29 August 2010
So we’ve been getting these new trainings based on a curriculum the First Presidency put out. Our numbers have been skyrocketing the past few weeks since we implemented the new things we were taught. This week we taught 26 lessons. That’s definitely the highest number of lessons I’ve ever taught in a week. President Eyring wants all the missionaries to shoot for 20 a week, and I think we’ve hit 20 once or twice before.
We had a difficult moment with an investigator who really, really wanted to be baptized on Sunday. We told her to plan on it, but we should have communicated her progress more clearly to the WML and the bishop…anyway, the bishop really wanted her to wait at least another week so we had to tell her she couldn’t be baptized on Sunday, after she had already started planning it and shopping for a white dress and gotten all excited. She was really discouraged and disappointed and we felt terrible about the whole situation since it was our fault for jumping the gun. We were really upset about it on Thursday night—I was on the phone giving our numbers to the district leader and we got a call on the other line, which Sister Thomas was hoping would be President Pehrson so we could explain the situation to him, but it turned out to be our WML, whom we had just hung up with. To be precise, it was actually his wife. She said, “Brother Tillinghast feels prompted to come visit you, can we come over?” So they came and said a prayer with us and talked us through the situation and helped us feel a lot better. It was definitely an answer to prayer and a testimony that the Lord is aware of our every need and can work through us to answer the prayers of those around us if we just listen to the Spirit.
Quote for the week is: My guardian angel has cankles and needs a gastric bypass. (This stemmed from the idea that you feed your guardian angel when you read your scriptures…and it went from there…one of those “you-had-to-be-there” moments, I guess.)
Back to the Empire State
A Few Neat Little Knick Knacks
Amenia, ain't it a quaint little town?
What a quaint little sign.
And here we are, back to the Constitution State...I'm signing "three weeks," but now I can say ONE WEEK AND THREE DAYS! I'm not excited to leave here, just excited to be at home and see the family/friends/home that I miss. From this point in my life I will have two homes, I guess. I just won't live at the Connecticut home all the time.
We had a difficult moment with an investigator who really, really wanted to be baptized on Sunday. We told her to plan on it, but we should have communicated her progress more clearly to the WML and the bishop…anyway, the bishop really wanted her to wait at least another week so we had to tell her she couldn’t be baptized on Sunday, after she had already started planning it and shopping for a white dress and gotten all excited. She was really discouraged and disappointed and we felt terrible about the whole situation since it was our fault for jumping the gun. We were really upset about it on Thursday night—I was on the phone giving our numbers to the district leader and we got a call on the other line, which Sister Thomas was hoping would be President Pehrson so we could explain the situation to him, but it turned out to be our WML, whom we had just hung up with. To be precise, it was actually his wife. She said, “Brother Tillinghast feels prompted to come visit you, can we come over?” So they came and said a prayer with us and talked us through the situation and helped us feel a lot better. It was definitely an answer to prayer and a testimony that the Lord is aware of our every need and can work through us to answer the prayers of those around us if we just listen to the Spirit.
Quote for the week is: My guardian angel has cankles and needs a gastric bypass. (This stemmed from the idea that you feed your guardian angel when you read your scriptures…and it went from there…one of those “you-had-to-be-there” moments, I guess.)
Back to the Empire State
A Few Neat Little Knick Knacks
Amenia, ain't it a quaint little town?
What a quaint little sign.
And here we are, back to the Constitution State...I'm signing "three weeks," but now I can say ONE WEEK AND THREE DAYS! I'm not excited to leave here, just excited to be at home and see the family/friends/home that I miss. From this point in my life I will have two homes, I guess. I just won't live at the Connecticut home all the time.
Monday, August 23, 2010
23 August 2010
My USB cord for my camera had a temper tantrum and ran away. I haven’t tracked it down yet. So until it gets hungry and wet (it’s raining!) and decides to come home, do your best to imagine a picture of me standing under the “Welcome to Connecticut” sign, doing the ASL sign for “three weeks.” Except now that picture is out of date because it’s more like TWO WEEKS! We got to go to New York again this month and we had so much fun eating lunch with the member who lives there. Turns out there is another member family that just moved to Amenia and goes to the Goshen ward also, and they came to lunch. He used to work on the set of “As the World Turns,” and now that the show has ended they moved to Amenia and decided to open a cute little furniture store where he is selling a lot of the furniture from the old set. I had no idea that much work was put into soap opera sets. He showed us the shop (which hasn’t officially opened yet). It’s full of all sorts of beautiful antique furniture and knick-knacks. Again, I have pictures that cannot be transported to you, thanks to the temper tantrum. (Before it left it told me all about how I got it from the orphanage to do its work, and then before it slammed the door, it said, “I’m running away! I’m running away!” Sound like anyone you know?)
Chris didn’t write anything too exciting this week and he’s getting after me for plagiarizing his emails. Since I am not creative enough to tell you anything interesting on my own, I will recount the week in random stories.
Calling a member of the bishopric who just asked us to speak in church next week:
Sister Thomas: “We can’t speak in church next week. We just found out we’re getting emergency transferred and we’re leaving Wednesday.”
Brother So-and-So (after a long pause): “You’re kidding.”
Thomas: “Yeah, I’m kidding.”
So-and-so: “You are a rotten human being! You little puke! You’re Sister Puke. I’m going to hang up.”
Thomas: “No, don’t hang up! We have a favor to ask you.”
So-and-so: “Oh, NOW you want to ask me a favor!”
Thomas: “It’s a favor for the Lord.”
So-and-so: “Are you hungry? Does the Lord want me to feed you? Well, come on over. I’ve got an arsenic sandwich waiting for you!”
Moving on to stories that don’t involve death threats, but stalking:
One member of the ward has the most hilarious child. She is such a talker. Every time we go over there she bombards us with questions, e.g.:
Kid: “What are you doing?”
Me: “We’re going around visiting people today. What are you doing?”
Kid: “Well, I’m just sitting here on the porch talking to you.”
After Dad introduces her new baby brother- “My little brother cries sometimes.”
Dad: “So did you when you were a baby.”
Kid: “I was a baby?”
Sister Thomas: “Even we were babies a long time ago.”
Kid: “Was Grandma Cathy a baby?”
Before we left: “Where do you guys live? Do you live by Grandma Cathy? Will I see you guys tomorrow? Can you come over every day? Can I sleep over at your house?”
Aliens, Yu-Gi-Oh, Ugly People, and Four-Legged Animals:
“I don’t believe none of those UFO crap.” –cool Jamaican guy
“Lewis is a young buck. We found him with Elder Seamons. He’s into Yu-Gi-Oh, so yeah.” –old teaching record
“I wanna see your ugly little faces.” Sweet old woman from the ward wanting us to come over
“Bible-pants!” Sarah referring to her former pastor
The missionary work for this week can be summed up in one word: intense. We have a lot of investigators. We still have several baptismal dates. We’re very busy and are seeing lots of miracles. Our investigators are struggling with Word of Wisdom issues and a LOT of opposition.
Miracle story for the week: We were supposed to get our oil changed Thursday morning. But when we went in Midas was busy and it was going to take a few hours, so we made an appointment to come back in the afternoon and had to rearrange our plans a little bit. Because of that we ended up street contacting on South Main and randomly decided to stop by a woman who lives on that street (we had set up one appointment with her before, but it fell through and we hadn’t gotten in contact with her since). When we rang her doorbell she told us all about the bad day she’d had and how she had been praying for help when the doorbell rang. I love that things like that happen so much on the mission that they aren’t even really surprising anymore. Still exciting, but not surprising. At the beginning of my mission I would have freaked out and written pages in my journal and said, “What a crazy coincidence!” or something to that effect. But now the reaction is more like, “Well, of course. God puts us in the right place at the right time to answer prayers. It’s just how it goes.”
Reflection/philosophizing/pretending to be deep and profound and such: I’ve been thinking about what to do with my life after I go home. I left on my mission with absolutely no clue as to what would come after. I just knew that if God had a plan for me to be here, he must also have a plan for afterward. I still feel that way, and I still don’t really know what I’m going to do. I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my mind, and they are all just still in the idea stage.
But I came upon this song by Relient K and one verse really spoke to me.
Still wondering why I’m here,
Still wrestling with my fears but oh, he’s up to something.
And the farther on I go,
I’ve seen enough to know that I’m not here for nothing.
He’s up to something.
So now’s my time to be a man [insert “woman” here], follow my heart as far as I can.
No telling where I’ll be ending up tonight.
I never slow down, or so it seems,
Singing my heart is one of my dreams.
All I have to do is hold on tight.
There is hope for me yet,
Because God won’t forget
All the plans he’s made for me.
I’ll have to wait and see,
He’s not finished with me yet.
So there you have it, kids. God's not finished with me yet!
Lots of love and looking forward to seeing all ya's in two weeks!
-Monson
Chris didn’t write anything too exciting this week and he’s getting after me for plagiarizing his emails. Since I am not creative enough to tell you anything interesting on my own, I will recount the week in random stories.
Calling a member of the bishopric who just asked us to speak in church next week:
Sister Thomas: “We can’t speak in church next week. We just found out we’re getting emergency transferred and we’re leaving Wednesday.”
Brother So-and-So (after a long pause): “You’re kidding.”
Thomas: “Yeah, I’m kidding.”
So-and-so: “You are a rotten human being! You little puke! You’re Sister Puke. I’m going to hang up.”
Thomas: “No, don’t hang up! We have a favor to ask you.”
So-and-so: “Oh, NOW you want to ask me a favor!”
Thomas: “It’s a favor for the Lord.”
So-and-so: “Are you hungry? Does the Lord want me to feed you? Well, come on over. I’ve got an arsenic sandwich waiting for you!”
Moving on to stories that don’t involve death threats, but stalking:
One member of the ward has the most hilarious child. She is such a talker. Every time we go over there she bombards us with questions, e.g.:
Kid: “What are you doing?”
Me: “We’re going around visiting people today. What are you doing?”
Kid: “Well, I’m just sitting here on the porch talking to you.”
After Dad introduces her new baby brother- “My little brother cries sometimes.”
Dad: “So did you when you were a baby.”
Kid: “I was a baby?”
Sister Thomas: “Even we were babies a long time ago.”
Kid: “Was Grandma Cathy a baby?”
Before we left: “Where do you guys live? Do you live by Grandma Cathy? Will I see you guys tomorrow? Can you come over every day? Can I sleep over at your house?”
Aliens, Yu-Gi-Oh, Ugly People, and Four-Legged Animals:
“I don’t believe none of those UFO crap.” –cool Jamaican guy
“Lewis is a young buck. We found him with Elder Seamons. He’s into Yu-Gi-Oh, so yeah.” –old teaching record
“I wanna see your ugly little faces.” Sweet old woman from the ward wanting us to come over
“Bible-pants!” Sarah referring to her former pastor
The missionary work for this week can be summed up in one word: intense. We have a lot of investigators. We still have several baptismal dates. We’re very busy and are seeing lots of miracles. Our investigators are struggling with Word of Wisdom issues and a LOT of opposition.
Miracle story for the week: We were supposed to get our oil changed Thursday morning. But when we went in Midas was busy and it was going to take a few hours, so we made an appointment to come back in the afternoon and had to rearrange our plans a little bit. Because of that we ended up street contacting on South Main and randomly decided to stop by a woman who lives on that street (we had set up one appointment with her before, but it fell through and we hadn’t gotten in contact with her since). When we rang her doorbell she told us all about the bad day she’d had and how she had been praying for help when the doorbell rang. I love that things like that happen so much on the mission that they aren’t even really surprising anymore. Still exciting, but not surprising. At the beginning of my mission I would have freaked out and written pages in my journal and said, “What a crazy coincidence!” or something to that effect. But now the reaction is more like, “Well, of course. God puts us in the right place at the right time to answer prayers. It’s just how it goes.”
Reflection/philosophizing/pretending to be deep and profound and such: I’ve been thinking about what to do with my life after I go home. I left on my mission with absolutely no clue as to what would come after. I just knew that if God had a plan for me to be here, he must also have a plan for afterward. I still feel that way, and I still don’t really know what I’m going to do. I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my mind, and they are all just still in the idea stage.
But I came upon this song by Relient K and one verse really spoke to me.
Still wondering why I’m here,
Still wrestling with my fears but oh, he’s up to something.
And the farther on I go,
I’ve seen enough to know that I’m not here for nothing.
He’s up to something.
So now’s my time to be a man [insert “woman” here], follow my heart as far as I can.
No telling where I’ll be ending up tonight.
I never slow down, or so it seems,
Singing my heart is one of my dreams.
All I have to do is hold on tight.
There is hope for me yet,
Because God won’t forget
All the plans he’s made for me.
I’ll have to wait and see,
He’s not finished with me yet.
So there you have it, kids. God's not finished with me yet!
Lots of love and looking forward to seeing all ya's in two weeks!
-Monson
Monday, August 9, 2010
9 August 2010
I got a whole slew of emails this week from my long-lost brother, Chris the mad scientist. And I quote:
”I'm not sure how this works out for sisters, but for elders the general guidance is: the harder you work and the more you suffer on your mission, the hotter your wife will be. I don't think God is sexist, so I think it is pretty safe to assume that you can replace "wife" with "spouse" and have a saying that suits all comers. Just remember, you only have a few weeks left to work up in the marrying world - if you squander them, you will be stuck for all eternity with a sub-optimal specimen. We wouldn't want that to happen now, would we?”
So I guess that means the other day when that lady told us she wasn’ t interested and to get off her property, and our baptism got postponed and the family didn’t show up at church, and our investigator had 31 pairs of shoes fall on his head from a broken shelf at Payless (thereby spraining his neck), not to mention Mom broke her pelvis thanks to someone who decided to randomly spray some slippery oil on the road, that means that “somewhere your future husband is building his pecs, or perfecting his tan, or something like that. My goodness, this is WHY you would want to serve a mission! Don't mock me on this - it worked for me. I worked hard in Brazil, and in every picture Lisa sent she was hotter. When I got sick (typhoid, or yellow fever, or some crazy food poisoning, depending on who you ask) and was throwing up and had diarrhea for an entire week, I could feel her getting hotter the whole time. I tried to go tracting a few times, but I just couldn't manage it, and maybe that's a good thing. Lisa's already much better-looking than me. Had I managed to work while that sick she may have become a Miss America Supermodel, and I imagine there would be a lot of pressure being married to someone so hot.”
Really, it was a great week, I just like to exaggerate things so I can add up the “husband points.”
By the way, Chris, you are doing a very good job of redeeming yourself and working your way up to an OLWK award. Maybe not first prize, but definitely a runner-up. Thanks for the emails. Feel free to keep it up if you wish. Even if you still have absolutely nothing to write about. Write about anything! ANYTHING! Boogers. The Easter bunny. Gravel. Asbestos. Pencils. Cucumbers. There’s a few suggestions to start with. (Brian, take notes.)
On Sunday Bishop Zeiner approached us and asked us to teach all the lessons to a 12-year-old this week before his baptism next Sunday. His whole family has been attending church and meeting with missionaries on and off for about 8 years, so he knows it all and has a great testimony, but his parents wouldn’t let him get baptized and they weren’t progressing so we dropped the family back in April. But for whatever reason, they have decided to let him get baptized and he wants Brother Jones to baptize him before the Jones family moves away next week. So, here we are. Baptism on speed dial. We’re so excited!!!!!! It’s truly a miracle that they have decided to let him get baptized. Now, the next miracle will be to baptize the rest of the family, including the parents.
Well, due to the endless battling with the Trunky Monster all night long (I think I wrestled him in my sleep), I have no energy left to write anything more. Until next time,
Kaelynn
P.S. Word on the street is that Sister Thomas’s mom met President Monson at a party somewhere this week and told him that we are serving together as Thomas/Monson, and he got a kick out of it. I knew he would! Mean old President Pehrson wouldn’t let us send him a letter. L
”I'm not sure how this works out for sisters, but for elders the general guidance is: the harder you work and the more you suffer on your mission, the hotter your wife will be. I don't think God is sexist, so I think it is pretty safe to assume that you can replace "wife" with "spouse" and have a saying that suits all comers. Just remember, you only have a few weeks left to work up in the marrying world - if you squander them, you will be stuck for all eternity with a sub-optimal specimen. We wouldn't want that to happen now, would we?”
So I guess that means the other day when that lady told us she wasn’ t interested and to get off her property, and our baptism got postponed and the family didn’t show up at church, and our investigator had 31 pairs of shoes fall on his head from a broken shelf at Payless (thereby spraining his neck), not to mention Mom broke her pelvis thanks to someone who decided to randomly spray some slippery oil on the road, that means that “somewhere your future husband is building his pecs, or perfecting his tan, or something like that. My goodness, this is WHY you would want to serve a mission! Don't mock me on this - it worked for me. I worked hard in Brazil, and in every picture Lisa sent she was hotter. When I got sick (typhoid, or yellow fever, or some crazy food poisoning, depending on who you ask) and was throwing up and had diarrhea for an entire week, I could feel her getting hotter the whole time. I tried to go tracting a few times, but I just couldn't manage it, and maybe that's a good thing. Lisa's already much better-looking than me. Had I managed to work while that sick she may have become a Miss America Supermodel, and I imagine there would be a lot of pressure being married to someone so hot.”
Really, it was a great week, I just like to exaggerate things so I can add up the “husband points.”
By the way, Chris, you are doing a very good job of redeeming yourself and working your way up to an OLWK award. Maybe not first prize, but definitely a runner-up. Thanks for the emails. Feel free to keep it up if you wish. Even if you still have absolutely nothing to write about. Write about anything! ANYTHING! Boogers. The Easter bunny. Gravel. Asbestos. Pencils. Cucumbers. There’s a few suggestions to start with. (Brian, take notes.)
On Sunday Bishop Zeiner approached us and asked us to teach all the lessons to a 12-year-old this week before his baptism next Sunday. His whole family has been attending church and meeting with missionaries on and off for about 8 years, so he knows it all and has a great testimony, but his parents wouldn’t let him get baptized and they weren’t progressing so we dropped the family back in April. But for whatever reason, they have decided to let him get baptized and he wants Brother Jones to baptize him before the Jones family moves away next week. So, here we are. Baptism on speed dial. We’re so excited!!!!!! It’s truly a miracle that they have decided to let him get baptized. Now, the next miracle will be to baptize the rest of the family, including the parents.
Well, due to the endless battling with the Trunky Monster all night long (I think I wrestled him in my sleep), I have no energy left to write anything more. Until next time,
Kaelynn
P.S. Word on the street is that Sister Thomas’s mom met President Monson at a party somewhere this week and told him that we are serving together as Thomas/Monson, and he got a kick out of it. I knew he would! Mean old President Pehrson wouldn’t let us send him a letter. L
Sunday, August 8, 2010
2 August 2010
The Trunky Monster has attacked me. Every night he hides under my bed, waiting for me to turn the lights off. Last night I think he dragged me out of bed and bit my legs off. But I was too exhausted to notice. (I keep telling Sister Thomas there’s a monster under my bed, but she doesn’t believe me!) I’m still working and still love it here, I just don’t want to be here anymore! Tonight I’m going to wait up for the Trunky Monster, club him with a baseball bat, and demand my legs back.
This week we walked around for hours and got burned to a crisp and found no one. Well, that was the first two days of the week, I should say. Later in the week we were blessed to find 4 new investigators! I feel like God is blessing us for trying to be diligent.
On one of those “walking around for hours and getting fried” days, we tracted one side of a street called Upper Valley Road. We have since renamed it Upturned Nose Road, Upper Snotty Road, Nightmare on Elm Street, and other such things. Every single person slammed the door, many of them while we were still in midsentence, and I started talking to the closed doors since no real people would listen to us. And the street was a “Long and Winding Road” to the point of being comical. We kept reaching a bend in the road and thinking, “We’re almost done!” only to the point of going around the curve and finding the road still kept going. On and on and on. At one point I started questioning my level of consciousness. “Are you sure we’re not dreaming?” It was like those nightmares where you keep running and running or never get anywhere. (Or like my nightmares, where ET was trying to strangle me and my voice didn’t work, as my family will remember.) Finally at the end of the street, we found a guy who would give us the time of day long enough to take a pamphlet. That was our miracle for the day.
One night this week we were planning backups for the next day. I asked Sister Thomas what we should do if our four-thirty appointment fell through. She said, “Take turns stabbing each other in the leg with forks.”
In all seriousness, life is good, we are so incredibly blessed, and I still love my mission. The greatest blessing of my life. I’m just slowly succumbing to the Trunky Monster. (I can hear him laughing right now! He’ll be going for my arms next. Then after I am armless and legless he’ll start making ME sleep under the bed, and he’ll take over my bed and I still probably won’t even wake up.) I keep reminding myself I only have five more weeks to be Sister Monson, to wear this name tag, to have no responsibilities except sharing the gospel and learning and serving. Like I said, I keep reminding, because I need it about every five seconds.
Everyone, be safe. Sleep with a baseball bat next to your bed in case a monster pays you a visit. (Whatever kind of monsters you have, I don’t know.)
-Kaelynn
This week we walked around for hours and got burned to a crisp and found no one. Well, that was the first two days of the week, I should say. Later in the week we were blessed to find 4 new investigators! I feel like God is blessing us for trying to be diligent.
On one of those “walking around for hours and getting fried” days, we tracted one side of a street called Upper Valley Road. We have since renamed it Upturned Nose Road, Upper Snotty Road, Nightmare on Elm Street, and other such things. Every single person slammed the door, many of them while we were still in midsentence, and I started talking to the closed doors since no real people would listen to us. And the street was a “Long and Winding Road” to the point of being comical. We kept reaching a bend in the road and thinking, “We’re almost done!” only to the point of going around the curve and finding the road still kept going. On and on and on. At one point I started questioning my level of consciousness. “Are you sure we’re not dreaming?” It was like those nightmares where you keep running and running or never get anywhere. (Or like my nightmares, where ET was trying to strangle me and my voice didn’t work, as my family will remember.) Finally at the end of the street, we found a guy who would give us the time of day long enough to take a pamphlet. That was our miracle for the day.
One night this week we were planning backups for the next day. I asked Sister Thomas what we should do if our four-thirty appointment fell through. She said, “Take turns stabbing each other in the leg with forks.”
In all seriousness, life is good, we are so incredibly blessed, and I still love my mission. The greatest blessing of my life. I’m just slowly succumbing to the Trunky Monster. (I can hear him laughing right now! He’ll be going for my arms next. Then after I am armless and legless he’ll start making ME sleep under the bed, and he’ll take over my bed and I still probably won’t even wake up.) I keep reminding myself I only have five more weeks to be Sister Monson, to wear this name tag, to have no responsibilities except sharing the gospel and learning and serving. Like I said, I keep reminding, because I need it about every five seconds.
Everyone, be safe. Sleep with a baseball bat next to your bed in case a monster pays you a visit. (Whatever kind of monsters you have, I don’t know.)
-Kaelynn
Thursday, July 15, 2010
10July2010
I waited all week long for Monday to get here.
Then on Monday morning I waited all morning long for email time to get here.
We got to the library and there were no computers available in the front of the library, where we usually go. So we went to the children’s section which has two computers. One was occupied by a small child playing Star Wars. And boy, was he vocal about it. He did not know how to use the Force. And he wanted to be Anakin on his next game. And then his three friends had to come and watch and comment.
So Sister Thomas was on the other computer, and I sat at a nearby table. Just as luck would have it, I didn’t bring any paper to write letters, and I didn’t bring my Bible to finish my New Testament reading. All I had was my hardback Book of Mormon.
After poring over the Samuel the Lamanite story, AGAIN, I started looking for other ways to entertain myself. I love being surrounded by books I can’t read! At least these were all kid books. Young adult novels. Like the Traveling Pants books, and all their sequels, “The Traveling Pants and He Broke Up With Carmen,” and “The Traveling Pants Travel to Greece Again for Summer Break,” and “The Traveling Pants Find Another Small Child Dying of a Terminal Illness—This Time It’s Lupus,” and “The Traveling Pants Go To Soccer Camp Again and Hook Up With a Different Coach.” Maybe “The Traveling Pants and Carmen Goes on a Diet,” and “The Traveling Pants and Whatsername Gets Laid Off from Wal-Mart and Gets a Summer Job at a Slushee Stand.” Okay, those aren’t really the names but they should be. I think my titles are better than the original ones.
Then I found lists of recommended summer reading for kids and preteens, and they had short summaries of each book. Gotta love those young adult fiction novels. “Jimmy’s mom is having a new baby, and he gets paired with Meanie Jeanie for a school project. He and his best friend have a fight. He gets kicked off the playground. His Popsicle falls in the dirt. COULD ANYTHING ELSE GO WRONG?! IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD. Until Jimmy and his dad have a little heart-to-heart and then they hug and he punches him on the arm and says, ‘Go get ‘em Little Chief!’ ”
When I had read all the lists and had nothing else to do I listened to Star Wars’ older sister come and try and drag him off: “Jimmy, it’s time to leave.” (Yes it is, Jimmy! Oh please! I promise it is.) “No it’s not.” “Yes it IS!” “Tell Mom I’m staying a little longer, okay?” “It’s time to go!” “It’s time to go!” “Stop imitating me! You guys are so immature! I’m telling Mom!” (Hurry back with Mom! I’m bored out of my mind!)
After what seems like a brief eternity later, Mom comes. Mom comes! And in her sweet voice she persuades Jimmy to leave his game and give the headphones back to the nice lady at the front desk. Unfortunately Jimmy was mad so he turned off the computer as he stormed out. And seeing as these are computers dating back from the Jurassic Age, they take approximately two millennia to reboot and regain their bearings and find the Internet again.
Sister Thomas was so sweet and let me use her computer while she waited for Grandma Dell to wake up.
Anyway, this email does not sound like it was written by a missionary…it doesn’t say much about missionary work, and I will tell you now, that is because this week was a lot of drama and not much else. Good things are still happening, but nothing monumental enough to write home about. So this was my opportunity to learn patience, and pray that the drama resolves itself. It will, I’m sure. The Church is true, computers are slow, and children will play computer games until the Second Coming unless you drag them out by their earlobes.
Much love,
Kaelynn
Then on Monday morning I waited all morning long for email time to get here.
We got to the library and there were no computers available in the front of the library, where we usually go. So we went to the children’s section which has two computers. One was occupied by a small child playing Star Wars. And boy, was he vocal about it. He did not know how to use the Force. And he wanted to be Anakin on his next game. And then his three friends had to come and watch and comment.
So Sister Thomas was on the other computer, and I sat at a nearby table. Just as luck would have it, I didn’t bring any paper to write letters, and I didn’t bring my Bible to finish my New Testament reading. All I had was my hardback Book of Mormon.
After poring over the Samuel the Lamanite story, AGAIN, I started looking for other ways to entertain myself. I love being surrounded by books I can’t read! At least these were all kid books. Young adult novels. Like the Traveling Pants books, and all their sequels, “The Traveling Pants and He Broke Up With Carmen,” and “The Traveling Pants Travel to Greece Again for Summer Break,” and “The Traveling Pants Find Another Small Child Dying of a Terminal Illness—This Time It’s Lupus,” and “The Traveling Pants Go To Soccer Camp Again and Hook Up With a Different Coach.” Maybe “The Traveling Pants and Carmen Goes on a Diet,” and “The Traveling Pants and Whatsername Gets Laid Off from Wal-Mart and Gets a Summer Job at a Slushee Stand.” Okay, those aren’t really the names but they should be. I think my titles are better than the original ones.
Then I found lists of recommended summer reading for kids and preteens, and they had short summaries of each book. Gotta love those young adult fiction novels. “Jimmy’s mom is having a new baby, and he gets paired with Meanie Jeanie for a school project. He and his best friend have a fight. He gets kicked off the playground. His Popsicle falls in the dirt. COULD ANYTHING ELSE GO WRONG?! IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD. Until Jimmy and his dad have a little heart-to-heart and then they hug and he punches him on the arm and says, ‘Go get ‘em Little Chief!’ ”
When I had read all the lists and had nothing else to do I listened to Star Wars’ older sister come and try and drag him off: “Jimmy, it’s time to leave.” (Yes it is, Jimmy! Oh please! I promise it is.) “No it’s not.” “Yes it IS!” “Tell Mom I’m staying a little longer, okay?” “It’s time to go!” “It’s time to go!” “Stop imitating me! You guys are so immature! I’m telling Mom!” (Hurry back with Mom! I’m bored out of my mind!)
After what seems like a brief eternity later, Mom comes. Mom comes! And in her sweet voice she persuades Jimmy to leave his game and give the headphones back to the nice lady at the front desk. Unfortunately Jimmy was mad so he turned off the computer as he stormed out. And seeing as these are computers dating back from the Jurassic Age, they take approximately two millennia to reboot and regain their bearings and find the Internet again.
Sister Thomas was so sweet and let me use her computer while she waited for Grandma Dell to wake up.
Anyway, this email does not sound like it was written by a missionary…it doesn’t say much about missionary work, and I will tell you now, that is because this week was a lot of drama and not much else. Good things are still happening, but nothing monumental enough to write home about. So this was my opportunity to learn patience, and pray that the drama resolves itself. It will, I’m sure. The Church is true, computers are slow, and children will play computer games until the Second Coming unless you drag them out by their earlobes.
Much love,
Kaelynn
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