Monday, September 9, 2013

Saying Goodbye to Tina

 I (Mom) have been remiss in posting Sister May's letter. This is from last Tuesday - Monday being Labor Day.

Hello all! I shall explain the subject line soon, but I have other things to talk about first.

First of all, my foot is feeling tons better. It is still a little tender at times, and I'm not exercising on it yet, but missionary work is easier. Standing on doorsteps, though, is not my friend. Ick. 

We went to Lincoln! I had never been there before, but it afforded an excellent opportunity to see some old friends from the MTC and to say hello to new Sisters. It was great! We slept on the floor of a member's house where one companionship lives, and while sleeping on the floor was not ideal, hey, it was better than sleeping in the car! Remember how Sister Stiles was going to be playing a duet with S. Y'berg? Well, she was suuuuper stressed about it. So stressed that she started sleep walking. Have I mentioned that S. Stiles is a sleep talker? She is. Almost every night. And add a little stress, and she sleep talks AND walks! My favorite "conversation" was the one where I wake up to her proclaiming, "My name is Sister Stiles, and I just know this will bless your life!" HA! 100% missionary to the end!

Well, this week she started walking. For example, one night she sat up in bed and started babbling, but I didn't notice until she said my name: "Sister May, that was craaaazy!" she said. Then she threw off her blanket and said, "Hold on, I need to go to the bathroom." She then proceeded to head to the bathroom. When she returned, she left the bedroom door wide open and climbed back into bed. "S. Stiles?" I said. "Are you asleep?" "NO!" she responded emphatically. "Oooookay..." I said and got up to shut the door... It turns out she rememberd NONE of that. HA!

So. There we are in Lincoln. Sleeping on the floor. S. Stiles gets up, walks over to S. Page, shakes her shoulder to wake her, then goes back and curls up on the floor. Poor S. Page, so confused, looks over at me and asks, "Sister May, did you wake me up?" Nope, I respond, that was Sister Stiles! HA! Again! S. Stiles had no recollection of that, either. 

All of that stress was for nothing, though, because the performance was beautiful. I recorded it on my camera, so perhaps another time I will send you my memory card and you can share it with people. 

But you know who got to experince a little performance anxiety herself? Sister May! Yes, folks, that's right. The Assistants to the President neglected to alert me to the fact that they wanted me to be the pianist for the meeting. Ahem. A little advance notice is nice, Elders. Especially when the hymns you want me to play are hymns 250 and 251, We are All Enlisted and Behold a Royal Army--neither of which I was particularly familiar with. Hmph. It's fine, though. It turned out okay. I didn't die. And people sang loudly enough that I think they drowned out my mistakes. 

More importantly, however, was the fact that we got to listen to Elder Robbins teach us. I had been telling S. Stiles that I wanted an MTC refresher course, and then Elder Robbins came, and it felt like a delightful refresher course! I loved it. He gave us ideas, told us stories, helped us along, and shook each one of our hands and asked where we were from. He was so nice and lovely, and his wife was delightful, too. It gave us the chance to know what Heavenly Father wants us to know and teach. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. 

Nebraska gets another award this week, this time the Freakish Weather Award. Friday night was a huuuuge thunderstorm (not unusual), but Saturday night was a tremendous hail storm! There were hailstones larger than I had ever seen, but they were "only" golf ball sized. :) Sadly, they left our car looking a little more like a golf ball than we would like--she got all dimpled. Tina--we've named her Tina--has little marks all over her. Sob! We let the fleet coordinator know, but there's no major damage, so they probably won't repair it until they want to sell her. In his words, "There will be more hail storms." 

While we're on the subject of Tina, we learned yesterday that we will be switching cars with some Elders for... a variety of reasons? I don't know all of it. All I know is that they get Tina, and we get their.... Pick up truck. Unusual, right? All I know is that there are some sisters that have begged to get a pickup for their mission vehicle, and they have been denied. I'll let you know about the pickup next week. :) We don't know how long this will be for and when it will end. We shall see!

Speaking of next week, Transfers are on Friday! And I have no idea what is going on. There are new sisters coming to the mission, and S. Stiles is all trained, so it is entirely likely that we will be split up. I have no idea where I will be, what I will be doing, so you'll just have to wait with me! Dun dun DUN!

Mini miracle of the week: We were looking for an address: a half address. Like, 1234 1/2 W. Easy St. We could not find it. Finally, we pulled off onto a side street and S. Stiles said a prayer. I looked up, looked to my right, and there was 1235 1/2. So I looked left and there was a little house on that side, but I couldn't see a number. Let's go there, I said. As we walked up, we saw the address: 1234 1/2! Hooray! We knocked, and that's where she lived! Triumph! I love mini miracles. They are rock'n'roll. 

Look for your own mini miracles this week. I bet you'll find them. I love you all! I hope you're all in suspense about what will happen! I know I am. 

Love,
Sister Loradona May

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