10 Things About This Week

1. We had a broken fire alarm.

We were asked to make sure it worked. It did, but immediately after we tested it, it began doing the "low battery chirp" thing. Ugh. That happened all night. Luckily, it was Monday the next day and we could get a new battery! Hooray!

2. We had an awesome new member lesson with Whitney!

She is really neat. We helped put her at ease about speaking publicly and serving, which was good. I am just so glad I get to work with her.

3. I went to the doctor

Remember how I've been sick? Yeah, I finally went to the doctor and I have a sinus infection. Tah-dah! He took my temperature, and he said, "Oh, it looks like you have a little fever!" I said, "I do? I do!" I finally felt validated. I was trying to have a stiff upper lip about everything, but suddenly I had permission to be sick. So I got a prescription of antibiotics and went home and slept for 3 hours. Hooray! Now I am feeling better, which is nice. Here's to an awesome coming week!

4. We went to visit someone who is a lost sheep, and her birthday is on November 9, right between Mom and Jeanette!
It made me think of both of you. That is all.

5. We had a really good dinner with a member, Tina!

She told me I need to move to a big city. I said I'd think about it. I'll start with Portland. And her food was amazing!

6. Transfer week!

Sister McCauley and I are still together! Phew. It was a little uncertain at first, but we're here together for one more transfer.

7. Transfer week!

We had been working as the only missionaries in our ward, but with transfers came the news that we were getting Elders in our ward, too! We pulled together some good teaching records, a ward list, and a map color coded by area (to match the color coded ward list) to help them out. I think they appreciated it.

8. We got taken to dinner with Sister Cole this week.

She is cool, and has been on a cool trip to Scotland. It makes me want to plan a cool trip.

9. We had a rock and roll thunder storm.

So, I sleep with earplugs in a lot (my companion is NOT a quiet sleeper), but I was awakened at one point by the thunder. Yikes! It was still pretty cool, though.

10. Primary Program Sunday!

Oh, man. I did not make a Primary Program bingo card this year, but I did see some good classic examples of some of my favorite things: One kid dancing during songs, one little girl who kept beckoning her mom to join her on the stand (Mom just kept shaking her head, "no"), one kid who kept waving, one kid who got up to the microphone and promptly forgot what to say, and so many others. Have you all had a primary program recently? How did it go?

This week should be fun. Our ward camp out is this weekend (Yeah, I don't get it either. Don't you normally have a ward camp out in the summer?), and there is a RS activity, AND the general Women's Broadcast on Sunday! It feels like the kickoff to General Conference, and I am so excited about it! I hope you are, too.

I love you all! I am looking forward to the next few weeks, and I am working on being better every day!

Love,
Sister Loradona May

Best Week Ever

Hey family! Guess who had the best week ever? This sister! (Imagine me, pointing to myself, with a big grin. Got that image? Okay. Hold on to it.)

This past week was crazy busy but so good! We rode our bikes in the rain the first part of the week. I'm just glad that it was still a warm rain. Things have started to cool down, so who knows if we'll have warm rain in the future. It might start to be cold... Ugh. Speaking of which, we had an actual snow scare this week, which made me nervous, because I sent my winter coat and boots home months ago. Hopefully that wasn't a mistake... No snow arrived, however, for which we were grateful.  Whew!

Then on Wednesday, a member drove us and Whitney, our investigator, to the Trail Center for a tour and lunch. It was so neat. It was a cool experience to help Whitney see that she was about to become a part of a church with a history of faith and people who chose to be pioneers. It was also different to be there not as a tour guide. I haven't been to the Trail Center for a tour since I left, over a year ago, so I felt like I was supposed to be giving the tour, but not at the same time. It was weird, but we had a good experience.

On Friday, our zone was able to go to the temple! I really do appreciate it now so much more because I don't have the luxury to go except when President Weston says. It was a great chance to feel peace and calm, and to spend that time with other missionaries in the zone and with President and Sister Weston. They really are our mission parents, and they have so much love for us. I can feel it!

Then on Saturday, we had Whitney's baptism! We were told it would take 2-2.5 hours to fill the font, so we were there really early, and then... it only took an hour. And then half of it leaked out because the drain wasn't fully plugged. Ugh. But we caught it well before it was a problem, and the font was full of warm water by the time we started the service. (Whitney's daughter was baptized last year, and her water was cold, apparently, so Whitney requested warm water! When she arrived at the church to get changed, she asked if she could feel the water. We said sure. She leaned down to test the water temperature and said, "Ah! That feels about right!" So we did a good job!)

Her 9 year old daughter said the opening prayer, which was the sweetest thing, and then Sis. Spilker, the member who took us to the trail center, spoke. Then Sis. McCauley, Whitney's daughter, and I all sang "A Child's Prayer." I'm telling you, that song can make hardened criminals cry, so it is no surprise that everyone was sniffling at least a little bit. And then Whitney got baptized! The Spirit was really strong, and Whitney was crying the whole time. It was so beautiful. While Whitney changed, Sis. McCauley and I bore testimony (During which Whitney's daughter jumped up and said, "I want to bear my testimony!" How do you say no? Of course you don't. You say yes!) and asked everyone to consider their relationship with Christ, while a sister from the ward played the harp. As our Ward Mission Leader said, "There's a reason everyone always pictures angels playing harps in heaven!" We had another talk, and welcomes, and then refreshments, and it was lovely. We had a number of people from the ward come, and it was just awesome.

To put the cap on an awesome week, Whitney was then confirmed on Sunday. How can you have a better week than that? I don't think you can!

Now the hard work of finding and teaching continues. Hooray!

I love you all, and I hope you all have great weeks!

Love,
Sister Loradona May

An Amazing Week Coming...

Hey! Last week was... Well, it was. That's about all I really have to say. I tried to ignore that I had a cold and was sick, but then we went to a member's house and she said, "You look terrible!" Thanks, Tina. She then proceeded to load us up with cold medicine and sent us home. I slept for a whole day. And now I'm better.  Sleep is the cure! Who knew? Plus a lot of cold meds.

But this week? This week is cool. A member is taking us and our investigator Whitney to the Trail Center in Omaha on Wednesday, which is going to be awesome. The Trail Center can be such a spiritual place, and we are excited for Whitney to be a part of that this week. On Thursday we have zone training and our exchange for the transfer, and then on Friday... On Friday we get to go to the temple! Hooray! It is about time. I have spent my whole mission far, far away from the temple, but now I get to go. Then, on Saturday...

Saturday is a Special Day, but not because it's the day we get ready for Sunday. It's special because that is the day Whitney is getting baptized! Whoohoo! We are so excited for her! Our District Leader interviewed her yesterday, and she passed with no trouble. It was awesome. She was nervous about the interview, though, even though we had already reviewed the questions with her. She asked on Sunday morning if we could meet before church to review them again, and she basically practiced answering them. It was great! So of course by the time the interview came, she was more than ready. We even gave her a copy of the questions to take with her in the interview, just so she could read them along with Elder Handy asking them. It made her more at ease, and besides, it's not like the questions are top secret or anything. They're in Preach My Gospel, which is online. It was a simple thing to make her more comfortable, though.

We are so excited. We've spent the weekend putting together the baptism, and Whitney's daughter (she's 9) is going to sing at the baptism. It's going to be adorable and cute! So many ward members are involved--we've tried to involve as many different families as possible to help widen the support net. It's really going to be great, and I am just so happy to be a part of this for her.

Basically, I love you all, I love missionary work, Nebraska is pretty awesome, and I love doing what I do!

Keep being awesome!

Love,
Sister Loradona May

Week 2 in Lincoln!

Well, after I left the library last week, we went to Memorial Stadium, home of the Huskers! People here get fanatical about the Huskers; it's a little scary. They say that the stadium, on game days, becomes the state's 3rd largest city. I think it's the state's largest religion. We don't do work on game days--we weekly plan and try to plan lessons or service around the game. If you knock doors, people either aren't home, or they aren't interested--and pretty crabby that you've decided to choose that particular time to talk to them. The first game of the season is Saturday, so if you all could pray for us not to get caught in the craziness, that would be great! :) I actually don't think it will be too bad, but who knows? I was in Kearney last year for Husker Season--not really close enough to Lincoln to know. Anyway, Attached is a photo of me and the other sisters (Me, S. Papavero, S. McCauley, S. Lambert) on the field! Yay!

On Tuesday was our zone conference, which was so good! I love being with other missionaries and being able to learn from them and feel the Spirit. It is cool to do that. I was also able to see missionaries I haven't seen in ages. A lot of us are now in the Lincoln area, and I am glad to be here with them.

This week, S. McCauley got sick. She was out for about 2 days, which meant I did a lot of waiting and sitting. And watching of Conference DVDs! Mom sent me some of the last conference a few weeks back, and they came in handy! I have also watched a set that someone gave us from 2007, which was kind of cool. Both President Hinckley and President Faust were still alive then, so it was kind of neat to hear their voices and listen to their words.

In other news, S. McCauley and I invited another investigator to be baptized this week, and she accepted! It's just exciting to be seeing how we can help others feel the Spirit and realize that there is a way they can feel the Spirit more continually. In fact, that lesson was so spiritually amazing. It was probably one of the most spirit-filled lessons I've ever participated in, and it wasn't because of me. It was because of the member who came to the lesson with us. She's a convert, and she bore such a sweet, powerful testimony of how she came to be a member and how she knew families were forever that it made it easy for us to teach and invite our investigator to be baptized. So, accompany the missionaries when you can, because your voice and your testimony might be just the one they need. Just join them! I promise it's pretty cool.

Anyway, I love you all and I probably need to go, but I love you all a ton and I can't wait to hear from you more this week!

Love,
Sister Loradona May

Lincoln!

So, things are going well. Sister McCauley and I get along really well--too well, sometimes. But we have an investigator preparing for baptism on Sept. 13, so we are really excited. She is pretty cool. Her daughter is already a member, and she just says she needs to learn a lot before she's really ready. We had an awesome lesson with her this last week, and she just keeps getting more prepared. In other news, someone I taught back in Sioux City I learned has agreed to be baptized, so that's awesome, too!

We only have had to ride our bikes a little bit since members have been good about giving us rides or we've had the car. But this week we will have the car a little less. Yesterday we were out riding bikes, and it was so humid, and I was so sweaty (I am painting a beautiful picture, aren't I?), but Sister McCauley and I had prayed for a miracle: We needed one more lesson to be what the mission calls a "star companionship." We thought it would be cool to be stars our first week together. I mean, how awesome, right? Anyway, so there we are, biking, hot, sweaty, tired, and looking totally... amazing (I probably looked like a supermodel, so just picture that). But we stopped at the home of someone whom the Elders used to teach (they haven't been in the area since May, so it has been a while). And a miracle occurred: He was home! So was his wife! And we were able to teach about the Book of Mormon and why he should read it. (Hint: Moroni 10:3-5 and Alma 5: 45-46 are the reasons why.) He paused, and then said that we were right and he was going to actually try to read this time! Triple miracle, folks: He was home, we could teach him, and he said he'd read! Now that's cool stuff.

I love Lincoln. I have NO idea where I am going, what I am doing or anything like that, but hey! It's good! 

How about some photos? I feel like photos might make up for the fact that this email is short.

It includes: Hna Pocock, who came out with me and goes home at the end of this transfer, Me, Hna. Thompson who came out the transfer after me but goes home with me, and Sister Larson, who was my companion in Sioux City. We are lovely!

I love you all and can't wait to hear from you all soon!

Love,
Sister Loradona May