This week contained:
- 0 baptisms/confirmations (we'll come back to that later. 
)
- 1 person with a date (Allen Johnson!)
- 2 investigators in Sacrament (RAY! and Desirae)
- 2 progressing investigators ( Allen and Ray)
- 0 New investigators (also to be continued)
- 3 Member present lessons
- 4 Other lessons ( not for lack of trying)
- 6 LA/RC (less active/ recent convert lessons)
- 1 active member lesson
- 2 BOMs lent
and this is where the frustration for 0 New comes
- 5 h 45 m tracting
and - 4 h Service
We sweat our tails off. We biked all over the St Martin area. We tracted, and tried to make this message sound as awesome as it is, in less than 1 minute door approaches.
I like the day by day approach to things so y'all can get a play by play in a sense. So here we go...
Monday: Tracted for 45 minutes on Smith Rd. Met Destiny and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she would love to hear more sometime. Apparently that time is in the afterlife because she ignored us when we went back later in the week.
Ate dinner. Read scriptures with the Thomas family.
Tuesday: Service at "The Barking Basement", a thrift shop off Washington that donates their proceeds to the SPCA. Came home and ate lunch. Visited with Brittni Bass, talked about her daughter and her plans to get custody back. Tried to visit LAs in Vancleave. Ended up tracting when no one answered. Ate dinner at the Nelsons, they have a wonderful son with Autism, Jake, that loves to play "wererabbit" with me. We basically just run around with our hands like claws and try to capture his little brother. They love it. He calms down when he is having a tantrum from being overwhelmed whenever I look at him and make my hands claws. He smiles and runs up to hug me, and then we start running around. I love it!
Finally saw Ronny and Teresa Oliver... and another vicious dog. Conrad is a 5 year old German Shepherd that has attacked a lot of people. Brother Oliver has almost put him down a couple of times because of it, but can't bring himself to follow through. Conrad sits outside their screen door of the porch, where their two parrots are housed, and watches. And waits. He is large and in charge, just waiting for the chance to assert his dominance. Glad that door was there.
Ronny fixes up old cars and makes them beautiful. He is well known down here.
Here is the bus limo he made for Jimmy Buffet's casino Margaritaville
Wednesday: Tracted 30 minutes. Lunch then headed to District Meeting. Met with Allen and left him with Mosiah 4 to read. Tried some people. Then went to Ward Correlation. Had dinner.
Thursday: Day 1 without the car. Went to the Cannons to teach Terry some more. Lunch. Pouring rain and lightning resulted in us being told to stay in doors for a little while. Planned how to work with everyone. Ran through the rain to Sister Ladiner's car for dinner. Then taught her and her family. Her daughter isn't a member so it was cool teach her also. Got a text from Dianna Vega, an investigator that has been in Mexico for the past month visiting family. She was supposed to get home on Wednesday and then we were going to finish up the last lesson so she could get baptized on the 13th. That was the plan at least. She is still in Mexico as she got a kidney infection. Then she texted us to tell us that she had an exciting surprise! She had been being taught by the Elders down there for the past month and was getting baptized in an hour! We were so excited, but also felt like we had been cheated on. Ridiculous I know. But still. We had wonderful plans for her to be baptized her, and she had expressed she wanted Sister Steadman to be there. Then she went to Mexico and found some other missionaries to love. Sigh.
Friday: Weekly Planning and a very nice conversation about our missions thus far. Sister Steadman was companions with Sister Carter, I think President put us together on purpose... Anyways, we got to talk about the other side of the ordeal and Sister Steadman's feelings on the matter. It was nice to hear that, from someone involved, even indirectly, in the matter, agrees that I wasn't at fault and I am not crazy. I love Sister Steadman. She is awesome. She also had a "run in with the law" She kissed an Elder. So she is still dealing with the consequences of that and getting back in good graces with President. Anyways...
Moving on!
We set Allen with a baptism date (September 24)!!! We also got to see Laura Buck, who we have been trying to get in contact with for weeks! She has been dealing with some of her daughter's bad choices and trying to help her. She said something that made me want to cry. "I think to myself, 'Will I bury my daughter this year. I don't know'" She is going through a rough time as, along with her daughter's struggles, her brother Chip was reported missing last month and is now assumed to be dead. She is trying to stay strong for her Dad, who has Alzheimer's and doesn't remember that Chip is missing. We taught her the first half of The Plan of Salvation and tried to answer some of her questions. But we mostly just listened.
Saturday: More service at The Barkin Basement. Love Miss Gail, the manager. She said that we better keep coming and send her wedding invitations when we get home so she can keep up with our lives. Funny woman.
Lunch. Bike to the church to fill up the font for the baptism of three of the 8 year olds in the ward.
Aubrey Nelson is one of them. Try to entertain Jake while his mom gets Aubrey ready.
Bike to Dollar General to get new insoles for my worn Keens. Love them so much I have worn through the insoles they came with. The shoes are still working great, look like new, but the insoles gave up the ghost. Fixed that. I think.
Tract for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Made the mistake of tracting by a Jehovah Witness church. No one wanted to open the door. One lady told us she was tired of see us JW. We assured her we were in fact NOT JWs. She wasn't persuaded. Still kept treking on. Went to Abraham Lincoln's house (alright so his name is actually Wales Wilson, but he is Abe Lincoln's doppleganger so... close enough)
Ate a delicious dinner of Mexican quinoa and guacamole.
Sunday: Church. Shared my testimony like I promised Ray Skillestad I would if he came to church. He is hilarious. He is a funny, 83 year old, FLIRT. He spent the entire meeting elbowing me and letting me know how awesome I was. Then, when the meeting was over, grabbed my hand and patted it with the other as he walked to the foyer to talk to some of the people he recognized from substitute teaching. One of the priests, Trystaun, walked up and patted me on the shoulder and said "You look like you are having a great time Sister Lindberg!" I was! I love Ray so much! He is a wonderful grandpa figure, and also he thinks I'm awesome and hilarious so, there that too. 
Everytime we call or text him, he asks, "Is this my favorite Miss Sister Lindberg?" When I say yes, he gets super excited! His wife Gloria and Sister Steadman are very similar and get along great so it is a wonderful match up. Ray and I being the life and clowns of the party, and Gloria and SS being the practical and mature ones. It's a party y'all! 
We headed to Keesler AFB after church to help with their "Break the Fast" meal they do for the Airmen. It was so fun! We met a nice single woman that is in the Navy training as a doctor, staying at Keesler while she does her infectious disease rotation at the hospital there. Kyla is wonderful! She and I talked the whole time and she is now my friend! Love her!
Another 45 minutes of tracting, resulting in us dripping sweat. Headed to Brother Leo's house, where we went to cool off, but instead were stuck on the porch since he doesn't have a wife, a fact which we forgot until we got to his house. Since we can't go inside if there isn't a woman there, we sat on the porch and sweat some more! 
When I sat down, the sweat/humidity pouring down my legs pooled and made a nice puddle. It was a very glamorous experience. But alas, a part of daily missionary life here in the MJM.
Cut through his backyard, with his permission of course. Biggest mistake. I now have 5 chigger bites on my ankles and feet to show for it. Good thing we have clear nail polish to suffocate them. (the burrow into your skins and stay there until they lay eggs. You have to suffocate them so they don't make it to the laying egg part. 
)
I also have a new mosquito bite on my ear. Right on the top. It gets big and reminds me of the picture we have of my head wrapped in TP and the story of Dad thinking I looked like Dumbo. I am trying to prevent that from happening again. Trying. It is very itchy though.
As you can see, it was a fun week! I think I have become accustomed to the heat and humidity. Kind of like this picture
Don't worry. I will survive. Somehow. I am drinking a lot of water to compensate for the amount I lose just walking somewhere. DON"T worry! 
LOVE Y'ALL!!
Also. Thank you family for the letters! I enjoyed reading the notes from The Mcknights! And Lolly, don't worry. I haven't forgotten who you are. You are my cousin. And I love you!
Melanie's drugged letter made me laugh. It is good to hear that Em helped take care of her!
And that this baby gecko is okay and has a home.
LOVE YOU!!!
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