Time here is the weirdest thing. Feels like the days are 20 years long, but the weeks feel like 20 seconds. Hard to believe that I have already been out in the field for almost 5 weeks! How crazy is that? Not gonna lie, when people told me that missions were hard, I was expecting more of physically hard and difficult companions and whatnot. However, in my 5 week opinion, missions are hard because of the emotional roller coaster you're put on.
For example, just on Friday our good friend David, who was progressing the most, dropped us and that was heartbreaking. A recent convert we love quit her job that was preventing her from doing a lot of church things so that was exciting. A lady in a wheelchair cussed us out and told us quite explicitly we were brainwashed (but don't worry she didn't even offend me, I just laughed my head off once she left--whoops). I got a blender which made me so so happy. We found blood on our fireplace in our flat so we had police and a locksmith all come to our house late at night. We video called President & Sister McReynolds. We had a sleepover at a member's house because we didn't feel safe at our flat. All in day's work!
If I were to guess which crazy thing that happened on Friday alone caught your attention, it would be the fact that Sister Clark and I found blood on our fireplace! Story time:
We had been out all day and had just got back right at curfew so we plopped down on our couch and were just about to call some people, when we noticed what looked like random drips of blood coming down our fireplace. We went over to investigate and it smelled (no I did not smell it) and looked like blood so we began to freak out. We called our district leader who told us to call our zone leaders. We then called the zone leaders who laughed at us, and told us to call President jokingly. We then called President to ask him what to do because we were mildly panicking, and he told us to call 999 and check to make sure we were alone in the flat. We then grabbed kitchen knives and stalked around our house to see if there were any signs of forced entry or to see if there was someone in our house.
Luckily, no one was there and there was also no sign of forced entry anywhere. Yikes. We then called 999 and the police came over about 5 minutes later and checked ALL over our house and checked out the blood. In the end, they were positive it was blood but they couldn't call a forensics team to test it because there wasn't a body, signs of forced entry, or a limb just laying somewhere. That was comforting. Really, in the end, they were like, "Hahaha, we're sorry we can't be more help but there's not a lot we can do because this situation literally doesn't make sense." Classic. We then called President again to tell him the verdict and he told us to call the landlord and get the locks changed that night and then call members around us to see who we could stay with that night. Had a great time and really enjoyed that. But no worries, our locks were changed and our flat was rededicated so we are safe! That was just our fun story for the week.
But for real, I can handle all the walking and the rejection and the blows to my pride and companions and everything, but holy guacamole it's the heartbreaks and the happy moments that just send your emotions all over the place that's the real killer. It's just so sad to see your friends that you've seen change and grow turn their back on what can give them happiness and direction. On the other hand, it's so happy and exciting to see your friends you love progress and find answers to their questions. Overall though, I love missionary work and being here. It's hard but I feel like I've already grown so much and I see how much more I can grow.
On an unrelated note, I started studying about pride and humility in Preach my Gospel and in the scriptures and I decided to go through and mark every reference to pride in the Book of Mormon and it is so crazy! Pride is everywhere! Literally it is on every page multiple times, except when mentioning how to come closer to Christ. So far that's been really interesting to go through and study. Would highly recommend doing that if you ever have a spare second. Would also highly recommend reading the general conference talk called "The Prophet and the Prison" by Elder Marvin J. Ashton.
In the end, this week was crazy but it was a good time. I'm just livin’ la vida loca over in St. Helens!
Hope you all are having a great week and having fun getting ready for Thanksgiving!
Thanks for the emails and the pictures (next week pday is on Tuesday because of transfers FYI)! Keep sending them because they make me happy :)
Love y’all!
Sister P
Fave food: Steak and kidney pie. Mmmmm
Fave saying: Tarah! Means bye or something like that
Photographs below :)
 |  |
 |  |
Weekly Letter #8: November 18, 2019
4/
5
Oleh
-
