Friday we were walking through some woods trying to find a house and I heard running water and went to find it because it reminded me of my mom and her love for that soothing sound. I'm grateful for the times we had talking with our feet in a stream or walking along the beach. Serving in this area has been great for me to get grounded and settled. It definitely makes a big difference for my tender little soul!
I hope everyone had a great Halloween! People out here go a lot more
all out on decorating their yards than anything I remember in Utah! It
was funny knocking on doors to try to deliver packets on Halloween
because people would answer the door with a bowl of candy in hand and
then just be super confused! It actually worked pretty well for us
though because people were more likely to be home and to answer the
door! It didn't work so well for the other sisters in our apartment
though because they were trying to proselyte and people are not nearly
as welcoming to that as they are to getting something free delivered
that they ordered and showed interest in!
We had a 6:00 curfew on Halloween and on the night before which they
call mischief night. I think mischief night is probably more intense
in other parts of Jersey, we didn't hear about anything too crazy
happening in our area! Apparently in past years the missionaries were
allowed to have those two nights as party nights (missionary style of
course)! Once they quickly got done the couple things they had to do,
they were allowed to watch certain approved church movies and just
kind of hang out in their apartments and eat and play games or
whatever. This year however no such shenanigans were allowed! We were
given a specific list of can do's which were along the lines of weekly
planning, studying, journal writing, texting all the former
investigators in your phone etc... In other words " sharpening the
saw" as President Taggart phrased it. So that was good...I guess it
was a good chance to get caught up on a couple things!
We found a really cool couple this week from delivering these family
history packets! Their names are John and Lynda and it was great
because we were able to talk to both of them when we delivered the
packet. Lynda is busy for the next couple of weeks but she is very
interested in getting help with her family history, and John happens
to be taking a college course on the philosophy of religion. The main
thing that has interested him is how Christianity went from one Church
when Christ started it, to the hundreds of Christian churches we have
to day. He is actually planning on writing a paper about it, and so he
asked us how our church got started. We were able to teach him about
the apostasy and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he
found it very interesting. He also asked us about why our church is so
interested in this genealogy stuff (so prepared)! We weren't able to
make a return appointment because Lynda is so busy helping plan a
wedding or something, but we have high hopes for them! We just pray
they don't get lost in the shuffle of transfers next week. We don't
really have any what is going to happen. We are hoping he leaves one
of us so that there will still be someone here that knows what we have
been doing and will be able to help them with family history. Also it
would be super great for the people we met to have a familiar face
following up with them rather than two new strangers! Our prediction
is that they will leave S. Godfrey here to greenie bust S. Williams.
Which would make sense because understands all this familysearch.org
stuff better than I do, plus she only has three transfers left so they
could very well just leave her here to die! I hope that it somehow
works out that I get to stay though! I've loved every area I have
served in, but I LOVE IT HERE! We shall see. The mission is always an
adventure!
Fun random facts: we saw another bear on Friday bringing our total up
to 3. All the other missionaries in the area are jealous because they
either haven't seen any or have just seen one or two. The senior
couple in the ward has been here for about 9 months and haven't seen
any! I guess that it makes sense though because we basically spend our
whole lives driving around! We were given unlimited miles to do this
assignment which is good because we more than doubled the number of
miles missionaries in this area are usually allowed to drive! We drove
almost 2,500 miles in the month of October! The most common form of
wildlife we see is roadkill. Mostly raccoons, some opossums, a few
deer, a couple cats, and a dog 😟. Most of the leaves have fallen off
the trees now, but there is a area called Vernon that we have been
delivering quite a few packets to the last couple of days and the
elevation is higher there so the leaves are still pretty! Vernon has
kind of a Park City feel to it. They have very large hills there...one
or two might qualify as a mountain, but they take advantage of it!
They have a ski resort with a couple runs on it as well as places to
go tubing and then it looks like a popular place to mountain bike
during the summer. Despite the growing lack of leaves, there have been
some spectacular sunsets so I am still in heaven! Poor Sister Godfrey
is probably tired of my efforts to get pictures of the sunsets while
she is driving!
It is amazing how many times I have been made to feel old this week!
My comp: "I feel bad for sisters who had to wait until they were 21 to
go on missions, they were so old when they got back!" A 20 year old RM
in the ward: "I went to a YSA activity last night and it was awkward
because all the girls were so much older than me! They were like 23!"
👵🏼 Sounds like I better be careful or I might break a hip!
Love you all!
Sister McConkie
all out on decorating their yards than anything I remember in Utah! It
was funny knocking on doors to try to deliver packets on Halloween
because people would answer the door with a bowl of candy in hand and
then just be super confused! It actually worked pretty well for us
though because people were more likely to be home and to answer the
door! It didn't work so well for the other sisters in our apartment
though because they were trying to proselyte and people are not nearly
as welcoming to that as they are to getting something free delivered
that they ordered and showed interest in!
We had a 6:00 curfew on Halloween and on the night before which they
call mischief night. I think mischief night is probably more intense
in other parts of Jersey, we didn't hear about anything too crazy
happening in our area! Apparently in past years the missionaries were
allowed to have those two nights as party nights (missionary style of
course)! Once they quickly got done the couple things they had to do,
they were allowed to watch certain approved church movies and just
kind of hang out in their apartments and eat and play games or
whatever. This year however no such shenanigans were allowed! We were
given a specific list of can do's which were along the lines of weekly
planning, studying, journal writing, texting all the former
investigators in your phone etc... In other words " sharpening the
saw" as President Taggart phrased it. So that was good...I guess it
was a good chance to get caught up on a couple things!
We found a really cool couple this week from delivering these family
history packets! Their names are John and Lynda and it was great
because we were able to talk to both of them when we delivered the
packet. Lynda is busy for the next couple of weeks but she is very
interested in getting help with her family history, and John happens
to be taking a college course on the philosophy of religion. The main
thing that has interested him is how Christianity went from one Church
when Christ started it, to the hundreds of Christian churches we have
to day. He is actually planning on writing a paper about it, and so he
asked us how our church got started. We were able to teach him about
the apostasy and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he
found it very interesting. He also asked us about why our church is so
interested in this genealogy stuff (so prepared)! We weren't able to
make a return appointment because Lynda is so busy helping plan a
wedding or something, but we have high hopes for them! We just pray
they don't get lost in the shuffle of transfers next week. We don't
really have any what is going to happen. We are hoping he leaves one
of us so that there will still be someone here that knows what we have
been doing and will be able to help them with family history. Also it
would be super great for the people we met to have a familiar face
following up with them rather than two new strangers! Our prediction
is that they will leave S. Godfrey here to greenie bust S. Williams.
Which would make sense because understands all this familysearch.org
stuff better than I do, plus she only has three transfers left so they
could very well just leave her here to die! I hope that it somehow
works out that I get to stay though! I've loved every area I have
served in, but I LOVE IT HERE! We shall see. The mission is always an
adventure!
Fun random facts: we saw another bear on Friday bringing our total up
to 3. All the other missionaries in the area are jealous because they
either haven't seen any or have just seen one or two. The senior
couple in the ward has been here for about 9 months and haven't seen
any! I guess that it makes sense though because we basically spend our
whole lives driving around! We were given unlimited miles to do this
assignment which is good because we more than doubled the number of
miles missionaries in this area are usually allowed to drive! We drove
almost 2,500 miles in the month of October! The most common form of
wildlife we see is roadkill. Mostly raccoons, some opossums, a few
deer, a couple cats, and a dog 😟. Most of the leaves have fallen off
the trees now, but there is a area called Vernon that we have been
delivering quite a few packets to the last couple of days and the
elevation is higher there so the leaves are still pretty! Vernon has
kind of a Park City feel to it. They have very large hills there...one
or two might qualify as a mountain, but they take advantage of it!
They have a ski resort with a couple runs on it as well as places to
go tubing and then it looks like a popular place to mountain bike
during the summer. Despite the growing lack of leaves, there have been
some spectacular sunsets so I am still in heaven! Poor Sister Godfrey
is probably tired of my efforts to get pictures of the sunsets while
she is driving!
It is amazing how many times I have been made to feel old this week!
My comp: "I feel bad for sisters who had to wait until they were 21 to
go on missions, they were so old when they got back!" A 20 year old RM
in the ward: "I went to a YSA activity last night and it was awkward
because all the girls were so much older than me! They were like 23!"
👵🏼 Sounds like I better be careful or I might break a hip!
Love you all!
Sister McConkie