I'm being transferred!

  Woke up in the morning, waiting for the call. I"m so nervous I could hardly sleep at all! Phone rings answer the phone "Hello Elders, how are you today? You've been there for quite a while its time your on your way" I"m being transferred! Say good bye to all the members! Please forward all my letters, Thats the life of an elder oh yeah! 

  That's the song we like to sing when someone is being transferred, called "I"m being transferred"....TOO BAD IT DOESN'T APPLY TO ME!! I'll be here another 6 weeks. Dry Creek forever. On the bright side though I"ll have a nice Christmas with all the people I love! There is a GOOD reason the Lord wants me to be here!! I"ll have been here just 2 days short of 11 months by the end of this transfer. Crazy. thats my spiel for this week. 

Love you all.

Sister LeStarge. 

SO.MUCH.FOOD!

Happy December! 

  Well another crazy week has come and gone in the life of a missionary! This week held another round of great adventure!

  I've started to see the Christmas season pop up all around me, from various Christmas lights to handing ornaments and even the first Christmas tree! One of the members we visited had a beautiful 9ft tree with white lights and red decorations. I have to admit I was a little sad I wouldn't be decorating a tree this year. But because the Lord continually sheds his mercy on His missionaries my companion and I were blessed to have been the recipients of our very own tree! The family I've lived with for the past 9 months are all angels of God. They've always taken time to make sure we're comfortable and included in their family. This week their children knocked on our door and had a 5ft tree in hand with a bag of colored lights and bag of odds and ends ornaments...with gold tinsel! What made me squeal the most was when my companion let me decorate the whole thing by myself (she knows I love to decorate so she watched and admired from the side)! Having been taught by pros, I'd say that little tree looks pretty darn good. Not the prettiest tree, but enough to warm my heart! 

 On Thanksgiving we had a whirl wind of appointments. 6 meals. 2 sisters. 1 stomach! Our stops are as follows:

8 am- Breakfast with Bishop. Chocolate milk, cinnamon rolls, eggs and toast. (ate it like a champ)

11am- 1st Dinner with a single sister and her mother. Sprite, stuffing, turkey and veggies. (still in my A game)

2pm- 2nd Dinner with Ward Mission leader and his family. Apple Cider, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, butternut squash, rolls and jell-o. (still eating like a pro)

4pm- 1st dessert with new move in family. Eclair cake. (slowing down a bit)

5pm- 3rd dinner with favorite family. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato, green bean casserole, and rolls. pie to take home (having a hard time chewing and swallowing). 

6pm- final house. 2nd dessert. cheesecake and pie (so sick of eating food. but stomach isn't too angry.) 

  Disgusting right? Please don't loose all respect for me. People just love to feed us in this area. 

  We also had an awesome adventure going to the zoo this week! Whoop whoop! We got to go see "Zoo Lights" at night which were pretty cool for Christmas. It was a great day with our recent convert family and their son who's still investigating. 

Over all it was an awesome adventure filled week! What a blessing it is to serve the Lord in this time! Hora for Israel! 

Octopus

Heres when I ate the Octopus. As you can see the elder in the background cheering me on...so gross! 

What a ride!

To those reading this blog...sorry about the gaps in Sister LeStarge's letters. I'll be better about posting them. 

Happy Monday everyone! 

  Sheesh, these weeks just seem to absolutely fly by! This Sunday will be the 9th month I've been out! That's half way! Amazing. Well this week was an absolute Roller coaster!  So many Highs and Lows. I've decided I've got to stop trying to predict what the Lord has in store because I've just got no idea! 

    This past Tuesday was a fun one. My companion and I started it by going to lunch with the Elders after District meeting. They chose a Japanese restaurant and we went along. I was telling one of the Elders how easy I am with eating and trying new foods, so he decided we'd try something new! Boiled baby Octopus! He picked out one for himself and one for me! The little guys were only a little bigger than my thumb. It wasn't like calamari... because I like that. These little babies we're whole, with a head and rolled in arms! The elder ate his like a champ but when it came to my turn I couldn't even look at it to pick it up! I popped the little guy in my mouth, chewed him up...then spit him right back out! It was so gross! At first it was chewy but then came some crunchy! I just wasn't prepared mentally! And I felt pressured with all kind of elders sitting around me saying "You can do it Sister LeStarge, your tough!" or "Sister LeStarge you've got this!" so much pressure....They we're proud though in the end, and I can't say I didn't try. 

    Later that day we were really excited for a lesson with one of our investigators, we even had our ward mission leader and his wife coming! We went to his house and he wasn't home! So we called him and he dropped us! He explained life was a little hectic right now and he'd like for us to give him about a month. We'll go back. Instead of teaching him we went to our only other investigator to set up an appointment to meet with him. When we got to his house he asked us to come back after Christmas when he'd be less busy with school! NOO! Dropped by our only two investigators in one day!  We were ready for that day to be over! 

      On Thursday we celebrated my companions Birthday, which was really on Friday. We had dinner scheduled with this sweet elderly couple in the ward and when we reminded them about dinner we said "Sister Haw's birthday is on Friday!" they thought we said Thursday and we didn't have the heart to tell them it was on Friday, they were just so excited to celebrate her birthday! They even baked her a cake! We just couldn't tell them...poor sweet old members! We then celebrated her birthday again Friday! Which I think was less than exciting because its our planning day but she had a good time visiting some families at night. 

  On Saturday we had an awesome experience that built my testimony to listen to the subtle promptings of the spirit. We were running out of places to go, because parents weren't home and people were gone out and about. After leaving another members home who were unavailable to meet at the time, I felt a prompting to visit a certain sister in the ward. I talked it over with my companion and we were on our way. I was a little nervous because she and here husband weren't always home and they lived in a different part of our area. We found lights on as we drove by and said a quick prayer asking the Lord for this prompting to be true. Upon knocking on her door we found her home, but immediately noticed tears streaming down her face. She expressed she was having a hard night but invited us in anyway. We asked her if there was anything we could do but she insisted there wasn't. So we offered her all we could, a simple hug. She invited us to sit down and informed us she was worried about one of her sons. We listened and distracted her with questions about the upcoming holidays until her husband came home and could give her the comfort she needed. I am so blessed to have had this experience and to have felt the promptings of the spirit. Its all too often missionaries forget they have the spirit with them always, we just get use to it. I am grateful I was able to feel and listen to the prompting I had. I know we all can get these promptings as we slow down and listen to our hearts. 

Have a Happy thanksgiving everyone! 

Love Sister LeStarge