Well, the time has come for me to leave the City of Reading. No more stopping at the corner store for a 1$ empanada and nibbling at it while we skip down the gnarly brick sidewalks of downtown Reading. *sigh* No more pink guava tang or adobo. No pagoda or hiking Mt Penn (which actually is not a mountain). ahhh well though. Sister Casey is leaving too. We are being doubled out and I don't think we are being replaced. I guess the ward wasn't utilizing the missionaries so they are taking one of us out. It's ok though because we had a pow wow with the Elders where they asked me everything about everyone so they would be prepared to take over. I think the hardest thing about missionaryness is leaving areas. You get so attached to the people you serve and then you have to go and tell them that you are leaving. It's especially hard when they cry. We had to do that to Linda yesterday. I really really didn't want to tell her, but eventually we had to. She cried a lot but then said she didn't want to think about it. So we are going over today to spend some p day time with her. She will be ok. Her sister Carmen (our purple hair investigator) was really sad too. She was so so so excited to have us teaching her. Sister Pickett and I taught her on exchanges back in September when she was visiting Linda. She finally moved here from Queens this week. When we went over to see her, she was so happy! "MY SISTERS!!!" she yelled when she saw it was us at the door and came and gave us big big hugs. We were able to have one lesson about the book of mormon and get her a copy of the children's book of mormon (she is an 8th grade drop out and struggles with reading) She was so excited and started reading it immediately. Linda saw it and decided she wants one too :) so we'll have to get her one. We went down stairs after our lesson and Linda (Carmen's daughter) was down there. We got talking with her and she wanted to do my hair. Ok! It was actually a miracle! She's pretty quiet and shy so while she was doing my hair (in her comfort zone) I was able to talk about the gospel with her! She agreed to read the book of mormon!!! yay! Awkward moment: The Zone Leaders stopped by to contact Carmen (Linda and Carmens mom, she is a less active and speaks better spanish) while we were sitting in their living room with Linda jr doing my hair…."yep! This IS actually how sisters do service and open doors for teaching opportunities…" They didn't say anything about it though..haha. Anyways, when we told Carmen we are leaving she was so sad, "right when I move here my sisters have to leave!?!" super sad. But she has a super strong desire to be baptized so all will be well. Oh want to hear the story behind her purple hair?? So she was super sick with cancer and stuff and ended up being in a coma for 8 months. When she woke up, all she saw was purple..strange but since then purple is her color. purple hair, purple shoes, purple clothes, purple purple everything purple. She is a gem.
The rest of the good bye parade was good. Stopped by Rose's after church, had some big hugs and laughs and the best part is that it's not actually good bye :) wellll because of that whole plan of salvation thing where we get to see our friends all later AND because I'll be back for the temple dedication :) and all roads for the pennsylvania mormon lead to utah :) From there we went to Carina's. Bless her! She is my favorite! She magically had some fresh home made empanada's waiting for us :) soooo scrumptious! Apparently she made them for the spanish elders who were coming by later…the same elders that came while Linda was doing my hair…needless to say they just think we go around playing with our hair and eating all their empanadas….don't worry we left tons for them :). Then we went to the Palacios!!! Sister Palacios found out my favorite food was curry last week and insisted that she make me some before I left. I didn't protest. So we wen't and shared a wonderful meal of slightly hispanisized curry, she is also a master seamstress so we watched as she magiced out some wonderful scarves for us and fixed some of our clothes :) she is simply fabulous!
Today we are going to a late lunch with Sister Bright and her daughter at Panera!!! Halleluja!!!! Then we are going to Lindas, Then we get to go to the Leitz one last time (I love them so so much and they were so happy to have gotten to meet you dad!!! They said you were wonderful) Their daughters house is like 5 min from our house so I'll surely be seeing them in the future ;) yay!!! After that we have a stop by at the Fultz. We had a random opportunity yesterday (aka sister palacios ran into us in the library after sacrament and didn't have a teacher for YW, naturally we volunteered…just like she knew we would) to teach the YW. It was on helping the poor and needy or something so we found one of my favorite talks by President Eyring "opportunities to do good" which coincidentally has the BEST mormon message that goes with it. Here's the trick with using Mormon Messages (Annie I hope you are reading this) although you will be tempted to save if for last for time's sake -- Don't always show it first. Mormon messages have a way to bring the spirit so nicely (especially to a room full of children or teens), it captivates their attention and allows them to open up to you after. So we showed the mm first and shared some of our thoughts. We ended up having a really good discussion about small ways they can "do good" whether it be "bringing someone a pizza" or "texting someone HEY!!" (those were there top two idea…I thought they were good because both of those things make me happy) One of the girls, Delilah, told us a funny story. We were talking about just texting people to let them know you care and she shared an experience of when her mom was scolding her for something silly, right in the middle of a grounding sentence--her mom received a text from us. I don't even recall what we said or why we randomly texted her but according to Delilah, her whole demeanor changed that instant with just a few nice words from the sister missionaries. After the lesson, Ashely Fultz asked us if we could come over today and meet one of her friends!!! That is a huge step! So I hope all goes well and that we can invite her friend to meet with the missionaries. After that we have an appointment with the Resnick clan, the part member/less active family! They are super great, I think the Elders are going to come for a hand-off lesson.
That's that. Reading is a special place. You all would love it…probably. Actually most people that live around reading steer clear of the actually city, so it's been rather hard to get member presents. Oh well, Reading is my jam.
On another note of news. President Anderson just called me and asked me to be a trainer. BAHHHH. That means me and baby golden will be doubling into an area. What an adventure this will be!!! So I'll be spending the next couple days in Broomall with the Jones' yayyy!
Love you all. God Bless.
Sister B. 
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment