Week 67 (Nov 28th- Dec 4th 2017)
False alarm, Sister Bullard didn’t have strep throat after all. Still, it was pretty gnarly. Come Tuesday morning, we decided to take a chance and go do our regularly scheduled service on the temple grounds. Granted, probably not the best idea to do yard work while on the mend, but she said as long as we did something mild like weeding she’d be fine.
Which brings me to a quick side note digressing from the story; but weeding in Florida is an absolute dream. Seriously, it’s one of my favorite things. Due to the fact that the “dirt” here is really just sand, when you go to pull a weed it just pops out easy-peasy. And because the soil is so soft the roots have little resistance and they grow straight down so you pull the whole weed root and all in one go. It’s absolutely glorious. Okay, moving on.
So, weed we did and fine she was. However she was ready to head back to the apartment and take it easy and reenergize before our next appointment. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up happening that way. We received a desperate call from Sister Sharpe who was in need of help cleaning the aftermath of a spill that had happened the night before. We were blessed enough to find a last minute ride to drop us off for what we thought would be a quick clean up.
When we knocked on Sister Sharpe’s door, she had been resting and started to get out of the bed to answer the door, but she slipped and fell and was unable to get up. Her faithful dog Penny knew that something was wrong and began barking wildly for help. Meanwhile outside, Sister Bullard and I reason that Sister Sharpe was just taking longer than usual to get to the door. We heard her yelling inside, but it turns out “Petty” sounds a lot like “Penny”, so we thought she was scolding her dog to be quiet. Eventually we finally figured out what was going on but her front door was locked, and long story shorter we got her daughter, who lives in the house in front of Sister Sharpe’s and is also in a wheelchair, to come open the door.
Sister Sharpe didn’t know what we were going to do to help, because she supposed that she was too heavy for us to lift, and her son in law who usually helps when she falls was at work. “You can’t lift me! I’m too fat!” she protested. “Watch us.” I replied. With the help of Sister Bullard, I picked Sister Sharpe up onto a chair that she could then get on to her power wheelchair from. The look on her face was total shock. She said that we must have had divine strength from the Lord. Which I think we did, but not in the way that she thought, because she really wasn’t that heavy.
Meanwhile Sister Bullard is going downhill quick, as I’m helping clean she completely crashed on the couch. Sister Sharpe is recovering from her fall, I have a headache, my companion is in an illness induced coma, and we have no way home. This is when an actual angel saved us; Sister Melissa Lowe, the bishops wife. She came and helped me finish up, ministered to Sister Sharpe with her friendship, and gave us a ride home so Sister Bullard could rest. Wow I’m so grateful for people who give us rides. It’s lifeblood. On bike weeks, I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants every five minutes whenever we make a plan and just cross our fingers that we’ll get there somehow. Almost every time now someone has showed up last minute and snatched us out of the furnace by our waistbands. It’s such a blessing.
We’re also massively blessed that pediatric includes up to 21 years of age. And even more blessed that Sister Bullard is 20. After being dropped off 10 minutes late to an appointment at the walgreens clinic on the corner from our apartment, all we could do was walk home with no help and no answers. That’s what would have happened, if there wasn’t an after hours pediatric urgent care clinic in the business park in front of our apartment complex. I’m telling you, blessed beyond belief. The tests for flu and strep came back negative! Turns out it was one nasty sinus infection. She’s been on antibiotics and is recovering smashingly.
Now for the highlight of the week and among the crowning jewels of my mission: Zone Conference featuring Elder Jörg Klebingat of the Quorum of the Seventy. It was such a spiritually enriching and edifying experience that has truly shifted my perspective and shaped my future efforts during and after my mission. His presence was kind of intimidating and his countenance was electrifying; it held the attention of everyone in the room when he spoke. He gave us instruction, insight and wisdom for several hours and we all did our best to keep up and absorb it all.
My favorite thing that he taught us was that our mission experience isn’t just meant to bless ourselves and others for just the 18-24 months we serve, but for the next 60+ years and onward. Our mission is not supposed to be just something that we do for a year or two and come back from unchanged. It’s supposed to be a time where we are learning, growing, and ultimately changing permanently for the better; and our progression shouldn’t stop when we return either. We’re not just to “maintain” our spirituality, but continually develop.
Elder Klebingat also expressed (and impressively exercised) the importance of memorizing scripture references, where they are and what they are about down to the verse. He has well over 1,000 scriptures memorized. He not only demonstrated an example, but taught us how. He has developed a mnemonic that included association of people and images to numbers 1-100 and a memory palace(!).
As well as being smart as a whip, Elder Klebingat was hilarious. When he asked to borrow a missionary’s tablet to read a scripture, he saw that some missionaries had an iPad and some a Samsung tablet. Confused, he turned to President Clark to ask why, and President replied that they had switched which device was mainstream, so all the newer missionaries had Samsung’s. Elder Klebingat responded, “Well that really is a sign of the times if we are going that far downhill.” and later on in the conference after grabbing another Samsung tablet for an example he said, “I feel unclean now.” 😂
Lastly, the church’s Christmas initiative Light the World launched this week, I admonish you to check it out on Mormon.org and consider participating. Today is Day 4, which is Love your Neighbor, inspired by the Saviors teaching in Matthew 22:39. Sister Bullard and I are starting by making cookies and delivering them to our neighbors surrounding our apartment. It’s fun to get into it, remembering always that it is Jesus Christ whose example we emulate as we fulfill our baptismal covenant of taking His name to be upon us. You don’t have to be a full time missionary to be an example of Jesus Christ in others lives.
All is bright,
-Sister Olivia Petty🇩🇪
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