Week 66 (Nov 21st- 27th 2017)
After 5+ months of Lake Nona being my Sister Training Leaders, I finally got to be on an exchange there; and even better, I got to kick it with Sister Sorensen. Monday and Tuesday night I slept over, which is always exciting even though technically the whole mission is like a sleepover. I got an extra night because we were switching back Wednesday morning at our Zone Training Meeting (which was superb, by the way).
I got to do a full day of service there, including several hours at a local thrift shop tagging clothing items with an instrument that looks exactly like what was used to pierce my ears. It gave me a taste of what working in retail would be like, which I concluded was not nearly as bad as I anticipated but I won’t pursue it. Still better than working in food service, though.
We had a splendid Thanksgiving with only two dinners! (pretty sure I had three last year.) One with Sister Sharpe and her family and I got to soften up her adult children (one less active daughter and her non-member husband and another daughter that isn’t a member) with my endless knowledge of television series and they were impressed. Our second dinner was at the Wagstaff home and there were 3 other member families there that we adore so that was quite a party. I love our members. They are the bees knees.
Thursday evening at our 2nd dinner Sister Bullard started noticing that her throat was getting swollen and scratchy. My throat did that the week before and I just lost my voice for two days and then got over it, so I didn’t think much of it. When she woke up Friday morning she was quite seriously ill. We had our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Watson, and the Bishop and his wife come over so Sister Bullard could receive a Priesthood blessing of healing. I’m so grateful for the Priesthood authority that has been restored to the earth and for worthy Priesthood holders who are readily available to minister to those in need.
In the blessing, Bishop Lowe admonished that Sister Bullard get plenty of rest. She definitely heeded that blessing. Sister Bullard slept almost all day Friday and 2/3 of Saturday. Sunday we made it to Ward Council and sacrament meeting, and then home to rest. She’s slowly improving, but we’re suspecting strep throat. So we’ll be headed to the clinic shortly.
Something that was neat on Friday is that we had scheduled to do service helping a member clean some of her pets cages, and we had accidentally flaked the week before and so we didn’t want to reschedule again. The YSA Ward in our Zone currently has a trio serving in it (one of which being my dearest Sister Angelo!), and we got permission to do a quick emergency exchange wherein Sister Knapp and Sister Angelo came with me to do the service and Sister Anderson stayed with Sister Bullard while she rested. It was kind of an adventure and we got to clean lots of poop.
Before we left our members house, I asked her the trademark missionary question, “Is there anything else we can help you with?” Usually the answer is no, but she responded, “Do you want to clean out the rain gutter?” so then we cleared the rain gutter that had not been tended to in 4 years. There were living weeds growing in it, which I thought was cool. A half hour later, it’s as empty as my bank account at the end of the month! (read: very)
I’m grateful for you and I’m grateful for this gospel,
-Sister Olivia Petty😷
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