Mission Memoirs : Week 2: One Eyed-Willy

Hello, all!

Sister Livingston here. So much good stuff goes on at the MTC, I just love it. I have a few stories:

Friday night, after we got back to our residence hall, my companions and I all went to take showers. We decided to leave the door propped open so we wouldn't have to take our keys, but when we had finished showering, we found out that when Sister Poole left,she didn't make sure the door-stop was in place. So we were locked out. We called the front desk to ask what to do, and they told us to just walk to the front desk, on the complete opposite side of campus, and get a spare key. So we start our journey--no shoes, no make up, hairs a frizz ball (my hair and Provo don't get along), and pajamas. We finally made it there, got our key and headed back to our hall. Key didn't work. Lovely. We make our trek back to the front desk again and find out it was the wrong key. We got another key, and thank goodness it worked. By the time we finally got inside our room, it was about 11pm. Oopsies! Sorry, President. We'll try to be more responsible. And by the way, I still get lost in the bathrooms. Each time I go to shower I have to make a mental note: "go right when you leave the shower." So silly.

Lovely note

Elder Trentman and I saw each other every day. So fun. And hard. Lots of emotions going on. But one day, I went into class and on the whiteboard it said, "Hi Sister Livingston. -E.T." So now my whole district calls him ET and teases me. It's pretty funny. Actually, on Sunday, we had devotional. I told sister Poole to keep an eye out for ET, and our DL says to me, "sister Livingston, you're a bit too desperate right now." HAHA so I find him, wave him down, and he comes and sits by me. Then the DL comes over to us and is like, "Listen. I know you leave tomorrow, and that you guys are friends and want to catch up, but as District Leader, I'm going to have to sit between you two if I find you're focused on the wrong things during Devotional." We both said thank you, Chancey shook his hand, and we said he didn't have to worry. Then he tilted his head down, raised his eyebrows and looked me in the eyes. He didn't trust us! Sheesh. We were good. Don't worry. But yeah he's gone. So glad to hear he made it to Korea safely! Proud of him.

We're focused.

I have a little problem. On Tuesday night my eye started to hurt, but I just though it was my contacts so I took them out. Then on Wednesday morning, I woke up and it was all red and swollen. We went to the Doctor's office on the MTC campus, but the doctor isn't in, so we had to go to Urgent Care at BYU.

My eye hurts!

After going to Urgent Care

They put all these weird drops in my eye, then the lady hooked up a machine with weird lights and mirrors to her head and looked in my eyes. "Yeah, you have a big scratch on your cornea." Just what I need! So I got all patched up. It looks really good. Not. I have to keep my eye shut as much as possible, and I got some eye drops to put in every 2 hours. She said it should heal in 2-3 days, but today is the 3rd day and I can't even see out of it. It's like looking through a foggy window or something. It hurts. But it's okay. I'll be fine. My district is so good to me. They are always asking what they can do for me, making sure I'm not walking into any poles (yes, it happened) and getting my food for me. So kind. My companions and I were called as Sister Training Leaders. So on Wednesday when all the new missionaries came in, we were introducing ourselves and I just have this huge white patch taped to my head.

Great first impression. Everyone is always staring at me. A group of elders came up to me and asked what happened. After I told them, one of them was like, "I love you Sister. I don't know you, but I love you. And I will pray for you. We all will." Thanks, elder. Love you, too. It hurts to open my eyes, and reading is just horrible. Which is bad, because there is so much to read here. I feel guilty for not reading as much as I can, but it hurts and burns and stings! I need to toughen up. The Elders in my district call me: Cap'n Livingston, Sister Livingstrong, and One-eyed-willy. They're the best. I love it because we can all mess around with each other and tease each other, but we also all help each other with lessons, finding scriptures and just bawl our eyes out together when we feel the spirit. Best of both worlds.

Fun fact: No matter how tired I am, I can't fall asleep at night. It literally takes about an hour. I don't love it.

We watched a little video on Sunday that I absolutely LOVED. "Characteristics of Christ" by David A. Bednar. I highly recommend listening to it. There is so much good stuff in it! And so much that I can apply to my daily life. I have found that I'm not here to find myself. Rather, I'm here to lose myself in His work. I love this work. I love this gospel. I love you guys!

Thank you for all the DearElders this week! You're all fabulous. Eric, thank you for the brownies. My district and I thoroughly enjoyed them. It's so good to hear about life at home.

Lucy: Good luck with spanish.

Jett: You're a stud.

Mom: good luck with your test! You'll do great. I just know it.

Dad: Glad you enjoyed working at the temple.

Laker: I just love you.

I love and miss you all! But I am so happy here.

Love,

Sister Livingston