Alright, everyone! I'm finally in Ohio. Kirtland area, to be exact. And let me just say, it is SO BEAUTIFUL. I can't believe it. So many trees. And grass. And greeness that's turning red and orange. I love it.
So we left the MTC on Tuesday the 7th at 2:30am. That was exciting. Then we got to the airport, I called the fam, and guess who I sat by on the plane! The guy who said he was about to give up on his daughter in jail. CRAZY. He just kept thanking us for the things we said to him. It was really neat. He was a nice guy. We made it to Cleveland around 1 or 2. I think. I don't really remember. But we met up with our President and his wife, then had lunch and interviews and whatnot. We stayed at their house that nigh,t then in the morning we went to the Kirtland Temple. It's so pretty! And big. Karl Anderson (author of Joseph Smith's Kirtland and the Savior in Kirtland) took us through the temple. Before, he asked if any of us had ancestors that were in Kirtland. I told him Hyrum, and then he kept having me answer all these questions and stuff. But this part was really neat. We went into the top room of the temple (I forgot what it's called) where some sections in the Doctrine and Covenants were received. He had me sit in the middle of the room and everyone was in a circle around me (didn't love that part, but in the words of Jett, whatevs). Then he had me read one of the sections that was revealed to them in that room. It was neat because I was sitting in the general area that my ancestors were when they received modern day scripture. So neat. Very spiritual. Then we left the temple and went to the church to meet our trainers. My companion's name is Sister de Kock, she's from South Africa. We get along great and she's super nice. She's been out for 5 months now. Then I think we went to the Historic site. Then, I went to my first lesson. (For the protection of the innocent, we are changing her name to Madam M). Oh my, she's something. Brace yourselves:
Madam M is in her 50's or 60's and is Hispanic. She's been taking lessons for several months now I think and isn't progressing. But she goes to church every week, so we keep seeing her. She lives alone. And has no teeth. Anyway, we go inside--major hoarder. You could hardly walk. And the smell? You don't even want to know. But we sat down and Sister de Kock asked how her kittens were. Hang on. Background story: de Kock and her comp saw Madame M two weeks previous to my first time seeing her. She couldn't find one of her cats. She said someone came inside and stole it in the middle of the night. But don't worry, she found it! Behind her couch. Dead. She had a dead cat behind her couch for a week a half. And she didn't know. Nasty. Now for her other cat--She found it one day limping around the apartment and was convinced that someone had come in and kicked her. She could tell it was a kick because of the way it walked. Maybe she's good with anatomy? I don't know. But she felt bad for it, so she wrapped it up in a blanket and let it sleep by the couch, which at the time, probably had a dead cat behind it. Then she woke up in the morning, and it was still there. Dead. She found two dead kittens within the same week. Poor Madam M. Also, She has beyond long toenails. Like they literally curl underneath her toes. It was really gross, but I couldn't help but glance at them every once in awhile during the lesson.
Rosie is a member of our ward. She's 96 and lives in an apartment by herself. How does she entertain herself? She roller-skates down the halls. At age 96. Impressive,
We saw a lady named Natalie. She's an investigator. For some reason, she calls me Elizabeth. Not sure were that came from.
Sister B. She's a less-active member that we've been working with. Also a hoarder. Hoarders for days, here in Kirtland. We went over to her house to help her clean out one of her closets and oh my nasty, it was even worse than Madam M's. Luckily no dead cats though. So we were going through the closet and I pull out this weirdly shaped bottle with measurements on it and ask her if she wanted to keep it. You guys. It was the bottle that her father peed in while he was in the hospital. He died 12 years ago. And she still has his pee bottle. And as much as it pains me to say this, I touched it. She literally wanted to keep EVERYTHING. But we knew she would never use them, so we had to sneak like half of her stuff into the trash pile and just pray that it wasn't something with as much sentimental value as the pee bottle. (Or maybe that it was) ((We don't need pee bottles)).
So yeah. Needless to say, there are some interesting people here. But I love it. We spend 3 days a week at the Historic site and the rest of the days out proselyting. I don't mean to brag or anything, but I live like 20 yards away from the Newel K. Whitney store which contains the School of the Prophets and the Revelation room. So amazing. I just love it.
Yesterday during ward council they decided to "pick on the new missionary" and have me give the opening prayer. Which was fine. Then we went to the chapel and someone came up to me and was like, "I know you gave the opening prayer in Ward Council, but will you give the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting, too? That way people will get to see who you are." So I gave it. Then I walk back to the very back of the chapel, sit down, and start freaking out because I thought they were going to have me go up there and give a talk, and I didn't have one prepared yet. So I have all these thoughts going through my mind, then I hear, "We'll now have Sister Livingston come up to introduce herself and share her testimony." My heart stopped. But It wasn't bad.
Eye update: Its much better. No more patch! I'll have a scar on my cornea for the rest of my life so my vision will never be like it used to be, but at this point I'm just glad I'm not blind. I still get choked up when I think about the perfect timing of dad calling. If it had been a day or 2 later, who knows what would have happened. I'm blessed! I have about 8 bottles of eye drops. I promise I'm not addicted. Sometimes they get in my mouth and it isn't that delicious. While we were in the MTC, Sister Poole tried to get me to put charcoal in my eye. That didn't sound very pleasing though, so I rejected the offer. The idea of it still kind of freaks me out.
Fun fact: A bunch of Koreans came to the VC last week. I wanted to tell them to go find Chancey. And my companion is from South Africa, where Melodee served. And someone in the ward just got called to the Iowa Des Moines mission. So basically I'm surrounded by Trentman-mission-people. And I love it. I just need someone to represent Mike!
Thanks for all the updates, I love hearing about everything. And mom, just so you know, the second comment that you heard in the car came from me. You're welcome. So neat that Clark's home! Give him a hug for me. And could you please send me some family/friend pics? I know you're busy, but I didn't bring any. At all. I loved Lucy's missionary moment story! So neat. Let me know where that goes. And yes, I loved conference. I wasn't able to watch the entire first session because I had an eye appointment. I heard the closing song though! It was actually funny. We got back from my appointment and they told us to go into 1M B145. We we go in--all Elders. No Sisters. We were confused. But we went in anyway, then one of the Elders was like, "Hey, you're not in the Priesthood choir!" I thought it was funny. Okay bye. c u l8r.
I forgot to tell you! Because Sister de Kock is from South Africa, she doesn't have an american license. Therefore, I'm the driver. And I love it. I missed driving. We have these little things called "Tiwis". It's a card that you use to login whenever you drive. It kind of tracks you down. And it knows how fast you're going/what the speed limit is. So if you speed, it says "check your speed." It's pretty hard not to speed here. The speed limit everywhere is like 25mph. But the roads are so straight and wide so I feel like I should be going about 50. That's okay though. One time I went over some railroads and it said, "Aggressive driving". It's scary whenever it goes off. It's gone off probably 5 times so far. Oops. It goes off when you go 6 over. Yiikes.
My address for the rest of my time here:
7800 Kirtland Chardon Rd
Kirtland, OH 44094
I love you all!
Love,
Jayne
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