Week 26: Connecting with Richard Dawkins (google him)

1. Welcome to Lake Erie. The frozen ocean.
Like my Asian eyes?

You guys! It's officially SPRING. We exercised outside for the first time since December today, and guess what. I didn't even wear a coat. And I ran a whole two miles. Impressed? Neither am I.  And cute little birds are always chirping now. Welcome, Spring. Nice to see you. 

This week was a good one. I didn't cry! Not even a little bit. We took some rough chats though. I guess there was a website that told people to go onto mormon.org and mess with us. Something about Battletoads? Whatever that is, those little rascals. But so I had a really great conversation with this guy who seemed to be sincerely interested in what we believed it. I told him about Christ coming to the Americas which led to the Book of Mormon, which led to Joseph Smith and it was SO GOOD. But then... not so good. He was like, "So Jayne, (we go by our first names on chat) what would you do if I told you that I was Richard Dawkins? Would you hate me?" I guess Richard Dawkins is hardcore atheist and has written several books on his beliefs. I told him I'd still respect him, then asked if it was him. He said, "Yes, I really am Richard. Do you mind if we use this conversion for a BBC documentary on Mormonism?" Ohhh my goodness, I died. All of the sudden I just lost all confidence in the things I had told him. Not in the events that I told him about, but in the way I told him about  them. I wanted to cry. So if there's a documentary on Mormonism by Richard Dawkins and it poorly portrays our beliefs, my bad. Except it probably wasn't actually him. Still though, scary bears. 

2. Darlene, the leader of the Bible Study we've been going to, made this statue of Jesus.
She told us we could sit on His lap. We decided we weren't little enough.

We did some hefty cleaning this weekend for a member in our ward. I really like my ward. I feel like it's my home ward since I've been serving in it for so long. Anyway. We showed up, and the member's Visiting Teacher was there and the house was completely torn apart! Literally, everything was out and just being completely organized/tossed out. It was crazy. So we spent quite some time doing that and I loved it. The Visiting Teacher just called us "Sis"."Hey Sis, can you throw this away?" "How ya doin', Sis?" Because "Sister" is too long. It was quite funny. 

Um. What else. I don't know. But I love my mission and I love my Savior and I love the SAINTS! Holy smokes I love the saints. They are my role models. So strong and faithful. I love this gospel. I'm so blessed for being able to serve here! AHHH I need to stop. I might explode. Too much love. 

I love you guys.

Love,

Sister Livingston

Week 25: One of the harder weeks, filled with sad and happy!

Did you know there's grass in Kirtland?

Hello! This week was one of the harder ones on my mission so far. But I still loved it. 

On Tuesday Mr. W. cancelled our appointment because he didn't want us to get hurt driving on the icy roads. It's rough when people do that because we go out no matter what, but oh well. So we didn't see him until Friday night. And he told us he couldn't meet with us anymore. He's trying to retire and he had a little dilemma with some finances. I'll spare you the details. But he is now working from 1am to about 7pm, then doesn't get home until 9pm. And it hurts. Because he needs this gospel. It will fill the void he has in his life and I think he recognizes that, but he just so badly wants to retire by June. I strongly dislike seeing him suffer the way he is. I really questioned why Heavenly Father is making him deal with the things he's dealing with and honestly, I still don't understand why. But I know that He is aware of him and loves him, because I love him. Does that make sense? I don't know. But he had me say the closing prayer before we were leaving and I just broke down in the middle of it. I don't think I've every prayed harder for anyone or exerted so much energy into trying to help someone. And I didn't realize how much I cared for him until that night. I don't even like thinking about it. But we'll just keep calling him and making sure he doesn't give up. Then in June he can meet with some missionaries again. 

The Madame M goods.
She said she picked out the pants and shirt
 thing specifically for me. Thank you?
They make me look even shorter that I am. Perfect.

Okay, too much sadness. There was a lot of good this week too. Like getting to visit the Deckers in the hospital and see their new baby! Oh my goodness I loved it. But also not because we couldn't actually hold the baby. I could have just looked at him for hours and been happy though, so it's okay. He is such a little cutie! It was a happy day. I don't think I've ever seen a newborn that wasn't family that I loved so much. 

Madame M gave us some more of her goods! We'll be stopping at goodwill on our way home. Oh and she fed us. I don't know if I've ever been more nervous to eat. It was crusty/stale/dry rice with rotten brown peas and some sort of meat juice poured over the top. Usually we can avoid eating there by saying we have to go or we'll just take it home, but this time she wouldn't let us leave until we tried it. So we did. And let's just say it wasn't my most favorite meal. 

Also I sleep talked last night. Slept talked? I don't know. But I don't think I've ever done that before. So it's really exciting. I said something about working with the members. You're welcome. 

Okay. That's all. Have a wonderful week! Love you guys. 

Love,

Sister Livingston

Week 24: An Experience Not Too Many Get To Have

1.  Madame M

This week was great. Surprise! Just kidding. It's not really a surprise because all weeks are great. "The worst day on your mission is still a great day." -Brother Decker. It's so true. He's pretty cool. And his wife just had a baby about 3 hours ago. 

But really. It was a good week. We've continued to meet with Mr. W and he is doing great! He breaks my heart though! He has such a good heart and just wants those around him to be happy, but he is so sad and depressed. It's painful. But that's why I'm so excited to continue meeting with him. The gospel will really change his life if he lets it. And I think he will. 

Yesterday we took a little family on tour, and they had 7 kids. I saw all of them and thought to myself, "Sheesh! Such a huge family! How do they do it?" Then I remembered that there are seven kids in our family too. Tee Hee. But anyway. We were in the School of the Prophets bearing our testimonies, and the spirit was SO strong, as it always is in that room. Then all of the sudden we hear the mom say in a panicked voice , "WAIT! Can you just hang on a minute? Hyrum is having an accident." We look over at the little boy, and there's a puddle of some liquid substance underneath his feet, getting larger and larger. It was so funny. He peed. On the floor. In the School of the Prophets. Needless to say, it was an experience that not too many get to have.

2.  Chevron Twins

Also, we got attacked by a mute dog and it was just.... really strange. We were out tracting and as we were walking up to one of the homes, this dog came up to us and started jumping up on us. We thought he was just playing because he wasn't barking or anything, but then he started getting more aggressive and started biting. And we were confused. So we just walked away and tried to comprehend what had just happened. The silent guard dog. He did its job. 

Um. I got kissed this week. By a BOY. But he's only 1 so it's okay and made my day. I just miss little kids. But I'm pretty sure Bryn needs to marry this little boy. And Jayden needs to marry his sister. And Kyrie needs to marry Brother Decker's son. Then, I will be happy. Just kidding. I'm happy now. Tricked ya. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and take some time to reflect on our Savior. You should read 3rd Nephi 17. Not just read it, but discuss it. We read it with Mr. W, and it was really amazing. Christ is our perfect exemplar of so many things, but especially of loving everyone. That's something I want to get better at. Not saying that I don't love people, because I can assure you that I do. A lot. But I could always do a better job of showing it, ya know? I love you guys. 

Love,

Jayne

Week 23: "SHE hasn't given up on me yet."

This week was a good one! But, they all are. So what's new? 

Sister Allen, my new companion, is from Grantsville, Utah, and she is AWESOME. She's really prepared. And she's very motivated and enthusiastic. It's been really neat

hearing her talk about her MTC experience and what she learned. It's really allowed me to reflect on my experience. Granted, mine was a little unusual due to the whole eyeball deal, but it was still such a great learning experience. 

So Mr. W. I've talked about him a bit before. He is very depressed and we met with him a few times and our message cheered him up, but then he told us that "Mormonism" and just church in general weren't for him. He had "given up". But I told him that we were going to keep calling him and sending him links to uplifting video clips and he said that would be okay. So we did, every week for about a month and a half. But we never heard back from him! And I'll be honest, it was a bit discouraging. I had no idea if he was listening to the voicemails or watching the videos, and I was questioning whether or not it was doing him any good. So then last Tuesday, we were in his neighborhood and I told Sister Newren, "Lets just go stop by Wendell really quick and see how he's doing." So we knock on the door, and our hands almost fall off because they're frozen, and he opens it! He was very surprised, but very happy. He told us that he had just been reading from the bible. Then he looked at Sister Newren and said, "You know why I haven't give up yet?" Then he pointed to me and said, "Because SHE hasn't given up on me yet." Then he told us he'd like to continue meeting with us. Oooh my goodness. I can't tell you how good that made me feel. I was starting to get so weary! But it really just goes to show how a lot of times, you don't realize what kind of an impact you're making on people. So, moral of the story: never give up. We're meeting with him tonight, and I really hope that it goes well. 

I really love missionary work and all of the opportunities that come with it. It truly is a great learning and growing experience. I'm excited for Cameron. He's going to be great and do great. 

Congrats to Laker, Cohen and Dallin! I'm so excited for them to be baptized. I wish I could be there, but I'll be there in spirit. Don't you worry. The invitations killed me. Why are they all so cute? Little models.

I love you guys! 

Love,

Sister Livingston

Hooray for rice cheeks. In Ohio. It doesn't even make sense!