Oklahoma LYfe‏- Week 12

Oklahoma heellloo to friends and family!

So. You could say that this week hasn't been too shabby. The weather here is crazy! We've actually been getting a lot of rain lately..which is good I guess. Just kidding. It's GREAT. The crops really need it. Along with the rain some thunderstorms almost every night though. The sky is so open here, that the lightning absolutely lights up the sky! Really. I'm going to try and catch a pic one of these days. It was the other night and we were planning for the next day, and there was a HUGE clap of thunder. It shook the apartment. Hermana Johnson jumped up, ran to the blinds and grabbed them to pull them up. Well, she was a little excited and pulled too hard. As soon as another clap of thunder went off, down came the now broken blinds as well. WAM! Pretty sure we both jumped about two feet because it was so loud...rather embarrassing. 

We saw some miracles this week. What a blessing. We haven't done too much of finding/tracting lately because we have so many investigators. As of late though, we've been realizing that we're going to have to start dropping some because they're not progressing. It's kind of hard because, well gosh darn it, you come to LOVE these people. And because of that, your desire to share this gospel with them becomes all the more stronger because all you want to do is help them and you know that the Gospel is the best thing to do just that. But anyways, we're really trying to make finding just a way of missionary work for us, just talking to everyone we see. Because honestly, in the words of President Hinckley, "Everyone who is familiar with the word Tracting, knows that there's always a better way." I'm weird though and rather enjoy tracting. It's an adventure every time, let me tell ya. Trust me, I hope I never have more awkward experiences than I've had on people's front porches on the mission. Ever. BUT ANYWAYS (I have a hard time focusing. There's just so much to say. BAW) Hermana Johnson and I were tracting in Wynnewood the other day and we knocked into this black family. SO nice. They let us right in. It was a grandma, Lois, with a bunch of her grandchildren running around. We ended up sharing the Restoration with her and her 14 year old grandson Lane. (Lois Lane...superman! he I think I'm funny) She was pretty emotional throughout it, especially as we were talking about the Atonement. I'm slowly learning the concept of teaching people and not lessons out here. Instead of covering the atonement and then moving right on to the great apostasy, first vision..etc, she needed to focus up what he did for us because that was how the spirit was going to be felt most clearly for her...I hope that makes sense. I'm just learning that we don't have to rush through these lessons! Slow down and let the spirit speak to these people, and allow it to do just that through us as well. So two new investigators!

So we're rather running out of miles for the month and so guess who's been cruisin' around Sulphur on their bikes the past few days?? **drumroll* These sisters.  I LOVE IT! You're able to talk to SO many more people. Oh sure, your behind doesn't feel so great the next day, BUT all of the potentials that you received the day before makes it definitely worth it. Plus, honestly, it just feels good to get out and move. It feels like we're driving all day, every day. 

Oh. Another thing. No big deal, but  THE ELDERS AND US TOGETHER HAVE THREE BAPTISMS ON MAY 9TH. I can't believe it. You can say that we're a little excited. Tonya, our hispanic investigator, is getting baptized, along with Sam and Berna-deen, two of their investigators. Hermana Johnson and I are going to sing the "I like to look for Rainbows" primary song and Sister Reeder is going to accompany us on the piano. We've got this really neat idea that we're going to sing the first verse in english for Sam and Berna-Deen, and then the second in Spanish for Tonya..Now all we have to do is just get the Elders (we'll see if that happens) to sing with us and everything will be perfect. 

Man, there's so much I want to say in these emails, I just never know where to really begin and there's NEVER enough time to write it all. I better just finish by saying that I love my Savior. Elder Halls showed me a great scripture the other day, 2 Corinthians 9:15-"Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." I don't need to add on much to that, just that I love Him for who He is, what He did for us, and the added strength I feel coming from Him every day towards me. 

I love you all familia. I can't wait to talk to y'all on Mothers day!

Have an incredible week full of laughs and choosing to see the silver linings everyday.

Love,

Sister Call 

Week 11- Miracles. Nothing but Miracles.‏

 Hermana Johnson and I during service on Wednesday. Cleaning up trash at good ol' Paul's Valley at the Train station. Almost got run over a few times but it...NOT. The elder's and us found some nasty 'train-kill' (road kill) though on the tracks

Howdy Y'all!

Has this week been great or what. I LOVE SERVING IN OKLAHOMA!

We have THREE baptismal dates set now with people and you can say that we're only a little excited. The first is with Tosha. She and her fiance are getting married soon and are going to start a family. They're realizing that they want a good foundation for there future kids and so have been looking for a church home for some time now. We haven't actually met her fiance yet, but she said that he'd absolutely love everything that we (the spirit) have been teaching her). Her date is May 30th. YES.

The second is Emorej. Ah Emorej. His is May 23rd and we're SUPER excited for him. He was going to come to church yesterday but got stuck down in Ardmore and couldn't find a ride back up in time for church. Bummer. BUT..it's called faith that we'll see him next week. He's so funny. He's black and he repeats everything. "Yes ma'am yes ma'am. Thank ya, thank ya." Bah. He's my favorite. 

But now **drumroll* for the biggest miracle. There's a hispanic family, the Cardenas', in our branch. They all only speak spanish except for one sister. One of the grand-daughters, Danny, had her baby Jaxton blessed last sunday. A ton of their family came up from Mexico for it. They are all members except for one sister, Tonya. Well, I was eating lunch about a week ago while sister Johnson was in the other room doing her hair. Sister Reeder (the elderly couple of missionaries in the branch) called us and I answered. I could barely understad her, she was just so excited. Finally I got out, "You two need to get up here to Pauls Valley right now! Tonya is wanting to get baptized before she returns to Mexico in just 3 weeks and you two are the only one's that can teach her"! (Seeing as I've got an Hermana for a companion) I spit out my mac-n-cheese a little bit. Couldn't believe it. Well, within two hours we were in Pauls Valley, teaching Tonya. We taught her the Restoration and at then end, with tears streaming down her eyes, she asked "When can I be baptized sisters"? It was the most wonderful experiences we've had out here. We had to call President and then ask President Burnett (branch president) if she could get baptized and they both said yes. SO. These sisters are having a baptism on May 9th!!!! 

Steve is good. He's trying to quite chewing. We're definitely praying for him. 

I love you all, and I absolutely LOVE serving a mission. Best decision I could have made. 

Love, 

Sister Call

Priscilla, Hermana Johnson (Companion), ?, Elder?, Elder?, Elder?

Fried Food in God's Country. Ooooh yeah (week 10)

Hey Y'all!

So it's rather a problem here, trying to keep those hick terms out of our missionary vocabulary. The spirit tends to fly out of the room when you testify "And Y'all, I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet." Oklahoma. **siiigh* it's a problem. How I love thee though!

So ever since Sister Cottle left, not going to lie, I've been rather scared that the work here in Sulphur was going to slow down because, well let's face is, she was a complete power-house. BUT, Heavenly Father really showed me that we CAN do hard things, with or without Sister Cottle. It was last week on Thursday and we were in Wynnewood (one of our towns) and we were teaching a lesson with an investigator, Emorej (He's a black 22 year old guy. One of the most respectful southerners I've ever met). It went rather swimmingly. At the end we asked if he knew of anyone who might need a message from us. He got really excited "Oh ma Sisters! I totally forgot! I've got a friend who's mom is really struggling." He told us the directions to her house and we were driving off when he comes running out of the house with his phone in his hand, waving his arms. He was out of breath, but he told us that his friend had called him and was coming over right then and that we should stay and talk to her. One of the best parts of this experience was seeing that huge goofy grin on his face as he kept repeating "Man, our Heavenly Father really does know what He's doing. He's in charge! Imagine that." Ebony then came driving up and we ended up teaching her a bit and set a return appointment. She then told us how to get to her moms. We went over there, (she lives in a mobile home) and ended up sharing a small message with her. We told her that she is important and that her Heavenly Father loves her. She was crying. She'd just barely gotten home from the hospital. She was cutting herself and had heavily OD. The Spirit was really strong and my eyes began to get pretty wet. It's just incredible the power of the Spirit, how it's able to testify to not only the people that you teach but to you yourself as well. I felt the power of his love for this woman, Kim, in front of us. I know he feels the exact same way about every one of his children. I know He loves me.

We had a lesson with Steve on Wednesday night about the Word of Wisdom. It was rather rough. He owns a coffee business in which he himself makes the coffee, having to taste check it, and then take it to office buildings. He's also chewed since he was, oh, 12? We made a bad call on the member that we took over. She tends to be quite the Okie-talker and I hate to say it, but a tad out spoken at times. Throughout all of it, I know that he felt attacked. Sister Johnson and I tried to reign it all back in, but the Spirit was certainly not present. He was a pretty good sport about it all, but we knew he didn't really understand the reasoning behind the Word of Wisdom. We were running late on Saturday night, but we decided to stop by and apologize to him about it. We were all laughing and joking within a minute and he said that everything was all good. We asked if we could come by on Tuesday to just re-teach it. He said that would be just fine. We were feeling pretty good about it all, buuuuut he didn't come to church yesterday. :/ Darn it. We're only praying that something happened and it didn't have anything to do with that. 

So 'twas last night and we went over to the Tinney's (members) house for dinner with the Elders. They had friiiied everything. Well sure they set a little bowl of salad in the middle of the table, but even they admitted that it was just for show, to make themselves feel better about what they were REALLY going to eat. The meal:

1. Fried Wild Turkey

2. Fried Pickles

3. Fried WILD mushrooms

4. Fried cheese sticks.

5. Diet Coke alll 'round

In answer to everyone's question after reading that list, yes. I did feel horrible that night. But ooooh was it worth it.

I love you all so much! Thank you for the support and love that I can feel coming from you all everyday. I'm praying for you, and have complete faith that we are all in the Lord's hands. 

Have a great week and keep the faith!

Sister Call

Hola and Como Estamo?‏ Week 9

Oh yes, I'm almost fluent already. I have a new trainer! Hermana Johnson. She is fabulous! Our personalities are really alike so..not sure if that's good or bad. :) I'm rather strange you see.

I'm leading out the area and so it's a tad stressful seeing as North is South and vice-a-versa in my book. But alas, that is what the ward roster is for. Thank. Goodness. Weekly Planning was a little rough. What was supposed to be a two hour thing slowly turned into three..then almost four. By the end she was laying face down on the floor and I was practicing the "Spongebob" (dance move). You could say that we were feeling a tad antsy, needing to just get out and work.

Steve and Stephen came to the Saturday afternoon session of conference! Steve ended up driving Stephen (Sister Johnson and I just prayed for a 'non-awkward' car ride) to the church but they ended up having to leave after just an hour into it because Steve had to drive over to Lawton for some things. It's okay though, because they both said they really enjoyed it! We then watched General Conference on Sunday with Sister Carrasco and Grandma. Steve was supposed to come over for the morning session to watch it with us. He didn't show up *siiigh* We were pretty disappointed. He hasn't been answering our calls so hopefully everything is alright. We were then going to go over to Arline and Nick's to watch the second session but they ended up calling us an hour before it started, saying that their cat had ran away and they were looking for it. Now you're at first "What kind of an excuse is that"? But we know Arline and that was probably a really big stress for her. She wouldn't have been able to focus. We know they're going to get baptized though! We were over there Friday, introducing Sister Johnson. We shared a short lesson with them, about prophets and the Book of Mormon. Everything was going swimmingly. The spirit was really strong, especially near the end when Sister Johnson was bearing her testimony. I was smiling and nodding, going back and forth from Arline and Nick to Sister Johnson when all of a sudden she proclaimed, "Arline and Nick, will you be baptized by someone holding the Priesthood authority on May 2nd"? My smile became plastered, with my eyes bugging out. You see, we tried to set a date a few weeks ago with them, but it didn't go too well. Nick's had some pretty bad experiences with the church and still has some pretty negative feelings towards us and so we were in a way counting our blessings that he even listens into the lessons at times and doesn't say much. In other words, we've been kind of tip-toeing around this guy and haven't been too bold. Well, Arline said that she would and Nick stared at us for a bit. It was silent for a while, but then he stated "I'll sincerely pray about this ladies and if I know it's true, Iwill  get baptized." So, needless to say, THEY'RE BOTH GETTING BAPTIZED BECAUSE OF COURSE THIS CHURCH IS TRUE. 

There haven't been too many visible miracles seen this week (well, if you don't count his hand in helping us figure out the area together), but I know that he's always here with us. Giving us that little extra strength once 8 o'clock rolls around and just going back to the apartment sounds real nice. I know he is very real. That he walked this earth over 2000 years ago and that he stand by our side this very day, walking right beside us. (2 Nephi 31:27 *footnote for "Steadfastness")

Loves to you all,

Sister Call

This First one is a pic of my dear Sulphur. Love this place. Man.

Second **drumroooll** SISTA JOHNSON and mwa. She's only fabulous.