LIIIVE Action! YeeyeeyeeYEE! (Said rather quickly in southern accent)‏ Week 16

Friends and Family.

I'm pretty sure that I've found the most exciting place on earth here; my dear Oklahoma. We broke a record this month for our amount of rainfall/FLOODING. We've gotten more rain in the month of May than we do for the entire year. Cars have been stalling left and right because people think they can make it through the 'swimming-pool' of streets. And with that rain comes more, you guessed it, TORNADOS. We were at Grandma's house for a minute on Saturday when the sirens went off. She busted up laughing at the look on our faces. Hermana Johnson may or may not have sped a tad on our way to the Craig's (Less-Actives in the Branch) storm shelter. Well, we got there and it was a tad full with other people, but we made it work. Sister Craig's dad was standing outside of it, not wanting to climb down until he 'had' to, but he was giving us a live report. "Oh, oh man, It's funnelin' now. Ah Howdy gee look at it go!" Mom, I just need to tell you. The only thing that kept me from popping my head out and catching a glimpse for just a second was the look on your face if I had while you were reading this here email and then, well, of course how Heavenly Father's only really going to protect us if we're not being DUMB. There wasn't any damage, maybe a few trees. So there's my experience with a tornado. Exciting. 

In other words, Charles and the Elrods are getting baptized June 27th! They accepted their baptismal dates and are working towards them. President has set a goal of 100 baptisms in a transfer for our mission. We're all fasting next Sunday. It's going to take a lot of faith and even more work, but we know that he's prayed about it and so with His help and our best efforts, it will happen! :) 

I'll make sure to tell more about our Investigators in my next email, just running out of time. Again.

I love you all SO much. Praying for you every day.

Sister Call :D

Hermana Johnson, Tonya and Priscilla May 9, 2015

Sister Call and her OK

Week 15- Miracles in the South (might have called an email that already)‏

Familia,

This week was awesome!

So, we kind of got two new investigators. We were leaving an inverstigators house last week on..thursday? Well we passed by the house of an inverstiagot that we haven't gotten in with for over TWO MONTHS. He was sitting on the porch with a friend and he waved us over. And by the way, this guy's name is Tim. Tim's friend was John. They are both incredible! It had been so long since we'd taught Tim the Restoration that we ended up teaching it again so that John could hear it too. It was an incredible experience. We gave John a Book of Mormon at the end and we commited him to reading a couple sections. When we asked him if he would he stared at us and blinked a few times. "Well, it's the word of God. Of COURSE I'll read it." Oh John. We went back last night (was eaten alive by mosquitos ((about 20 bites) to teach the Plan of Salvation and he had read it. Cha-ching) 

The second was Debra. She is the mother of a former investigator. She was interesting when we came knocking on her door and well, Hermana Johnson and I looked at each other and walked right on it. Taught the Restoration and we're going back this week. 

I love being here. I love sharing the beautiful message of Christ with others and the hope that it brings to life's. Sound cliche, but could not be more true.

I'm sorry this email is so short. Today is a crazy P-day. I love you all though, so much!

Sista Call

Crazy Oklahoma'ness‏ Week14

This week, hm. Where to begin.

Well, to start off with, my Oklahoma has been experiencing some slight weatha this past week. Slight weather you ask? Well, this weather might possibly include 50 tornadoes touching down in one day..but you know. It's whatever. 

Thursday night we were in Pauls Valley teaching Tonya her very last lesson before her baptism on Saturday. We got a text from our weather contact in Sulphur telling us to not drive down because of flash floods and of the tornado watch for that area that night. We went over to the Reeders after the lesson so that they could tell us what was going on because they'd been watching the news. Sure enough, tornado watch. **siigh* well darn. We ended up calling the Bogers, a family in the branch that lives in Pauls Valley, and ended up staying the night there in their pool house. No big deal. It was fun :)

Saturday was the Tonya and Bernadean's ( the Elder's investigator) baptism. One of the most beautiful days on the mission for me. The smile on both of their faces was only incredible. You could just tell that they knew exactly what they were doing, the importance of it, and how they were so excited to be making this covenant with their Heavenly Father. We had many missionaries and members from the branch come and support them. It was a great experience. What a blessing. DAW! I wish I could fully describe my feelings right now, but I can't. It was incredible. 

We were at the Tinney's yesterday for dinner. Every dinner at the Tinney's is rather an adventure. I'm pretty sure that they're the cause of my blasted weight gain here. Well, our elder's are the zone leaders and so they knew by then if we were getting transfered. Also the Tinney's had called the AP's (don't ask how) to find out if we were leaving. Ha I guess they love us or something. All through out dinner Hermana Johnson and I were trying to get it out of them. Well, after dinner we were all standing up to leave but Elder Hall's jumped out shouting "Wait wait! I'm going home on wednesday so I need a picture with the family"! He then stared right at me and stated "Sister Call, you better get a picture as well." My heart dropped. I was shaking as they were taking pictures with him and then when they finished I slowly walked up to take my picture. They were all giving me hugs and I only felt like crying. Well, joke was on me. Elder Halls as he took the picture murmured "Just kidding. Sister Call's staying." GAH. Could have punched that guy. (Just kidding. not appropriate.) Long story short, I'M STAYING IN SULPHUR! 

I love you all. Hope the week goes rather splendidly.

Sister Call

PS. Sorry this wasn't very long :/

Week 13 Pics

On Friday in Lawton at McKenzie's Burger Garage. Sister McKenzie (the STL that I went on exchanges with) just couldn't help it. She saw it Thursday as she and sister Hamm were riding their bikes and they couldn't wait one more day to go. This here was a...ranch potatoes curler? Not going to lie, 'twas absolutely delicious. Fried fried fried, what's new?

Joy is a town that we cover. It consists of one road..Joy. Cutest little town ever.

May the Fourth Be With Y'all..couldn't help it.‏ Week 13

Happy 3 Month mark to me! Holy smokes, I look back on what has happened in just that short space of time, everything that I've done, the lessons that have been learned, and it blows my mind.

This week was crazy. Hmm. On Monday Sister Johnson and I spoke at a grave side service for a member that was 104, Annie Watts. She's a member but the rest of her family are not. The scene was pretty much one from the movies; It was gray and raining. Everyone who could fit were under the tent and those who couldn't had their black (kay, maybe not ALL black) umbrellas out. We spoke about the Plan of Salvation, bearing our testimonies that we knew Annie was happy and was going to be with her Father in Heaven again. It was a great experience. The son-in-law, Mr. Elrod, came up to us after and asked "So how do I get baptized into this here church"? We are going to be teaching the family this week the Restoration. I can't believe the miracles that we are seeing here and how much He is blessing us! But OH. After the funeral, everyone was standing around, quietly talking, when all of a sudden we saw a flash of lightning to our right. That's right, a lightning bolt had hit a pole about 15 feet away. We saw the sparks fly and one of them hit Sister Johnson. Adventure? I think yes. That Cemetery was cleared out within 30 seconds.

We had a great lesson with Arlene and Nick, setting another baptismal date for May 30th for both of them. Arlene really wants to get baptized, she just needs to make it to church! She never feels well, but we're trying to tell her that her Heavenly Father wants her to get to church and so if she has faith in that, even if she doesn't feel 100% that day, she needs to get up and try and go anyways because He'll give her added strength. Nick needs to develop a testimony still. **sigh* We're just trying to love them where they're at.

Steve is good. He hasn't been to church in two weeks and we've only seen him once or twice in the past two weeks because of his work schedule that has apparently gotten really crazy. DAW. We don't want to lose him! He's SO promising and has such a desire to build that relationship with Heavenly Father. We fasted for him on Sunday and are planning on seeing him tomorrow. We're choosing to focus up on helping him stop chew right now and two weeks ago he'd limited it down to just one chew a day, but the last time we saw him he was going strong again. I haven't experienced such vast emotions before, varying from disappointment to utter joy before. It's a different thing.

In other words..TONYA IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY. Are we excited?? AAAHH! This will be my first baptism out here. Elder Brotherson (our District Leader) is driving up from Ardmore on Wednesday with a translator in their ward for her Baptismal interview because she get's back on Tuesday from California (they've been there for the past week and a half). We're then going to teach her the last lesson on Thursday (yes, that's allowed to have her interviewed before she has the fifth lesson. We had to double check) and bam. Baptism on Saturday. The Elders are baptizing Bernadine (One of their investigators) at the same time. President Burnett wanted us to have a dual baptism so more of the branch could be present which makes sense. It'll be a struggle because Tonya only speaks Spanish though and so we might have someone give the Baptismal talk in English and then the Holy Ghost in Spanish. Then Sister Johnson and I will sing "I like to look for Rainbows" singing one verse in English then the next in English...bah. We don't know. We'll figure it out though. We are just so blessed. And did I mention excited?

I love you all SO much. It's crazy to think that I'll be seeing you in less than a week. I'm trying to figure out where to even start in telling you about my life out here. It's amazing. Before I go I just want to let you know that Heavenly Father loves me and you. He is extremely aware of everything going on in our lives. He's always there, walking beside us which is frustrating because at times we want him to walk ahead, lighting our way. That's not how it is for the most part though, he doesn't like watching us struggle one bit. He knows that it's the only way that we can progress though, and so there he always is and always will be. Right by our sides, walking next to us and supporting us during hard times. I'm grateful for my Savior.

Love y'all, so. much. See you soon!

Sister Call