Hola todos,
Is it another Preparation day again? Man time seems to fly! It seems like New Year's Eve was just yesterday, does it not? Well yes, I did send you all quite a few pictures because this last week was jam packed with excitement. It was also CRAZY stressful, but stress can be good right? If is makes us get our fannies(as my mother would put it) in gear? We started off the week with a New Year and a fresh start. It is so crazy that for all of 2012 I was a missionary! Looking back it has been the best year of my entire life so far. There was SO much more good than bad because the bad stuff always lead to good lessons learned. It's true!
I want to start off by saying that right now I have a pretty severe case of Laryngitis and cannot hardly speak at all. It is a bit funny really, but it would be more funny if I felt better. I am getting better though, I can feel it so hopefully within the next few days I will get my voice back so that I can continue proclaiming glad tidings of great joy to the world.
We were able to have New Year's Eve dinner with a great family, the Lawsons. I sent a few pics of their cutie-patootie pooch, Eddie. They were so good to us and they showed us a ton of their mission photos. We then went over to another family in the wards house, the Thiemes. We were supposed to meet up with the friend of theirs that we had talked to on Christmas day during dinner but because there was a big snow storm he did not come. We then tried on some of Sister Thieme's antique hats for a few minutes. My companion and I still had on one of the hats when we walked into the Thiemes dining room to ask her husband to take a picture of all of us. I saw a glow from a fire and heard a crackling noise and I said to Sister Thieme "I did not know that you had a fireplace.". She said that they don't and that it is just a candle. I then said "Well it seems bigger than a candle.". We all walked around the corner where the noise was coming from and Sister Thieme's yule log was up in flames!!! It was actually about to catch the Christmas tree on fire! Sister Thieme screamed "My yule log!!!!" and I screamed "Fire!". Then both Brother Thieme senor and junior ran and got something to pic up the yule log and throw it outside. Once the yule log was gone the house filled with smoke. All Sister Thieme could say was "My poor yule log..." but I kept thinking how glad I was that I had noticed the crackling of the fire...That could have been very bad! I asked them why there were not fire alarms and they said that there were, but then on further inspection they realized that there were in only a few rooms. They had just redone most of their house so that is probably why. It was for sure an eventful night. We almost DIED! Okay, well not quite but it was still a bit thrilling.
Okay, okay, so the moment that you all have been waiting for....drum roll please.....SANDY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that if you saw the pictures that you already know this but isn't this fantastic?!!!!!! We had her baptism set for Saturday at ten am but Friday rolled around and while we were on shift at the VC I went downstairs to check our phone and we had 13 missed calls. Well I about peed my pants because they were from Sandy and her daughter Stacy and I was afraid that something happened and they were doing to call off the baptism like they had last week. I called them and they told me that they were on there way to Arkansas. AGAIN. This is the exact same thing that they had said last week. This time they said that they were going to be to the baptism tomorrow, they were just going to have to drive most of the night to make it back. I told them that we could push back the baptism a few hours. My companion and I then had to call or text all of the ward members that were involved yet again to change the time of the baptism. I seriously felt like a chicken with my head cut off trying to fix everything. Not many people were able to be there, the font did not hold all of the water and ended up draining halfway, the water was freezing cold even though we had just ran it and it was warm when we checked, I had lost my voice so I could not sing the number that I had prepared before hand, the Bishop could not be there so we had someone conducting who was nervous and had never done it before, Sandy was pretty tired from the drive the night before, and she had to do her interview 15 minutes before the actual baptism...yet it HAPPENED. She is a member of the church and it is all totally worth it and it would be worth it again. She is so happy and at her baptism she just glowed. None of the other stuff really matters and while all of the tribulation was going on I felt such a calm within me that it would all be okay. While Sandy drove to Arkansas with 4 other people they all smoked pretty much all the way there with her in the car and she did not smoke one cigarette. She told her daughter Stacy that she refused to change the date and that she could not let the Lord down and she didn't. This baptism means so much to me because I really told the Lord that I would do what it took to help her enter the waters of baptism. Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts on Sandy's behalf. It has really helped.
I love the work. Sometimes it is harder when you don't really click with your companion or when they have a lot of emotional issues that need to be dealt with. I am learning how to love even when it is REALLY hard to love. Maybe I have been that person that has been really hard to love at some point too but I know that the Lord helps me with these things and that He will not leave me to deal with it alone. We are all VERY loved.
I love you all and I pray all is going well.
con amor,
Hermana Thorne
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