DAY 41 ALREADY?!

Today is day 41 of my mission since I entered the MTC!  Holy cow!  First week in the field felt like a year, but now it's like, has it really been over a month already?!  Mission time-warp.

Anyway, things have been happening this week.  I'm still alive, so that's good I guess.  These last few days have been interesting for me, though.  Randy Johnson is progressing, he still hasn't committed to baptism yet, but he's doing all he can to make sure he's ready, and that's what really counts.  Speaking of being ready for baptism, Sister Lemke was going to get baptized this coming Saturday, but she needs more time.  For a couple days I just felt off, not quite sure about her getting baptized this week.  It was causing some stress and distracted feeling for me and I wasn't really sure why I was feeling this way.  Our bishop felt Sister Lemke needed more time, our ward mission leader felt it.  Sister Lemke has been quitting smoking, and she always tells us she hasn't had one, but on Saturday we were teaching Neysa (Brother Lemke's mom who is also one of our investigators) and she was distracted the whole time we were there.  She finally told us something was bothering her, but she was hesitant to tell us what it was.  Eventually she told us that she knew that Sister Lemke was still smoking.  That's not good news, but oddly enough, I felt relief when she said that, because now I know why I didn't feel right about the baptism.  We met with the Lemkes last night with our ward mission leader and set a new baptismal goal with her.

Yesterday was hard, too because my companion found out that her grandma was saying her last goodbyes.  She was diagnosed with ALS 6 months ago.  It's especially hard for Sister Muir because she was excited to see her grandma in just two weeks.  President Eaton gave her permission to call her family and she got to talk to her grandma.  I am so thankful for the Plan of Salvation!  She knows her grandma's just getting ready to serve a mission on the other side of the veil.  It's still hard.  It's a good thing yesterday was Sunday and today is P-Day, so Sister Muir doesn't have to worry about seeing too many people.  We had a member signed up to feed us dinner, but our ward mission leader's wife called her up and asked if she could just bring the food to our apartment.  It's so great to see the amount of love and support the members show for the missionaries here.  I love this area.

In other news, I got my flute this week!  I got to play it in one lesson already.  We were teaching a lesson on family history, so I told about William Clayson and played one of his hymns on the flute at the lesson.  It was fun and the Johnsons loved it. And the Puyallup bishop wants me to prepare to play a musical number in Sacrament Meeting around Christmas.  That should be fun.  I'm also planning on playing at Sister Lemke's baptism.  She said she would love that.  I'm so, so, so happy I get to use my flute on my mission!  I was playing in our apartment during lunch yesterday and our next-door neighbor came over and said it sounded good.  Haha, I hadn't thought much about other people being able to hear me, but at least they liked it!  Two of the Hermanas living with us also play the flute.  It's so much fun!

Sister Muir and I are speaking in Sacrament Meeting next week in the Sumner ward.  Hopefully that will give some of our investigators extra motivation to come to church.  Or to not come, I don't know.   I am speaking on my mission experience so far for 10 minutes.  Sister Muir gets to speak on her mission as well, but she gets to speak for 20 minutes.  She said, "I wonder if Bishop is taking into account that you're quieter than me."  Haha!

 Hope y'all enjoy Thanksgiving and eat lot's of food!  One of the less-actives that we're teaching told me not to eat too much on Thursday.  She said, "Will you?"  I said I'd try not to and she said, "You will, we all will."  It was funny.

Well, until next week I guess. 

~Sister Davis