78 - The Grand Finale

My last full week as a full time set apart missionary... crazy!

On Monday we basically spent the entire afternoon and evening at Tanya's apartment for Tanya to do Sister Lewis's hair. 

It took five hours total. 

I had her pretend to be Medusa for me. 

lol

Fu Fu and Lamb

But hey! Bruce made fu fu and lamb meat stuff and it was super good! 

This fu fu was like weird potatoes-the consistency is more like dough, you have to cut it or rip it. 

It was super good and not too spicy! 

Everyone makes it different, but this one was awesome!

I basically wrestled with the African kids that were there, haha. And I never realized this, but they call us (and me) Churchy! So cute!

Whip My Hair!

After dinner we drove to meet the Minot Sisters halfway to do exchanges. 

And guess who I was with again!

Yep, Sister Clegg! 

Who I will see again this Thursday because we are both going home! 

It was a really good exchange for her because we could just take a day and express our mutual trunkiness, aka our excitement about going home. 

See it's really nice 'dying' together because you can talk freely about your feelings because the other companion is in the same boat and you don't have to feel bad. 

But Sister Clegg doesn't have that luxury. So it was a really awesome and productive exchange.

This week was all the baptisms. It's crazy, I thought it was absurd those people who you looked at their teaching record and they were only taught like five times before they were baptized... WELL! We only taught Memory three times total. And Mr. Kiwi a little more than that. So my perspective has changed. If they are ready to have the lessons kinda all at once, then they're ready! Sister Lewis taught Mr. Kiwi the rest of the lessons while I was in Minot for exchanges. It went well from what I heard.

One Thursday we taught Memory the rest of the lessons and got the baptismal program and record info and then we went right over and she had her baptisimal interview with our district leader, which I interpreted. So cool to interpret your investigator's baptismal interview! It was really simple. He just asked her the questions, simple as that, with like one more question at the end. Elder Reynolds favorite part though was when he asked about the law of chastity and was about to move on when she added "No Porn!!" hahaha.

And we saw Korwa! We haven't seen her in awhile! And Flinn was there just getting up for work and he helped us set up the DVD player to watch "Finding Faith in Christ" with her. It was super good.

We then had an appointment with Elias and were praying before going in and we opened our eyes and... the jerk! He was driving away! What!?  So we were mad at him. And we were yelling at imaginary him, but then when he got there we tried to be really mad, but you just can't. lol And Mr. Kiwi, he started talking about how he has a fiance in Liberia and he wants to go marry her in February and he wants us there and we yelled at him saying he needs to get married in the temple! And then he called his wife-to-be and had us talk to her and explain! Super weird and awkward. But she was nice I guess.

FRIDAY

We had the most trunky district meeting ever!


Elder Reynolds didn't even bring his notebook. 


All we basically did was 'we' bore our dying testimonies.





It was Elder Mangum's birthday the day before, so we played super frog, like we did when Sister Lewis and I first became companions, cuz Elder Mangum was the one that started that game and he was super frog for the majority of the time. lol 



I'll miss our crazy district.

After that, we went and helped a sister (who is like our Williston grandma) to fill her pill cases. 

She fell and broke her pelvis on Tuesday! 

How sad is that! 

Sad face. 

So she asked us to help her.

Then Mr. Kiwi had his interview and that went well. 

And Charity finally was able to come do her interview! About time. Crazy. 

First it was just a long day, then she locked keys in the car and stuff, so yeah, finally got the information for the program that day from her, the day before their baptism.

Yay! All the interviews and information squared away! Now they just had to be on time for their baptisms.

That night, our ward mission leader and his wife hosted at their house a goodbye dinner for us. Brother Jolley cooked the food. YUM!
 

It was a great turn out. 

We invited a bunch of our investigators and recent converts, but only one came. 

Way to go Mr. Kiwi!

Then, it was Saturday.

I woke up, and it kinda felt like Christmas with that feeling of excitement and anticipation of what awesomeness the day will bring!

We went to the church that afternoon to fill the font, cuz we had nothing else goin' on! 

Baptism day! 

WOOO!

As you can see, we had fun setting up chairs and taking pictures.

And then, 3:00pm hit. 

It was time for the baptism of Memory and her granddaughter, Sister Far's oldest girl.

What an amazing experience for us all.

I interpreted for the baptism.

The other person in the ward who knows sign interpreted my song, "To Be Baptized."

Then it was time for the baptism, which I interpreted as well. 

I didn't get through the whole prayer either time- I got to "In the name of the father-" but, hey that's close right? 

But wow, it was the most touching thing. As soon as Memory came out of the water she was laughing and waving her hands in applause because of how happy she was. 

We, as humans, feel the same feelings as she did, but her expressions were unrestrained because of her deafness. The spirit was so incredibly strong.

And it was so cute. The little Far girl, her knees were bent the whole time and she was just floating on her dad. So cute.

And, also super cool, the other person who knows sign language signed the talk on the holy ghost while I voiced for her. 

SO powerful! 

And she did such a good job.

Fidgety Boy, So Cute!

One baptism down, still one to go. 

During the five o'clock baptism, which was a child of record from Watford (they don't have a font), we went and dried the dress that Memory was baptized in for Charity to use at 7pm. 

But then... we realized that the man doing the 5 o'clock baptism used the suit we picked out for Mr. Kiwi! So we rushed over and dried that suit as much as we could and it was only a little damp when we had to leave.

We RUSHED to the church to get everyone their clothes and in the craziness, our keys were misplaced! AH! And Mr. Kiwi locked his keys in his car! AH! AHHH!

But we went on with the baptism. 



Salvation is most important after all.

Charity was baptized first by her father-in-law.

She was so stunning in that water. 



It's a moment that I've long anticipated and it's almost hard to believe that my desires for her to be baptized have actually come true, even as I witnessed it! 

Brother Brown, Elias, Mr. Kiwi, and 2nd councilor

So amazing!

And Mr. Kiwi was then baptized. 

His countenance has changed so much. 

It is truly miraculous to see.

And then, as they were changing back into clothes, the Elders found our keys! 

They were in the men's room! 

How many priesthood holders does it take to find the sister's misplaced keys? 

Like, eight! haha.

Orlando gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and it was awesome and it was totally him. 

And then we bore our testimonies, Sister Lewis and I, it was one of the most special things in the world. 

And Sister Lewis totally called Mr. Kiwi out by saying. "You need to marry in the temple, not just some pretty lady with an African *accusing look*" It was really funny.

And Charity got a nice gift from her mother in law at the end! It was truly a spectacular night.

Saturday NIGHT

We tried to work things out with Mr. Kiwi and his key situation. Some sisters who lingered gave him a locksmiths number and we instructed him to call in the morning.

We went to Walmart real fast- it was an emergency! We needed to print out pictures of all the baptisms before church the next day! And on the way to the printing spot, we saw the "Awesome" boys in the little video game man cave that was set up in the store. We said hi and we explained to them about ours and Mr. Kiwi's key situation.

"How many priesthood holders does it take to find the keys!? lol" we joked.

"How many brothers does it take to pick lock keys out of a car?" "In less than three minutes?"

"...Are you serious right now... Really!? GO! GO DO IT!!! YEAH!!"

THEY DID!! I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but they got it done under three minutes! We called Mr. Kiwi and he was so grateful, "Oh thank you! Please! I want you to marry my son!" Oh boy. First Elias. Now Mr. Kiwi. lol

SUNDAY

Well, Sister Lewis did it. All the pictures were done before church. They look so nice!

We got to church man, Satan works so hard on people. I have not had one person that was baptized show up 'on time' to get confirmed in sacrament meeting. 

Mr. Kiwi almost didn't come because of a fiasco with his son, 

The Far family was stuck in traffic.

And Orlando and Charity woke up at the same time that sacrament started, the sillies! Church is at 3pm!!!

And Orlando sent us a text that was all like, "we'll have to do it next week. We are so sorry." 

"No! That's not an option! Just get here before sacrament meeting ends!" Text! Sent!

Mr. Kiwi showed up first. And while he was being confirmed, the Far's showed up. 

Then Memory got confirmed. It was SO neat to interpret that blessing for her. There were tears in her eyes as it was expressed how much of a light she is and how proud Heavenly Father is of her.

The other person who knows sign was actually at church to help me interpret, it was really nice and cool. 

Charity and Orlando showed up right at the end of sacrament. But thank goodness, Bishop allowed them to get confirmed during third hour just in his office.

So there it is! One of the most successful weekends ever! 

The Wonders of Photo Editing!  And, yes, that stone says "SONDERSEN"

Perfect way to leave the mission.

Speaking of which, we had lots of fun taking 'dying' pictures.

I love that I look like a devil and Sister Lewis looks like an angel lolol. 

I think it's awesome.

As my mission is at it's close, I would like to list a few things that my mission has done for me. 

My mission has helped me learn how to:

Rely on the Spirit

Invite others to come unto Christ

Prepare to be a wife and a mother

In other words, my mission has helped me learn how to "rest in peace!"

I am excited to go home and see my family and friends. A song comes to my mind. It's hymn 292 O My Father, though I've changed some of the lyrics.

...
When I lay this mission by,

Father, Mother, may I meet you

And we'll share a joyful cry.

Then, at length, when I've completed

All you sent me forth to do,

With your mutual approbation

Let me come and dwell with you.

(At least for a little while.)

I've loved the mission. It's now time for the next chapter of my life.


(Okay, just couldn't help putting in this "random cuteness"!)


And here is a "heartfelt" tribute to the companionships that I have been a part of during my mission.