the relief society room is haunted, but it's down pretty far down on our concern list

I know I start out every email by talking about how crazy this week has been, but this week has aged me four years! What a wild ride we've had here in Waldport, Oregon.

Sister Peterson and I had a bible study with a lady we had done some service for a couple weeks ago -for those of you who pay really good attention to these emails you might remember the story ;)- at a cute little café here. It was pretty cool, we read Matthew 14 (which I had already gone over with the institute manual and added a few sticky notes). She had a new living translation of the bible, which is just the bible for hipsters; so when it was her turn to read the verses it felt a little off, but overall it was super cool. Unfortunately she refused to give the Book of Mormon a try and doesn't want to meet again, but overall it still a pretty cool experience. 

During our weekly lesson with the family that zooms in from three different devices we had some issues. One of the kids had left his "Zoom machine"- the mom's words not mine- at school and couldn't get on (so apparently he was just excused from the lesson at that point?? I don't know he just never showed up). The mom was sitting there on her phone wearing one of her sons' gamer head sets, and I almost lost it as soon as we logged on, then she couldn't hear us, and her voice was just crackling and I thought we were done for; but luckily Matthew - the oldest kid- took everything into his own hands and figured out the technology for his family. After that it was a pretty good lesson, aside from the part where they kept talking about horse therapy, and I was just so uncomfortable thinking about anyone willingly riding horses.

We met with Teresa again for the last time, we actually dropped her which is a very different experience for us; but I'm pretty sure she was trying to convert us to a cult, so some actions had to be taken. :)

Some service we had planned cancelled on us last minute, so we went to the church and practiced this dance we have to do for this video one of Sister Mitchell's friends from home is putting together (it's honestly the only reason I was low key hoping for her to get transferred). Once we were done we needed to change back into proselyting clothes for dinner (because a member was bringing it for us). This might have been a bad move- in fact you will soon learn that it definitely was- but we decided we'd quickly change in the computer room that is right next to the relief society room. I finished first so I went and tapped out Sister Mitchell who was lookout. A minute after Sister Mitchell went back there the door opened and the bishop walked in!! 

I frantically went over and kicked the doorstop out of the computer room door and slammed the door shut, Sister Mitchell- who was just chilling in her garments- looked at me real confused as the door shut in her face. The other two Sisters were sitting on the couch putting on their shoes, and I watched their eyes go so big. Bishop then made small talk with us and we told him about the dance we'd been filming, and I stood there with the door to my back, blocking his entrance to where Sister Mitchell had been changing. Now 99.9% of the time, we're the ONLY people that go into this computer room, naturally though, today was the day that Bishop wanted to make copies! The exchanged glances with the other two sisters then said something absolutely genius like "I'll go make sure the copy machine is on" (it's literally always on).

When I walked in there I saw Sister Mitchell curled in a ball on the other side of her room in her garments, she looked up at me and I've never seen her so scared! Looking back that was probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen, but in that moment everything was dead serious. She was hiding from the window I could tell, so I grabbed her dress from a chair by me and scream whispered "Put a dress on, he wants to make copies!". I saw her grab the dress then I went back outside, where the most awkward conversation of all time was going on between the Bishop and the other Sisters; I finally decided I couldn't bear the awkward tension anymore and offered to make the copies for him. This was genuinely one of the most awkward experiences of my life, but I've been laughing about it non-stop for the last five days! 

We've actually gotten to have a few of our member lessons inside this week, which has been absolutely amazing! One of them we got to go to in person was with Connie, she's a convert (as is a LOT of this ward) and she told us about her first time doing baptisms (she'll be going through to get her endowment in the spring, she hopes!). Anyway it was such a powerful lesson, she told us about how she got baptized for her mother and her grandmother, and it was so sweet!

We had another in person member lesson with the Seversons, but they actually told us they'd teach us this week, which was a fun change of pace. Hamilton (age 6) and Oliver (age 8) taught the lesson, and then we played a game with them! It was so cute, they're such a cute little family!

We have some new Elders in the district! Elder Hull (the Spanish Elder that stayed) got a new companion Elder Imbler. I get the vibe that both of them know about as much Spanish as me, so this will definitely be a big learning and growing experience for both of them, wishing them well. Our new district leader may low key become and apostle one day, he's given five spiritual thoughts so far (he keeps forgetting to assign others to do it) and they've all been so good!

Little fun fact I forgot to mention, we've been hearing voices in the church at night, so that's super fun! Most nights were too tired to be scared though, so it's kinda just a minor inconvenience.

Once again this week we had to speed out of our lesson with our guy Jeffrey (resent convert) because someone had to pee, this time however, it wasn't me! :) We such a good lesson with him though, he's so sweet!

Pictures: 

-us and BP

-Sis Peterson and I with Jeffrey Geiger 

-Me and Sis Peterson sporting the shirts BP got us

-coast family portrait 

-sis Hawkins and i's accidental selfie :) 

God won't lock you out, but my landlord sure will

We got transfer news last night. The four of us coast sisters will be staying here!! Which translates to me "killing" my companion, Sister Peterson, and Sister Mitchell spending seven and a half months here (which for her is over half her mission, because she was apart of the group that got shafted some time in the beginning of COVID). We're getting two new Elders on the Coast though (since our District leader got shipped off to Africa last week).

The clothing exchange had been getting a LOT of donations, I think because people are forced to stay at home, so they've decided to get rid of a lot of stuff. Unfortunately the clothing exchange is only open one day a week (I don't know why and I won't pretend like I do) so not enough is being taken to compensate for how much is being donated. The entire warehouse was full last week (it had been getting close in the weeks prior), so they asked us to sort through it and to only keep the nicer things. The rest would go to goodwill. This was only four days after the hoarder situation, so the three of us ended up PURGING everything! Soon enough they had half as such as they used to and still more than necessary. The pile of bags for good will was overtaking the room by the end.

On Wednesday the FHAM Elders came up and filmed Brother Fitzsimmons' testimony. It was so cool, he did it so good it only took one try. The Elders told us that was the fastest member video they had ever done! Hopefully they edit it soon so we can see it, it was so powerful!

We had an apartment inspection this week, which apparently is a thing? So, we cleaned our apartment and left a note asking if they'd fix the blinds for us (one of the blinds over the sliding doors in the back fell off), and of course leaving out some Book of Mormons. When we got back to our apartment (on a spiritual high from filming Brother Fitzsimmons testimony), we couldn't get in. We've only ever locked the door handle of our apartment, but the people that "inspected" our place locked the dead-bolt. Which we had never had to unlock before, after trying all three keys on our key ring, we admitted defeat and drove to the Yachats apartment and did our studies there. Thankfully, I remembered that when we changed cars there had been an envelope in our glove box that said "Waldport Spare Keys"; so later when we went back we were able to get back. Which was a small miracle that I am very grateful for.

Unfortunately though when we got inside we had some other issues. First off, no one took a Book of Mormon, disappointed but not surprised. Secondly they had pushed all of our clothes to the sides of the closet and then left some weird foam stuff all over the ground off our closet. That was a bit suspicious, but I was willing to overlook it, until I went into the kitchen. Not only had they not fixed the blind, but they had broken ANOTHER one and just left it there, with a sticky not that read "He uhh... broke it." For obvious reasons I had to have a minute to just lay on the ground and stare up at the ceiling. Especially when you add on to this by the fact that right before this we had just had a "trash can on fire" kind of lesson with a non-member. BP brought us chocolate milk though, and all the sudden I was over it; he's 100% the MVP of this story.

On Thursday we had another lesson with Geoffrey (the one who got high and saw Jesus). It didn't go as well as last week, mostly because he talked for most of it, and we could barely get a word in. It wasn't that bad though, until it was; so Geoffrey always tells us that he prays for us (he phrases it "prays over us" but I assume he means the same thing). For fifteen uncomfortable minutes, he told me about how he views my soul, and prophesied about where he sees me going in life. I really wish I could give you more details, but I'm pretty sure that Heavenly Father did me a solid and blocked most of it out of my memory. As soon as we got in the car I put my head in my hands and just heard Sister Peterson laughing. 

For new missionary training I was working on teaching the law of chastity this week, which is as much fun as it sounds. Hermana Hawkins and I (the two newbies) role-played a lesson with BP and his son. They asked every question you don't want to get, and some I've never even thought of in my life ("Is Michelangelo's "David" considered porn?"). BP goes by Fred during role plays and Fred has an open marriage, so we had to navigate that which was really fun! The bright side is that after that teaching it to the people at our NMT was a piece of cake.

BP came with Sister Peterson and me to go see a lady named Peggy (we're not allowed to knock on people's door without a member), she used to have lessons with the missionaries, but doesn't anymore. She wasn't there (turns out she's living somewhere else for a while), but her neighbor came out and talked to us for almost an hour. I think he managed to tell us his entire life story, my companion brushed off her old tracking skills and pulled out a Book of Mormon. He took it, I don't get the vibe much will happen there, BUT it was the closest thing to tracking I may ever get to experience!

Every Saturday we go to Jeffery's (new member, not to be confused with the Geoffrey who gets revelation about my soul). For those of you who are unaware, I have to pee A LOT. The other coast sisters think I should go see a doctor, but I just told them this is how it is. I pee before we go anywhere, because I know I'm a ticking time bomb; so I peed RIGHT before we left for Jeffrey's. Jeffery, as almost everyone here, is a TALKER. He loves to talk, about anything! We actually had a pretty good lesson with him, and it was on topic for the most part! It was going very well, but I really needed to pee. As we started to close up our lesson it started to get really bad, but we were closing the lesson so everything was going to be okay. Of course I should have known that wouldn't be the end, not in this ward. Jeffrey started talking about his usually things: his wife, books he's read, covid, etc. Now I've heard all topics come up about five times now, so I knew that we weren't leaving anytime soon. I was right. Eventually Sister Peterson and I managed to have the closing prayer (I quickly volunteered) and leave. Once we got in the car I told Sister Peterson we needed to high tail it home. Two miracles come to light from this story: one I made it home before, and two, we somehow managed to keep a lesson with Jeffrey under an hour and a half.

Stake conference was Sunday, which was really good, until the broadcast broke down RIGHT when the stake president went to speak! We also had our outgoing missionaries devotional; I only knew two people on there, but it was still pretty sad. It was really cool to see all the missionaries on there that were going to their original assignment (one was even going to LONDON!!!). For those of you wondering Hermana Hawkins, Mitchell and I have still heard absolutely nothing about Spain; so you'll catch us chilling on the coast!

I've been reading the Book of Mormon with the institute manual this time through, and that thing is low key a gold mine, do it! Also read through the new testament with it, I just read through Matthew 14 with it, and it was super cool. I do have issues with the fact that Matthew 14 has three incredible stories and has the audacity to only be 36 verses, but I'll get over it one day. We have a bible study set up for tomorrow and we're talking about said chapter, so we'll see how that goes! 

Anyways that was my week, we put out a service add on the Waldport buy and sell page and have been getting replies, and setting up a lot of service; so hopefully those will provide some people to teach as well as a more interesting email next week!

Much love, Hermana Shelton

PS:  Concerning the attached photo:  Just thought you should know that Oregon is Oregon, but at least it's closed on Sunday....

"YOU GET A NEW CAR"- Oprah Winfrey I think

Good Monday evening,

I am once again trying to remember what was this week and what was last week. They all kind of blur together on the mission. I can't remember what planet it was (I think Venus) but I learned that it takes longer for a day to pass (one rotation) than for a year to pass (a revolution around the sun). That's exactly how time works on a mission, days go on and on forever, but weeks fly by. I've been informed that transfer calls are in six days (?!?) I just figured out how to get to the church, and now there's a chance of me being shipped off? This should be illegal.

Tuesday we once again got to go to the clothing exchange, where Hermana Hawkins and I snatched ourselves some grandma fits, some lady had these engraved shirts that had me dying. Hermana Hawkins' says "Grandmas are Special" and mine says "I'm retired, do it yourself". I personally think we found the holy grail of donated clothes, I can't wait until we can wear these to a service project or something together.

Tuesday night we had perhaps the worst member lesson of all time; so this family likes to sit on three different screens for the lesson. One of the screens starts playing "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees and we couldn't tell which one it was for half the song. Then finally one of the kids (who's nickname is 'Bread', no idea why but it felt relevant to set the scene properly) asked if he could keep playing it throughout the lesson. That was the first five minutes, things never improved from there and after it was over we all went and laid on the ground for ten minutes trying to recover. I've had very few 30 minutes last that long in my life.

We had our second lesson with Teresa this week, and she brought five pages of notes (each of us getting our own copy). She claimed they were her thoughts while reading 1 Nephi, but I cannot see how they could connect to a single verse. Mostly there just bible verses and her thought that almost had something to do with the bible verse. We also had our second lesson with Geoffrey later that day, which went a lot better than the first one, but we'll see what happens next time (it's always a guessing game). 

I've been friending a lot of old people on Facebook (the new knocking doors), and one of them messages me A LOT. She's recovering from a surgery so she doesn't have much else to do, but it's been very refreshing having someone respond to me for once. 

As always Wednesday's Water was a good time, we even had the STLs there this time. It did kind of hurt to watch them beat me like a dirty rug at the game that I made up, but in the wise words of Sister Johnson (my STL) you have to take some L's to form half as many W's. Also I will be providing no context on the game in question, if your curious go check it out on Coast 4 Christ and pad our stats a bit.

Thursday we drove all the way up to Eugene to get our BRAND new car. Little buddy only had 23 miles on it, which felt morally wrong; but who am I to question it. I personally think our old car was fine, but this one is blue and I enjoy it. After we got our new car (and I sniped the ONLY mini Precidad Mi Evangelio in all of Oregon, take that Hermana Hawkins) we drove all the way over to Corvallis (I understand the geography means nothing to y'all, but needless to say it was a DAY). Our zone was filming a musical number and we had a three hour practice that stole my soul.

Only to then have to drive BACK to Corvallis the next day to film the musical number. I honestly couldn't tell if it was an big win or an epic loss until later when one of the Sisters sent us a recording she had on her phone (she had one of the three mics on her), and needless to say it was one of the biggest L's I have ever taken. I'm physically ill over the fact that my voice somehow contributed to the sound that came out of that. It'll be playing for the whole mission this Monday, on the Facebook live for all the dying missionaries to say their testimony (including our district leader who's being shipped to his OG mission on Wednesday).

Saturday was an experience. The Elders posted a service add a few weeks ago, and a lady responded to it that she needed help cleaning out her garage. Naturally they were really hyped they went over there about two weeks ago with high spirits, and found a garage where EVERY crevice was filled; so they left and contacted the rest of us to schedule a day where the rest of us could help too. 

I was pretty nervous going into this because I thought that we'd go and she wouldn't let us move anything because she'd want it all. I was half right, she wanted everything, but she rented a U-Haul for us to transport everything to a storage unit. Things started out pretty well, I personally had a little bit of a freak out when we found a petrified rat. Legit only its skeleton was left, all the meat and hair was gone. It didn't help that like four minutes after that incident, the lady stated-and I quote- "I have seven dead people in here". I had to take a moment after that and go say a little prayer, because that was not what I needed to hear when I was in a dark garage grabbing mystery boxes that haven't been open since 1983. Obviously after a minute I realized that she meant seven dead people's stuff, but the damage had already been done. She also took like seven on my loads in a row and took them into her house because she "needed" them. She hadn't been in the garage for THIRTY years and some of the cardboard boxes where practically decaying! Elder Hecht got a NASTY mystery substance ALL over him and I was incredibly grateful it happened to him because I would not have mentally recovered. It also was raining (because we're in Oregon) so all the boxes got super wet and I'm certain that storage unit smells awful right now. All that being said, I found it pretty fun in a weird way, but as soon as we got back I panic cleaned out my desk and threw a lot of stuff away. 

For P-Day we went to a lighthouse with all the Sisters in our Zone (8 total). We got soaking wet, but it was really fun. Kinda crazy how the transfer is almost over, I'm going to start campaigning for longer ones, I just got the hang of things!

maybe they're crazy, but who's not!

Hey everybody, hope your week was good! Mine was quite the ride. When I Iast wrote you we were still in quarantine, with the possibility of being there for another week and a half.

We were very blessed that wasn't our fate, I honestly can't believe that we were only in quarantine for four days; so much happened in that time. It was honestly kinda sad to move back into our apartment (and not just because their apartment is one of the few elect apartments with WIFI). The only issue I had with the entire situation was that four girls were trying to use one bathroom to get ready in the morning, and always had to pee. Other than that it was a good time, 9/10 would recommend (.5 of the reduction is because they didn't have any sugar in their apartment, so I couldn't make frosting for my Oreos!). 

By Tuesday we had to schedule walks into area book so we wouldn't lose our minds. The Yachats apartment is very close to the beach so we walked there a lot in our short time quarantined together. There's this random table with an EPIC view that we'd eat lunch at (see first image). We walked on the rocks and stared at the ocean for almost an hour, trying to hype ourselves up to Facebook find again. When we got back to our apartment we got a message from the Elders saying they were in Eugene getting tested again. This was very good news, Eugene has rapid tests so we'd know REALLY quickly; but I was still enraged because WE HAD TOLD THEM TO GET THAT TEST SATURDAY! But no, they chose to go get tested at the Walgreens drive through!! 

That being said we're very grateful that they were fine, and that Sister Weeks forced them to go get the rapid test (they said it was President Weeks' instruction but President Weeks told us otherwise at interviews). We were especially grateful they got the rapid test on Thursday, when they're Walgreens tests came back inconclusive (!!). Three out of four, the fourth one never came back because Elder Arriola put his email in as "missionary.com".

We got out of quarantine just in time for me to have my first two non-member lessons this week!! We met with Teresa on Wednesday and Geoffrey and Thursday. Both of them are very strong in their faith (still not sure on what that faith is?) and are TALKERS! I'm kind of scared both of them might turn bashy at one point, but we'll see!

Teresa was found through Facebook by a Sister that went home last transfer. We usually communicate with her via email (btw her email is withloveforthelord@someserviceIforgot). She's very wary of technology, and low key might be a conspiracy theorist; but her faith is SO strong. Teresa is a TALKER, she talks a lot, about everything. Apparently she runs a Facebook page dedicated to painting rocks (Waldport Rocks), and she brought me a rock she painted (second image)! She kept talking about how much the Bible has been changed over time, and how a lot of it might have been lost in translation. My comp and I almost started spitting out the entire restoration lesson right there; but we'd already been talking for an hour. Teresa told us she'd start reading the Book of Mormon and come back with questions next week. She also told us she watched Wednesdays Water last week, and read the story of Nephi because of the drawing Sister Peterson and I drew. Which is epic, because that's like the entire purpose of us being on Facebook. I have a lot of hope for Teresa, she seemed really eager to talk with us; but I also know that she's pretty set in her ways. This will be a long road, but she is so eager to talk about Christ.

Geoffrey has been talking to missionaries for a hot second (off and on). I get the vibe his memory isn't very good. He asked Sister Peterson and I if we were Sisters. Which is weird for a number of reasons: 1) he's meet with missionaries many times 2) we don't look similar 3) my name tag says Hermana. I don't think his memory is very good (he's admitted to past drug use, the word of wisdom is in fact wisdom my friends). He talked for forty straight minutes at one point, about his conversion story, and I don't think any of it was in order. He told us he met Jesus (like literally, and also he admitted he was high), and that the first thing the spirit told him was to stop selling weed (I think that one was true). We meet with him in his green house, where we grows the largest lemons I've ever seen, which I kept thinking would fall on my head and kill me any minute (see image 3 below). He kept talking about how faith is like a seed near the end though, so naturally we invited him to read Alma 32 before next week. We'll see how that goes. 

Other people that we had a bit more luck with this week:

Diane- Diane's kids have all moved to Utah and she had a daughter going to USU (she talked to me about it for 15 minutes over the phone once). She hasn't wanted to meet yet, because she doesn't want to over the phone, or outside (too cold); so we were kind of out of options. UNTIL our mission President casually mentioned that after prayerful consideration he has decided that the 60+ age limit will be lifted in our area (since that's all but four families in our area). President really mentioned this very casually as if it didn't change our entire lives here on the coast; but who cares because we can see people IN PERSON now (masks worn and up to the person of course). We called Diane Thursday, turned out it was her birthday, so we rushed over and brought her cookies (homemade Oreos of course!). She said thanks and that we should set up a lesson next week!

Valerie and Richard- BP's (our WML) neighbors. They've been on our radar forever but nothing much has happened, we dropped them off treats and talked to Richard for a while though. He said he'd call and set something up, we'll see how that goes.

Kathy- Kathy lives by some members. She was so lonely that one day she prayed to God and told him if he brought a "Mormon" to her door she'd join the church. The member's brother came and knocked on the door to talk to her right after!!! Kathy isn't making super good on her promise though! We haven't been able to contact her once,. She asked her neighbors if the missionaries could do some service for her inside her house, WHICH WE NOW CAN!!

Members:

We helped some new members move into their house this week, everyone kicked it into high gear so we could make it home right before curfew. ;)

We had our weekly lesson with Fitzsimmons. He's one of my favorite member lessons we do. He's so sweet, and always seems excited to talk to us. Apparently he's been active for YEARS, and has been dodging meet with the missionaries for a LONG TIME; but he did once, and now he has weekly appointments with us and is going to church. On Sunday he blessed the sacrament!!! This week he shared his testimony of tithing, which he payed faithfully even when he was inactive! It was so powerful! Hopefully he'd be willing to have the FHAM zone film it, I'd love for all of you to get to hear it! He also volunteered to let us practice our Spanish with him (he served in Mexico)!

Such a fun and busy week, and next week is already looking crazy! Much love from the coast! Hope everyone has a good week!

Hermana Shelton :)

quarantine but mission edition

WHAT a week! I will be starting with the normal part first, then we'll get into the absolute ride the last 60ish hours have been.  

Last Monday we went to Thor's Well, which was SUPER cool! First image attached below (if these don't go through in order, I'm sorry). It was epic!

Tuesday was once again spent doing service at the clothing exchange. I took a sweater (everything is free at this exchange so we're allowed to take anything we like which is wild). Hermana Hawkins always takes home a load because thrifting is her passion. We spend the whole day sorting and hanging up clothes. It's actually exhausting, and my feet kill by the end of the day. Also we work with these older people (and somehow we (the 20 year old missionaries) are the ones that wear masks. Anyway the older people have us take a break and eat lunch before 11 a.m. which is painful.

Wednesday we had exchanges, which apparently means you exchange companions with the STLs (Sister Training Leaders). It was pretty cool, the STLs were hyped to see the coast. One of them made a sandwich with ranch dressing, Doritos and pepper-jack cheese. Our ward mission leader (BP) fed us after. Then when it came time to go home, they lost their keys. Which lead to us frantically searching (after praying obviously) all over town for over half an hour. They ended up being in her purse! Which was actually pretty hilarious.

Thursday I had my first Zone Conference. We got to drive along the coast to Eugene, and it was so pretty!!! After Zone conference all the sisters in our zone (4 sets) went and got food and ate them in our cars because we couldn't eat inside. The only downfall of serving on the coast is that we're in what Sister Mitchell likes to refer to as "banishment". We're so far from the rest of the zone that we don't really know them that well. One the way back us four Sisters jammed so hard to Disney music I couldn't talk for 12 hours after. 10/10 experience, you'll never hear a group of people try to sing along to words they don't know as us during the non-English part of "Circle of Life".

Friday morning we had district council, which isn't special except this time the Elders were sick and didn't tell us. I didn't notice anything in the moment except when Elder Arriola popped a cough drop. Which was brave to do in a public place during a pandemic. Sister Peterson and I had a great day living in ignorance; but after our lesson with the Seversons (which is the only family we see in person ! Which turned out being fine, because Brother Severson got exposed at work anyway, he's a cop) we saw a message from the Elders saying some of them were sick. We had a video call as a district and an Elder really had the audacity to drink out of a milk jug on camera as we were talking about the potential spread of a virus. I was awestruck! 

Saturday morning my comp (Sis Peterson) was feeling pretty stressed over all the things we needed to do, and she asked in our morning prayer for time to finish everything we needed to do. God really does answer prayers let me tell you. Within a couple hours, we had called almost everybody in the mission, and our entire lives got shut down. We had my first non-member lesson scheduled for that afternoon, and WE had to cancel on HIM. That was kinda rough. Just to top of our day, both of our member lessons decided to cancel on us that night too; so it was kind of a rough day.

We went insane for a hot second, and drew the most epic diagram of how far this could spread! We were in hysterics by the end if the night,  because we just kept connecting dots and we found the comedy of it all (see chart attached below). For those of you who have forgotten, a positive test would be rather bad, because we live in a retirement community. Luckily we aren't allowed to really be in contact with people over sixty much. 

Since we have to quarantine, Sister Peterson and I moved in with the Sister Mitchell and Hawkins. The other sisters will kill me for saying this but it's been a good time, then again it's been less than 72 hours. There are a lot of details we're gonna need to figure out (the most pressing one currently is groceries), but the rest of them (like when to reschedule our lessons with Geoffrey Austin and  Teresa Sperry, the nonmembers Sister Peterson and I had lessons with but can't meet with now *sad face*) we will be waiting to answer until the Elders tests come back (image of one of them crying after below).

Our ward shut down (after only one week in person) since we had been in the building for District Council. So the only week they've been in person (last week), I had the pleasure of speaking! Hermana Hawkins was supposed to talk in church this week, but she God took pity on her I guess. The ironic part was that our ward joined the Newport ward instead (online). WHICH IS WHERE THE SICK ELDERS LIVE?!?! The logic was definitely not there on the stakes part, but it's okay.

For obvious reasons this will be a week filled with Facebook finding, which is cool because then we will find some new people to teach!! We are praying for negative tests, but we won't know the results until Wednesday, because the Elders managed to find the worst test in Oregon, they're wrong for that. 

Anyway the rest of the pictures are of us at the absolutely gorgeous places that are casually right next to where we live! The mission is so cool, hopefully all of this was just a scare and we can get back to normal (and our board won't come to pass)! 

I finished the Book of Mormon this week, which was awesome! Now I'm back in First Nephi and it feels like talking with an old friend. The Book of Mormon is SO amazing every make sure to read it every day!! 

Much love from my quarantine home,

Hermana Shelton

PS: Elder Arriola hasn't been in the last three video calls we've had as a district and I'm convinced drinking out of the milk jug actually killed him. Send prayers! 

Last Weeks Email that Never Sent!!

Apparently my email from last week never sent? It said it was "queued"? Anyway this is the email I typed last Monday. If you're only going to read one from me this week, I'd recommend the one that'll be coming later today though!

******************

We do service at a clothing exchange every Tuesday. It's with these people from another church that don't believe you should eat fruits and vegetables in the same meal (apparently it'll make you die faster, but I'm not shooting for 100). We were there hanging up donated clothes for over five hours, and just when we'd finish hanging up a box,  another would come in. They get an INSANE number of donations, we were sorting and hanging all day and their pile just kept growing as people dropped more off! It was super cool and the people were really nice. Although during lunch I thought this guy that looks exactly like the uncle from Duck Dynasty was going to get in a fight with this other lady about the ecosystem. 

We have about two member lessons a night, which are always a good time. As I mentioned last week we live in a retirement community, so Zoom lessons are required (missionaries can't go into the house of someone over 60) and they are always highly entertaining!!! The angles that people hold their phones at are always amusing me. Here are some of the highlights this week

         ○One family decided each of them would be on their own devices during the Zoom call, which took over 10 minutes and the silence was deafening. 

         ○a member showed up partway through the lesson dressed as santa and started taking deep doctrine about the plan of salvation.

         ○ one guy always holds his phone so I can see up his nose !!

There have been a few days where it DIDN'T rain?!?! How excited I was! We walked outside and actually got to have dry hair for a bit. Seeing the sun again felt VERY nice. 

Friday night the YSA bishop asked my companion and I to talk. Which was a bit of a RIP, but he neglected to mention a time frame so they was nice. I had to write a talk at a speed I've never been able to imagine. I was pretty stressed for a while, and then I remembered the turnout to the YSA ward and I calmed down a bit. Just as I expected there were about seven people in the chapel (and about 8 on Zoom); so it kinda felt like I was just talking to myself. Which was pretty nice. 

We had two nonmember lessons set up this week.... and BOTH of them cancelled; but we have them rescheduled and have been in contact with a few people we could potentially teach from our Coast 4 Christ page (one of them sent me an absolute novel of an email)! Hopefully something happens there.

Apparently the "Coast 4 Christ" page has been booming recently. Big shutout to all y'all that liked the page for me, you're making us look really good. Hopefully some of the people that joined are actually people from the area we can teach sometime!

If any of you are free at 6 o'clock Oregon time on Wednesday watch the other Sisters and I go live on the Coast 4 Christ page. The Elders got almost as many views as us last week and I refuse to let that happen again, please boost our stats. Also it'll be fun and good for the soul so watch!!

Anyways have a GREAT week everybody! Stay safe and healthy and read your scriptures! 

Hermana Shelton (or Sister, depends on who you ask !!!)

PS: I live in a tsunami hazard zone, so that's fun. We've been given instructions on what to do in a crisis (it was the first thing they told us when we showed up), and I really hope my companion remembers! Overall would recommend, the thrill of the unknown is quite fun!

welcome to the coast!!

what a week! I can't believe seven days ago I was sitting on zoom in the Mendon MTC! wild!

I flew out of the SLC airport Wednesday morning, and that was such an experience! The new airport has this new machine for security, and it would put the tubs on the other side of the glass if it wasn't up to snuff; so naturally both of my tubs ended up there :). This guy told me he'd have to send them back through (I still don't know why, or how sending the exact same thing through would change anything but here we are). Anyway the tub that just had my suitcass in it made its way back within five minutes. The tub with my shoes, jacket, wallet, and plane ticket didn't. I waited for like 20 minutes and watched all these people come and go before I asked some guy if he'd seen my shoes; and this lady (who looked so strangely familiar and I couldn't get over it) made it her life mission to find my tub. Turns out the first guy was a scrub and just set it to the side and never put it on the tub.

After locating my shoes (and literally everything vitally important) I started to walk to gate B. Turns out gate b is literal miles away. I walked for a really long time before arriving to the b gates. Then I walked to B30 (the last one). There was like 20 missionaries there (all but one reassigned from somewhere else). We waited around for a while before they started to board. These two sisters almost missed the plane because they took the longest bathroom trip of all time. Then once we boarded we had to walk through this maze that lead us to a parking lot, where a bus drove us to our plane.

Once we landed we drove to a church building, we did some orientation stuff then I met my companion Sister Peterson (she's been out for 16 months today!). I also found out what area I was going to, but it meant nothing to me. My companion, two others Sisters (who are also serving in our area), and I drove back to the airport because the other new Sister's luggage had been put on a later flight. After about an hour there we learned the flight was delayed so someone would have to bring it to us. We then drove to our area, which is when I learned that I was GOING TO THE COAST!! I had no idea and I was so pumped. It's rained every day since I've been here, apparently it's the worst time of year to be here; but I see the ocean EVERY time I drive anywhere. It's so pretty.

I've taught like six lessons so far, but all to members. We have a couple nonmember lessons lined up this week so hopefully they come through! We live in a retirement community pretty much, so we aren't allowed to go in anyone's houses so we either zoom them or sit on their porch in the rain. Zoom with these older people is honestly so funny. They'll all be holding their phone so we can see up their nose and stuff! It kills me!

The members here are so sweet though and sign up for lessons with us (we have two member lessons a night). They also feed us dinner almost every night!

Sister Peterson and I are assigned to the YSA branch; so we had to go and bear our testimonies in two sacraments (this church building puts out chairs for its chapel BTW, they have no pews). The normal ward was over zoom so it was just us and about 10 others. The YSA was in person for the first time this week though; and no one showed up. Literally. It was two sets of missionaries and the people with callings in that ward. Not one member of the word walked in! Which made it so we had to bear our testimonies (which we also had to in the first one). It was so awkward I felt so bad for the Branch President.

My comp is also new to the area and so we're trying to figure out the people and the area. We have two lessons with nonmembers set up though so hopefully everything works out!

Needless to say my rain boots have gotten A LOT of use :) it's only NOT been raining for about 6 hours total of my time here! Which makes backing my companion a bit rough (missionaries aren't aloud to reverse without there comp giving them hand signals behind the car). It's a pretty cold experience but it's all good.

Much love from the Coast,
Hermana (or Sister now) Shelton.