So happy to be able to talk with you all yesterday!! I love technology where we could Facetime!! What a great Mother's Day! I can't believe it had already been 5 months since we had talked at Christmas. Time flies by for sure!! The next 7 months will also fly by until we get to talk again.
This week was again interesting. It is never a dull moment for sure. Sister Holcomb woke up sick Tuesday morning with a fever and she said her stomach hurt her. The nurse said to just go to District Meeting anyways, so we went to that until about 12:30. We got home and it is really apparent that Sister Holcomb really is sick. She goes to sleep. We have 7 appointments set for Tuesday. Now I'm frantically calling people trying to arrange somewhere for Sister Holcomb to go rest at a member's house while I have different people come to appointments with me. I finally get things situated after about an hour and half worth of phone calls.
We have a great appointment with a less active couple we're teaching the lessons to because they are just starting to come back and they want to go to the Temple. They really have no knowledge of the Gospel, so it really is starting at square one with them. During this lesson my stomach started to hurt, but I brushed it off because I had another appointment scheduled immediately after with Yaquelin.
The member who went with me to the appointment dropped me off and other members were there for Yaquelin's appointment. We had planned to start over with the Restoration with Yaquelin because she has been looking into the church for a year. I started off talking about the Restoration, but it didn't feel right. We ended up talking about faith and how important faith was. It was a powerful lesson with the members really having great insight. I could see the Spirit working within Yaquelin. She committed to start reading the Book of Mormon every day and to start getting more involved with coming to church (YES!) and coming to Relief Society activities.
Meanwhile during the lesson, my stomach had really started to feel queasy. After the lesson was done the member that came drove me home to go pick up Sister Holcomb so we could eat dinner before our next appointment at 6. By this time it was around 5:20. As we were driving home all I could think about was how what I was going to do if I threw up. Roll down the window? Ask her to stop the car on the road then jump out? It was a painful 5 minute car ride. We pick up Sister Holcomb and go home. Luckily I didn't throw up in her car. That would have been the worst. We get home and the wave of nausea seems to have passed so I think I'm ok. We have 5 more appointments- I can't be sick. I really didn't want to have to reschedule them. Especially since some of the appointments we had been trying to see them for a couple of weeks. We had another member coming to pick Sister Holcomb up so she could stay at her house and we're waiting for my ride to come so I can go to another appointment. We've been waiting in the car for about 10 minutes for my ride to come when I have this sudden wave of nausea. I have to step out of the car and I barely make it to the gravel and proceed to throw up. I go back to the car where the member and Sister Holcomb are and say, "I can't do this." I then had to call our appointments and members who were going to go with me to cancel. What an eventful day.
I was sick for the next three days. Sister Holcomb didn't seem to get it as bad as me. Boy, it is not fun to be sick on the mission! I really just started eating regular food again. Luckily members and the Zone Leaders brought us soup and medicine during our time of sickness.
Friday rolls around and we're now able to get out of the house! YAY! And we can ride bikes because Sister Holcomb's knee and ankle are better. We planned that morning and then we went out and worked! During our planning we had a less active text us and ask us when church started. Awesome! We set up a time to meet with him for this coming week. We then had one of our investigators, Sarah, who we have been trying to get a hold of text us. We talked with her and tried to set up an appointment to meet with her. We also went to a New Missionary Training Meeting because Sister Holcomb has been out 6 weeks. It was a great training and I received a lot of insight on how to become a better missionary. It was the best day. We had so many miracles that day. They had been stock piling during our sick days. We taught an excommunicated member who we just ran into and she invited us in. We also had two people say they are interested in learning more and set up return appointments with them!
This transfer was crazy town! There are sisters who are training when they've only been out for 6 weeks! They hadn't even completed their own training yet!! The number of sisters has now doubled since 6 weeks ago. The work is definitely hastening. They are getting prepared for the splitting of the missions here on July 1st. You really have to learn to adjust quickly to change while you're on a mission.
I love being out here on a mission!! I'm so blessed. I have been realizing how imperfect I really am. I really have so much to work on to become more Christlike. It really takes a lot of work. I have been trying to become better while studying the Christlike Attributes in Preach My Gospel. This is why we're on this Earth- to learn and grow. To become someone better- like Christ.
Love,
Sister Collins