Hi! :) This week has been crazy but great. We got the van back; I went to traffic court on Wednesday and all 3 tickets were revoked. The next day I worked at the Peter Whitmer farm, and Sister Arnold (Tom's mom) came by for a tour because she was in the area for business, which was really cool. It was great to be able to talk with someone I know, especially about gospel topics. :) We had a GREAT lesson with Leah, and she is making goals with the bishop this week to get her patriarchal blessing and to the temple. I really love her. :) My companion and I are working together better than ever... still not perfect, but I feel like we are actually getting to be friends. The Spirit and gift of tongues is playing a huge role in our relationship, which is so cool to see.
Found out this weekend that my relief society president just got a job in Bountiful, and they are thinking of moving to West Kaysville in September! Mom, I gave her your cell phone number... she said she is actually going to be out there in a week and one of the houses they are looking at is on our street! Small world.
It's getting a lot crazier at the sites... we are there 5 days/week now, which is crazy but awesome. It is really cool to have people come to you and want to learn, when you are a missionary. Especially when we spend most of our area time trying to find people who will let us teach them.
Thank you for all your love and support. A couple of weeks ago, someone came into the visitors center... he hadn't served a mission, but his little brother was in Africa and he wanted to get an idea of how to support him. He asked what I missed the most, and immediately without having to think, I said my family---but that they were doing awesome at supporting and loving me. So, thanks! I love you all. Have a great week! <3
Monday, June 25, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Week 30
Hey there everyone! It's been a great week! I don't have much time but I will share a couple of experiences.
So as the designated driver of the Webster companionship, I get to drive the oh-so-beautiful "mama van." Make that "got to drive." It's a silver 2011 Dodge Caravan...I put most of the miles on it and I miss it. :( It all started on my way to email last week... I was taking out the trash on the way out the door and somehow my car keys ended up at the bottom of a dumpster. Sister Clark is the tallest in our apartment, so after my best efforts using a metal hanger and actually pushing them farther down, she grabbed the hanger and climbed right inside the dumpster. Success! All was well.
Fast forward about 22 hours. I'm driving down the highway to do some community service... we volunteer sometimes at this place called the Hope House, which is put on by the Holy Trinity church. They basically collect, sort, and distribute clothes and food from the community to those in need. It was raining really hard, so I was going like 47 mph (the speed limit is 55). And all of a sudden, police lights go on behind me. I pull over and he asks for my license/registration...next thing I know (20 minutes later), I have three tickets! Wha...? Turns out the insurance company didn't communicate with the registration people LAST JULY, so my car was unregistered for 42 days like a year ago. And for some reason I still don't fully understand, that is a problem. A big enough problem to get three tickets and court date. So... basically I can't drive that car until I go to court next month. So we are car-sharing, which has been interesting.
My health has been good this week. Very little chest pain. I'm taking both omeprazole and Ibuprofen regularly, and it seems to be helping. I have a follow-up appointment on the 5th, so we'll see what happens then.
The sites are getting busier, which I love. It does mean that we get less time in our area though, which has been kind of hard. But we are seeing miracles in the little time we have in the area. We are teaching two people this coming week or so that are new... wish us luck!
Gotta run... love you all! <3
Sister Schank
So as the designated driver of the Webster companionship, I get to drive the oh-so-beautiful "mama van." Make that "got to drive." It's a silver 2011 Dodge Caravan...I put most of the miles on it and I miss it. :( It all started on my way to email last week... I was taking out the trash on the way out the door and somehow my car keys ended up at the bottom of a dumpster. Sister Clark is the tallest in our apartment, so after my best efforts using a metal hanger and actually pushing them farther down, she grabbed the hanger and climbed right inside the dumpster. Success! All was well.
Fast forward about 22 hours. I'm driving down the highway to do some community service... we volunteer sometimes at this place called the Hope House, which is put on by the Holy Trinity church. They basically collect, sort, and distribute clothes and food from the community to those in need. It was raining really hard, so I was going like 47 mph (the speed limit is 55). And all of a sudden, police lights go on behind me. I pull over and he asks for my license/registration...next thing I know (20 minutes later), I have three tickets! Wha...? Turns out the insurance company didn't communicate with the registration people LAST JULY, so my car was unregistered for 42 days like a year ago. And for some reason I still don't fully understand, that is a problem. A big enough problem to get three tickets and court date. So... basically I can't drive that car until I go to court next month. So we are car-sharing, which has been interesting.
My health has been good this week. Very little chest pain. I'm taking both omeprazole and Ibuprofen regularly, and it seems to be helping. I have a follow-up appointment on the 5th, so we'll see what happens then.
The sites are getting busier, which I love. It does mean that we get less time in our area though, which has been kind of hard. But we are seeing miracles in the little time we have in the area. We are teaching two people this coming week or so that are new... wish us luck!
 |
| The Sacred grove is so green and beautiful this time of year! |
Gotta run... love you all! <3
Sister Schank
Monday, June 11, 2012
week 29
Dear friends and family,
Updates here: We got transfer calls last night, and everyone in my apartment is staying! That was a surprise, I was pretty sure I would be leaving (I've been here for 6 months now and Sis Aiello is done training), or at least that I'd get a new companion, but apparently I have more to learn. My first reaction was that I'm not sure if I can do this—I love Sis Aiello but it has been a roller-coaster couple of transfers as we learn together, and my expectations were for a more-experienced missionary to help me learn. But I woke up this morning, and just felt it—it's going to be a good transfer :) (Actually, the transfer ends with pageant, so it will be doubly excellent!) I finally feel like we understand each other's personalities, and we are getting to be friends, and I guess the Lord wants to use that, which in retrospect makes sense. She is teaching me to make sauce next week. :) We also ate gelato this week... pistachio is still the best flavor. :) And we did a musical number together Wednesday night... Il Mattino Era Sereno, which is Joseph Smith's First Prayer in Italian. My pronunciation is getting good ;) The Book of Mormon has also been a huge blessing to our companionship. We are reading it together as a mission starting a couple of weeks ago. By the end of this week I think we'll be into Words of Mormon or so. Reading together has really helped to unify us.
As far as my health situation goes... so I went to the doctor last week, and she thinks I have a disease called GERD (very lady-like-sounding, I know :P). It stands for Gastro-Esophogeal Reflux Disease or something like that, and is basically just acid-reflux. You have this little valve called a sphincter in-between your esophagus and stomach, and it is normally closed except when you swallow, which keeps your stomach acid inside your stomach. But sometimes things can keep it open... a hernia, a certain type of bacteria, or even stress. And then acid can splash up into your esophagus and start eroding it away. If this erosion continues, it can turn into an ulcer. Obviously the erosion is not a really pleasant thing for your esophagus, and it can sometimes cause esophageal spasms. Because you have a lot of nerves that wrap around your chest, this can cause chest pains and/or numbness all over your upper torso, which may feel like a cardiac event even though it has nothing to do with your heart. Aaaanyway, they put me on omeprazole, which is reflux medication. I'm taking the meds daily for the next month, and then I have a follow-up visit to see if that solved the problem. I also had some blood drawn last week for a H. Pylori antibody test... H. Pylori is a bacterium that can hold that sphincter open, and it would actually be good news if the test came back positive, because there is medication to eradicate the bacteria, which would be a total cure. If that's not the problem but it is GERD, I will probably just have to take a once-a-day pill indefinitely. So overall, pretty doable either way. I'm hoping that they have found the problem and it will be fixed soon. In the meantime, I have just appreciated being able to assume it's a gastrointesinal problem so I can exercise hard again.
Gotta run... love you all! <3
Sister Schank
Updates here: We got transfer calls last night, and everyone in my apartment is staying! That was a surprise, I was pretty sure I would be leaving (I've been here for 6 months now and Sis Aiello is done training), or at least that I'd get a new companion, but apparently I have more to learn. My first reaction was that I'm not sure if I can do this—I love Sis Aiello but it has been a roller-coaster couple of transfers as we learn together, and my expectations were for a more-experienced missionary to help me learn. But I woke up this morning, and just felt it—it's going to be a good transfer :) (Actually, the transfer ends with pageant, so it will be doubly excellent!) I finally feel like we understand each other's personalities, and we are getting to be friends, and I guess the Lord wants to use that, which in retrospect makes sense. She is teaching me to make sauce next week. :) We also ate gelato this week... pistachio is still the best flavor. :) And we did a musical number together Wednesday night... Il Mattino Era Sereno, which is Joseph Smith's First Prayer in Italian. My pronunciation is getting good ;) The Book of Mormon has also been a huge blessing to our companionship. We are reading it together as a mission starting a couple of weeks ago. By the end of this week I think we'll be into Words of Mormon or so. Reading together has really helped to unify us.
As far as my health situation goes... so I went to the doctor last week, and she thinks I have a disease called GERD (very lady-like-sounding, I know :P). It stands for Gastro-Esophogeal Reflux Disease or something like that, and is basically just acid-reflux. You have this little valve called a sphincter in-between your esophagus and stomach, and it is normally closed except when you swallow, which keeps your stomach acid inside your stomach. But sometimes things can keep it open... a hernia, a certain type of bacteria, or even stress. And then acid can splash up into your esophagus and start eroding it away. If this erosion continues, it can turn into an ulcer. Obviously the erosion is not a really pleasant thing for your esophagus, and it can sometimes cause esophageal spasms. Because you have a lot of nerves that wrap around your chest, this can cause chest pains and/or numbness all over your upper torso, which may feel like a cardiac event even though it has nothing to do with your heart. Aaaanyway, they put me on omeprazole, which is reflux medication. I'm taking the meds daily for the next month, and then I have a follow-up visit to see if that solved the problem. I also had some blood drawn last week for a H. Pylori antibody test... H. Pylori is a bacterium that can hold that sphincter open, and it would actually be good news if the test came back positive, because there is medication to eradicate the bacteria, which would be a total cure. If that's not the problem but it is GERD, I will probably just have to take a once-a-day pill indefinitely. So overall, pretty doable either way. I'm hoping that they have found the problem and it will be fixed soon. In the meantime, I have just appreciated being able to assume it's a gastrointesinal problem so I can exercise hard again.
Gotta run... love you all! <3
Sister Schank
Monday, June 4, 2012
Week 28
Hi friends and family!
Lots of things to talk about this week...they may or may not end up coming out in any sort of coherent order. Here goes:
Went to the cardiologist for probably the last time this week. I have taken pretty much all of the minimally-invasive tests they have and they all look good. We are almost certain it's not my heart, which is excellent news! The less-exciting news is that we still don't know what's going on. So, back to primary care this week. I'm still feeling pain but I am very functional and honestly getting used to it, so not too worried. I'll keep you updated if/when we find out more. Thanks again for all of your prayers; I am really grateful for how well my body is holding up. :)
I was at the Joseph Smith Farm this week, and a group of young adults came in. Not only do they live at Alta apartments (where I lived last summer) and know Amber Feigleson, but I quickly found out that one of them was Heidi Dymmock! Mom and dad, I don't know whether you still keep in touch with their family, but I haven't heard anything from them in about 12 years, so that was fun. :)
We got to go to the temple this last Friday. It was really wonderful! I love the temple so much!! It is totally worth any sacrifice we can make to get there. While I was in the temple, I was overcome by a feeling of gratitude---for the covenants the Lord is willing to make with us, for the restored gospel and priesthood so that we can make those covenants in this day and age, for family members that keep their covenants and thereby bless my life daily, and for those who do family history work and submit names to the temple so I can go there, even though I am a busy missionary and can't do my own family history work right now. I totally want to get into family history work when I get off my mission. Mom, hold me to that. ;)
The site missionaries are transitioning into using a cool tool called the online area book more. We used to use it only for the people we contacted through chat, but now we are using it for all referrals and people we contact through the sites/pageant. Eventually, every missionary will transition into using an online area book in their proselyting area instead of a physical binder, but I think that is at least a few years off. It is very cool to see the ways the church is utilizing media and technology to help the work roll forward.
Being a missionary in the summer time is awesome. People in general are happier, more available, and easier to contact. And especially in this mission, summer means pageant time! Pageant is about 6 weeks away, but that is not very much time at all. All the wards are talking about it, we have flyers and pass-along cards galore, and the Hill Cumorah Visitors center has a new display of costumes from past pageants in celebration of the 75th anniversary year. I am really excited to see how busy the sites get...since I came out in December, I have spent a lot of time studying in an empty visitors center, but no more! At least for awhile. It will be tiring, but excellent. :)
Things are going really great with my companionship this week. We are both making adjustments and are starting to really click and actually become friends. She has been really applying herself lately and studying really hard, and I am working on being less selfish and just reaching out and showing my love. We are learning a lot from each other. A couple of times, she has asked if I have always been this strictly obedient lol. She has also had opportunity to call me out on being irritable every once in awhile. We are finding a good balance where we can be effective but still have fun together and learn about each other and just love each other. It is helping us to teach and plan in more unity, and also I think to love those that we teach even more.
Okay running out of time but last thing. I read the BEST conference talk this week... you need to check it out. It's called Jesus the Christ: Our Master and More (click on link to view talk) and I'm pretty sure it was April 2000 conference by Elder Nelson. Excellent address; I learned a lot from it and it really affected me.
Love,
Christa <3
Lots of things to talk about this week...they may or may not end up coming out in any sort of coherent order. Here goes:
Went to the cardiologist for probably the last time this week. I have taken pretty much all of the minimally-invasive tests they have and they all look good. We are almost certain it's not my heart, which is excellent news! The less-exciting news is that we still don't know what's going on. So, back to primary care this week. I'm still feeling pain but I am very functional and honestly getting used to it, so not too worried. I'll keep you updated if/when we find out more. Thanks again for all of your prayers; I am really grateful for how well my body is holding up. :)
I was at the Joseph Smith Farm this week, and a group of young adults came in. Not only do they live at Alta apartments (where I lived last summer) and know Amber Feigleson, but I quickly found out that one of them was Heidi Dymmock! Mom and dad, I don't know whether you still keep in touch with their family, but I haven't heard anything from them in about 12 years, so that was fun. :)
We got to go to the temple this last Friday. It was really wonderful! I love the temple so much!! It is totally worth any sacrifice we can make to get there. While I was in the temple, I was overcome by a feeling of gratitude---for the covenants the Lord is willing to make with us, for the restored gospel and priesthood so that we can make those covenants in this day and age, for family members that keep their covenants and thereby bless my life daily, and for those who do family history work and submit names to the temple so I can go there, even though I am a busy missionary and can't do my own family history work right now. I totally want to get into family history work when I get off my mission. Mom, hold me to that. ;)
The site missionaries are transitioning into using a cool tool called the online area book more. We used to use it only for the people we contacted through chat, but now we are using it for all referrals and people we contact through the sites/pageant. Eventually, every missionary will transition into using an online area book in their proselyting area instead of a physical binder, but I think that is at least a few years off. It is very cool to see the ways the church is utilizing media and technology to help the work roll forward.
Being a missionary in the summer time is awesome. People in general are happier, more available, and easier to contact. And especially in this mission, summer means pageant time! Pageant is about 6 weeks away, but that is not very much time at all. All the wards are talking about it, we have flyers and pass-along cards galore, and the Hill Cumorah Visitors center has a new display of costumes from past pageants in celebration of the 75th anniversary year. I am really excited to see how busy the sites get...since I came out in December, I have spent a lot of time studying in an empty visitors center, but no more! At least for awhile. It will be tiring, but excellent. :)
Things are going really great with my companionship this week. We are both making adjustments and are starting to really click and actually become friends. She has been really applying herself lately and studying really hard, and I am working on being less selfish and just reaching out and showing my love. We are learning a lot from each other. A couple of times, she has asked if I have always been this strictly obedient lol. She has also had opportunity to call me out on being irritable every once in awhile. We are finding a good balance where we can be effective but still have fun together and learn about each other and just love each other. It is helping us to teach and plan in more unity, and also I think to love those that we teach even more.
Okay running out of time but last thing. I read the BEST conference talk this week... you need to check it out. It's called Jesus the Christ: Our Master and More (click on link to view talk) and I'm pretty sure it was April 2000 conference by Elder Nelson. Excellent address; I learned a lot from it and it really affected me.
Love,
Christa <3
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