Natural Gas and Sunday and Everything Else

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been good so far! Things are craaazzzyyyy busy here! We don't even have time to go on walks anymore unless we call people while we walk. Ha ha!

So this week's episode includes gas, apparently I was supposed to become an STL as soon as the 3rd transfer came, our recent convert meeting us (Not on purpose! Kind of), zoom failing us on Sunday and a few other things. 

Okay, so Wednesday we were on an accountability call and we had to explain why we were moving our friend's baptismal date a third time. We got strict counsel to take him off date until we had him fully prepared. We were kind of caught in a bind because our leaders asked us to pull some things out of Preach my Gospel and when we finally found what they wanted us to find, it was in this tiny little box. We got in a little trouble for that. Our leaders asked who the STL's were in our area and Sister Lloyd explained she was the only STL. Long story short, I'm an STL now and the AP's got in a little trouble because they forgot to put that out on transfer board three weeks ago. So I'm figuring out how to be an STL. They need a guide book for us to consult when other companionships ask questions that we don't have an answer to because this is only my 3rd transfer and Sister Lloyd's 4th. The next day we had an MLC (Mission Leadership Call) and one hour before the call was supposed to happen the APs called us and asked us to give a training on the exact thing we had gotten in trouble for not knowing the night before! We were soooo glad we studied PMG earlier that morning.  We said we would do the training and they told us we had 30 minutes to put it together and then we had 30 minutes to practice it. The training went well and we were really glad. We learned a lot so I'm glad our leaders called us out because it was things we needed to know.

We have been so busy that we haven't been taking as many walks or breaks as we should. So Thursday was our busiest day. Because we cover two areas we have two SIM cards. Thank heavens for that because we were in separate rooms calling and setting up things all day. When we took a break for lunch at 12:30pm we were still on calls and accidentally hit the knob for our gas stove. We didn't notice until 45 minutes later and I turned off the knob and didn't think anything more of it. Fast forward to about 8pm when Sister Lloyd insisted we go outside on a walk. Our heads were hurting and we were rushing to get things done, we were tired and just had pretty bad headaches. We took our walk and as soon as we got back inside we realized that somehow the gas was still on because it was an overbearing smell. We called the Larsens who are in charge of housing problems and they had us go to to my first apartment in Lake Ridge. I still have the keys to that apartment so we packed an overnight bag and slept at my old apartment. We felt soooo much better the next morning. I am soo glad Sister Lloyd insisted on a walk otherwise we probably wouldn't have smelled the gas. It got fixed the next morning and we are back in our original apartment now. 

We got to drive our car yesterday and Elaine is one of our recent converts. She is 86 and soooooo funny. Well she is a widow and really lonely. She called us and told us she got a package from my old companion, Sister Pugmire. In the package was a Utah shirt. She wanted to send Sister Pugmire a picture of her in the shirt so we told her we would drive by her house, take a picture and go. That way no social distancing rules were broken. ELAINE DOES NOT FOLLOW RULES. She did not stop at the driveway, she just kept walkin'! Right up to the car! Sister Lloyd and I were leaning away from the window so we could try to follow the rules as much as we could. She's funny and has a lot of sass. Even though we didn't really follow the social distancing rules, we were glad we stopped by because she just needed someone to talk to other than her cats. 

Yesterday was the hardest Sunday we have had yet! Most of our friends join over Zoom.  Because we cover 3 wards, we have to set it up just right in order to get to all the services. So the Woodbridge 2nd ward is at 11am. Lake Ridge 1st is at 11:30am, we had the YSA ward council at 12pm and the Sacrament at 1pm and then the YSA service is at 1:30. Zoom decided to update last night but no one knew that until we all tried to get on and there was no sound and people couldn't get on. It took 15 minutes to figure out they had to create a new link and send it out to the ward. We had to resend it to our friends and some of them don't have Zoom so we call them on our phone and set them up to look at the tablet so they can have a Sunday service. We tried to text the Lake Ridge ward to give them a heads up but it was too late!  I had to go into another room while Sister Lloyd kept our friend Emelia on her phone to watch the service on the tablet. I texted Bishop Thomas and told him he had to send out a new link and then texted our friends who couldn't log on and we got it started. The next problem was that I was streaming the service through my phone and we were supposed to be calling one of our friends, Victor, on my phone so he could see. Luckily the Woodbridge 2nd ward's service was done and we were able to get everything under control for about 15 minutes. Then the Zoom call shut everyone else out and we all had to log back on. But it was a great service and the spirit was strong. Our friends loved it. We were still really busy all day but we were sooo glad all our friends joined!

The YSA group isn't even considered a branch because they are so small but we have been trying to organize them a little better so they know who our friends are. We worked on creating a spreadsheet and man am I glad I used Google Spreadsheet before I came out! It is saving us. I didn't think I would use statistics or graphs or spreadsheets on my mission but that is mostly what we have been doing this week. 

I think that's everything! I don't actually know.  Monday comes and my brain is left blank. Love you all!

Sister Creager

P.S. my companion has been getting up at 12:43 AM and turning on the lights because she thinks it's time to get up!! The last few times I've just let her get up and I've gone back to sleep because I know as soon as she looks at her phone. She will just go back to bed.... 

Baptism!

Hello! So much has happened! And it's going in the order I remember it not the order it happened in just so everybody knows! 

Okay, so Tuesday we went to go pick up mail and we have to go to a church building to pick it up because we don't have a mailbox at our apt. Well we do, but we can't use it. Anyways, I got a package from Amazon and I was really confused because I didn't remember asking my mom to send me anything. And guess what it was, A HORSE. Am I 10? Maybe just a bit but I was so excited. I yelled "IT'S A HORSE!!" when I opened the box. I think I startled Sister Lloyd because she dropped the mail she was holding. Ha Ha! I don't know who sent it to me but it made my week!

Saturday we had a baptism!!!!!!!!!! Katie got baptized!! It was awesome! 

We were a little flustered because we had to fill up the font and we left the keys to open the font at home. It takes 90 minutes to fill it up and we had 60 minutes left by the time we ran to the bishop's house and borrowed his keys and ran back to the church. It was a lot to do but we got it done! We made Katie a baptism book with notes from the YSA ward that we wrote up from their texts they sent us. She was so happy. She feels the spirit really strong so she was crying most of the time. It was awesome. Only 4 people can be at a baptism right now so we got to broadcast her baptism! Don't worry, we received permission a few weeks ago. Its temporarily allowed right now. 

We have had to hand back a lot of our friends to the Lord which is sad but every time we hand a friend back, we get a referral a few hours later! So that's a cool miracle.

We go running at a place called Historic Occoquan and its soooo cute. I'll took pictures this week there! I didn't last week because I was red faced and sweaty and it wouldn't have made for a nice picture.  Anyways, we were running there a few days ago and a man walking his dog gave us $40 because he wanted to make sure we were taken care of. We tried to tell him it was okay but he wasn't taking no for an answer. He was really nice. His daughter had served a mission too!

 

Brother Conard is so funny. We talk to him every night and he always asks us what we've had for dinner which leads to his mom's apple pies which leads to camping outside which leads to all our favorite outdoor things. He is so sweet and we are excited that he will be getting baptized in June! 

Okay I think that's it for this week. I hope you all are safe and healthy! Love you all!

Sister Creager 

Done

GUYS. We are done role playing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got a call Tuesday night from Elder Pay telling us he had good news. He said President Caplin approved our video and it was chosen to get sent to the whole mission. We were soooo excited that it went through and we were done!! But then he said there was a catch. And we were like "Oh no." Well, we ended up having to do a presentation on our video then he called us the next day and asked us to share our experience too. Pretty sure we are the most hated newbies in the mission now... Just kidding.

So Wednesday night at 10:30pm Elder Pay called us again and told us that Sister Johnson was getting transferred to Ashburn and Sister Lloyd and I were staying to cover Lake Ridge 1 and Woodbridge 2 as well as the YSA ward. He told us she needed to be to the church by 8:45am the next day so it was a late night and early morning for us. Transfers were a little different this time because everyone had to wear a mask and only one person could get out of the car. So that was fun.

Sister Lloyd and I have been staying really busy. We are teaching quite a few people which is nice and we have a baptism this Saturday!! Her name is Katie. Katie is the best. She feels the spirit so strongly and she is the sweetest! We had two of our friends end up in the ER yesterday which was not cool. One of them, Victor, was so concerned because he told us he would join a Sunday service over zoom, he called us on the way to the ER! Then again when he got there to say sorry! We told him it was okay then helped him arrange a ride home because he doesn't have a car.

It's been just a little bit of a crazy week but it's been good. We have a little hill that is right across from us so when I wish for mountains I lay on the floor and pretend it's a mountain. Sister Lloyd thought I was weird the first time but now she joins me! The area where our apartment is located has a trail behind it which we run in the mornings for exercise. There are so many trees it reminds me of living in Washington. It's become my favorite trail because of that. 

Brother Conard is our 84 year old friend who is on date. We asked him what his favorite hymn was and he said Amazing Grace. I was excited because my mom sent me music to that a few weeks ago. So I told him we would have a surprise for him on Sunday. So Sister Lloyd helped me record Amazing Grace on the violin and we sent it to a member who goes over to his house to help him get around. She showed him the video and he loved it. I was glad because I am out of practice! But it was fun to play for someone again. 

I goofed on Saturday. We have to send nightly formatted group texts to the ward councils. We have three texts to write up and we were sooooo tired that night. I accidentally sent the YSA text to the Woodbridge 2 ward council and we wouldn't have caught it if the ward mission leader hadn't told us. President Caplin is on that group text as well so he has proof that I goofed...

Time is passing by sooo fast, I can't believe I'm in my 3rd transfer! But it's fun and I am enjoying it. 

I hope you all are staying safe! Love you all!

Sister Creager