November 25, 2013

Family!

Enjoying my first weekend in the great town of Belmont. Its quite exhausting being transfered from little Ellington to 2 HUGE wards and learning how to be a sister trainer and on top of that the APs gave us a mini missoinary for the weekend. The first 2 days i felt like a brand new missionary- worst feeling ever but im gettin the swing of it. I love it here but church is just one big joke. First of all we are in church or in a church meeting for 8 hours each sunday. I never thought sitting would be so exhausting. The first ward has their primary program....but im not really sure you should call it a primary program when youre competing with mormon tabernacle choir orchestra status. They had a progressional walk in with the kids in 2 rows holding hands and 10 violenists and a chelloist. The whole focus was inviting friends though and so many people came! They even gave us a small part in the program. Despite all the fluff and stuff, you know the church is still true because kids on the front row still picked their noses. I looked at sister crane and said, "this is just pathetic". she laughed and said "youre not in kansas anymore". Don't worry, at least the members are normal. To define "NORMAL", im refering to you know, your typical sunday ward: Mitt Romneys son sitting in front of you, clayton christansen sitting beside you, pres haight, the stake president, patriarch, jane clayon johnson from good morning america a few rows up, Elizabeth Smart's brother, eh thats just a few i care to name right now. The rest are just boring old millionaries and harvard and MIT grads so theyre not important enough to mention just yet.

Sister Crane and I have a musical number in a couple weeks and im really looking forward to playing in front of people who have literally mastered in music.

The good news is that i had dejavu flashback moment in Brandon's shoes. Sitting in a members home and i said im from Camarillo.

Camarillo? I have good friends there!

Oh yeah? Who?
The Barfus family! Their pictures on our fridge

I go to the fridge and sure enough, they weren't lying.

 

THEN! I look in the directory and I see Wunderli. Wunderli? Well thats not a common name. I have sister crane point them out and sure enough it's Dave's cousin! Small world...but what else is new these days.

 

In all reality it's great and im happy...and its really great to be back with sister crane. We ran into president the other day (because its just common to happen to run into people) and told him it was the best thanksgiving and christmas gift he could have ever given! We were like "what is going on? what does god want us to do?" He laughed and said "I have no idea- that's your job to ask and figure it out!"

 

Our Bishops are AWESOME. They had a really cool experience before i got here - sister crane was praying and studying one day and had this impression that someone needs to get baptized by christmas, she just new it. then they had a meeting with the bishop and he said "sisters! ive been thinking....someone is going to get baptized by christmas". Here is the new list of investigators you can pray for: Bernard (ESPECIALLY BERNARD...missionaries have been praying for him for years), Jessica Tao, Susan Bonn, Vickram, Yolanda & family, and Levit

 

I love you all. The church is still true no matter who sits on your left and right on a church pew. People with perferct lives aren't actually perfect. And the spirit is as strong in your life as you'd like it to be.

 

Love,

Sister Bell

BELL in BELMONT - Does the gospel ring true or what?