Transfers!!

Mom - So i know you said to wait until Dec 1st to start the whole 12 days of Christmas thing - makes sense...but I'm getting transferred to Eugene...so we decided that Christmas was actually this week ;)

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We shared the things we could and had a great time reading the quotes. Thank you so much for going to the trouble of having family & friends write those, it meant a lot. The fantastic thing is that a member bought us a legit Christmas tree - so I had a tree with lights to open them under!!!!

I'm sad to leave Corvallis - it's a wonderful place.

This transfer has been as they say "ballin" -- best ever. I'm headed for Eugene to be in a trio with a 2nd & 3rd transfer. Britton is staying here to train. I'll be at the U of O YSA ward - so that'll be good....I think? The Zone is splittin up...we're all sad - but life goes on!

Just 3 more weeks then I'll be back at the Square!

Applebee's Here We Come!!

Applebee’s here we come!

The frost is coming, the rain has REALLY started and my companion thinks that Christmas music is perfectly fine. Little does she know that one can only listen to such music after Thanksgiving. :) Word on the street is that in Branson, Missouri Christmas starts November 1st so that's the kind of mischief she's used to. I'm coping as best as I can, not singing along TOO much or smiling TOO often or outright yelling "Christmas is coming!" TOO often ;)

Thanks to our cooperation with LDSSA we will officially have a booth in the MU quad on November 29 and December 1 & 2 -- isn't that so exciting!!! Our primary purpose will be to promote the Nativity Festival; this just so happens to fit perfectly with our message about the restored gospel. Love it.

Sister Britton and I won the 2nd Cleanest Car Award at Zone Conference. President Young's exact words were, "It looked like it came off the showroom floor!" Keep in mind we had to drive 30 min that morning in what we like to call rain, leaves, dirt, muck, grime etc -- we brought a towel with us to do some last-minute cleaning :) As a prize we got a gift card to Applebee's! Good thing too because we have NO dinner appointments this week.

Who knew shopping would be an approved non-Pday activity? We took Teresa to TJ Maxx to find a Sunday outfit. The point of this less-than-my-favorite experience was that she got a modest outfit to wear to church. Mission accomplished.

Todd came to the baptism Friday night. Genesis isn't making scriptures a priority right now. Carmen knows the gospel better than she thinks she does. Rachel needs to realize that what she's looking for is what we have. Monica has 8 cats...and we're buying Benedryl today :)

Life is great <3
Sister A. Despain

11/11/11

Monday & Tuesday we had a Sister Conference for the OEM. We made pie :) Still trying to figure out how that connected to missionary work...but it tasted good! The training was helpful and I enjoyed having more Sisters around. Sis Hernandez was right when she said it's a special breed at TMSQ!

Thursday we had a combined District Meeting. Something I was reminded of in my TMSQ training -- "Plans are nothing, planning is everything."

Friday we tried a new spin on "tabling" -- we had hot chocolate & apple cider! We also had a 3 question survey that we tried to get students to fill out. We had all of THREE people fill out surveys :) Not sure how it can be any shorter! I mean...ONE question -- but seriously?!? That's what I was doing at 11:11 on 11/11/11

Later that day we met with a media referral, Sara. She wrote a paper for her class on Baptisms for the Dead and wanted more information. We explained the Plan of Salvation in it's entirety because you can't get baptisms for the dead if you don't understand what happened before this life. We'll meet with her again ;)

Saturday we did service at Camp Alpine!!! SUPER FUN! We got to ride on the trailer, hanging onto picnic benches - best ever <3 I absolutely love doing some hard work with the YSA ward...for a bit I felt kinda normal!

It's been a rough two weeks honestly but we're finding joy in the journey!

Sis Despain

TABLE SNAP OYM

Preparation days come faster & faster as time goes on and I'm not so sure I like writing updates anymore :)

The Zone Leaders parked in the handicapped spot at the Institute & the Director put a note on their car -- "Are you handicapped? Disrespect." The great thing is that we had parked there 3 weeks ago & THEY had to call us about it. Now they're the ones parked there...priceless.

We found a purple futon mattress on the side of the street! This week I also found out that purple isn't technically a color. Who decides these things? How do I get on this committee?!?

Genesis is doing well, accepted the 10 Commandments and Law of Chastity but has a really hard time reading her scriptures. So one lesson we mostly focused on the blessings we receive when we actually study the scriptures every day. Now she understands why it's important...but it hasn't seemed to make a difference. We postponed her baptism until she's really ready. It might not be until the end of this month. All in good time.

Bargain of the week: a sturdy table & two matching chairs for $4.50 and the bonus? While we waited in line to pay we talked to the guy in front of us, studying fermentation (OSU has one of the top programs in the nation) and the girl in front of him asked how long we'd been out on our missions. Turns out her boyfriend is a member but she isn't! She was called up to pay for her things so that was the end of our conversation. But here's the great thing - as we hauled our chairs out to the car - we saw her walking towards us - she had WAITED for us! Her name is Careen, she's long-distance dated this member for 5 years and is interested in learning more about his church. She is super busy this term - as is every other person we meet - but we told her all about the Institute Building and what goes on there and we left her with our number! We're praying to see her again.

This week we spent more time on campus <3 Now, while we can't OYM on campus we think that in the long run it will be effective for the students to see us. We met with a member ON CAMPUS and got to know her a little better. We thought she was less-active but as it turns out - she's been going home every weekend to go to church :) Mystery:solved. After that WE WERE APPROACHED by Natasha who wanted us to take a survey about SNAP - aka Food Stamps. We let her know that because we're MISSIONARIES we would have to get approval first. But we listened to everything she shared with us about the program they're coming up with. Eye contact is very important.

Saturday night we met with a member, again to get to know her better, she's only been a member for about 4 months. She has a wonderful story and will be going to a Vet thing in Raleigh on March 1st --- I told her that I'm going to come pick her up & she'll stay with me for those two days :) Hope that's okay Mom! I'm just so excited to have a friend! Her roommates found us somehow and we had to introduce ourselves -- two more ON CAMPUS contacts!!! Slow & steady people...slow & steady.

Todd is doing absolutely amazing. We stop by to see him once a week-ish. He's happy and healthy and getting along with his family - his mother is so pleased with him. She wants to meet us :)

Other TMSQ Sisters told me that Outbound is a vacation -- too true. It's not as intense as TMSQ. It's a nice break for now but I know that in 6 weeks - I'll be ready to go back :)
Sister Britton and I made matching T-shirts for the Sister Conference!!! We're hoping that President won't take our ridiculous amount of comp unity the wrong way & split us up because we get along TOO well. That would be no bueno.

Finding new ways to share the gospel :)
Sister A. Despain