Sister Lamb Preaches on the Street Corner and Gets to Go to the Baptism with a New Companion

Dear Family,

Wow! This week has been a very eventful one (or at least it has felt like it!)

At the beginning of last week, Sister Askren started having a feeling that there was on last thing that she needed to do before she went home. What it was was that she felt like she needed to go to a park or downtown or some public place, get on top of a soap box, and preach the 1st lesson. Maybe I shouldn't be admitting to this, but it kind of freaked me out a little. I convinced her to call President Kunz to check with him if it was OK before she got too far into it. What ended up happening was that after working at the Trail Center on Wednesday, we and three other sisters drove downtown, chose a street corner, and three of us sang hymns while Sister Askren and Sister Sakurazawa talked to people as they walked by and we handed out mormon.org cards. It was actually really fun and we got several good referrals in just about 30 minutes. It was great! President Kunz had actually been trying to get something like this organized for a while now and wants it to become a regular thing. It was pretty fun, although we forgot to take water with us, so we were pretty thirsty by the time we were done. That was Sister Askren's last day.

Afterwards, we went to a member's home for a turkey dinner and then to a couple of last appointments before the end of the night. It was a beautiful day. The weather has been so nice here lately. Cool/warm and humid. I love it! The only problem is that it is March right now. If the weather is already like this, that means that the summer is going to be extremely hot and humid, so that is not fun. Hooray for the Trail Center! Ha ha.

Wednesday morning we got our transfer assignments from President Kunz. Because we were working at the Trail Center, we were among the first to find out our new assignments. Sister Askren got sent way out west (Idaho) and I am staying in Oakview with new companion Sister Bergeson. She has been out one transfer longer than me and was just serving over in Council Bluffs in the Greenview ward. We are very, very alike. Our previous companions (Sister Askren and Sister Shelley) both just went home. We have both been companions with Trail Center leaders for most of our missions, our personalities are very similar, and our stories about how we decided to come on missions are very similar, we both have a sister who is about 2 years older who is married and a brother who is several years older that collects Star Wars figurines. (She also has a younger brother, so I am starting to wonder what happened to mine). I think just about every sister in the Trail Center has told us "I wish that I could just listen in on the conversations that the two of you have." I don't know what that means, but I think it means that they think we are funny/weird. We both react to things the same way, we have the same sense of humor, etc, etc.

Our first day together was Thursday. It was a wonderful first day, although both of us felt like our companionship was not real. We kept expecting it to end and go back to our old companions, like we were on an exchange, but it never did. We were able to teach an exceptional number of lessons and find a couple of new investigators. It was a great day! We also did some service for one of our investigators, Carla, which was fun and the team up we took with us ended up having a lot in common with her, which was awesome too!

Saturday was another pretty great day. That was mostly because it was Carol's baptism! I was really excited for her, but it was also a little sad because we got there right as it was starting, so I wasn't able to get a picture with her and Bip (her friend that introduced her to us/the church) and our investigators that we had invited did not end up coming, so we had to leave right after the actual baptism. I am still glad that I got to be there and that she was baptized, but we will have to keep working on getting a picture together.

Let's see, other than that, we have been spending a bunch of time in the Trail Center and trying to fit in our studies between lessons and church and everything else. It has been a busy week. This morning, we got to go clean the temple (it is closed for the next two weeks for cleaning). Sister Bergeson, two other sisters, and I cleaned the chandeliers and mirrors in the Celestial room and brides’ room. Each individual crystal had to be cleaned. The mirrors are also made of crystal. It is amazing how immaculately clean and beautiful the temple is. The elders that were there were assigned to cleaning the hinges on each of the doors by taking each pin out, cleaning it, and then putting it all back together. Absolutely amazing.

So, that has been this week. Lots of good experiences and lots of good things happening! This should be a great transfer.

Love you!

Sister Melly

Sister Melanie also got visited by a friend from BYU who is also from Nebraska - Shelby Luke