Cornfield ABC's: Accountability, Baptism and Cleaning

Dear Family,

Love you!

Wow! What a week, but I guess I say the same thing about every week. Lately, we have been so rushed with everything it feels like I hardly have time to take a breath. We get up at 6:30 and exercise and try to wake our bodies up- that is probably the most relaxing part of the day. Then we hurry to get ready by 8 so we can get started into personal study time. It seems like it gets harder and harder to get ready in an hour. We keep saying that it would be so nice to be an elder and not need very much time to get ready in the morning, but I suppose that is the same thing that all women say - how nice it would be to not have to get ready every morning :). Some days, we get to have personal study and companion study, but those days seem to become less frequent than we would like. Between having to be at the TC at 9 most mornings and then a night full of appointments, it is hard to find time for our studies. I can definitely tell the difference. I tend to feel a lot more stressed and overwhelmed when we are not able to have our full two hours of studies. I may be in quite a predicament when I get home and no longer have that time set aside, but I guess that will be up to me. Speaking of home, I keep having dreams about going home. It is the weirdest thing. Anyways, then we work all day, usually get home at 9:30, plan for the next day until 10, phone conference with the elders and Brother Jensen until 10:15, and then quickly get ready for bed. And then do it again!

So the highlight of this last week was the baptism of Erika Dallon on Saturday, although it all came together so quickly that by Sunday when we were adding up our numbers for the week, Sister Belka had to remind me that we had had a baptism. We saw Erika on Monday to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then on Wednesday she came to the Trail Center and Sister Belka and Sister Sakurazawa (who speaks Spanish) taught her about some of the commandments, and then on Thursday Sister Jones and I taught the rest of the commandments with the Council Bluffs elders as translators. They interviewed her right after the lesson. It was so perfect because Erika tends to be a little shy at first, but by the end of the lesson, she had warmed right up to them. She is so smart and sassy! The elders were telling her that they probably wouldn’t be able to come to her baptism because they were doing service for an investigator and she told them "Well do it fast!" While hey were interviewing her, it was taking a really long time, so I was a little worried about what was going on, but when they finished, the elders said that when they asked her about the sacrament, she started quoting a whole bunch of stuff from the Bible and at some point was reciting to them the story of Moses and the Red Sea. She is so funny. So on Saturday, we got to the church and it was pouring rain. We went in to the church and there were a good number of people there 15 minutes before the baptism was set to start. As we were running around getting some final preparations made, they had to keep adding more and more chairs for people to sit in the Relief Society room until finally, we had to move into the chapel and it was pretty full. All the speakers spoke mainly in Spanish, but translated parts of their talks so the rest of us would know what was basically being said. The Spirit was so strong! It was such a reminder to me that the power is not in what we say, but it comes from the Spirit. Even if we have no idea what is being said, the Spirit can still testify to us of the truthfulness of what is being said. It was amazing!

Let’s see, other great things that happened this week. We have been working on lots of stuff at the Trail Center, figuring out how to make the sisters more personally accountable for the miles that they drive (all the sisters are given an allotment of miles that they are allowed to drive each month). Because we all share cars, this has been difficult in the past because the sisters tend to just do whatever and then hope that at the end of the month, all of the miles work out. This has worked for the most part in the past, but we have to be more careful now because of more shifts at the Trail Center, meaning more driving to and from areas, and an extra companionship because we got more sisters than we lost this last transfer. So, Sister Belka and I have been working on a better system of accountability for each companionship. It was pretty exciting, but also reminded me of how important accountability is between us and God. For the most part, we are responsible to be accountable on our own and then to be the one to return and report. We have to take action and not wait to be asked to go and do or to report what has been done.

On Thursday, we had the Great Cleaning Day. We spent the whole day cleaning our apartments and getting them looking fantastic for the new mission president (even if he will never see them:) ). But, it was so nice to get it all clean. I feel so much better now. That is one of the major downsides of having no time: it seems like the cleanliness of our apartment tends to be neglected, but we just never have time! President Kunz is leaving next week! It’s hard to believe that it is already time!

So, another busy week as usual, and it looks like this coming week will be busy as well! It’s crazy because all year it seems like everyone would be referencing what summer would be like, saying "just wait until summer! The Trail Center will be so busy! It will be so hot! etc. etc." and now it here, and before I know it, it will be over. But, the busy hasn't felt too bad. I am more tired at the end of the day, but that’s not too bad. It is definitely getting hot, but it’s not too bad so far. We will see how it goes from here.

Well I love you! Happy June 18th !

Love,

Sister Melan