Sister Lamb Gets a New Address and a New Calling - Nurse Maid

Dear Family,
Love you! As always! I hope that you had a great Christmas season! It hardly seems like Christmas here because we don't do a whole lot of celebrating and when we do, it is a bit different than what you would do at home. Christmas we spend just visiting people and eating lots of food (which is fairly typical missionary stuff) and I just now connected the pieces together of why things seemed a little strange  one night in the Oakview area (with Sister Baker) this last week. Surprise! It was New Years Eve. We were actually able to find most people home and teach a few lessons, which was great. That night, I got home and went to bed early. I didn’t even put things together until later as to why people were making comments about being home that night. Probably because it was New Years Eve and they felt like they should about doing something fun. But missionaries are fun! Right?

Sister Askren (my new companion) has been sick for almost two weeks now and every time she tries to get up and do something, she ends up feeling much worse. The general solution is that we find Sister Runyon (who has bronchitis and also needs to rest) and then I take them to our apartment and I find something else to do for the day (either studying or working at the Trail Center or going out with another sister who also has a sick companion). I have starting calling our apartment the sick ward and I am the nurse maid. Anyone who is sick comes to our apartment and I take care of them. My other major responsibility is making sure that Sister Runyon and Sister Askren actually rest. They are both Trail Center Trainers and are constantly convincing themselves to feel disobedient about getting the rest that they need, so convincing them to sleep is a constant struggle. Sister Askren told me that it is a good thing that I am her companion because she probably would not listen to what I tell her if it was coming from anyone else. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I hope anything that I am saying right now makes any sense. I feel like I am rambling on and on and not getting anywhere.

We are starting to see some of the fruits of Sister Kusnerik and my work in Oakview. A couple of days ago, we got a call from a less active in our ward, James Joyner. In October, Sister Kusnerik and I went to visit him, but he lives in a locked apartment complex and we did not have a phone number for him. Right as we were trying to figure out what to do (and if he even still lived there because we were doubting it); a woman walked up and let us into the building. We went up to his door, but he was not home, so we left a note with our phone number. We have not done anything since to try to get into contact with him. A couple of days ago, he called us and said that he wants to come back to church. Because he will be out of town for the next couple of weeks, he invited us over for dinner with him tomorrow and asked if the ward has a basketball program. I don’t know what changed all of the sudden, but it sure seems like he wants to get involved, so that is great! I guess we will find out more of the story tomorrow.

This last week, I have gone to the Old Mill area twice with Sister Baker. Right now, they are teaching a woman named Mavis who is being baptized this Saturday. The sisters just started teaching her a couple of weeks ago. She was a referral from the Gingerbread Festival. Both nights I have been with Sister Baker, we have gone to see her. She is so amazing. Every time she brings up a concern, we just testify to her that everything will be alright, and she just believes it. She asked me to do something in her baptismal service, so Sister Askren and I are working on getting one of our investigators to attend the baptism so we can go too. I hope it works out!

Well, there goes the time again. I think that I am getting faster at typing. I don’t know if my emails are getting any longer though. Maybe you will have to compare them.

Love you sooo much!
Sister Lamb

New Mission Address:

Sister Melanie Alyse Lamb

Nebraska Omaha Mission

11027 Martha Street

Omaha, Nebraska 68144-3107