13th Email: 13th Week in Salem

Hello!

Well, another great week has blown by. We had a baptism yesterday! :D It was simply wonderful. Her name is Kassidy, she's 16 years old, and she is pretty much the sweetest girl ever. When I came into the area, she had already taken almost all of the discussions, she's been coming to church and YWs for a couple of years, and she was pretty much good to go! She lives in New Castle, which is about 40 minutes away, so setting up appointments has been a little difficult, which is why it's taken so long, but we finally got through everything, and yesterday was her big day! It was a little stressful during the week, trying to get everything set up and organized, because I've obviously never done it before, and my companions are only 6 weeks out, so they had no idea either, but it all worked out! There was really no reason to worry.

 

Brother Vaassen (the one in the picture) baptized her, and he is such a great guy. He has a great conversion story, and he has done so much to help the Lord in the work, on both sides of the veil. Every transfer, he gets up around 5 am, drives a 15-seater van up to Charleston, West Virginia with a load of missionaries being transferred, and comes back with another load around 5 or 6 pm. He has missionaries at his house all the time, and he is so involved with our work! Then once a month, he takes the same van with a load of members from the ward up to the D.C. temple. He makes so many sacrifices, and I admire him a lot. Next week, he is getting his knee replaced, which will be so hard for him--not being able to do everything that he usually does. He is such a trooper!

 

Speaking of transfers, our new companion, Sister Larrabee, is great! She is from Rescue, California...and I just realized that's where my friend from BYU-I is from, so I asked Sister Larrabee if she knows her and she totally does! Haha such a small world... Anyways, Sister Larrabee is great. She has such a sweet personality and a strong conviction of the gospel. Oh, something else about transfers...so when Sister Tuckett was here, Sister Habibpour's money was put on Sister Tuckett's debit card, because visa-waiters don't have their own card. Anyways, when Sister Tuckett got emergency transferred to Christiansburg, she got all the money she had left on it in cash and left the card with Sister Habibpour for her to use. Then, we had to figure out a way to get it back to Sister Tuckett before transfers because she needed to turn it in before she went home. So we decided we would give it to Brother Vaassen the day before transfers and he could give it to her. All of a sudden, 10:15 the night before rolls around and....we still have her card! Bah! So we're scrambling around trying to figure out what to do, and long story short, we woke up at 4:30, called Brother Vaassen, slipped on our shoes, drove to his house to give him the card, drove home, and climbed back into bed. So fun.

 

Anyways, y'all are great, I love you, and the church is true. Know it. Live it. Love it.

 

Love,

Sister Myers