Made It Through Month One

This week, Sister Kleven's P-day was bumped to Thursday so they could attend the Washington, DC temple.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Alexandria, Virginia

Children,

This week has just been a blur of spiritual activity.

Last Monday night, Sister Morin and I skedaddled on our way to the Sister Training Leaders' apartment for a fun girl sleepover! Yep. We walked in and went to bed. Oh, the thrilling life of a missionary. Anyway, that next morning we went on exchanges with them! It was great! I went with Sister Goudy, and she is going home in a few weeks, so it was fun being with her! She's so funny. We were walking around and talking to people, and she just wouldn't take the hint that people didn't want to talk to us. Seriously. Someone got off at a bus stop, and we were across the street, and the next thing I know, she's booking it across the crosswalk yelling "Come on, Sister Kleven! There's someone who needs salvation!" ...so I went. And as soon as this nice man had seen that the missionaries had zeroed in on him, he started to run down the street. Did that stop Sister Goudy? Ha, nope. She just said "Can we walk with you? You seem to be in a hurry" and kept talking and telling him about The Book of Mormon. It was like in Elf when Buddy chases Michael down when he got out of school. I guess it paid off, though, as he ended up accepting a Book of Mormon and making a return appointment with her. Anyway, then we knocked on a door and there was a set of identical twins who were both named Dorothy. They said they had the same middle names, too. And during this time, all I could think of was when Bunny named her identical babies Wendell John and Wendell Jon (from the comic strip "Baby Blues"). I crack myself up.  

Sister Kleven & Sister Goudy

Wednesday we made cookies. They were yummy cookies. We had an appointment with K* that afternoon, and she wasn't as chummy as she was earlier that week. I think she could sense that we were excited at the prospect of a new investigator. But she did say that we could check on her once a month. But not more. Oh well. You can't win them all. (But I want to.) Then we had dinner with the B* family. They are the cutest little family of people you've ever seen. Brother B* is super tall, and his wife is a little taller than me and extremely pregnant with their 2nd baby and is not a member. He always wears Star Wars ties on Sundays! We also had District Meeting that afternoon. It was pleasant. Then we met with a single sister in the ward, and she is the cutest person ever. Her voice is so high, and she's so little, and I love her. She loves to play the piano and loves watching Gilmore Girls, so we bonded for little bit. But then I saw a bunch of medals she won for running and that's when our similarities ended. And then we went home and talked to G*, our front desk-guy-man! He's super nice to us, and we had been talking about his music with him over the last few days, so he stopped us, pulled out his laptop, and started to show us some of the tunes that he had been working on. They were...very different from what we had been expecting. We're still buddies, though.

Sister Kleven (with her homemade tag) & Sister Morin

Thursday was a weird sort of day. We went to the park to find people to bring to enlightenment, and we met a really creepy guy-man. Seriously, he was scary. It wasn't until we were in the middle of talking to him about crazy things that we looked around and realized there was no one else around us. So then I started to make it clear that we needed to leave. But he wasn't having that. We started to walk around him in the general direction of our car, and he wouldn't let us pass. I was about to poke him right in the eye ball when he said that he was going to follow us home so he knew what we were doing. At this moment, I was like "Do we just drive to the police station? Do we pray? Do we try to out run him like in the movies?" At that moment, there was a  huge throng of mothers and children that walked into the little clearing we were in, and we booked it away from him. He didn't follow us. We have yet to return to that park. We also met with S* and S*, and they were sooo amazing!! They read the first chapter of Nephi three times to understand it better, and they had lots of good questions! They're so nice. But S* is going to Cuba this week, so we won't be able to meet with them for another few weeks, but Cuba is a good excuse for not meeting with us, so I'm not cranky-poopy about that. It also rained on Thursday!! That night, I was so out of it that I kept bearing my testimony in my sleep. I feel bad for Sister Morin. I forgot to warn her about my tendency to talk in my sleep, and it freaked her out. She'll be okay, though.

The Book of Mormon unites twins - even across the ocean and many time zones.

Friday we had weekly planning. All day. Then we had some frozen yogurt, and that was delicious. Then we went to meet with Octavia, and I committed her to baptism in September!! I was all, "Octavia, do you want salvation?" and she was all "You know it, Sista", and so I was all "Baptism", and she was all "You know it, Sista", and that's where we left things with her. I was very nervous during this exchange, though. But then we were blessed with three new investigators that night!! ...all of their appointments since then have fallen through, but that's okay! We had about five minutes to get back to our apartment, and Sister Morin pulled into an apartment complex and said "Pick one door to knock before we leave," and I was thinking, "There's a yellow wreath on that door. Let's go there", and it turned out it was a successful door! Spirit: followed.

Cute Companions

Saturday was a car fast, and it was also my one month mark as a missionary!  The pioneer children and Sister Kleven sang as we walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked... I kept singing that periodically throughout the day, and Sister Morin did not like my serenade all that much. It's sad that she couldn't see the beauty in it. Then we had a meeting with M* and her girls. We taught about the Law of Chastity. We met with A*; he's a recent convert from Ghana, and he was hasn't seen his family in over ten years because he doesn't have a green card. So he's working here and trying to do what he can.  

Sister Kleven made it through one month as a missionary! Huzzah!

Sunday was filled with church and more mosquito bites and dinner with the A* family.  

I have to leave now, and I will write more on Monday. I love the mission, I love the temple, and I love the Lord. He is my strength right now. Through prayer and through reading the scriptures, I can be connected to him.  

I love you guys!

Sister Kleven

PS: Here are pics of super cute and amazing people we have met in Virginia.