Stories from Afar (Volume 17)

Wow!! Yesterday, I hit my 4 month mark for being out on my mission. Honestly that is crazy for me to think about! Time just goes by so quickly it's weird. This week has gone by in a blur but I think I need to talk about the news that came out on Friday!

Sister Wallace and I counting
down the minutes till P-day

I can now call and text my family! I think it only goes for immediate family but hey! That's better than nothing!! When this news came out, Sister Wallace and I were just starting our Weekly Planning. If you know much about Weekly planning it can be kind of boring but when that email came out we started crying! I know for sure that it was an answer to my companion's prayer! After that I had so much energy that we had to run up and down our staircase 5 times!!! Only then could we focus on our planning. Definitely a crazy day and we've been looking forward to P-day ever since. I'm so happy!!!

Also last Saturday we had exchanges and that was a really cool day. We focused on relying on the spirit and we really had to do so as we didn't have anything scheduled! (Okay so we might have had 1 lesson planned but they cancelled on us)

It started on Friday night as we stayed at Kirtland. In this house there were 6 of us and before bed we were all sitting around movie quoting!!! It was so much fun! Because of my much practice with my family the others quickly realized that they needed to work hard to try to stump me. They did a few times but I loved every moment of it. The others said hearing me go off was almost like watching the actual movie. Hehehe!!! I love movies!!

Exchanges with Sister Olsen

The next day we planned some time to go tracting and also find people using Facebook. Our goal at the beginning of the day was to find 3 new people to teach!! That's a pretty big goal for 1 day and Sister Olsen and I were so surprised and happy and humbled when we actually achieved that goal!
The first place we tracted there was practically nothing. Hardly anyone answered their doors. But the next place we went we found all three people to teach on ONE street!!! Two of them speak mostly Spanish and we've been blessed with ways to teach them even though we don't speak Spanish. (I'm glad I took my semester of Spanish at BYU. It will help) So that was great! I'm super excited!!!

Being a missionary is exhausting but worth it! And this week especially has been a blur. Lots of traveling and driving and teaching! There are a lot of dogs here in Ohio and surprisingly a lot of the people we visit don't have very nice dogs. It's kind of scary but thankfully I like dogs and so far I've been safe. Also cats. There was one old lady who had a young cat named Peaches and during a windy night her door blew open and the cat escaped. We all thought Peaches must have frozen or something because no one could find it. Then a few days later after much prayer we heard that Peaches had taken shelter at one of her neighbor's house and was back safely. So God really does watch over people's pets!!

Well, I can't really remember much about the rest of what happened this week. It just went by so fast. So sorry everyone but yeah, life has been great! I love the Gospel and also the people I've met here. It's hard being in a new area away from the people I knew in Tallmadge but I know that there is a reason why I've been called to Perry and I'm going to do my best to fulfill that role. I love you all! I miss you!!! Yeah, that's my life right now! Until next week!!!

Love, love, love,
Sister Becca Steiner

Random tracting moment ("That's one stuck melon")