(Sister Putnam)
Hello, all! It's been so long without preparation day so I
have a TON to write about!!
Monday: Preparation Day!
We did typical preparation day activities, laundry, I called
the fam, we went to WinCo & got stuff we needed, and we ran into other
missionaries there & because that day's light the world challenge was to
get together with people & sing Christmas carols we met up in the parking
lot afterwards sang Christmas carols
together. It was pretty fun. I called my family several times that day too,
& that was super fun :)
Tuesday: Jedi Masters
Tuesday we did Facebook contacting & roleplayed a lesson
with a recent convert in the ward & then we went to the mission office to
get my MSF card. Why didn't I have my MSF card in the first place? Well, my
first missionary package that was supposed to have my MSF card got lost in the
mail, so we had the MTC order a new one. The lost package finally showed up the
day before I flew out to Washington, & I never got the first one. Well,
because they sent a new package, the card in the first package, that I actually
received, was cancelled, so they had to order a whole new card & wait for
it to show up. Well, we went to the mission office to get my card & the man
in charge of getting it to me said, "Oops I gave it to the Elders in your
ward since I knew you'd be seeing them soon lol" So we were like "lol
ok" so we went over to the Elders apartment & got the card so I could
finally get the food we needed. I taught Sister Madsen how to hand sew, so that
was pretty cool, and we decided we also wanted to take up hand embroidery since
we're not super busy cause we don't have many investigators. Then we went to
the store to actually use my card & ran into some elders there & kinda
did the spiderman pointing at spiderman meme lol. But we got food for the next
three weeks cause we'd be going without a p-day for 11 days & the next two
p-days would be on Christmas & New Years Day when everything is closed.
Then we came home & did Facebook contacting & then got on the district
call. On the District call something came up about Star wars and if Star Wars
is like Missionary work, then what makes missionaries Jedi Masters. I don't
remember what was decided, but it was entertaining to listen to.
Wednesday: Christmas Dinner?!?!?!
We had Institute, & several people had questions &
we got way off topic but it was pretty good. During personal study we got a
text on the district group chat: "oh by the way, President Auna will be
coming to our district council today" So we were super nervous because it
was President and we weren't doing anything wrong but what if we were doing
something wrong and we didn't know and so yeah that was great lol. We had
district council and my MTC companion, Sister Israelsen, is actually being
trained by Sister Barker in my district so we were able to see each other in
person finally! It was awesome, and I'm so glad I get to have her in my
district! There was also a strong emphasis on using dignified language and not
using slang so that was interesting. So interesting I made a meme about it :)
We gave a lesson to this one guy in our ward & he's a really smart guy and
so he actually taught us more than we taught him, so that was really cool! We
visited a couple in the ward who is super generous and, last time we visited,
they wouldn't stop trying to get us to let them make us Christmas dinner, &
this time they actually convinced us to let them do that, so that's super
exciting! Sister Madsen & I also bought stuff to start embroidery so that
was really awesome!
Thursday: Factoids & other nerdy things
Thursday, we did a bit of embroidery stuff, I finished hand
embroidering the Angel Moroni onto a mask, so I'll try to send a picture of
that! We also talked to some people on Facebook
who we've found through a mentorship group where I offered to mentor people who
wanted to become closer to God. Then we did service at a food bank, filling
boxes to give to people who needed food, & we taught the a family in the
ward a lesson about baptism. The wife is a member, but the husband, Daniel,
isn't a member, & we're hoping he'll see the importance of baptism &
see why we need it. Then we went out & did heart attacks & that was
fun! On the district call there was conversation of interesting
"factoids" like how Rowan Atikison, the actor for Mr. Bean, also
Johnny English, also the voice of Zazu in the cartoon Lion King got his degree,
not in acting, but in electrical engineering & was able to make all the
things in the movies he was in that involved engineering actually plausible
& not hurt the brains of every engineer watching the movie, & how the
word factoid actually means fake facts.
Friday: Christmas Attacks
We had the mission devotional, & that was cool. During
personal study on Friday & was reading 1 Nephi 18 when Nephi is tied up on
the ship, & not even Nephi's wife or children's pleas could soften Laman
& Lemuel's hearts. It hadn't occurred to me until now that Nephi's wife
& kids, & Laman, Lemuel, & Sam's wives & kids were watching all
of this go down. Looking from each of those points of view was interesting
& eye opening. Nephi's wife was watching her brothers in law tie up &
threaten to kill her husband! Terrifying brothers-in-law! And Laman &
Lemuel's wives were watching their husbands tie up & threaten to kill their
brother-in-law. They were scary husbands too! Nephi's kids were watching their
uncles tie up their dad. Such scary uncles! Laman & Lemuel's kids were
watching their dad & uncle tie up their own brother, & from the kids'
points of view, if their fathers were willing to tie up & threaten to kill
their own brother, they probably would be willing to do the same to their
children if irritated enough. Laman & Lemuel's children were probably
terrified of their fathers & uncles! Thinking about this made me so
grateful that my parents get along with their siblings, & for the
relationships I have with my own brother & sister. We did some embroidery & then we wanted
to Heart Attack the other missionaries in the hotel, but there are Elders in
our hotel, so heart attacking (aka putting hearts all over their door) is a
no-no when it goes from sisters to elders or vice versa, so, we went to the
dollar store & got some small Christmas decorations & instead of heart
attacking everyone's door, we Christmas Attacked their doors. Then, we had
dinner with the Harbour Pointe sisters & then we came home & began planning
a lesson since we were in charge of Come, Follow Me this week, & then we
got on a Social Media Meeting with our zone (I think, or it was our district
idk) & there we got ideas for finding friends on Facebook to teach the
gospel too.
Saturday: Does anyone even do normal renditions of The 12
Days of Christmas anymore??
We went to the bishops storehouse, & did service there,
filling orders, etc. It was super busy! We did more embroidery & we had the
ward Christmas party over zoom & it honestly was way better than I expected
it to be! It was like a Christmas talent show & that was awesome! We have
some talented people in this ward! Afterwards we had the Sisters over to make
Oreo balls (they're like cake pops but Oreos) that we were gonna take to all
the companionships in the district.
One thing we do out here that I might not have mentioned
before is, after curfew, we send a "safe" text. Usually, the District
Leader sends a text to the District group chat that says "like this
message if you're safe" & every companionship likes it if they're safe
so then the district leader can report to the Zone leaders that everyone's
safe. Well, our district leader has gotten creative with the safe texts lately,
& that night for the safe, he started the 12 days of Christmas with
"12 safe missionaries" & we would put the next line to the song
if we were safe. Well the result was golden! Next, was "11 days without
p-day," "10 African friends found on Facebook" "9 check
your speeds" "8 miles of biking" "a 6pm ended
Christmas" (curfew is at 6pm on holidays) "5 hours online"
"4 books of scriptures" "3 companionships driven" (only one
set of elders has a car & so they drive the other elders to really far
places)" "2 missionaries" and "1 district of BFFs"
Honestly that was awesome, & I honestly don't think
anyone ever performs a normal 12 days of Christmas anymore, I’ve heard mostly
parodies.
Sunday: Christmas Church
Church was Christmas themed, & we heard some beautiful
musical numbers from people in our ward. We had come follow me, & Sister
Madsen & I taught about Spiritual gifts & it went really well! We
dropped off Oreo balls to everyone except one companionship in the district,
because of curfew, so that was fun.
Monday: Matching PJs!!
We dropped off the last plate of Oreo balls to the elders we
missed last night because of curfew, but we saw a cute puppy so that's a plus!
We picked up Sisters Israelsen & Barker from the car dealership since they
were having car problems & then took sister barker to her doctor
appointment. Then their car was fixed by the time sister barker finished her
appointment, so we dropped them off at the dealership & went to Fred Meyers
(Known as Kroger in Texas, Smiths in Utah, King Soopers in Colorado, &
several other names in other different states) & Sister Madsen & I got
matching PJs! Also, it snowed, so we went out & played in the snow & we
saw a fluffy dog! Then for the safe that night the District Leader let me send
it cause I had told him I had ideas for the safe, so I sent in "send a
picture of you & your companion upside down if you're safe" & then
sister madsen & I put on our matching pjs & sent in a picture of
ourselves doing headstands while everyone else just took regular selfies &
then went & turned them in upside down
:( but we had fun so that's what counts
Tuesday: Zone Conference
We made a new friend on the internet! Reba! She's really
awesome, & very receptive to the gospel! We also went to zone conference
& after Zone conference we received Christmas packages! We also made
cookies & then dropped them off to people.
Wednesday: The Sheep & the Goats
We made more friends, Joy & Rachel! Joy is learning how
to pray, & Rachel has about 1000 questions & she's super smart! We had
District council & it was actually really fun! We had a lesson then we
played Jeopardy & all the 500 options were acting out ones, so that was
fun. For the Book of Mormon one we acted out was Samuel the Lamanite, & I
got to be one of the Nephites so my incompetency with sports really came in
handy. Then of course we had a New Testament 500 option get chosen. Well, the
thing for that was acting out one of Jesus' parables. We did the sheep &
the goats. Sister Israelsen & were the sheep & got down on our hands &
knees & started 'baaaaaaa-ing' & went towards Elder Call, who was
playing the shepherd. Elder Ciccarello was playing the goat & he just ran
on his hands & knees at Elder Call. Well apparently that's a lesser known
parable, nobody knew really what was
going on, & they saw that act with
zero context in their minds other than that it was a parable. Anyway, the sheep
represent Christ's followers who come to him & the goats represent those
who try to thwart God's work. That day we made dinner at the family's house who
is going to feed us for Christmas, so we helped them make the stuffing. But
we're not allowed inside the house because of COVID-19 restrictions & the
rules that President Auna has set into place. So, the family set up a folding
table in the garage & got heaters out there for us to still be able to make
dinner but also not freeze. It was really fun, we made some of the best
stuffing I've ever tasted (and I never liked stuffing growing up lol)
Thursday: Christmas Ever!
A family in the ward provided us with Breakfast, & that
was awesome! We went back to the family's house that's making us dinner &
helped them make some other foods for their Family Christmas get-together, as a
service in return for making us dinner (in part at least, I don't know how we
could ever repay them for Christmas dinner!) Bishop's family provided us with
dinner Christmas eve, & they have a super random Christmas eve tradition,
which is to get chick-fil-a nuggets & mac-and-cheese on Christmas eve. It
was pretty awesome though! We heart attacked a family in the ward who was
having a hard time. They were having a lot of family over too, with little
kids, so it's a wonder we didn't get caught putting the hearts & candy up.
We went Christmas caroling with the Harbour Pointe sisters & that was
pretty fun!
So yeah, it's been a good week and a half!
My next p-day isn't till next Friday because of new year’s!,
so if you write to me on Monday & I don't respond, don't panic lol. I love
you all so much!
Sister Alyssa Putnam
Washington Everett Mission
P.O. Box 13390
Mill Creek, WA 98082
for FedEx and UPS this is the address to use:
Sister Alyssa Putnam
Washington Everett Mission
16124 35th Avenue
Southeast
Mill Creek, WA, 98012
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