Trooping Through Training

Hey y'all

This week has been a whirlwind! I can't believe we made it to p-day!

So on Tuesday we made the long journey up to Louisville to the Eastern Parkway building to get to transfers. As soon as I got there I had to run into my meeting and I hugged Sister Young for the last time and I never saw her again after that 😢😢😢

The meeting was sooooo long and I was starting to feel so nervous and kinda sick. It was good, we got a little training, sort of, on how to be a trainer, but I'm really surprised (and scared) of how much trust they put in the trainers of just leaving it all up to us to help these new missionaries. Cuz I really feel like I remember nothing from that training. And also I know nothing about training... So yeah.

But anyways, I got my little trainee! Her name is Sister Johnson! She is the cutest ever! She is so chill and so funny OH MY GOSH she is hilarious! She is a firecracker too. Like, I don't feel like there's much she needs training on.

Our first full day together (Wednesday) we taught 3 lessons, and one of them was with a guy named Francisco that Sister Young and I have been trying to have a lesson with since January! He was suddenly able to meet, so we went! And Sister Johnson was awesome and totally taught the Restoration lesson 3 times perfectly! She even tracted, she did dang good. And we found a new solid person to teach named Myra, and she is totally fascinated with the book of Mormon and has already started reading it!!!!

Thursday and Friday Sister Johnson was super sick, so that was sad. We were going to have a lesson, but then it fell through, and Sister Johnson was dying the whole time we were waiting in the library for him. She had to take a nap. And she was a trooper and went to our dinner appointment and the lesson we had with a new member afterwards, and the next day went to our district meeting. I'm just so impressed with her. She doesn't even understand how amazing she is! She took the lead on the spiritual thought with the members! She has already greatly surpassed me from when I was in training... I was a brat 😁

Saturday was probably the best, cuz she was feeling better. We tracted most of the day and as we walked around she was like, "oh my gosh is this what an average day on the mission looks like?" And I was like yes ma'am! And then she kinda freaked out... I think the reality of serving a mission finally settled in her mind. I don't sugar coat things! She's fine now though. I think. Also, we met a guy who rides mules and he tried calling his mules for us to see them, but they wouldn't come. So that was sad.

Sunday Sister Johnson had to speak in sacrament meeting. Brother Jenson texted me WHILE I WAS IN THE MEETING TO GET MY COMP to ask her if she would speak on Sunday and I didn't even have her yet or know who she was!! Branches are so funny!!! But she did it, even though she was terrified! Then we had lunch at our branch presidents house and had an awesome lesson with Jennifer who is a recent convert! We were out trying someone else when we saw Jennifer walking her dogs, and she told us she was on her way to the tobacco store 😢 so we had kinda an intervention lesson thing out in the church parking lot and it was really good. Afterwards Sister Johnson was like "holy cow God really knows us individually!" Because what were the odds that we would see Jennifer at that time? God is good.

It's been beautiful all week long, but today is rainy and gross. But that's alright I guess we deserve a nasty day.

General Conference is coming up and I'm so excited! Spring is here! Easter is around the corner! Life is just so full of hope!

Well, I love you all! I appreciate y'all so much! Have a wonderful, beautiful week! Enjoy all the little things!

With love,
Sister Wilcox😘😘😘

 

Guess What They're Doing to Me

Hey y'all,

So, I've been having strange anxieties about transfers all week. Turns out, I had every reason for the anxiety. I'M TRAINING.

I get a brand new little missionary to train here in Campbellsville. Boy they caught me right at the end in my last 2 transfers! What in the world, I never thought I would train. I thought I was home free!😂

No I'm excited, really. It'll be fun. I'm just sad to be losing my sweet Sister Young. She's heading over to Carrollton Kentucky and she has to take over the area cuz both the sisters that were there are going home, so that's exciting! I'm a little stressed out about everything but I know it will all be okay!

What did I even do this week?

Last Monday I mentioned we were going to Kentucky Down Under for district p-day, and it was awesome! Probably the most interactive place with cool animals ever. We got to go in to the kangaroo enclosure and they would come up and eat out of your hands and nibble on the edges of your clothing, it was so cute! Some of the kangaroos had little joeys in their pouches! I befriended an emu, he was pretty chill. We also went through a little cave tour, and then watched some sheep dogs heard sheep.

This place was neat because it takes in animals from animal abuse situations. There's a lot of that here in Kentucky unfortunately. We were talking to one of the employees, who was holding a caimen at the time (like a tiny alligator), and she was telling us that some lady thought it would be a good idea to own things like a caimen or a serval cat (those things are big!), and it was just not a good idea at all. It was very sad. Also, the sheep they had were meat sheep I think, no shearing required. Well someone didn't want their sheep so they dropped her off down the road from Kentucky Down Under and she was just wandering around till they picked her up and took her in. She's a wool sheep, so she's the only high maintenance one outta the group 😂. Why do people think they can have animals if they don't want to be responsible for them?

We had dinner with Sister Pearson and her grandkids that night, and her daughter joined us and stayed to watch a video. We were delighted!

Tuesday through Wednesday we had exchanges, and that was stressful. I always feel like I'm under a microscope when we do those. It was also good though, and we found some people with potential and I had some good learning experiences. Plus we had a little adventure while trying to exchange back.

There was a sign that said "road closed" but it was like, off in the bushes. You know how they're usually blocking the road? A little more obvious and hindering? Yeah no, some dude put this sign in the ditch. We went down, and sure enough there was a road construction crew. Oops. Then my STL was like, "maybe there's a flagger, we could go around them." And I looked at the huge excavator swinging it's shovel across the road, no flagger, and thought, "thats a good way to die" so I turned around and we found a road that would get us to the exchange point. Well, it narrowed way down to a one lane road it seemed, then it suddenly turned into gravel. And there were huge pot holes that I thought the Malibu wasn't going to make it out of. The entire time I was like, "this is why we need a jeep!" But we made it, all is well.

On Thursday we got a call from Renee, a gal that has been on and off taught by missionaries because of her husband's (Jack) interest in the church, and she wanted to know if we could help clean her house for a showing (they're trying to sell the house), so we went! Jack just got out of the hospital from having fluid around his heart, it was pretty scary actually. So he wasn't allowed to help much. I think we did a good job, plus I think it was good for Renee for us to be there. We also tracted in a huge windstorm! My hair looked Crazy! But we found some cool people so it was worth it!

Friday we had district council and had dinner with Sister Pearson and her grandkids again, and this time her son and her daughter came! Her son didn't stay for long, but still we got to see him again. Her daughter stayed for another spiritual thought and seemed to be pretty engaged the whole time. I don't know, we might be seeing two members reactivated here over time. That would be awesome!

Saturday we found out around 8:30am about transfers. That's the earliest I think I've ever gotten a call from President Hughes. It was a tender mercy though, because we didn't have to freak out all day wondering what was gonna happen. So after the news we did service for a member in the branch. I have never seen so much dust in all my life, or so many Elvis things. This lady is obsessed with Elvis and even has a room dedicated to holding all of her Elvis stuff, it was crazy. She also goes to concerts and fairs where Elvis impersonators compete to be the best Elvis look alike. I was going a little bit insane while we were there.

We had two awesome lessons, one with Marie and the other with Ron and Madonna. We read some of our favorite scriptures to them and bore our testimonies, and it was a really sweet goodbye for Sister Young with them. Marie was like, "you'll never forget me, will ya? No one ever forgets me!" 😂😂 I love that lady!

Now Sunday was probably the craziest day I've ever had so far. We went to church, then went and saw Sister Hersey, then we helped Jennifer wash her dishes and cook lunch and ate lunch with her, then we sang at a grave dedication for Sister Sapps son, then we had dinner with the Fawbush's, then we said goodbye to the Veney fam. It was a lot of running around, but it was really good and it helped the day go by quickly. We sang 'O My Father' to the tune of 'Come Thou Fount' at the grave dedication, and we made a lot of people cry, so that was good!😁 It was a sweet little ceremony and I'm glad we got to be there.

Well, my companion is running all over the house with boxes and clothes, so I'm gonna have to go. We gotta mail some stuff in the post office, missionaries accumulate a lot of stuff!

My fate is sealed here in Campbellsville, this is my last area folks! I couldnt have asked for a better place to end my mission.

I hope y'all have a wonderful day and a wonderful week! Love you all!!!!

With love,
Sister Wilcox😘😘😘

 

Kentucky Down Under!

Hey y'all!

Not much happened this week, so sorry in advance!

Today as a district we're going to this place called Kentucky Down Under and apparently it's all animals from Australia, so it should be fun! You get to pet kangaroos and I'm so excited!

We had meal appointments nearly every night this week and that just doesn't happen here! It was fabulous. It got even better when we ate with the Rodenbergs yesterday and they invited Sister Hersey too! She got to know them and they got to know her and it was just perfect! That's how I wish everything went all the time!

There was crazy lightning storms on the weekend, that was no bueno. The thunder shook the houses, and you could feel it sitting in the car! It dumped and dumped and at one point we tried going out to see if we could find this family in the boonies and the further out we went, the harder the rain came down. We saw a few flooded areas and thought, "maybe we'll try some other day..." We did not need to get stranded or drowned, nope!

This week has been pretty chill. We're just trying to work and help as much as we can, all the while freaking out about transfers this upcoming Saturday! I don't even want to think about losing Sister Young! I can't imagine Campbellsville without her! And then, I keep getting this creeping feeling that I might be training... I have 2 transfers left, they could totally do that to me.

I have 2 transfers left on my mission, boy that just hit me outta left field! Campbellsville could be my last area I serve in. That's just bizarre. Although, I can't think of a better place to spend my last days in, so I'm totally fine with that!

A scripture that touched me this week was in 2 Corinthians 3:17- "Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

I think of all those who are fighting battles today. Those who feel stuck or trapped, mentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally, anything. If you turn to the Lord, if you seek out His Spirit, His light, you will be led on the path to freedom. I know that following the Savior and His teachings can seem restricting or too hard to do, they may not seem liberating at all. But they are. They free you from Satan's grasp, the one who makes you miserable and seeks your destruction. Christ can give you the power to overcome the world, and experience true and lasting happiness. That is freedom, and it cannot be conquered or taken away unless you turn away, so don't. Hold on. Keep seeking, keep enduring, keep trying. It's totally and completely worth it. I promise you it is.

I'm saying this mostly for me, because it's so easy for me to forget.

Anyways, I love y'all so much, I wish you the bestest week!

With love,
Sister Wilcox❤😘❤

Who knew EFY music could be so good?

Hey y'all,

I'm a little upset because this week started off pretty nice and warm, did a lot of walking and stuff. It started snowing yesterday. 😐

Well it feels like spring! The daffodils and crocuses are coming up and some trees are beginning to bud. The grass even looks greener! I'm so excited for springtime it isn't even funny! Oh and all the cows around here are having their calves and it's just so much fun to drive by and see the cute babies!

So like I said we did much tracting this week and met some cool people with potential. We also met a lot of preachers and I thought we were just gonna get Bible bashed all day, but we didn't. They were very nice actually, and one even accepted a Book of Mormon! Craziness!

We got to sing some songs with the youth on Wednesday with brother Kelly again and that was fun! We sang an Easter version of "Hallelujah," which is one of my favorite songs ever so that was great to get to do. I'm starting to lose it with the music we're limited to, because it's the same things over and over and you can't really jump around to anything else, because there is nothing else. Or so I thought. Last week we heard this jamming music coming from or district leaders car, found out it was EFY stuff and that yes, it was allowed. I was so annoyed. My comp was so annoyed. Her entire mission she's been told that we couldn't, and I had just never heard of it in the first place, so yeah. Now we have EFY music and I never thought I would be happy about that! It's so funny the made up rules that circulate the mission. Our mission President says he is the most misquoted person in the entire GKLM. Sad!

We met with Angie this week and her husband and that went well. We had dinner with Sister Hersey and then she came to church on Sunday foee the first time in YEARS! It was awesome! Faun came too! Oh, and Marie wanted a priesthood blessing, and so she did. She's had to go to the doctor a lot lately, so some prayers for her health would be much appreciated! She has been wanting to come to church, but then her health started acting up with some pretty scary things and it's kept her from being well enough to go. Sister Pearson finally got a hold of her patriarchal blessing too! Blessings all around!

We got to do service for Sister Shoffner the other day with the Karrens. We helped her haul spring water up the hill again, and then brother Karren made her a door for a room in the upper part of the house. She lives sooo far away, and she's so lonely and her husband is dying and it just makes me want to move their entire house to the middle of town so everyone would go see them more often. People excuse away not visiting because she's so far out, but she doesn't have anybody and it's just so frustrating that nobody else goes to see her and her husband. I understand it's frustrating that they don't attend church hardly, but what do you think would bring someone back? Well ignoring them certainly doesn't do anything, they need to know they are loved and that they're worth doesn't hinge on their church attendance.

District lunch was on Friday and I got to eat fried pickles! They were fabulous!

Ohhh and one of our elders in our district got emergency transferred to another area and now we have a new elder. It wasn't cuz something bad happened or that the companionship wasn't working, he just needed to get out of the area he was in, I think. He's going through some things. It's amazing to me the kinds of struggles and trials that missionaries go through and yet in spite of it all they still serve the Lord as best as they can. I've seen many missionaries that have had to go home early, and that's okay because the Lord understands that. I'm proud of him for sticking it out. He's nearly given up several times, but he's still hanging in there! Just because we're 20 somethings or 18 year olds, serving in not a foreign country, doesn't mean we don't face hard things. They're just different from what others have to go through, just like with all people. Nobody's trials are lesser or greater. It's not a competition of who's suffered more. The one who suffered most was Christ, and because of Him our pain and sorrow is swallowed up in the Atonement. You can't beat that! Sorry, I've just been hearing a lot of belittlement lately and I needed to get that out 😅

Anyways, that was a long rant. The new elder is actually one I served with for 3 transfers so hey, I get to see an old face again!

That's all I've got today folks. Sorry for the randomness. I love ya, I hope you have fun this week! Enjoy the coming of spring!🌷

With love,
Sister Wilcox😘

We found a turtle after we found out we were losing an elder, tender mercies!😢

Finally found the picture of my girls from the mini MTC