Stories from the Recent Past

Stuck in the Snow

A couple weeks ago, my dear friend Sister Garn went home from her mission. So her companion, Sister Payne, came and joined us for a week until transfers happened. Sister Payne is an absolute party, and we had so much fun together.

On the way back from a lesson together, we saw a car that appeared to be stuck in the snow on the side of the road. Sister Campbell was driving, and she never stops for anything. But suddenly she pulled over, and asked us, should we go back? I responded, "Well, we're 3 girls and it's pitch black outside, so usually I would say no..." but Sister Payne was still uncertain. So, finally, I said, "Why don't we just stay a prayer and see how we feel?" We said a prayer and shortly after the prayer a teenage boy came up to our car and asked, "Hey could you give me a push?" He had walked up to us while we were praying. He was all alone, and clearly non threatening. So we flipped the car around and went back to give him a push. It took 3 tries, but on the 3rd try we got his car on to the road. 3 sister missionaries pushing in the snow, I'm sure it was a sight. We ran back to our car triumphantly saying it was the best thing we'd ever done. We were about 5 minutes down the road home when Sister Payne realized she'd lost her phone. So we went back to the site, and searched in the snow till we found it. Altogether it was a very eventful night.

Assembling The TV Stand

That same week that Sister Payne was with us, the 3 of us went to a nonmember's house to help her put together her TV stand. I will call her Anna. Anna is an older retired lady who just moved into our ward. She has friends in the Redlands ward, who called the elders to help move her. They in turn told us about her, and suggested we stopped by and offer service. We ended up going and helping her out 3 separate times, and managed to go caroling to her with some members before Christmas. When we arrived to put together her TV stand, it was just 3 sister missionaries and a drill. But when we left, we had become 3 experts: Sister Campa- the calm and intelligent instructions interpreter, Sister Payne- guardian of the large flat screen TV in the small and cluttered old lady apartment, and Sister Shill- the assembling expert. If you can, imagine three Sister missionaries- like three sisters- terrified of making a mistake, dropping the TV, or ruining something. And not wanting to represent the church badly, they remain completely poker-faced, hiding all the frustration, confusion, and stress that usually accompanies jobs like this behind calm voice tones often reserved for scripture reading, and pleasant empathetic nods and smiles used for teaching lessons. Perhaps my description will not be sufficient for you to see the humor, but I can tell you, watching all the emotion bubble under each of our pained faces made for some great comedy later that night. In Sister Payne's words, "I just telling myself 'Keep calm. Don't get frustrated and flip out. Not in front of the potential investigator."

After all that stress and restraint, turns out it was a success because before we left Anna said, '"Come back sometime when you're not going to do something and just talk." That next time we came back, we were able to add her as an investigator. Now we have a new lady to teach!

A Success in Showing Love

Our friend Diana had surgery on her shoulder shortly before Christmas. We have been going to her farm and helping take care of her animals before that and since then. We clean out the pens for the horses and the llamas and clean out the chicken coup, etc. Sometimes, we brush the horse's mane, and check her food. It's always been one of my favorite parts of the week. But this week, Diana was strong enough to come out and join us as we took care of the animals. She told us how grateful she has been for our help, and how uplifting our texts were when we told her we had been there and what we had done for the animals. She talked about how she was grateful for the help, but more than that, how it warmed her heart to know how much we cared about the animals: How we tell her which cats we saw and petted, how we would feed cookies to Winnie the horse, etc. I don't know if Diana will ever accept the Gospel, but I never felt so confident as a Representative of Christ as when she told us how she had felt our love. I know that showing that kind of love is exactly what the Savior would do if he were here for Diana in person. I'm really, really grateful that I got to be a part of that, especially since being a part of that meant hanging out with animals and Connecting with nature in a way that's incredibly good for my mental health. I would be lying if I said that I always went for Diana, the truth is sometimes I'm going for me. But regardless, I'm grateful that I got to be a part of how Diana sees the church.