Week 55: Straight Skinny

Okay before I tell my story let me preface this. "Give me the skinny"
is a saying that means to tell the truth. I did not know that. Nor
have I heard of such a saying.

Bother Mueller, our ward mission leader is such a father figure.
Everyone, thinks he is funny, stubborn German, I am your father
first, friend second kind of guy. He also has a tender side to him. I
love seeing him interact with his wife, children, and grandchildren. I
feel like I have molded into their family I love them so much. On
Friday he sends us a message asking how I and Sister Chance are doing
( We had a rough day before). He says "How are you doing? Give me the
straight skinny." ...Um... what? The way I read that I thought he was
trying to be a gangster or something. Silly Bother Mueller. I respond
with "We do not know if that was meant for your wife, Sister Chance
because she is skinny, or me Sister Slattery because I am a babe."
Then we precede to tell him how we were doing. We then get a second
text message which reads " The skinny is a term used on and tell the
truth by that old." What in the world is he talking about? We decided
to call him because this whole texting thing was not working out. Then
he answers the phone "Hello, this is the not so skinny Brother
Mueller." Lol it was pretty funny. He explained that he was driving,
and trying to speak to his phone to type out a text message. He
explained to us what he was trying to say. Haha It was just pretty
funny.

My back is doing so much better! We had to help the elders move out
some people from their ward. I will not go into any details, but I
will just tell you it was gross. Silly elders had to do a box weight
check before they would let me carry anything. It was funny the way
they would call Sister after me.

Yesterday we went over to have dinner at the Mangum family's home. We
go, and there is this guy vacuuming their carpet. He was selling Kirby
vacuums. After awhile he started talking about religion. The short
story is we taught him the Restoration. We gave him a copy of the Book
of Mormon, and some pamphlets. Haha he told us we made him want to go
to church. He said that he would look into it. It is just interesting
to think that I will never know what will be the result of talking to
that guy. Then that makes me think of my story, and how missionary
work has affected my life.

Later today Wanda and Latisha are coming to see me!! I am so excited!
I love them so very much.  They hold a special place in my heart. I
can not believe that it was almost been a year since they were
baptized. It is interesting looking back on my memory of where I was a
year ago. Who I was with, the problems that were in front of me, you
know things like that. Now it is almost the end of February.

Well, I can not think of anything else super important to tell you
about. Hope everyone had a really great week! Love you all, and until
next time.

Sister Slattery

So happy to have lunch with Wanda and Latisha

In the parking lot...

Week 54: Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope everyone was able to spend it with loved
ones. We spent the evening with the Mueller Family. It was so much
fun! Afterwards we had a hot date with Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
Those guys always come through for me.

So this week has been interesting.. Let me preface this with the fact
that I have had back problems since before my mission. It has been
acting up as of late, and I have no idea what I did to it in the
first place to make it start hurting again. The following is my
journal entry from Friday.

It all started Tuesday wen we went over to a member's house to help
her out with painting, and dishes. I do not mind doing dishes, so I
did that while Sister Chance painted. I may have been on my feet for
an hour and a half. Popping my head in the other room to be part of
the conversation,  and doing the dishes. It took me longer than it
probably should have. It hurt to stand there in one place, so I was
shifting my weight back and forth. The whole rest of the day I was in
pain. I later got another blessing from the district leader. He was
very persistent. By the end I am just crying, with my head in hands
not wanting to look up because there was 4 elders, and I did not want
them to see my face. It was embarrassing.

Then today we get this crazy last minute call from the mission office
saying we have a referral from the Portland, Oregon mission. This less
active member was moving into our ward, and was going to be there in
15 minutes. We could not ask our ward members or even other
missionaries to drop whatever they were doing to help us out in 15
minutes. That is just plain rude. We called Bother Mueller our ward
missions leader, and told him the situation. He told me not to do
anything to hurt my back. Yeah, okay Brother Mueller. We go, and I may
or may not have hefted a large couch. By the time Brother Mueller and
another brother came we were done unloading the truck. We had a
conversation about my back. They told me to contact mission nurse,
(Which I was supposed to anyway today). And this brother in our ward.
-Advantage of being in a ward when everyone is a chiropractor!

We went over and it was approved by the mission nurse, so I did not
feel bad about it. He had me all lined up to pop me back into place
before he did some deep tissue stuff. He poked me, and it brought me
to tears. I jumped so high, and was squirming all over the place. It
was awful. Let's just say I have a clear understanding of what the
scriptures mean when it talks about wailing, and gnashing of teeth. I
feel like jello now. All of my muscles keep shaking because they are
in that much shock.

Also today Sister Chance let me sleep for 2 hours during weekly
planning. I love her. I felt so bad! She told me that if she wanted me
to do work she would have woken me up. I am so grateful that she is so
understanding.

Okay, so fast forward a little bit. Yesterday we had a broadcast from
Salt Lake. That was really good, but a struggle to hear. The volume
was not very good. Plus I got to sit in the metal chairs. That hurt so
bad! Good old Brother Mueller asked if I was okay. I simply replied
yes. He chuckled at me.

I went to the doctor's office, who happens to be the Stake President.
He gave me more stretches to do. He also gave me some stronger
medicine to take before bed. I hate going to the doctor's office.

Shout out to my district leader! He gave me all of his extra ice packs
at their apartment, and brought me a pack of Gatorade. He made the
rule of no more dishes, and if Sister Chance sees me carrying more
than my iPad, and a bottle of Gatorade she is to call him immediately.
Best district leader ever!

That is my life right now.

My new man?  Again people here have the strangest things in their yards!

Valentines Day Lips

Fashion divas

Ice packs and gatorade

My mailbox is empty!  When was the last time your wrote your favorite missionary?

Week 53: Has it really been a year?

Oh my goodness, where does the time go? This past week I went through
my journal of my adventures last year. Super glad I am where I am now!
I am pretty sure there is a scripture that says something along the
lines of look not behind thee. I unfortunately did not do anything
super exciting to celebrate. My mom is so awesome though, and sent
Sister Chance and I a package! I may have cheated, and opened it up
the day before my year mark even though the package had writing on it
that told me to wait. Our ward mission leader and his wife gave us ice
cream with sprinkles! That is about how much fun we had that day.

Yesterday I may have been karate chopping the Bishop in the hall way.
He started it, so no fault of my own. Then Brother Etherington the
High Priest quorum president happened to see this. He was chuckling to
himself. It is funny if you know him. He has the appearance to be this
gruff old guy, but really he is so sweet. I love the Etheringtons!
They moved up here from Rock Springs Wyoming, so we talk about Wyoming
a lot when they have us over for dinner. He was telling his wife that
he feels like this ward has exceptional missionaries, but that he
particularly likes the current two they have. Tender! It made me feel
really good about our companionship, and that members really do like
us. I really love being in this ward. The people are fantastic!
Yesterday was also the Super Bowl. We're were told that we had to be
in by 7:30 just for safety precautions. We did not think that we would
have very much success knocking on people's doors, so we didn't. Your
welcome all you football fanatics. Instead we walked up and down this
really long street. 30 blocks down, and back. Really bad idea with
pinchy shoes. I did it though! Plus it was perfect weather! We then
went to dinner with the Jorgensen family. Good thing it was fast
Sunday! Every time we go over she always has this big spread laid out
for us. They have this rocking horse, and Sister J had us take a
picture with it. She said we were the first missionaries in a while
who have not asked to take a picture with it. She decided that she was
going to have a missionary wall of all the missionaries that come
through with the horse.

Another funny thing about this week.. For those who do not know I love
coins. I get so excited when I find a penny, and if I am lucky a
nickel or quarter on the ground. Sister Chance just laughs at me. She
probably thinks I am a weirdo, but whatever. Money is money. I keep
telling her that one of these days I am going to count all of my
coins, and I will have a full dollar. One day we are walking down this
street, and I hear this coin fall to the pavement. I turn around, and
I see this clean, pristine, shiny quarter. I asked my companion if she
dropped that. She said yes. She just loves my reaction when I find
coins. She decided to do me a favor, and drop me some big change.
Bahaha! I am sure reading this over email is not very funny, but trust
me, it is.

We also went to the Stake President's house for breakfast like we do
every first Saturday of the month. I love them so much! Their son is
over the 11 year old Boy Scouts, and they had a camp out in the back
yard, so that to join us for breakfast.

Well, Thanks for reading!!! I love you all, and I hope you have a
great week! Until next time..

Opened my package a day early.

Fun

Sister Chance with her anniversary box.

The Zone at the Stake Missionary Breakfast

Week 52: One Whole Year

New haircut!

Week 51: Again..who needs a email.

Another week of just responses to my questions.  What's a mom to do?

1.  What was the craziest thing you ate this week?   Sister Chance's spicy potatoes

2.  What time do you go to church?  10

3.  Who do you write?  Who sends you mail? Logan, Alex Depew, Megan LeDoux, Wanda, Latisha Sashia, big Martin

4.  Do you take your vitamins everyday? Vitamin D?  No

5.  Any update on President Taylor?  There hasn't been anything on FB.   He is doing well.

 

 

Missionary Conference
photo credit: Sister Lambert


 

 

 

 

 

Week 50: No Transfer Letter

That is right, I get to stay in the Columbia River Ward for at least
the next 6 weeks! I also do not get to change companions! I am super
glad that I am staying because I dislike packing. From what it sounds
like, there are a lot of areas being doubled out. Meaning both
companions are leaving, and two new missionaries go in. Also big news,
there will no longer be any transfer meetings.

This week we were trying to find some members in this apartment
complex, and this elderly man sees us, and asks who we work for. I
thought after the fact that I should have said God; but I didn't and
explained that we were missionaries. He keeps talking to us about
random stuff that I do not even remember. I couldn't tell if he was
angry at us, or what his deal was. I am in the middle of responding to
him, he looks up, yells in my face at someone to 'get way from that
car', walks in between us, and tells us to follow him. One, it made me
jump because he yelled in my face, two so rude. I am sorry that I can
not convey to you the weird feeling I had when he said follow me. I
straight up lied, and said that we had an appointment. He then told us
to remember his apartment number, leave some material, and a number to
contact... Um no thank you. Maybe missionaries in the future will do
that, but not me.

We had a miracle this week! We needed some gas, and a break. We go to
the gas station, and the lady pumping our gas (It's an Oregon thing)
comes back to our window and says that Sister Chance looks familiar.
Probably we are everywhere! Turns out she had been meeting with
missionaries in the past, but she stopped or a while. She told us she
wanted to 'get back on track'. God does not do random! We are planning
to go see her tomorrow morning.

We saw foxes in a neighborhood in the middle of town! That was pretty
cool, I do not know where they came from though. We also saw a raccoon
cross the street, and went for the big puddle in the church parking
lot.

The best thing that happened this week! There is a sister in the ward
who got her name removed from the church's records when she was in her
20's. She is there every Sunday, and has been on this spiritual
journey for at least 15 years. She decided that she wanted to be
baptized again! She wanted it to be very private. Not even her family
came. Just the witnesses, Bishop, and she also invited us. It was very
spiritual.

Tongans fed us dinner one night! They got us an extra large pizza, and
we each of 2 liters of soda. Oh my goodness! This is probably one of
the reasons why President will not make the Tongan ward a sister area.

Speaking of President.. I know I didn't write an email last week, and
I do not know who knows, or does not know. Anyway, President Taylor
had a minor heart attack about two weeks ago. He had a triple bypass,
and is doing well. We received an email today that there will be a
senior couple coming to fill in the place for President and Sister
Taylor for a month while he rests.

Life is so good! Remember to read your scriptures, and to pray. Also
please remember when missionaries of any faith try to share what they
know to be true, be kind! Also, just be honest, if one does not want
them to come back they won't. Does not mean you have to agree, it just
makes for a better day on the missionaries end. I can not believe how
fast time is going! I am getting more comments of being out a while,
and not having that much time left. What? I feel like I have only been
out for a few months. It also makes me feel really old when I ask
other missionaries if they know another missionary, and then realizing
that they have only been out for 3 months, and the other missionary
has been home for 6 months. Oh! Speaking of being old! In missionary
slang we have what is known as posterity, so the trainer is the
parent, and so it continues.  I am going to be a great grandma! Oh my
goodness.

Well, all thanks for reading. I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you
for all you do!

Sister Slattery

Lobster mailbox...



Soaked through...I am hating the rain now.

Week 49: Email? Who needs to email?

Note from the Mom:  Just this Sunday I was asked by the Bishop to come to the pulpit and share an update about our missionary.  During this update I talked about this very blog, and how some weeks all I have to put up are pictures, because Sister Slattery isn't much of a writer.  Well lo and behold, this week, no big news filled email.  Each week I send an email telling her about things that are happening at home, changes in our ward, stake and community.  I also send a separate email with just 4 or 5 questions, so that the questions don't get lost in the bulk of my long email.  So this week, the only response I received was to my questions email.  I don't normally share these questions and responses in the blog, but this week, it's all I have, so that is what week 49 is going to be.  Can you believe we are at week 49!  February 4th is her year mark. 

1.  What are you studying right now? 
                               I am in the Isaiah chapters.

              

2.  Have you been careful driving on snowy, icy roads?  I honestly try not to think about this. :)
                                Yes, I have.  It was pretty much gone by Wednesday.

3.  Have you been able to write thank you cards for any Christmas gifts you got from friends and family?                     I wrote thank you cards to members.

4.  Tell me something that strengthened your testimony this week.
                                 I had to give a training in district meeting about finding joy in living the gospel/ missionary work. I got to use the Infinite Atonement! 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Love,

Mom

I love you very much Mom! Thank you for the weekly updates! I should be sending out two boxes today.


Red=Mom
Black=Sister Slattery

Washing dishes with a little helper.