The Week of Changing Presidents

6/30/2014

Holla Familia!

Sooooo President Pitt is officially gone, and President Salisbury is now the Mission President! How weird... Such an interesting experience to now have two mission presidents. President Pitt has asked us to pack him up and put him on our shelf until we return home from our missions. We need to focus now on building our relationship with our new mission President. I'm going to miss President Pitt, He was an awesome man. he helped me through a lot of things. I'm excited to have President Salisbury though! It's always interesting to have new people. It's like getting a new companion... only not. I'm just ready to meet him already. He doesn't come until next week.. I think. Anywho He sounds pretty cool.  Sister Nielsen is super sad, and she got even more upset when our district leader texted us saying "The time has arrived! President and Sister Salisbury are here and rumor has it they are Amazing!" She doesn't like change very much. Especially when you are letting go of someone you really love. I still can't get over the fact of how YOUNG they are!! It's so weird. but hey more energy right?!

Well this last P-day was pretty awesome. Elder Hess' birthday was on that day so we all went to Roanoke to celebrate with him. He turn 21. It's so weird to think that I am older than him... I thought he was older.  He was going to go golfing, but no one had money... So we went and played kickball and Frisbee and had cake. It was awesome. The only down side is that it takes us like an hour to drive there... So you can imagine how many miles that is back an forth. Killer. Anywho, it was a really awesome day, and a lot of fun to see Sister Isobe, Reed, Larkin, and Williams. It's so weird to be soo far from them now, but hey, we are still in the same zone so I get to see them sometimes!

So every week here in Bedford we get to go to the Bedford Christian Ministries to help them distribute food and such. It is a really neat thing to be a part of. The only sad part is that a lot of them aren't really working to improve their lives. They are just coming getting food, and continuing in their same lifestyles. It's really frustrating to see that. Some of them are trying to better their situations, but most of them are just taking advantage of the government support. We have government housing in our area. I forgot what it was like to have government housing - it's been a while, haven't had it since Ohio. I forgot how people just sit around, and don't do anything except smoke and drink.

Speaking of Drinking, we have an investigator named Hailey. She is so funny. She is the same age as me and has two kids, a four year old, and a new born. She lives with her boyfriend.. who is interesting. Hailey could be such an elect and awesome girl.. if she didn't have to be commanded in all things. We are trying to get her to quit smoking and she just wont let go of that last cigarette. But, back to why she has to relate with drinking. She was trying to tell us that Jesus said it was ok to drink wine, and we told her to go through the scriptures and find where it said it Christ drank wine and how many times it counseled against drinking. She kept texting us all the scriptures that were "for" drinking. They made no sense, but at the very end she said there are a lot more scriptures that are against drinking than there are for drinking. The one I brought up with Hailey was Proverbs 31. Oh Hailey. She just needs a desire to do what is right. She is so used to doing what the world says is alright to do, that she has a hard time doing what God says is the right thing to do.

Another interesting experience: I got to kill chickens this week. Weirdest experience ever. Plucking all of the feathers from them and taking the insides out... then a few days later at another members house have a full chicken for dinner. It was... interesting.. Chickens really do run around when their heads are chopped off. It's kinda freaky. We stuck it in the pot of boiling water and it started running around in it... SO weird. But it was an interesting growing experience... now I can say I did it.

Oh, I also gave my first talk. Ever. On my mission. A first for everything this week!

Well I hope everything is going well and that everyone is enjoying their summer!

Keep being Awesome!

Loves,

Sister Karen Call

"Not all the whirlwinds in life are of your own making. Some come because of the wrong choices of others, and some come just because this is mortality. … Challenges will come to you, but as you trust in God, they will strengthen your faith."
~Neil L. Andersen