Sister Dias said "Let's have a moment of silence for the loss of our
sanity." Another quote that is very fitting is "Of all the things I've
lost I miss my mind the most." This was definitely the most
adventurous week of my life! From teaching Young Women's, Gospel
Principles, Seminary, Ward Council, and MCM, to broken shower heads,
and 6 inches of snow. From baptisms and confirmations, to fonts not
filling up in time and baptism interviews. Add in an all day Sisters
conference, District meeting, exchanges, and Zone Activities. All on
top of the week before transfers and not knowing if there will be
changes made (don't worry, neither of us are leaving Oswego). This
will be the craziest email you ever read!! I hope you can survive
until the end! Well I'll start with the most exciting news first:
Leena was baptized on Friday January 31st at 7:00 pm!!!! It was a long
road to get to her baptism. I just can't believe that we only knew
here for 2 weeks! But she'd been investigating for several months.
After her baptism she told Sister Dias and I that she decided to be
baptized because of the love that she felt from us. And that love
comes directly from her Father in Heaven. She bore a beautiful
testimony and it brought tears to my eyes. She is so elect and I hope
that you all get to meet her one day. Well now that I've told you all
about the good things that happened with her baptism I will enlighten
you upon the not so warm and fluffy details. We arrived at the baptism
about an hour and thirty minute before it started because we were
going to practice the song were singing with the Elders. Well we
decided to open the curtain and see how the font was filling. Don't
worry, the water was on and it was filling alright, but the plug was
not in all the way!!! *Gasp! (It's okay to freak out while reading
this because I can assure you, it was a moment of pure panic and
horror). So it had been on for 2 hours and there was only a couple of
inches of water in the bottom. We all just stood there and stared at
it. My heart dropped into the bottom of my shoes, this is not
happening i thought! But then i reminded myself that I'm a missionary
and nothing ever goes as planned. So after a few moments of utter
terror we all jump into action. We plug up the tub, Sister Dias and I
run into the kitchen and turn on the faucets and find anything to put
water in, and the elders go outside looking for a hose. I'm not sure
what their logic was in that but it's probably a good thing they
didn't find one or Leena would be getting baptized with ice floating
around. So anyways, I just want you to picture this scene: Sister Dias
and I in our Sunday best, running back and forth and back and forth
from the kitchen to the font, with little half gallon pitchers of
water, trying to stay calm, practicing our musical number and singing
as we go, with the Elders filling up a 50 gallon pot from the
bathroom, all the while the relief society room is a mess, we haven't
practiced our musical number that we're singing with the Elders, and
the tic tock of the clock just keeps getting louder and louder as it
approaches 7:00. Finally after what seemed like 100 trips back and
forth the water crests the third step. It was 6:45. But that wasn't
all. Programs still had to be printed and folded, chairs set up, Leena
had to change, and pictures had to be taken! But the coolest thing of
it all was that so many members showed up that we had to move to the
chapel because there wasn't enough room in the relief society room!
And then the program started. An Elder who served here previously came
and baptized her. We sang the Baptism song, and the program went
beautifully. It wasn't until the refreshments afterwards that I
realized how hungry I was and that we had hardly eaten all day. But it
was an amazing baptism and Leena felt so happy and I've never been so
happy I my life as well! If you remember back to my last email I
mentioned that the first impression we got from the Holy Ghost was
that she needed to be baptized in January. Well we did it. She did it!
And it was so incredible! I have learned so much about doing The Lords
will. His plan is ALWAYS better. Well this next story I tell will have
you rolling off your seat because your laughing so hard! As I
mentioned before we were asked to teach seminary this week on Tuesday.
Well school was canceled because it was so cold, I guess they call
that a freeze day. So we were asked to teach on Wednesday. We prepared
all day Tuesday and felt so excited to teach Alma 33! We even bought
donuts because I remember the way to a teenagers heart. Oh wait, I
still am a teenager:) So anyways, we are going to bed that night and
something tells me to ask if Sister Dias set the alarm. She assured me
that she had and we went to bed. But something told me, which I now
realize is the Holy Ghost, to ask if she had set it for 4:00. But I
brushed that aside assuming that my companion remembered we had been
preparing all week for this lesson and had just planned to get up at
4:00 am. I was wrong. We woke up at 5:45 to a text from the seminary
teacher asking "Are you guys coming?" Sister Dias jumps out of bed and
starts yelling "Sister Hauser get up, get up, get up, it's 5:45!!!!!
We slept in." To which I quickly sit up and exclaim "It's okay, the
donuts will freeze!!" Don't ask me why the first thought in my head is
the donuts but I got my priorities straight:) after a puzzled look
from Sister Dias we call to apologize. We felt so horrible!! Obviously
neither of us had to take early morning seminary and get up at 4:00
every morning! But they were so sweet and rescheduled us for Friday.
So went beck to bed:) The sad thing is that Sister Dias woke up at
4:00 and thought to herself, oh i still have 2 and a half hours of
sleep. Hahaha! So we ended up teaching on Friday morning and we set 3
alarms! The clock, the phone, and our iPads. The teacher even texted
us to make sure but we made it and we were even early! And yes, the
donuts were still good! And it ended up being an awesome lesson even
if getting them to answer is like pulling teeth. And so Sister Dias
and I counted and we taught 4 lessons this week. Not like missionary
lessons, but like 30 minute class discussions. We taught seminary,
young women's, gospel principles, and did a presentation in MCM. My
favorite lesson was young women's! I though of Kirsten the whole time
I was preparing it. It was only 2 years ago that I myself was a young
women yet it seems like so long ago. Our theme of the lesson was
Missionary work is not as hard as it seems, but it is as important as
it seems. We gave them tons of ideas and helped them to see that less
active work and non member work require the same things. Everyone said
it was a great lesson and I hope i get the opportunity to teach the
youth for the rest of my life! As for the Gospel principles lesson,
the teacher left right after sacrament meeting so we didn't know that
we'd be teaching it until we started teaching. And we bore our
testimonies in sacrament meeting as well so we taught or spoke in all
3 hours of church! I don't ever want to hear a complaint about having
to speak in sacrament meeting ever again. That would have been easy!
And so other adventures we encountered this week were that Sister Dias
broke our shower head and we had water all over our bathroom. And so I
had to kind of bathe from the kitchen sink. See what I mean how
sometimes I feel like I am in South America? But then maintenance came
and fixed it that night. We were expected to get about 9 inches if
snow this week and we definitely got about that! I've never lived in
this much snow before, it's crazy! I'm thinking we'll have to make t
shirts that say I survived the winter of 2014 in Chicago. But the
winters not over yet so maybe I shouldn't jinx myself. We also went on
exchanges and I was with Sister Hamilton who is from Ireland! Yeah,
she's pretty cool. And Sister Dias and I survived this transfer and so
we'll be here for at least 6 more weeks. We had an all Sister
missionaries conference this week and it was the best! We also got a
phone call from the assistants to the president saying how impressed
they were that we just opened up this area and were already having a
baptism. Trust me, I'm just as impressed as anyone else! Well I think
that about sums up my week! I am so happy that Savannah is going to
China!! I was not expecting that but she will do so great! Well that
about sums it all up. I love being a missionary so much! It's not easy
by any stretch of the matter, but it's so great. I have learned so
much and changed so much. It's going by so quickly and I wish it would
slow down. But I know that the reason I love it and the reason I'm so
happy is because this gospel is true. It's because we have the most
true and purest doctrine. Because it comes directly from Jesus Christ.
I know that true and lasting happiness is only found in the gospel. I
am so grateful for all of your support and prayers. I love you all so
much!!!!"
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