I hope that subject line made you laugh, because when my branch president said it in branch council, it certainly made me laugh!! hehe.
So when Mom asked what the set up of Kirtland is like, I realized that I haven't done a great job describing things! Sorry about that! Kirtland really consists of three spots: "sites" (or the main visitor center and historic village), Morley Farm and Johnson Farm. The two farms are only open May to October and only senior couples do tours of the Morley farm. The Johnson home is about 35 miles away from sites, and there are sisters there. In fact, my beloved Sister Hansen is there so I NEVER get to see her which breaks my heart! But we are convinced we will be companions later, so it's all good :)
So the majority of us work at sites. And I get to work with the sisters at some point of the week. The sisters that live in the Hyrum Smith home or the Boynton home (aka on site) -- they work half days every day of the week, but those of us who are at satellite sites and our proselyting area is farther away, we work half the week on sites, half the week in our area. Does that make sense?
But working at the village is where there is everything. The tour includes a 23 minute video called I Remember Kirtland, a stop on the Stoney Brook Bridge, then up to the N.K. Whitney Store (including the School of the Prophets), then over to the Whitney home, passing by the Johnson Inn, and over to the sawmill and ashery. There you go! An hour and a half tour summed up in one sentence! Of course, come to Kirtland and I'll share with you fun stories and all kinds of enjoyable things :) I love working sites. Of course, I like proselyting too...I guess I just like being a missionary! Tell Sis. Vanderwerken that I'm beginning to pray now to be sent to the Johnson home, because not a lot of people do and I would LOVE to spend a transfer or two working there!! And when I do, I'll expect her to visit her favorite place on earth :) haha.
I'm serving in a branch in Chardon. There's enough members to be a ward, but unfortunately, the activity rate is not so hot. We're working on that though, promise! It's a cute branch, filled with lots of older people, but I love it. Oh! by the way, the RS president and her husband know Grandma and Grandpa! They worked in the Chicago Temple together! Barbara and David Calandra. I love them SO much! They are absolutely wonderful people and one of my favorite couples in the ward! They love Grandma and Grandpa too. Brother Calandra told me about the time Grandpa told him a joke about heart attacks in the temple that made him laugh so hard he had to leave the session, and Sister Calandra said that Grandma is the "sweetest most wonderful woman I have ever met and she always looks like a million bucks!" That sounds a lot better in Sister Calandra's voice, but it was sweet.
So let's see...this week was a good week! We had NO time in our area this week. Monday we were at sites, Tuesday in our area, Wednesday-sites, Thursday was zone conference and today is p-day, and tomorrow we are at sites. so we only have one day in our area, but we made it work for us! In fact, we got 3 new investigators! And kind of four, because we have an appointment with another one on Tuesday, but it will be the first one so she's not technically an investigator. So that was good news!
I had a pretty interesting experience on Monday...we had a group of 585 boy scouts come to Kirtland. Yes, that is right. almost 600 12-18 boys. Holy cow. It was THIRTEEN Greyhound buses. And there were 14 sisters on that day, can you do that math? Yup. I had an entire bus all to myself haha. I had to do a tour of the Morley farm (which--like i said earlier--only senior couples do, so THAT was entertaining!) and then the buses rotated through all day between Sites, Johnson Farm, and the Kirtland Temple. I ended up leading four tours completely by myself. Sometimes we only had 30 minutes...I felt like we were running through everything! But I loved it. It was exhilerating and I loved the Scouts. It was a really great experience. When we were told it was 585 scouts, Sister Lee said "welcome to Kirtland in summer." haha. It gets me really excited for next summer when I will be here the whole time and get to do all kind of fun stuff that I missed out on by getting here a tad too late. It's gonna be fun :)
OH! I forgot something! all these scouts were here for the Boy Scout Jamboree and they were doing a very long trip out of it (they were all from Utah) seeing all kinds of fun things. But when I heard they were here, I realized that we had seen those scouts when we were flying out of the MTC to come to Kirtland! And then when they said they were on day 17 of an 18 day trip, all I could think was: I've only been here 17 days!? Yes. It's true. haha. Oh boy.
Well, that's about it for this week! Craig and Dad, I'm glad that you survived Trek! Sounds like quite the experience! Scott, oh my gosh. are you seriously going to college this next week!? Oh my gosh! Crazy. Enjoy your last few days at home! Eric, your letters make me laugh SO much. I read them to basically all the sisters. They may be more or less in love with you... Or they think we are weird because of our sense of humor. haha.
Love you all! Hope things are going well!
Love,
Sister Maughan
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