🇺🇸 America the Beautiful 🌄

Good morning/evening/whenever this happens to actually get sent out!! And happy Fourth of July!! I'm quite happy that this holiday fell on a pday; however it also means it got a bit shortened. Members be inviting us over for dinner and early morning hikes and the such, so the amount of time I will have to write this email today is severely limited. So! Let's get right into it!! :D

Tuesday!!

We had initially thought this would be a chill day, but we found out Monday evening/ afternoon that we wouldn't be coming down to Milwaukee on Wednesday but instead on Tuesday! So we moved all of our appointments and hit the road around 12:00-1:00p.

Prior to that though, the moving Elders had stopped by to bring us a bed and a desk, plus dining chairs and a desk chair. We had actually asked for more than that, which they forgot about, but we've managed haha. Basically we unlocked the door and said "kk have fun, byeee!!" Cause we had to get going.

We accidentally drove to a kwik trip like 15 min out of the way which was inconvenient to say the least. But we were still on track, just no longer early haha.

The drive was long, and as we were about an hour and a half in, President Murphy called us and told us the flight was cancelled and to just go ahead and turn around. He about offered that we just stay the night in Milwaukee, but we hadn't brought any clothes to change into.

So, we flipped around at the next exit, quite bummed. But then!! 10 minutes later, Sister Bugg called us, and Pres was laughing in the background. She told us to flip bACK around, because Pres was just confused and didn't read the whole email. XD Needless to say, we unfortunately didn't get to meet up with Sister Orozco at the airport, as we were about 20-30 minutes later than we already had been.

One 2 hour drive later, we finally got to Milwaukee and to the Mission office. Not two minutes after we got there Sister Orozco walked in the door with Elder and Sister Bugg!! We got to take a few pictures and then we hit the road again!!

But first! We followed Elder Bugg to Kopp's, and he paid for our food before heading back out. We ate our huge hamburgers and ate our delicious custard and then hit the road for real this time. 

It was a long 3 hour ride. As we approached our zone, it started to absolutely cOME DOWN!! It was pouring. You know the fastest speed on the windshield wipers that seems ridiculously fast and like they're just going to fly off? Yeah... it wasn't fast enough. We could barely see.

3 near death experiences later, we made it home safely. Let me tell you, the power of prayer is for real. Definitely thought we were going to die in Milwaukee traffic, as well as in the rain. God is good, folks. God is good.

That was about all that happened that day, except that we came home and Sister Orozco unpacked before we all hit the sack HARD.

Wednesday!!

Wednesday morning we had a call with President Murphy! It was great! He talked to all three of us for a bit before he asked Sister Pearson and I to leave the room for a bit so he could do [Sis. Orozco's] first day interview. We just chilled in the bedroom like the goofs we are. XD 5-10 minutes later we were back out, and said goodbye [to Pres. Murphy]. :)

Not much else happened that day except that we had three back-to-back lessons. The first lesson Sister Orozco taught was Prophets, the Ten Commandments, and the Law of Chastity. What an opener, am I right?? 😆🤣 

Thursday!

Oh gosh, Thursday. Thursday was a crazy insane day. We started off normal with studies, but immediately after lunch it got insane from there on out.

At 1p we had a meeting "over coffee" (smoothies for us) with this one lady who was low-key bashy. She had a few questions, and though we started off with the Restoration lesson, we quickly shifted gears to the Plan of Salvation based on her questions.

Any answer we gave, ESPECIALLY if we had a Bible scripture to back it up, she would say, "but see, that's not what it's talking about. You're taking it out of context and changing it to fit your own agenda." And we were like, ...yo, sorry ma'am, but you know what? We don't gotta agree. It's okay that we don't know the answers to everything. But the funniest part was that as we were leaving she complimented our teaching. She told me she appreciated that I always told her that she had good questions and that I didn't get offended. Just part of the work, ma'am, but I really appreciate that. It was so weird. She almost seemed like a closet member who was just giving us a hard time to help us practice teaching bashers. It was strange.

Anyways, after that we drove to the halfway point between us and the Wausau sisters' apartment to meet up for exchanges. I got to go to Wausau first this time!! :D It was awesome!! I unfortunately missed out on Sister Pearson's late bday dinner with some members because of it, but that's okay. I was with Sister Jesperson who is actually a reassigned Ukrainian missionary!! She's so cool! We had an awesome time!

We visited a few members, and one of them is a young women in her late 20's who actually served a mission! She's really cool. Based on the conversation we had, I told her I would paint her a sheep. So I did. Look for that in the pictures.

Then we came home and sat in the car on Friday Finding Forum, (on Thoughtful Thursday) XD President Murphy and his Aliterations crack me up. XD This was our last meeting with President and Sister Murphy before they flew out the next morning. 🥺 it was very sad. We miss them. After the meeting was over, we went inside and went to bed. (In Wausau)

Friday!

Friday we woke up and got ready for CDC [combined district council]! We didn't have time for much else, so we just got dressed and packed for that. :)

We got to the church building and headed in! CDC was good! I miss the Masonic Lodge [in Platteville], that's for sure. XD It was a good CDC though. BUT!! Apparently I missed out on something! Sister Stevens had told everyone to wear green to CDC. I had not in fact worn green. I wore purple. Almost all the Sisters were wearing green. I'll include those pics as well. XD

After that we headed back to Marshfield, and I was reunited with my comps. :)

We went to Red Robin on the way home which was SO good. I miss Red Robin! The wait was pretty much non-existent which was a change from Nampa where the wait is pretty much 3 years long. It's insane. But we got seated right away and had our food within 15 minutes. I was majorly impressed.

The drive home was mostly me dying of a full stomach. XD It was a very pretty drive, though! Wisconsin is gorgeous, guys!! It's honestly the best.

After we got home, we sat around for the last couple minutes before heading to a lesson with a cute family we are teaching!! :D They're darling, and their kids are SO into it! They want to read and are always so excited. Their little girl was literally SO excited to come to church! She was practically begging her mom. It was darling. 

After THAT! Our friend Eliana had her baptismal interview with our District Leader. We hopped on zoom to introduce them, and then hopped off again so they could proceed. It went well!! Her baptism is this Wednesday!! :D She's been counting down the days. We can't wait. :)

Saturday

Okay, so Saturday was cool. We started off with our personal studies and then we had comp study!! However, this wasn't your usual, run of the mill, comp study. This was a ✨️special✨️ comp study. Reason being?? President and Sister Hansen joined us via zoom!! :D We were the second companionship they met in the entire mission. Sister Orozco was the first missionary they met from the Mission at all because she met them at the MTC. :o Talk about EPIC!! It was so cool! They're SO cool, and I'm so excited to meet them in person tomorrow!!! :D (Tuesday the 5th)

We started off with getting to know each other, and then we went right into comp study! Cool thing, on his mission President Hansen recited the things we do! The reason this is cool, is because we get to choose what to recite. Our missionary purpose and the first vision are pretty universal, but we also do Doctrine and Covenants section 4, as well as The Standard of Truth. :D From the sounds of it, we might start reciting them at zone conferences and stuff. :)

It was really awesome. They're literally so incredible. Ngl [not gonna lie] I really needed to have that meeting. I was really nervous about the change in Mission leadership. But the Hansens are a blessing, and I can't wait to get to know them more. ❤️

The rest of the day was pretty chill; we went to the church at one point to make the program for the baptism this next week. It went well! My pro art skills (/perfectionism) came in handy there. XD 

After that we had a member meal with the Brunsons!! They are literally the coolest ever. I love them. They have 3 kids, one at college, one going to college in the fall, and one in high school. The parents are also fantabulous. I love them and hope we can go over again. We invited them to write their testimonies in the cover of a Book of Mormon that we could hand out, and their son legit brought it to church the next day. He's the real MVP guys. That's a guy who keeps invitations!! Woo!! (Now if only our friends we're teaching could do that... 😆😅)

(PS, for those of y'all who find my slang exasperating, MVP means most valuable player, or basically that they are reliable. There's probably more ways it can be used, but that's  the way I used it here. You're welcome.)

That leads us directly into:

Sunday!!

We had church of course, which is always good!! There were more people there this week, but most people are still gone on summer vacation. 

It was also fast Sunday, and idk why they decided to name it fasting, because time absolutely cRAWLS by when you're fasting. There is no "fast" about it. Anyways, jokes aside, church was pretty good!! The testimonies borne were sweet. I love testimony meeting.

After church we got invited over for 4th of July dinner by someone who snagged us in the hall. So I have that to look forward to this evening. :D

After church we had studies, which were mostly unproductive for all. I managed to stay focused by turning on a Hank Smith talk and took notes on it intermittently while doing a watercolor painting (the aforementioned one for the member in Wausau).

Dinner was at 5:00p, and we were rather losing our minds waiting for that. We ended up going to the church to record a musical number for the Facebook page. It'll go up late this week, so look for that. :)

Finally Dinner!! It was at the Griffin's!! They have the three cutest kids ever!! Murphy, Sophie, and Henry!! Darling kids if I ever saw any!! We had burgers, and they were quite excellent.

After dinner we came home and did calls until we had mission prayer with President and Sister Hansen! The first mission-wide call we had done with them!! Apparently they had been joining the calls anonymously with their cameras off for months!! :o They know all about all the calls, and I'm pretty hyped about it!

Monday!!

Today was a hecka busy day, and it ain't even over yet!! We started off with a hike with a couple member families! The Griffins and the Lonsdales! The Lonsdales were the ones who invited us and gave us a ride. We got there, and they told us the Griffins were joining us! It was awesome! It took up far more of our day than I expected, but it was basically district pday but with mEMBERS!! it was awesome.

The hike was long, and it was dry at first, but it started raining before we even got to the top. Ngl (not gunna lie), we were vERY soaked. Okay okay okay, but the BEST part, guys, you're not going to believe this. I can't even describe how happy this made me!!!

So, idk if all of yous are aware, but missionaries aren't allowed to do pretty much ANYTHING with kids except high fives. The only time is if the kid tackles you in a hug, you can hug em back, or if the kid is like doing anything, you can play along, but you can't initiate anything. Also parent permission. No laps, no picking up, but hugs and hands are fair play as long as they initiate.

So basically what happened, is Murphy Griffin just walked up to me as we started the hike and just... grabbed my hand and held on. I was oVERJOYED!! She and/or Sophie (her little sister) were holding my hand(s) for pretty much the whole hike. Sometimes they would switch which of us they were holding hands with, but 70% of the hike was me holding Murphy's hand. It was the bEST! Their mom thanked us for doing so because it meant she had both hands to take care of Henry the 7 month old. They loved it, and we loved it just as much. I about died and went to heaven. I miss hanging out with kids.

We finally got home and showered because, it was pouring most the way up, and all the way down. But hey! The rain kept the bugs away! Doesn't mean I didn't get a few bug bites, (like 2) but I was happy when the rain came. Got some fire pictures!! Look out for em!! :D

But yep! This evening we're going over to a member's house for dinner, and it's out in Neilsville again (where the hike was, and kinda far). We've actually got to leave here shortly, but I managed to finish my email this week without panic sending it, so that's good news!! :D

I hope yous have all had a fabulous fourth of July!! Watch the fireworks for me, those of you at home... I have to go to bed. 

I LOVE YOUS!! KEEP BEING AMAZING!! ❤️

We can do this!
¡Sí se puede! 
Peb Yeej Ua Tau!

Love
Sister Lovell

Link to the photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hH8UuZNVov71FYot7

Link to the blog:
https://sisterhannahlovellwisconsin.blogspot.com/

Again, I'm sorry that I don't really have time to name this week's pictures. I'll get to it eventually. I love yous!! ❤️