A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Time for another emailllll woot woot!! Lets go, amigos!!

Monday!

Pretty chill, just talked to the homies, got shopping done early! 

Comp went through and purged her clothes for when she heads out.

Tuesday!

We had District Council!! This was pretty usual stuff, but the DL switched up the order of how we do things, which was really cool actually, so that was awesome!! Had a very good spirit filled DC.

For lunch we went to Chick-fil-A!!! This is about where I broke my wallet for the pay period.... (that's what happens when you go to Zupas, Chick-fil-A, Out & Out, Jamba Juice, a Mexican place, and Wendy's all in the same week and a half. And when u pay for ur comp at one of the aforementioned restaurants lol) Oh well.... still haven't spent my Christmas money, so it's chill. It was good stuff tho! Definitely miss having the APs in on such things though....

Another event of the day was that I made a new doc that doesn't make me want to throw things!!! We have been invited to use this document that I particularly hate for sharing what our friends' progress looks like with leaders and the likes.

It is called the coordination document.

To anyone who is wondering, the OG [original] doc was the singlehandedly mOST frustrating document I've EVER tried to use in my life. It was digital but was super difficult to edit with ANYTHING, so it was super time consuming to navigate and fill out, and it made me want to scream and tear my HAIR out!!!!

BUT!! Leadership wants us to use it.... SO!!! I created a solution. I made one on my own!!! It's in Google sheets and works like clockwork. Was it time consuming to make?? Yes. But does it save me time in the long run?? Also yes!! BONUS POINTS!!! I don't have to suppress the urge to throw my phone across the room, because I don't have that urge, because it's BEAUTIFUL AND WORKS WELL.

Thank goodness for my own genius, huh? (Also library computers) 

Jk it's not my genius, I swear. I found tools in excel that were exactly what I needed that I didn't know existed. It was the Lord, guys. He's legitimately in everything. Every single detail. It's WILD. But also the best ever.

While we were at the library I checked my home email for any news from FSY, and I got a response to my question, but no word yet on whether or not I'm accepted. The email basically said that all positions (except male counselors) are under consideration still because they need to gauge how many they need or something idk. 

Anyways, that evening we had dinner with the Langs! They are SO COOL!!! We were there forever lol. Super awesome family!! Bonus points, dinner was meatloaf and baked potatoes!! And the Sisters in my OG quad KNOW how much that makes me happy lol. Agatha FINALLY got herself some meatloaf. 😎😋 [inside joke]

After dinner we headed pretty much directly to exchange point. We just stopped by our apartment to grab my suitcase and then were off!!! We started exchanges at 9:30pm in a Target parking lot. I went to the YSA area with Sister McBride, and Sister Zander came to our area with Sister Dye!!! It was awesome!!!

Wednesday!

Exchanges!!

This was the day with arguably the worst snow I've seen the whole time I've been in Wisconsin. But we'll get to that. 

In the YSA [Young Single Adult] area, we do a lot out and about, which was great! But before we even stepped outside, I was regretting not bringing my snow boots. I only brought a single pair of flats, and.... I just had cold feet, that's all. (Cold and wet)

We had a few lessons with their friends, if I remember correctly all of them were over Zoom or Facebook. We were going to have at least one in person, but they never responded.

So we were out and about in the snow pretty much all day, and we definitely got our fair share of drive time. It was awesome. I got the opportunity to remember what it's like to not be the driver, and I hated it; I got so car sick because the STLs make phone calls while they're in the car. I can't do that. Phone and car don't go together unless you're using google maps. That's it. (And tunes of course)

It was really fun to be on exchanges with Sister McBride, though!! I love her so much! She's my "aunt" because her trainer is my trainer's trainer, so my "grandma" is her "mom". Good ole Sister Skousen 😍. I love the mission family tree 😂😂😂.

We were going to go to this frozen custard place to close out the night, but it was closed because of how bad the weather was, so instead we just drove to the Target exchange point and went inside for some snackage. 

I bought this (really stupid expensive) box of chocolate Popsicles, because I still wanted ice cream, but what I didn't realize until after I bit into one was that they were Greek yogurt popsicles. (YUCK!!) I ate my one, and gave everyone else one too. It was a box of 4 so it ended up working out pretty well. :D

I got to drive home in the snow, and I was excited about it, but BOY was the freeway bad or what!!!! The fast lane was pretty much clear, but to get to it you had to drive over these MASSIVE burms of snow, and it was INSANE. 

K, they weren't that big, but it was wild. There was about a foot of snow entirely coating the freeway, minus the fast lane, and the tracks dug and slightly covered by people trying to get on and off the freeway. It was NUTS!! I'm pretty glad Sister Olsen gave me some good snow driving tips back when we were still in Marshfield.

We made it home completely and entirely safely. Only one scary moment on the ice (and that might've been a different day, I don't remember).

Thursday!! 

Pretty much just weekly planning and some cancelled lessons. 

We also had dinner with the Debrouxs, and that was a BLAST!! We had dinner, which was a delicious pot roast with mashed potatoes and broccoli and JELLOOOOOO; it was SO good the whole thing. Absolutely delicious. Made up in part for my family having roast without me this week and telling me about it. 😂😂😂

While we were waiting for the brownies to come out of the oven we played this fun game called Tapped 4!! You could feasibly play it with face cards, so I will indeed be doing that. We thoroughly enjoyed that game.

The brownies were excellent as well, and then we played our telestrations game with them for the lesson! They're awesome!!!

We had a lesson with our amigo Pierre on the way home from dinner which went well! Only had one slight scare in the middle of the prayer on the ice, but all is well when the Lord is on your side.

Friday!!

A busy day, to be sure!!

The first lesson was an SPF [short powerful frequent member message] with Sister Brooks!! That was really good, and then while we were still there we had a call with our friend Stella and had Sister Brooks participate in the call. It was more of we were all participants in Sister Brooks' call tbh [to be honest], but that's okay; Stella seemed to roll with it, so that's good.

We had a District Leader call in the car afterwards and just stayed outside Sister Brooks' house around the corner, and apparently Sister Brooks could still see us. 😂 so, when Sister Eberhardt stopped by, she told her to come and say hello, which she did. I got out to say hello while Sister Dye stayed on the call, and then she went to get back into her car, and I got back in ours, and the DL asked if we had tried inviting her to any lessons.

I immediately hopped out of the car and went to ask. She said not for that day, but to ask maybe some other time. 😳🤩

The rest of the DL call was good. 😁 Right when we were leaving Sister Brooks called and told us that we totally should have just stayed inside where it was warm to have our call, and to come back in if we were just making calls! We told her thanks but we're on our way to our next place now! She's so sweet haha! It's hard to get out of her place tho! We were inside for an hour and a half before heading out because the DLs called us. It's always a party in Lake Mizzy!!! [Lake Michigan ward area]

The rest of our lessons didn't happen unfortunately, but that's okay. We had a BOMb member meal to make up for it. 😎

We had dinner with the Houdeks!! They're AWESOME!!! Some of my favorites in the ward for sure!!! They took us to Olive Garden which was so fun! The wait to get a table was nearly eternal, but I was MORE worried about the weight I'd take home with me afterwards. 😂😂 Olive Garden doesn't do portion control.

While we were waiting and sitting on the nice benches they have in their lobby, I finally got the guts to talk to the people next to us. It was a cute little family from the Steven's Point area! Their son was there to compete in the State Swimming competition. We didn't share any gospel principles (regretttttt) but we had some really good and genuine conversations!! When you share the gospel, folks, sHARE IT! Learn from my mistakes and never miss an opportunity to teach!

Dinner was BOMB tho, I was so full. We took leftovers for the road, and went back to their house to share a message.

I actually got home and realized I didn't have my bag and started freaking out. I thought i left it at the Houdek's, but I realized I actually left it under the table at Olive Garden. 😳😬 So we rushed back there with many prayers and pleadings and GOT IT BACK, HALLELUJAH!! I was pretty worried. Everything was still there it was a miracle.

Saturday!

We started the day of enTIRELY packed full of lessons, but as per usual, a few cancelled or didn't answer, so the day ended up being a little more manageable.

The first lesson we had was with our friend Deb. Darling Sister Eberhardt picked her up, and we met in Sister Eberhardt's home for the lesson. It was supposed to be a Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, but we only barely got through the 4th principle, and we were there for 2 hours. 🤯😳

She shared some pretty deep personal stories, and we were able to help her as much as we could. The lesson related pretty well to what she was talking about, but we're going to review it again next time because we never finished it haha.

Sister Eberhardt is an angel and had snackage and hot cocoa that she brought to the table about halfway through. Oooooooh was her lemon bundt cake good or what?? Absolute heaven it was. I had like 4 slices of it. (They were ultra thin slices, I promise)

We had a lesson with Stephen planned after that, but he cancelled, so we just shared a message with the members who were going to participate instead! It was the Hunzekers; they're so cool! We're super grateful for them!! We were also THERE for over an hour which was wild, but after that we headed directly to the Otto's for dinner!! We were there pretty early so we parked down the road and did some work on our phones before flipping around and pulling up to their house. 

Brother Otto pulled up at the same time and had us come through the garage instead of the front door, and Sister Otto had us immediately come help her plan her RS lesson while she finished cooking. That was super fun!!!

Dinner was really good; it was taco soup, and because of how busy their schedule was, they didn't have time for a message! So we're planning to go back sometime this week and just share a message. :D

Sunday!!!

Church was excellent! We had Deb and Stephen there, as well as ALL of our recent converts! First time since I've been here they've all been there at once!! It was AMAZING!!

Church itself was super good, don't have time to get into it really, but we had a linger longer after church which was so fun! a lotsa food! I made a raspberry drink which was an absolute HIT -- it was gone pretty dang fast 😂. It was really fun to be there!!!

You can hear about today next week because I want to talk to my family longer.

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/