Death 🪦 & New Life 🌱

"HELLO... HELLO... HELLO. cHiLDrEN. 😠" 

lol jk jk. We're not doing the Count Olaf vibes today. 😂😂

HELLO, my incredible friends and family!! I hope your week has been AMAZING!! Mine sure has been! It's also been ridiculously crazy busy lol. What a wild week!!

So in terms of my email title, for the second part, we'll get to that, but for the first part, this has been my comp's last full week of her mission. An absolutely crazy thing, because I'm to follow suit here not long after. ...I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. In the mission, when you go home, you "Die", so my companion is dying, and I'm the one "killing" her. (Hense the foreboding mention of death lol)

But anyways, for those of you who know what "My Plan" is, I've already started it, and I am on the second week. Not a fan of the implications there lol.

(For those of you who don't know, using an online course, you essentially make a plan during the last 6 weeks of your mission of what life will look like for you when you go home. The implications? That I'm going home in 6 weeks. ....5 now.)

Anywho, it's super strange being the younger comp on my second to last transfer, but that will not long be true!!

On to the week!

Monday!!

Last Monday was not too crazy, but I was busy chatting with friends and calling the fam, etc etc. So I didn't take the time to write about it. It wasn't anything much, but it was a good pday. My comp, Sister Dye, spent preeeetty much the whole day packing what she wasn't going to use this week. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Understandable.

We did have a member meal at 5:00p though, which shortened my pDAY hours by a good bit. Still have after 9:00p, but it's not quite the same.

We went to the Knutsen's!! And HOLYYYYY moly their house has some EPIC stuff! You probably all saw them in last week's pictures, but they have like 10 Harry Potter Lego sets built and set up as decor all around their house. They're EPIC and I desire to have the same thing in my home one day. I stinkin love Harry Potter, and Legos, so I see it as an absolute win.

Anywho, that was Monday! :D

Tuesday!!

Tuesday was a weird day. 😂 We had district council, but instead of having it at 10am like normal people, we had it at 4:30pm. And instead of going out for district LUNCH, we went out for district DINNER. That was ALSO weird. The ZLs [Zone Leaders] ALSO joined us. As you can see, it was a wild ride. 😂

All in all it was still fun, though! We went to Chick-fil-A -- always a good option. Did my comp and I feel a wee bit like outcasts from our district? Yeah... maybe a little. Nothing new tho.... this district is fun, but not equally balanced. 😅😥 That's what happens when you're the only non-leader companionship in the district. (APs [Assistants to the Pres], DLs [District Leaders], STLs [Sister Training Leaders], and this time, ZLs) 

Oh well. Anywho, the rest of the day was pretty normal, I guess haha! We had an SPF [Short, Powerful, Frequent/member mini-lesson] with Sister Brooks which is always fun! We had also gone to the library, and there was an art display from the schools there!! SUPER cool stuff; it was so fun to wander around and see all the art!!!! Reminds me of the good ole days. 🤪😎

We also slept over at the STLs this evening. This was entirely unplanned, but at District Dinner the ZLs asked if we could carpool with em, and we said sure, so we went home and packed lol.

It wasn't the most exciting sleepover in the world, but it happened, so that's cool I guess.

Wednesday!

Wednesday was Zone Conference. Why we had DC and Zone Conference the same week? Idk, never done that before. 😂 

This ZC was different tho. Brother Littlefield, who described himself as "a glorified MTC teacher for Mission Presidents" came and talked to us!! It was 3 zones, so half the mission on Wednesday, and the other half on Thursday. It was kinda crazy! But it was so cool! He had a lot to say and share, and I have a TON of notes!! It got me ALL fired up!! Lol as ZC usually does 😂😂😂

We were there from 8:15am until about 3:30 ish. We were lucky that we didn't have to drive the whole way that morning, the poor folks in the Madison and Kenosha areas had to drive SO FAR. We just drove for 15 min with the STLs.

There were SOOOOOO many people there I hadn't seen in a fat while!! I saw Sister Olsen, and Sister Horton, Sister Laumea and Sister Clegg!! Elder Gonzalez and Elder Beals, Sister Munson and Sister Woodruff.... SO MANY AMAZING MISSIONARIES!!! And of course that's not even counting the incredible missionaries in my own Zone, like Sister Ensign and Orozco, Elder Morrill and Baird, etc etc. I stinkin ADORE the missionaries in this mission. Best mission out there, no cap.

Anyways, afterwards, we headed out with the STLs who had to go to the mission office, and got to see a bunch of missionaries who showed up there as well 😂😂 I met one of (I've heard??) two Elders that is going home with me; we didn't know each other at all, so I was like, "whelp, see you in 6 weeks Elder." He's all, "copy that". (Not really, but the vibes)

THEN we headed back to the STLs apartment and grabbed our stuff and then headed directly to Cedarburg for dinner with the Hohnekes.

Funny story, the Port Washington Elders go up through Cedarburg to get back to their area, and apARENTLY, they were RIGHT next to us for a good portion of the time. They even took a selfie with us from their car (included, of course), and Elder Davis stuck his head out the window and waved at us like a hooligan when they were next to us at one point. I was too focused on the road to notice, and my comp was reading her BoM. 😂😂 Whoops. We felt really bad we missed em.

Dinner was GREAT tho!! We went to Out & Out again, and this time I got a salad. It was pretty okay, but I think I prefer their Mac. 😂 I did get a strawberry Malt tho, and THAT was delicious. If I'm ever in Cedarburg with my next comp, I'm totally taking her there.

After dinner we headed back to our apartment, but on the way made a split second decision and drove to Sister Brooks' instead. We had a lesson with Adriene over the phone and talked about the GoJC!! (Gospel of Jesus Christ) It was awesome!

We then drove directly to Bro Jensen's for Coordination. That went well lol mostly... the Zoom call part went well, but afterwards we were telling Brother Jensen about ZC earlier in the day, and we made the comment, "ah, dang I can't remember what we wanted to tell you about, our brains are fried; it's been a long day..." and he goes, "Then get outta here! Go home if your brains are fried." I don't think he meant it to be... snippy, but oh boy did it come across that way. We practically ran out the door with our metaphorical tails between our legs. ...what an adventure.

Anywho 😂. By the time we got home, it had been 24 hours since we'd been in our apartment. And what a crazy 24 hours it was.

Thursday!!

We had a lesson with our friend Deb that morning, and... I'm just going to copy and paste the lesson report here, it does a good enough job 😂😂😂.

"WENT SO WELLLLLLLL! We reviewed the GoJC, and asked her if she wanted to be baptized!! She said YES AND ON NEXT LITERAL TUESDAY OH MY GOODNESSSS!!

So that's hype, we also taught CPR and mentioned the bap interview questions. We also ended up teaching her about missionary work as well, after she asked us about how missionary service works. We explained and told her that anyone can be a missionary!

We also explained and taught about baptism and confirmation."

As you can tell, I wrote the lesson report. 🤣 (That is only half true; Sis Dye did the end of it lol) It was AWESOME tho!!! So, that is a HUGE part of why our week was so stressful! trying to figure things out for a baptism that is happening literally TOMORROW. Not to mention, that's the actual LAST DAY OF TRANSFERS, HOLY HECKKKKK!! Sis Dye gets to see ONE MORE BAPTISM before she goes home!!!

In other news, this is the first baptism that I was a part of the whole thing. I taught Cody and Sam, but they were baptized either in a different ward, or after I left. Eliana I just showed up for the baptism basically lol; I didn't do any of the teaching. Jackie I helped put on date, and taught the first 4 lessons, but we passed her off, and I was lucky enough to still be able to attend her baptism.

But Deb??? Holy cow.... I was here when we "found" her; Sister Dye and I taught her ALL the lessons; and we set up her baptism. By the time she's baptized, she would only have been taught for 2 and a half weeks. A LITERAL miracle baptism!!!!

Anyways, so that's super exciting. She is also part of the title. Baptism is a death of our past sins, and a resurrection and new life for us!! So that is super exciting!!

The rest of Thursday was far less exciting... We had weekly planning!!! (Actually exciting)! But then just a bunch of canceled lessons. 😅😥

Friday!!

Friday was also insane. We had a lesson with Deb that morning, just a scripture read really. We read 1 Nephi 4 with her, which was where she was on her own, which honestly, I didn't think she was that far, so that really shows commitment, I'm so hyped for her.

Anywho, that went well! We had a lesson with our friend Amber pretty shortly after that!! She's recovering from surgery, so if you could keep her in your prayers, that would be amazing.

We had another lesson with Deb that evening where we showed her the font, and Sister Hunzeker helped her pick out a robe to wear to be baptized in.

We taught as many principles as we could there and then headed out to dinner with the Hunzekers after they dropped Deb off!! They took us to this place called Prime Minister in Theinsville! It was super good. We all ordered steak. I LOVE steak. Also, I have now learned what the difference between the cuts are, and I will not order prime ribs again. (Too fatty) 

I miss my dad's rump roast though.... honestly nothing compares to that. ...they just had it last week without me. *sniff* 😭

Anyways, that was it for the day because we got home from dinner at 9:00p. 🤯

Saturday!

This one ain't going a play by play because it was too crazy for that, so we're just gunna short list it.

We had three lessons with Deb, one of which was her interview. In which she passed!! 😍😎🤯🥳 in the others we finished teaching her the principles.

The rest of the day was literally jam packed of cancelled lessons, which was a big L, but that's a'ight, we'll make it through. 😉😁

We had a member meal with the Galindos which was great! But we primarily just ate by ourselves; they ordered us Chinese, just us. Then Hermano Galindo went out and worked on his car, and Hermana Galindo tended the grandkiddos in the other room.

Bonus points, Hermana Galindo ONLY speaks Spanish, so I had to use my sub par Spanish to ask for things when I needed to. Catch me saying, "Donde está sal?" And hermana Galindo reflexively going, "...la sal-? Sí-" and going OFF in Spanish, in the which she basically told me that if we needed anything else we could just walk down the long hallway to get her instead of calling down the hallway, "....hERMANA GALINDO???"

Yikes 😂. I definitely don't speak Spanish. Hermano Galindo told us we could call and come over anytime for an hour Spanish practice time FREE. ...might take him up on it; we'll see. 😂🤣

We also called a bunch of people that night to try and share messages. Set up a few times to call back! But no finds. At least not yet!!! :D

Sunday!!

Also stupid crazy busy! Let's get into list form cause that's all I have the patience for rn [right now]. 😂😂😂

- had a really good personal study

- had a scripture study with Deb in the morning

- reached out to some people about attending church and about rides

- Headed to the church building for choir practice

- Deb called us worried because her ride cancelled (go figure. She HAD to come to church too because this was Sunday number 3, and if she didn't come her baptism would have to be postponed. 😵‍💫😨)

- we frantically called peeps until we found her a ride. (We only panicked for a second... and uh ...definitely didn't have a member get mad at us for asking. 😅😭)

- we somewhat reluctantly attended choir practice

- Church was good!! Deb was the only one who came, but she MADE IT!! Several people stopped and said hi to her!

- they also announced her baptism on Tuesday at 6:00p!

- Sunday School was excellent as always when Brother Morris is teaching. Had a great discussion on the parable of the sower

- after church we hung out with Deb at the church building for 45 minutes while we waited to leave to the stake center.

- we watched YSA's baptism of their friend Niko, and Deb was able to come!! She loved it!

- after the baptism there were refreshments and then we practiced a musical number with the Hmong Elders!! (Maybe peep it on fb soon???)

- WHY ARE THE HMONG ELDERS SO MUSICALLY GIFTEDDDDDDDDD???? BEAUTIFUL VOICE AND PIANO TALENTS!!!!! It is an absolute honor to sing with them. @Elder Baird and Elder Morrill *chef's kiss*

- we headed to dinner with the Divelbiss'! We made pizzas and played our Telestrations resto [Restoration] game with them!! Had a great time!!

- we headed home and made some calls

- and last but not least....

WE HOPPED ON MISSION PRAYERRRR!

Our zone was presenting this week, and for the first time since Marshfield, and probably my second/third time EVER, we presented!! We talked about Deb and the absolute MIRACLE that she is!!!! She's inCREDIBLE guys! An absolute miracle.

After the miracles were shared and such, we got transfer news. The usual.

It's a wild one. My comp is going home so I'm getting a new comp for my last transfer! She was Sister Olsen's MTC comp, and was trained by the most AMAZING Sister McGary!!! Her name is Sister Sutherland.

It should be awesome! That's my sister in the mission tree! My mission family tree has overlapped my whole mission; it's wild 😂😂😂.

Good stuff. Hopefully a new set of eyes in this area will bring some of that new life my header talks about, eh? Instead of being the two old geezers of the zone? 🤣 Now just one old geezer lol. And this time it's ME! (*screeching* 😭😭)

Anywho, pday is going to be a wild one, gotta scrub this place goooood. Also gotta figure out what the heck is going on in general here....

TUESDAY WILL BE HECKA LIT THO!! PLEASE Y'ALL PRAY FOR DEB!! She is a miracle and a half, and I can't wait to see her receive the blessings of baptism!!!

Now go forth and SEE MIRACLES!! They're EVERYWHERE!!

ooh! That reminds me! Before I bid you adieu, there was a super cool string of miracles on the way to Niko's baptism today! 

We were DEFINITELY going to be like 10ish minutes late, but I said a prayer in my heart and asked Heavenly Father to help us make it in time to see the baptism part.

I kid you not, we hit every single green light. Absolutely insane.

Also, I was... *ahem* speeding a little, and kinda following this one car that was also speeding. But then a slow car merged in front of me and kinda drove me bonkers for a second.

That is, until a cop pulled out in front of the slow group I was in the midst of, and pulled over my speed buddy. I'm not saying that the Lord endorses speeding, as a matter of fact, the opposite. But He sure kept me safe from getting an unwanted and untimely possible ticket. Count your blessings, folks, even if they're disguised as someone who cuts you off and proceeds to drive below the speed limit.

Miracles are legitimately everywhere; you just have to be willing to open your eyes to see them.

Anywho 😂😂 What a way to end off, huh?? I hope y'all have an amazing week!! I can't wait to hear from you all!! 

❤️❤️❤️

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/

Photos there will be. I will label them in Google photos, but I really don't want to do that rn [right now].

I love you all so much!! Feel free to email me and say hi! :D