Homeward Bound ❤️

Hello! So last week I didn't get a chance to talk about the last bit of our week, so we'll review that really quickly. Which in turn, makes this in true Sister Lovell fashion, a MEGA long email. Good luck; may my spelling be ever in your favor. 😂😂😂

Friday!

Not much going on. We had two lessons, and one of them we had our bestie Savannah join in on! It was just a phone call, but it went so well!!

Saturday

The first day of!! GENERAL CONFERENCEEEE!!!

We were so excited!! It was AMAZING!! For the morning and afternoon session, we watched at the Hunzeker's! They made us lunch in between sessions of homemade hamburgers. Absolutely excellent. I had two. (They were rather small)

General Conference itself was the best ever. Watching it as a missionary is just the best thing ever. I love it so so much!!!!

After the second session ended we were initially supposed to go to the Otto's for dinner and possibly the third session, but they were still driving home from their spring break, so we went to Zupas instead 🤣🤣. It was excellent.

We came home and watched the third session on our couch. It was a wee bit glitchy, but it turned out alright. :D

It ended sooner than anticipated, so we ended up making some calls that evening. We found someone! It was insane!! That was awesome!

Sunday!

More General Conference!!! Two more AMAZING sessions that we watched, yet again, with the Hunzekers!! They're amazing! We had lasagna for lunch, which was super good. (I'm hyped for my dad's tho. ;) )

We had peach cobbler right before we left, and it was delicious!! The Hunzekers are way too good to us!!!

That evening we just made some calls, and then hopped on good ole mission prayer! My last normal one, as the next one is transfer calls.

Monday!

This was an awesome day!! For me it started at 6am, because I woke up on my own, and figured.... well... I got business to take care of!! And started writing last week's email right then lol.

After that, around 9:00a, we left to get our shopping done. (All I bought was milk; I don't need much else lol)

Then we went to the laundromat, and I did nearly ALL of my laundry. I washed like 80% of my clothes, so it was like, 4-5 loads in one fat washer. Then I split it in half for the dryer because it never works with a full load. (Still didn't work completely. 😂)

Then we went home, and I put all of it away while my comp called her fam.

After I finished, I chatted with a few folks, then called my own fam! I knew it would be a busy day, so I wanted to make sure I talked to them. :D

Mom and Dad hopped on, but Daniel was at school, so I didn't expect him to. :) Much to our surprise, he DID hop on a few minutes later! He was in choir, and I got to say hello to my favoritest choir teacher in the world! Mr. Curtis!! He's the best. I've talked to him several times on my mission because of choir related activities going on while I call. 🤣🤣🤣

Anywho, Daniel hopped off after saying hello himself, and I talked to mom and dad for a little while longer before I had to head out.

"But why did you have to head out?" you say? Oh, just wait. It was awesome.

First things first, we went to the post office, so I could mail my one box of desk supplies and books etc home. Then we drove to Brookfield's Chick-fil-A! We were planning to meet all the Sisters there for lunch.

Unfortunately, we went to the wrong one, so we moved the tables back, and booked it off another 15 min towards the other one.

We arrived (not last, surprisingly) and ordered food, then sat down with the Brookfield and YSA Sisters!! After eating for a little bit, I realized I wasn't the fondest of the drink I had ordered. It was the seasonal Watermelon Mint drink. I decided to go up to the counter and ask if they would exchange it for me.

They asked the manager, and the worker came back and said they don't normally do that, but they would for me today. 😍😁 So I asked for the frosted strawberry lemonade drink, and waited for a bit, before deciding I didn't want my chicken nuggets getting cold, so I returned to my group and seat.

A few minutes later, they brought my drink, and much to my delight and surprise, a FREE SHAKE GIFT CARD!!!!! 🤯😍🥹😭

I was thrilled!!! It made my day!! 

I pocketed the gift card and enjoyed my drink and the rest of my meal.

After most of us had finished, the Waukesha quad showed up. They ordered theirs to go, and we all headed back to the Stake Center for the rest of our activity!! 

The activity in question?? Why, painting Book of Mormons of course!! 😍😂 It was so fun. I was painting one for Sister Orozco, because she wanted me to. I found an EPIC reference photo and got to work!! It was a bit of a struggle bus there, but I did what I could. The whole activity was so fun!! It was nice to hang out with all the other Sisters in the Zone.

I didn't finish mine, so I brought it home to work on. (Spoiler, I've now finished it!! I'll include pictures for sure!)

For dinner we went to the Groll's!! They're the most DARLING newly married couple on the PLANET!!! I love them so much. We had a meal I'd never had before! I'm not even sure what it was, but it was pretty good!!

Afterwards we shared the 1 Nephi 1:1 and 2 Nephi 32:3 message and talked about conference and patriarchal blessings! We invited them to study theirs in a new way!! I would invite yous to do the same!! Patriarchal blessings are so cool!!! They're personal scripture from God!! How cool is that?!! 

If you don't know what a patriarchal blessing is, or you don't have one, I'd invite you to study a passage of scripture that stands out to you particularly!! Relate it to your life, and listen for what God is trying to say to you!!!

I promise that if you do, He will provide you with the guidance you need in your life, and you will receive answers to questions you have, and even some you didn't know you had!!

I can promise that, as a missionary of Jesus Christ, and I say these things in His name!!

Anywho, it was awesome.

On our way home from their darling place, we checked our messages and realized that President Hansen had messaged us. He asked if he could come over to our apartment and drop something off.

We messaged him that we'd be driving right by his place, and we could stop by and pick it up if he liked, but he didn't respond, and in the split second where we were deciding whether or not to go by his house anyways, I told Sis Sutherland to just drive home. Pretty suddenly lol. It was the Spirit, I tell you.

Anyways, we got home at 9:00p, and we hurriedly cleaned what needed to be cleaned before he got there.

He arrived at 9:30ish, and we welcomed him inside!! He dropped off what he needed to, and then he said a kneeling prayer w/ and for us!! It was the most tender, heartfelt prayer ever!!! I love and look up to my mission president; he's so amazing. 

We also followed up about our invitation from when we came and shared a message with them! He told us about it and how it had been going. It was an awesome experience. One I'm not liable to forget.

Lol but because of that, I only got to talk to my fam for like 25 minutes that evening. I was pretty grateful I'd called them earlier.

I also speed sent the rest of my email, which is why this one has such a massive recap lol.

NOW!! ONTO THIS WEEK!!

Tuesday!

We had district council of course, which was amazing as always. I was asked to give a standard [Missionary Standards handbook] training, and I gave it on communicating with family back home. I invited everyone to share a short simple message and give an invitation to their families next time they called them. They said they would!

Really cool experience there, actually; one of the Elders, who was conducting, afterwards got up and said that my training was an answer to one of his prayers. That was incredible to me. I had felt more confident in that training than in any other that I had ever given, so I was pretty happy to hear that. :) The Spirit plays a huge role in such things.

After that, we went to Qdoba for lunch. It's basically an expensive, dumbed down version of Café Río or Costa Vida. It was eh. Shoulda gotten a kids meal 😂. It was fun tho! Our district was definitely sQUEEEEEEzing into the booth; there were 10 of us, and appx. 8 actual seats, so we pulled up an extra chair, and then the comp and I shared a section.

It was fun. :D

After that we went to the library and did some computer work, and then left for Sister Brooks! We had a good lesson with her, of course, and we were only there for probably an hour this time haha!

We came home for dinner and then went to the church building for mutual!! It was actually a blessing we were there, because there was only one leader, and she was a little worried about that. 

We just played volleyball and then sat in a circle while they discussed girls camp plans!! Man, I miss camp....

Anyways that was super fun!!

Not much going on on Wednesday, but we did have interviews with President Hansen over Zoom that day!! It was awesome!! I love talking to President. :) haha, it was like, long time no see! 😂 (from Monday)

The only other exciting thing was that we FINALLYYYY got to go to the Jensens for DINNER!!! It was the BEST!!!! 😍😍😍 We had the BEST time with them; it was so awesome. We shared an Easter message using President Nelson's Easter video about forgiveness on Facebook! Y'all should definitely go give it a watch. :)

We also had my last ward coordination right afterwards. 

Thursday! 

This day was wacko. We had 8 lessons that day; 4 of them were SPFs, and 3 of them were with investigators who didn't answer/cancelled. BUT!! We had ONE investigator lesson that happened, that had a member in it!! It was AWESOME!!

Our goal this last week was 8 members in our investigator lessons. We have previously been riding at about..... 0 each week, with the occasional 1. We decided to forget any hold backs, ALL gas, NO brakes, and just ALWAYS ask. So we did! We ended the week with 6 members in lessons. Which wasn't 8, but we gave it our all, and that is some inSANE progress.

So this day where we had 4 investigating lessons, we got members in for all of them! But 3 of the peeps just didn't answer. 😅😥 Unfortunate. But the youth whom we had invited for each lesson said they were still more than willing to join another lesson sometime! And to just let them know! 😍🥳

The lessons covered the whole day, so the only other thing that happened was that we did a roleplay with Brookfield in the morning, and then good ole ✨️WEEKLY PLANNING!!✨️ It was my last weekly planning session. 😥 So sad. I just now realized that.... ....oh well 😔. Mom said I can do weekly planning with her at home. 😂

Friday

Another truly crazy day. 

The morning was chill enough, just studies and the likes; posted a question of the day on Facebook according to the schedule, which may or may not have actually happened.... but I did that this last week, and I really enjoyed everyone's answers! The Old Testament one got the most answers, which means that it was a good question. 😂 Now to come up with another!

The afternoon is where things started to get a little chaotic.

We had Hannah Divelbiss join us for a lesson that was a Book of Mormon drop off, but that lady cancelled, so instead we went and knocked the doors of people who used to be taught in the past! To see if they were interested again! We didn't have much success until we got to a retirement building. 

We did get an answer at the 2nd door we tried, but she has had a very difficult life, lots of mental and physical trauma, so she just kept repeating herself over and over, so we gave her a BoM, and told her to read it. It would bring her peace. She said she would. We verified her number; Hannah said a prayer, and then we booked it lol.

Hannah thought it was very interesting! I was worried she'd be mentally scarred, but nah she was chillin. 

Hannah actually drove us everywhere, so we saved on miles, and she got to see what all of this was like! So just remember that she's there. She didn't say much, but we didn't have any sit down lessons where we could ask her to share something, so it was a little tough.

Haha! After that we had knocked on a door, and the guy only spoke Spanish, NO English, so I whipped out my "Hablas español?" He says, "sí!" Then I go, [clears throat] "Nosotros somos misioneros para la iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los últimos días!" He's all, "ohh! Sí! Sí!" 

And then I s t r u g g l e d. That's all I got, guys 😂. My Spanish is sub par. As we have learned m u l i t i p l e t i m e s. Idk why I keep trying. 🤣🤣🤣 Man, I just need to memorize a few more phrases so I can just... spew Spanish. Someone wanna teach me?? I know a couple of you know Spanish... 👀

Anyways, when we got to this 55+ senior building, we asked the folks in the lobby which way to the room we were looking for. They pointed us in the correct direction, and we knocked that door to no avail. We then knocked another door that had a sign about prayer on it just for fun, also to no avail.

We went out to the lobby and asked the people if THEY were interested (talk to everyone right? 😉); they were not, but they thanked us for the offer! We tried the other building in the same parking lot, but that one had a locked main door. So we headed back to the car. We got in and looked where we were going next, only to realize we didn't have to go anywhere. It was in the same building as the first one. 😂😂😂

So we clambered back out of the car and walked back into the now empty lobby. We used the elevator this time; this door was on floor two. We walked down the hallway, only to realize we'd gone the wrong direction, but we decided to make the best of it and knock a door that had a nativity statue on her front... shelf thing she had.

She ANSWERED!! We gave her a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet to read, and she said she would love for us to come back sometime! We got her phone and room numbers, and then headed to the other door.

The best part about the first lady there, was that she had an absolutely ADORABLE black cat named Thor. He was the fluffiest cat I've ever pet in my life!! I want one just like him. 

The second lady ALSO answered her door! She was busy, so she said to reach out again in two weeks, but we verified her number with her before we left! Turns out we had had it wrong, so it was a highly effective visit.

We went back downstairs to the Lobby and there were two NEW people there! We talked to them both and got their numbers too! The lady isn't super interested, but the guy said he'd be interested in coming to church and learning more! So that's progress!! 

We then visited maybe one or two more doors, with no luck. The 55+ place gave us the most success for sure.

That evening we drove to the Vaughn's for dinner but parked just outside their complex so we could have a lesson over the phone with someone. Sister Hunzeker joined us for it, and it went pretty well, but the lady definitely wasn't interested. We ended with the, "we say this in the name ... amen." and she promptly hung up. No closing prayer, no any questions, no can we meet again, just gone. But hey! It went well anyways, so it worked out. We got a member involved, and really, that made it infinitely easier for us to accept the defeat.

After that we pulled the car into the Vaughn's complex's parking lot and parked by them and went and had dinner with them! Their dad is out of the country, so we had dinner with mom and the three kids. It was fun! They are super cute! It was bacon wrapped hotdogs with black beans and coleslaw?? I think on top of them! It was kinda like a chilli dog, but with a different flavor! I did not have a bacon wrapped one. A hot dog was enough pork for me 😂

After that we booked it to the church so we could watch the Jensen's kid get baptized! He's so precious; it was cool to be there! Their kids invited us to come, so we made it a point. We didn't have any friends we're teaching come, unfortunately, but that's okay.

That night we had a lesson with Pierre over Zoom, and we had brother Mains join! We did the Easter message we did with the Jensens, and that went well! We definitely couldn't hear it, but they could, so that's good. 😂 Zoom is strange.

Saturday 

This day was also crazy but in a different way. We just made a million phone calls. Our whole schedule is covered in green contact reports; it's nuts.

We also had a lesson in person with Deb and Karina, and Deb gave each of us pictures of her she found in her room to remember her by. It is from her junior year of highschool! She's darling. She also gave me one to give to Sister Dye when I go home and see her eventually.

Sunday!

Easter! What a great day!! 

We started off with studies and such, and then contacted people to make sure they were still coming to church, or to invite them!

Then we went to choir practice for the song we would be singing that day.

Church itself was amazing!! I was priorly invited to bear my testimony, (Actually they asked Sister Sutherland, but she pointed out it would be my last Sunday, and they had me do it instead 😂.) They announced [that this would be my last Sunday.]

I bore my testimony about Easter and the opportunity I had received to share the gospel and be a representative of our Savior. 

After me, Brother Hohneke spoke about his conversion to Christ! It was so powerful! Definitely very heartfelt.

Then we sang our musical number, which was "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" to the tune of "Angels We Have Heard On High"! It was pretty cool, actually!

After that Ange gave her farewell talk!! She did so well! It was hilarious 😂. She is so cool. 

She doesn't leave til, I think, May? So it ended up being more like my farewell because the ward all came and swarmed me after and gave me hugs. 😂

We had Pierre and Stephen come to church which was actually a miracle!!! 

After church we talked to everyone possible before dipping [leaving]. We got home and tried to call Terry, who was supposed to come to church w/ 3 others. He didn't answer so we called some yellow dots [people who have said they were interested].

Then over our lunch we called home for Easter, which was awesome! I love talking to my family!! (We didn't eat anything because of the following)

We immediately left for dinner afterwards because it was at 4:00p. 😂 This is what happens when church is at noon and the ward invites you to their dinner party again.

It was definitely a party that's for sure. The Ottos hosted, and the Gabors and Davises were there as well! Sister Sutherland and I found ourselves at the guys table on accident lol. It was adults table and kids table, and all the wives were still doing kitchen work, so we just sat at the table with their husbands. 😂😂😂 The wives joined us eventually lol. The guys were good conversationalists tho!!

They did a fun Easter tradition where we act out each day! (Except for the atonement itself; we just watched a video for that.) It was fun! I got to act as an angel at the tomb!

After that, we headed home and made a bunch more calls. Mostly just trying to pass the time while we waited for the transfer call to start. 😂

Transfer call eventually came, but President Jacobs shared a personal story about his life first! It was super cool! We're starting a new thing as a mission because of it! Long story short, yous know about the cancer bell peeps get to ring when they're cancer free?? The mission bought a big ole bell, and now each Sunday night before we do the miracles we'll ring the bell for each person who got baptized that week!! There were SEVENTEEN in the mission this week!! Crazy!! 

Haha they had technical difficulties with getting the bell to actually sound through the mic, but Pres Jacobs googled it and figured it out. It's awesome!!

Anyways, transfer calls were insane. Legit none of you know anyone or anything that is happening, but the thing I was most excited about, was Elder Painter back in Steven's Point got transferred to, I think, Green Bay, but not just aNY Green Bay transfer; he got transferred to be in a HMONG companionship!!! 

They shared the story over the call, and basically they don't want to close a Hmong area, but they're short one Hmong companion, so they made Elder Painter be English with a Hmong. BUT!! Apparently, Elder Painter has been studying Hmong for several transfers now with the app the Hmong Elders use. So he already knows some Hmong. 

That's insane. He's so cool. He's gunna kill it!!

Anyways, the rest of everything was chaotic as well; they moved the SAP (Sister APs/Sister Assistants to the President); they're having 4 APs instead of 2, (so 6 including three SAPs); and just chaos.

Sister Loveridge (in the same zone as us) is taking my place here in Lake Mizzy. (We actually have the same bday! :D) 

Anywho, that's about all I wanna mention, but it's nowhere near all the chaos that happened.

Today!

We're gunna go hang out with Hannah and Savannah today after lunch! It's going to be awesome!! We haven't entirely decided what we're going to do, but it'll be good!

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Sorry for the long one this week; this is the longest I think I have ever written. I actually maxed out the number of characters I'm allowed in my Google keep notes, which is where I usually write my email lol.

This is the last weekly email I am writing from Wisconsin. I'll probably write one next Monday or so as a farewell/closer or whatever, but this is goodbye from Wisconsin.

I'm sure yous want to know how I feel about going home, but it suffices me to say that it's all in the Lord's time. I know whatever He has in store for me next will be just as exciting. :)

It's been a wild ride. Thanks for joining me on this journey. ❤️

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/

Pictures have captions on them in my photos.