Everyone Knows Someone in Colorado: Week 38: 5/5/14

May 5, 2014

Cheyenne, WY

A funny thing about Wyoming. On the transfer van from Loveland to Cheyenne, as soon as we crossed the border into Wyoming we saw our first snow flurries, and I am sure the speed of the wind doubled. While I was actually beginning a tan in Longmont (you might not believe it because I am still white, but I definitely have a watch line) my first day in Cheyenne became a blizzard! However, it has warmed up since Tuesday and been downright pleasant the past couple of days. I am not holding my breath about that being permanent though. This is one of those places where they occasionally have snow on the 4th of July.

Speaking of holidays with creative names, happy Cinco de Mayo! Sadly this ward doesn't have the Spanish group, so I am missing what I am sure would be an awesome party. Speaking of other important days, the anniversary of my wonderful, fabulous parents was on Thursday and they are still amazing and loving and happy and the best parents in the world! Also, today is Elder Garrett's birthday over in West Virginia. We have been friends since...3rd grade? I am sure he is doing great work over there. Tomorrow is happy birthday to my new companion, Sister Linsenmann!

Alright, I will try to bring you up to speed on the craziness of my life this past week. Monday involved a lot of packing and cleaning and last things to get done. It also involved overwhelming Elder Hanson with telling him all sorts of things about the people in the Ute Creek ward, which we did in addition to writing sticking notes all over the area book. We also discovered that though we had assumed we could squeeze a few things in to the morning before transfers on Tuesday, I was going to need to be in Loveland at 10am to catch the transfer van up to Cheyenne! Ah! Rearrange and reschedule and I think we got everything covered. Awesome farewell dinner with Sister Pickerell, some goodbye lessons and off to bed with us.

We got to see the S's on our way out of town, and they offered to send me with a gallon of water because apparently it isn't the same in Wyoming ;) That was a true statement, but it isn't too bad. I was a little freaked out this morning when I looked at my cup

[by the way, how do you get Sister DeFord to drink more water? Get her a Captain America cup!]

and saw this

My water had separated into two layers! What is this craziness! However, I later realized that water had gotten between the layers of my insulated cup, and that is what I was seeing as the second layer. So it's all good.

Okay details on the new area...Sister Linsenmann is from Idaho, she will be hitting her year mark in a couple of weeks. She was in the Corner Stone ward for one transfer before me. She was 'born' in Boulder and I am the third Sister Trainer Leader she has been companions with. I left Flick, our new Jeep in Longmont for the Elders (actually we left him in Loveland for the Elders to be able to get back to Longmont) however we got a white Jeep apparently from the Nebraska Elders who took the Cruze that used to be for this ward (hmm does someone not trust me with a Cruze anymore? ;) Or do they figure that if I get in another accident I need something like the Jeep to get through it?).

The Corner Stone ward is shared between Elders and Sisters which will be a new adventure for me but it seems good so far. Elder Clay is our District Leader and Elder Brazzel is his new greenie who was friends with Elder Kurihara before they came out. The ward seems very involved and excited which is awesome, and I love President Bailey (the Stake President) who I met at a missionary breakfast and Stake Conference this weekend. How lucky are missionaries? When else would you get to have two stake conferences in two months! It was a little bit of a bummer for my first Sunday since I couldn't really meet the ward members, but we have been doing the rounds and meeting who we can.

As we went to contact a referral, it didn't look like they were home, but we parked outside their house and decided to make some phone calls for a few minutes. As we were doing so, a man came out of the house and up to the car. He asked if we had knocked on his door. To my knowledge, we were the only ones around and hadn't even gotten out of the car yet, but he thought he heard someone knocking and came out to check. He was the person we were looking for and we were able to set an appointment! That was a miracle to me.

So, I thought everyone in Longmont had a dog. I was wrong, everyone in Cheyenne has a dog! Literally, completely and usually it is way more than one. We apparently also get to do service at an animal shelter and at a museum! Which is pretty sweet. Maybe more on that another time :)

So Tuesday was Transfer day, Wednesday we had District meeting and service, Thursday I don't actually remember and Friday we had to get up early so I could carpool with the STLs from Laramie and the Cheyenne East Zone to go back to Loveland for Mission Leader Council. A couple of things were proposed at this conference which President Brown asked for our discussion and support on that made me think "Wow, what timing to have been called for this particular leadership council." For quite some time President Brown has felt prompted to make some 'clarifications' on the White Handbook's policies for music and preparation day. So some new policies are:

Music: is it appropriate for Sacrament meeting? This means hymns only and arrangements and instrumentation which could be played in a Sacrament meeting. Not that other music is necessarily 'bad' but there needed to be a line drawn which was black and white, so this is it.

Preparation days: No gatherings of missionaries. An occasional, pre-approved district gathering may be permitted. Also, except for essentials such as grocery shopping and email, park the car. Walk or bike.

We have been promised that with these changes, which will be an adjustment for those of us who have been out a while, but will be a blessing of simply the way things are to any new missionaries coming in, we will have the Spirit in greater measure and more power to fulfill our callings. I am excited to see what happens.

Other notes: sorry I forgot a TMFWD color for this week! Tomorrow it is going to be RED :) And anyone know how to help someone get over a fear of water? We have a couple of literally dry Mormons here, the only thing keeping them from that important covenant of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is a huge and terrible fear of water.

We also can't forget the very important day coming up, Mother's Day! In the missionary world this is a huge deal because I will be Skyping my family! So, because family is most important, please leave mine free on Sunday unless you are part of it ;) I love you a lot but am too busy to miss you most of the time ;) Hopefully you are the same! I will work on getting some Wyoming pictures, but instead we are going to have some goodbye to Longmont ones.

love, Sister Emily DeFord