Cicada Eclipse 🤢🪲
Week: 17
Date: June 3, 2024
Location: Southside, St Louis Missouri
Email: leah.kimball@missionary.org
Companion: Hermana Larsen/ Kaysville, Utah
Blog: https://livinlavidastlouis.blogspot.com/?m=1
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Exchange into English area with Sister Neumiller! St Louis Missouri June 2024 |
Hey hey hey! Happy Happy June! I can't believe it's June! The mish is just flyinnnn!!! Happy summer everyone! Just so you all know there is a cicada eclipse going on right now in Missouri (ya i didn't know either).... Where basically there were a bunch of bugs under ground and apparently one batch comes out every 17 years and the other batch comes out every 11 years. And how lucky am I that this year is the one year they will all come out in the same year?!?! So a couple weeks ago they all hatched out of the ground. I'm talking millions of cicadas (these ginormous flying bugs) and let's just say Heavenly Father is testing me because this is what I have pictured hell to look like! Bugs flying everywhere! #help Luckily since we stay in the city they are not as bad! Anyways… lol
Sooo we went to AA again this week!!! We have been going to support our friends who are all in the AA group! Specifically Jose, but he didn't go on Monday when we went lol! Anyways, when we went this past week the leader in charge asked one of us (my comp or me) to go up and speak. Both of us looked at each other like who was gonna do it. Seeing my comp wasn't gonna stand up I went up and I bore testimony lol. I testified about faith and how when we have faith we can overcome hard things. It's just always awkward when we talk because anyone who isn't hearing messages from us is like “You're not an alcoholic why are you here?…”. So I just tried my hardest to keep it a friendly testimony without overstepping. Although, at the end I got a big applause and a couple of “AMEN’s”. So I think I killed it. lol..
Lunch with the graves St Louis Missouri June 2024 |
Thursday Hermana Larsen and I had to go get our oil changed and tires rotated. Don't make fun of me for this but we thought it was gonna take 10 mins and we could just eat our lunch and have our lesson. No. It takes 2 hours. So the auto care shop took our car from us for 2 hours. luckily we had packed our lunch, so we were like it's fine we can just go find a park. Well guess what. There were ZERO parks nearby. so we walked for a while hoping we'd find something. Well we found a huge graveyard so we ate lunch, and had our facetime lesson in the graveyard lol, kinda creepy.
When we got back from the graveyard and went to get our car back we were paying and back story: My mom and dad play a game where they try and see how many questions they can ask before the church naturally gets brought up! All I did was ask the auto guy one small convo question and he mentioned he was moving. I asked him where and he said “Arizona” that got him asking where we were from and why we were here. Then he started getting super interested in what we were saying and he was like “Would you mind showing me the closest church to my house on my phone?” So we did, and we got his number, and he said he would love to take messages from the missionaries. So we sent his number to the missionaries near him but it really was a cool experience. Some people are genuinely seeking Christ, it's lit!!!
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Miss my Collins girl! St Louis Missouri June 2024 |
However, there still are mean people in the world. So Thursday night we got bashed for an hour and a half... We go to a member dinner every Thursday night with some members who just got baptized a couple months ago. That night they invited some of their friends over to eat with us… which was fine. We weren't going to push anything and we started asking where they were from and then they started asking about our church. So naturally we shared, and this woman started profusely yelling at us saying that she used to be “Mormon” and that we don't believe in Jesus Christ and that she has read the Book of Mormon, and it's all about Joseph Smith. (spoiler: it's not about him at all). And that night I realized that my biggest pet peeve in the whole world is someone yelling at me making things up and telling me I'm wrong. It's like if someone told you, you're 35 years old when in reality you know and everyone else knows you are 19. Like she was not having it and she swears on everything she's right. Anyways, I then told her that we respect and love her the same way God does! She then yelled at us and told us that we just came to dinner to convince her to switch religions… and I was like “uhh we didn't even know u were gonna be here” I didn't say that, but I wish I did! Anyways, we all ended up eating dinner and it was chill and she even tried to set us up with her sons who were at dinner so that was awkward. But I was like “interesting I thought you hate our beliefs” (didn't say this either) but whatevs! People are gonna hate so it's chill ! 😎
This week we hit another exchange which was so lit!! Got to go to an English area with Sister Neumiller and we had a blast!! It was actually crazy though because a lot of people were like recognizing us as sister missionaries, and came up and talked to us. They were either members, or inactive members, but it was a ton of fun to talk to them. Even two guys on Segways came up to us and one of them had just gotten baptized on May 4th! It was so fun I felt famous in the English area lol! Anyways, while in the English area, we decided to go up to some girl who was playing corn hole. We asked if we could share a message and she said yes, then at the end of our message she said she had always prayed that missionaries would come and talk to her. She said she sees them everywhere but they would never come up to her and she's been too nervous to go up to them, so she was like “I have been waiting for this message for a long time”. Then she asked us if she could invite her family to hear the message. It was super cool! Literally the harvest is so so white. We aren't even doing anything, we just talk to everyone and God has his prepared people!!
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Literally the worst drink to ever be invented 🙃 St. Louis Missouri June 2024 |
Saturday night, we had a Relief Society activity which was super fun!! We had a couple of friends pull up which was littt!!! We learned how to knit which I am very very bad at. Then we ate food and guess what.. banana soda has made a return to kill me. Back story: when I was living in Honduras we would have banana soda at every single event. It is so gross. At least that's what I think after 3 years of being forced to drink it to be nice. So when I saw the banana soda I did everything I could to not be offered any. It literally is so nasty. I literally said a prayer that I would not have to drink it! Luckily, God answered my prayers and my comp drank it for me lol! lol I know I'm a big baby.
Sunday was pretty chill! We got a lot of friends to church which was awesome but we realized that none of our women friends came. So we had a huge Sunday school class of a bunch of men and then me, my comp, and our Relief Society President were the only women (all of our member women were in the other Sunday school class lol). Anyways, my comp and I's new goal this week is to find some women to teach this week ! 🙌
I love the Bella Villa Branch! 💓 St Louis Missouri June 2024 |
This week for my spiritual thought, I'm actually gonna hit y'all with another fire talk from Elder Holland! My mission president asked us to read this one this week and it is actual fire! It's called The First Great Commandment! It's the story of Peter fishing and Jesus Christ comes and says “lovest me more than these” and then he had to come again when he died! The part I'm going to share is Elder Holland's rendition of what frustrations Christ could have said. It's very bold, but I just love it! It's says “What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do.” I feel like in this section we really can replace Peter's name with our own! We are building disciples! Each of us! I love that we get the opportunity to be missionaries now and member missionaries when we get home! The work never ends! I love this gospel and I am so grateful to be working my hardest to be a fisher of men!
I love y'all so so much! Always remember who you are, and what you stand for! GOD IS SOOO GOOD! and pray for Jose and his baptism this Sunday 🙏!
-Hermana Kimball
Dad: Thank you for your advice. Are you growing out your hair for the summer? Surfer dad lol
Mom: Highschool weight = accomplished lol
Colton: So you like Grand Saline more the SATX?
Caryn: Who pays in cash anymore anyways?.
Taylor: Keep tabs on Jack for me pls
Bailey: I feel as if Shaye has replaced me..
Clay: … Prayers up
Lexi: I tell everyone you're 6 feet lol
Bella: Senior sznnn
Collins: Did I tell you I found “Collins Ct”
Capri: I promise I've been trying to find Capri street
Kash: Banana
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