Privileged

Welp!! Here it comes! Another week down! Today I hit my 10 month mark... 0.o WHAAAAAAT?!?!? I have 8 months left on my mission. It is going by so fast! Every transfer picks up! And speaking of transfers...nothing is changing in good ol' Beaver Valley. BOTH Elders are staying and Sister Hanseen and I are staying as well! Crazy right??

This week has been nice because the weather has been warm!! 40's all week! Man, I've been wearing rain jackets and the heat has been off in our car! Unfortunately, that will probably change this week. PA likes to tease with the weather!

Tuesday, was a pretty interesting day. I was laying in my bed during "getting ready" time and I heard this familiar noise. At first, I thought that Sister Hanseen was popping her knuckles or something random and then it kept going. drip drip drip. NOOOO! I looked at our ceiling and well, there was a HUGE bubble above Sis H's bed. Here we go again! I ran and got a bucket and we moved her bed. We called maintenance but they couldn't get to it because of the ice and snow on the roof. Turns out, our apartment is right where the gutter is so we get the water collected in the roof. Lucky us right? That and the smoky smell and some sketchy business with the landlord qualifies for a move! We called the mission office and they agreed. We got a letter from the maintenance guy that said we would have to wait until May 31st to transfer and pay $400 plus a deposit after our lease was up to transfer in the same complex. Sketch right? We are so moving. We finally made it to correlation and it was pretty typical. I did get my Valentine's day package and it made. my. day!! (: SO HAPPY!!! (: We went to the Green's for dinner and then tried Vicki. She was super sick and still going through chemo and radiation. She looked a lot worse than I have ever seen her before ): Cancer is so scary! We saw Lorraine and Julian after that and downloaded the Mormon Channel app on to their tablet and they were really excited about it. We watched President Uchtdorf's "Living below your privileges" and after that, Julian say "He is Risen" one of the Bible videos. He asked to watch it so we did and he had lots of questions and the video answered them. He said he really wanted to learn more about Christ and what that video was about! These moments make the mission worth it.



Wednesday was so hectic. We got a call in the morning that Rachel, Bro Yovich's daughter in law had her baby but that he had to be life-flighted to Children's in Pittsburgh. They had already lost a boy about 2 years ago last August and had a miscarriage last winter. So we all started praying hard and the baby is doing really well now. He'll still be in the hospital but he is doing a lot better. We went to DM and it was pretty good. We went to Olive Garden after for lunch and just partied because it was our last meeting as a district before transfers. We went to a less active's house, Renea, and I have been trying to see her since I got her in October!! We had a REALLY good lesson with her and she said that she feels like she is a new convert and has so much love for the gospel. Her goal is a temple sealing for her family! I am so excited for her! (: We went to Sister DeBaker's for dinner and had her help us look up some potential apartments online. Not a whole lot to be looking at it seemed haha! oh well.

Thursday we spent a lot of time trying to shop for apartments. Only one person answered the phone. It is in Monaca and it is the CUTEST apartment I have ever seen! It seemed perfect for us except it is out of our area...the ward wasn't too keen on that one. But ya know, beggars can't be choosers haha! But at the moment, that won't be the one we move too. We then "blitzed" our area with the Cranberry Elders...basically it turned into DM 2.0 without the other sisters d: awkward? A Little haha! We went to dinner at the Pamula's and the Elders were HARD CORE SICK. I have been praying I don't catch it; I think I'm safe at this rate unless it sneaks up on me haha! On the way home we listened to "Don't Give Up" by Josh Groban. mmmm Good music for the soul!!!! (: We saw Wendy but we are kinda hitting a road block...we don't know how to help her anymore ): I'm not sure...

Friday was weekly planning but it got interrupted to go apartment hunting again. We looked at the McBride's old apartment...ya know...the one I packed up 3 months ago?!? haha! It's the missionary mansion. We may actually be moving there!!! Fingers crossed. The other place we looked at was SO SKETCH!! It had a basement with one little square room with a cigarette butt on the floor and weird spray painted symbols on the wood door. Complete with an organ o.0 umm no thank you. We then had dinner at the Nelson's which was fun haha! We always enjoy dinner appointments that is for sure! After that we ended up talking to Trent and he is still planning on going on a mission which is SO inspiring because he turns 23 in September. He has had a rough life. He told us that one day he realized that he had hit rock bottom and needed some help. He prayed and randomly opened up the Book of Mormon to Ether 12:27 and it changed his life. Man. What a champ.

Saturday we taught Rasheda with Ruthy and it was REALLY good because Rasheda said that her doubts were soothed when she read President Uchtdorf's "Come, Join with Us." I mean how couldn't they?? He is a boss hahaha! We talked about the power of the priesthood and baby and patriarchal blessings and temple work. She really wants to work for those things which is inspiring! She is working so hard and this gospel is a huge life style change and she is learning. We gave her a for the Strength of Youth pamphlet and that is helping a lot I think. She didn't understand the standards. We saw Carol after that and her granddaughter was there so we tried to build trust and then shared a scripture with her. We went to the LaFond's for dinner which is always a riot! They are moving to AZ in June so they beat me there hahaha! Oh well! They are moving to Phoenix/Glendale area, but that's still pretty close right? Haha! I can't remember things anymore...mission brain.

Sunday was fun as always. We had ward conference with the theme "In the world but not of the world." It was super good! (: Definitely got answers to my prayers there. We saw Claire and Sister Smego. Then went to the Goettman's for dinner and came home to do weekly planning. We had a good comp inventory and we are working at becoming better. It was really good. Missions aren't all peaches and cream turns out haha!

Well, guys, I want to tell you the power of prayer and our Father in Heaven's mercy. I have had a trial come into my life since being on my mission. I never thought I would struggle with it but here it is. It has been a major road block and I am working on it every day. But through this trial I've come to realize so much about who I am. This trial doesn't mean I am a victim. I don't have to let it control who I am or what I do. As I was praying on Saturday to understand what Heavenly Father wanted me to learn through this and as clear as day I felt an overwhelming since of gratitude that Heavenly Father would trust me with this particular struggle. Is it ideal? Ummm definitely not, but I know that gratitude is the answer. Truly it is the answer to all of my struggles. It won't change them, but it will change my attitude and my approach to them. How much greater can you get? There is a stellar quote from President Monson "To express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." Awesome right? Don't forget to give gratitiude!!!!! Mosiah 2:19-22!!

I love you guys so much!! I thank you so much for your support and love!! You help me more than you can imagine when I get your letters. They really make my day and make this journey so much more bearable!! You are awesome!! Love you!!!!

Love,

Sister Kaitlyn Crockett