I'm Pretty Much a Farm Girl at this Point

Family!
Well, it has definitely been one of those stereotypical missionary rejection weeks. We knocked on probably a hundred doors of less active members on the roster (because our teaching pool is zero) and got in to a total of 2 homes this week. I've also had some sort of weird stomach thing...I've had it for the past month-ish, BUT the work must move on, so we just tried to make a million visits, none of which turned into anything besides ringing the doorbell a few times. We were reminded in conference that the work moves forward one heart at a time- so we're trying to be hopeful! 

Did I already wish myself a happy one year? HAPPY ONE YEAR! 

So even though the work seemed like it went no where this week, we actually did some rather exciting things!

1) Cow birth
The RS president has been telling us since we got here that she wanted to take us to bottle-feed the baby cows at a nearby farm. Of course we were down, and last monday, she informed us that it was the day! We headed over to the farm and arrived TOO LATE. We were so bummed, but she took us on a tour of the farm. It was huge, smelled awful, and was startlingly high-tech. We wandered into the barn where the new baby cows and the pregnant moms were. We saw a baby cow that had just been born (it was actually probably the size of colby, it was HUGE) and turns out mom was having twins.  It was like the time that I went with Grandpa to the slaughterhouses...an experience I will NEVER forget. 

2)Feeding the chickens
So one of the families that let us in this week are farmy as well, and the way we got ourselves into the house of the non-member husband and 20 less active wife was volunteering to feed their chickens. We did indeed feed the chickens and the turkeys and the peacocks, and met their DEAF great dane (which is the biggest dog I have ever seen in my LIFE) and learned all about the biology of farm life. I'll spare you the details.  They tried to send us home with a FROZEN SQUIRREL to eat...we politely declined...but ended up with fish and farm-fresh chicken and turkey eggs instead. We are going back on wednesday to SLAUGHTER A ROOSTER. So this week I ate my first straight from nest-to-pan eggs and we tried to cook the fish...but got grossed out by the fact that the tail and fins were still on. We're going to try again later :)

I'm pretty much a farm girl at this point, let's face it. 

3) Chiropractor
 I had my first chiropractor experience this week! The RS pres was headed down and set up an appt for us! The man is LDS and does missionaries for free, so we thought we'd give it a go! My neck hurts 24/7 and makes some pretty obscene popping noises throughout the day, and some days I walk with my  hand on my butt because my hip just aches...so I thought it would be good to get everything back in it's rightful place. Oh man, was it an experience! We started off on this hot water-bed massagey thing and then we were put on these frankenstien-operating tables where things just fell out from under you while he pushed and cracked...everything except my neck. He kept saying things like, "It's just not cooperating..." and "that's odd..." Apparently my neck "needs some work" haha. So once my vertebrate were all aligned properly we were put on these beyonce-roll-up-your-spine tables where I'm pretty sure all my muscles turned to mush. Just delightful. I hope we get to go back :)

4)General Conference
Clearly this was the highlight of the week! We needed a spiritual boost for sure, and we got it. I went in with a lot of questions and came out with a lot of answers. I was thinking a lot about what the heck I'm supposed to do with my life when I go home- no money, no job, no car, no idea where to live or what to do, no deep unpursued dreams...and it was causing me some stress, so I was just trying to listen for that little whisper of the Holy Ghost. When President Uchtdorf spoke and was talking, when he said more or less, "It doesn't matter where you are, just that you are trying to be obedient" I heard: "Dear Hermana, it doesn't matter where you go after your mission as long as you are trying to be obedient. I'll take care of you." I LOVE getting revelation! So that was a relief. Even though it was perhaps vague, it really brought me a lot of peace about the decision making in my future. The other less-active woman that let us in this week is a return sister missionary who hasn't been to church in 20 years. Heartbreaking. Even great missionaries can fall away if they don't keep nourishing their spirits- so that's priority. More important than all of those unknowns, I found the big KNOWN this weekend. I loved all the missionary shout-outs of course and really loved Elder Eyering's talk about the Book of Mormon and Elder Christofferson's talk on repentance. Oh and Sis Dalton's talk about dads...made me a little weepy about what a great dad I have. Sis B and I are STOKED to hear Elder Holland's talk about preparing for missions...obviously we feel VERY positively about our little missionary force growing! Conference is better than Christmas and it delivered!

 I'm so happy to hear that mom takes such good care of the missionaries! Those people are the BEST. And I'm excited to hear how the "I'm a Mormon" campaign goes. Can't wait for pics of Keeke at homecoming! I looked at myself in the mirror yesterday while I was wearing my glasses and saw MADDIE. It was crazy. Thanks, as always, for you love and prayers!

Love you,
Hermana Sinclair