I got my first mission dog bite this week. This picture does NOT do
it any justice, but it's right there on my arm. Now I have my first
mission battle wound! We were going up to visit a new investigator that
told us we could drop by anytime on Saturday. We did and their dogs were
out. They had told us they were harmless. The bigger dog came up.
Sister Wood was apprehensive but I went up and pet it. The dog seemed so
nice. It even snuggled up to me a bit. then we went and knocked on the
door. No answer. We knock again. We see the lady peek though the blinds
and then ignore us (Benefit of the doubt: she struggles with English and
maybe didn't want to answer without her husband there)--No answer. I
turn to leave and the dog was still watching us. It didn't bark or
anything. Out of nowhere it jumps and digs it's teeth into my arm like a
little vampire! I said Ouch pretty loudly and then "stupid dog" then
the dog started just walking next to me like nothing happened. I just
started walking like normal back through the gate. I look back and
sister Wood is terrified. She may or may not have pepper sprayed their
dog. The dog didn't do anything. He was just chillin'. Sister Wood
walked the long way to the car to avoid him though. It broke the skin a
little bit though my jacket but mostly he just left a nasty bruise.
Don't worry. I don't have rabies.... yet. :) haha. No, don't worry. You
see how tiny it is.
Other story, we went to Elko for exchanges with the
STLs. I did my first street contacting. At one point there was a cat
that had made itself home in a random house. The family was kicking it
out when we walked by. When we were done talking to them the cat started
to follow us. It trailed behind us for about 5 blocks. A good hour or
so. It wanted to be by us, but it didn't want to be touched or noticed.
Every time we would try to take a picture of it following us, it would
stop or go off to the side. Here's one of such pictures. I'm in the
middle of yelling at it. After we walked a block and put away the
camera, we hear it meowing at us. It had gotten inside this persons yard
and couldn't get past the gate. It was his own fault for not letting us
take a picture!
In general, The week has been good. We are still loving it here in
wells. Every time we go out to Elko, we get off the freeway and come
back into Wells and there is a sigh of relief because it's just like
coming home. We are doing a lot of good here and we hope to keep it up.
Bishop pulled us into his office so we could update
him on everything that's been going on and how the ward could help. Near
the end he starts getting all teary in his good eye and he says in his
little cowboy accent, "I just love you guys and I am so glad you've been
sent here to us. I love you two and I love your parents for raising
such wonderful young ladies. You are an incredible contribution to this
ward and this community". I don't know if it's deserved. Whatever good
we do is generally not by our own ability. But I do love being a
missionary. Perhaps we aren't the typical missionaries hunting people
down and leaving pamphlets, but we just meet people and find out their
needs and help them. A lot of times they just need a listening ear and
some hope. We aren't the missionaries our Sister Training Leaders are,
but we are exactly what this town needs at this time and we see miracles
every day.
I hope all of you are doing well. Remember that
there is someone who knows you perfectly who is always there for you.
He's not some estranged figure, but he is the father of our spirits--who
we essentially are--and he is a friend. I know he laughs at me all the
time because he is always putting me in funny situations. I'm glad he
does because that means I always have a funny story to tell. Have a
great week!
Also, look how huge my area is (upper right of the highlighted yellow
part which shows our mission boundaries)! We did the math. I'm not sure
how accurate it is, but we calculated that it's approximately 8,000
square miles. It's the portion outlined in pencil. The blue outline was
from when I was just estimating how big our area was. I was off by quite
a bit. The break in the area is the dividing line between the Wells
ward and the Ruby Valley branch we cover. Pretty Crazy.
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