Week 41: 5 Seconds Outside & We Were Drenched!! No Exageration!

Mom Note: Cam and I were on a road trip when this letter came, and I didn't have access to her blog from my phone--so this is from last week, and I expect another letter tomorrow sometime.  Sorry for the delay.

5 Questions:
1) Do you recognize these good people?
2) Have you checked your mailbox lately?
3) Did my postcards make it to you?
4) Anything you want me to pass on the grandma & grandpa in California?
5)
1. Of course! Man I love the Albrechtsen's... (haha I think it must be getting harder and harder to come up with questions....)
2. Sort of. More on this later.
3. No. Again, see below.
4. As in, by word of mouth...? Just tell them I love them. (:
5.

So this week was really good. But you'll literally never guess what happened...

So Thursday we were doing weekly planning, like any other week. And about an hour into it or so, we get a call from the assistants. Elder Anderson says, "So we have a situation." (uh oh...that's what they said when we got the transfer call about being put in a trio) "So there's an hermana that's going home due to medical issues and Hermana DeBuck is being transferred." Yeah, I'm pretty sure my heart stopped. No joke. I could not believe my ears. He continued, "You're going to meet at the mission office at 11 in the morning tomorrow so that Hermana DeBuck can go with Hermana LaBonte to Rochelle." Uh, okay. Great. haha so I managed to pack mostly everything that night after 9 and then finished in the morning before studies. And so now I'm writing from Rochelle, IL. I got sent back to the cornfields! Woohoo! haha man I love it here. It's just the northern version of Peoria. Except Rochelle is smaller than Bloomington-Normal. By quite a bit actually. But man it's so great here.

So Hermana LaBonte: she's great. She's very happy and bubbly which is helpful for me because we all know how positive Hermana DeBuck is....haha but really. We've only been together about four days and I feel like I've already changed so much, learned so much. It's amazing. I love teaching with Hermana LaBonte; she's so spiritual and follows the Spirit so well. We've already seen miracles (we taught Jose yesterday for the third time and he almost accepted a baptismal date and then asked us "where will my baptism be?" Oh man. SO COOL.) Also, every single finding lesson we've had has been so spiritually powerful. It's almost insane. haha but it's so fantastic. (You could even ask the elders; they walked in as we were getting to the good part.)

Oh hey, that's something else kinda funny: one of the elders in the branch here served in Bloomington when I was in Peoria. So the "hasta la taco" and "buenos nachos" jokes continue...haha) Also, this is the area that got hit by the tornado so....I'm still kind of holding out hope that I'll get to experience that natural disaster, even though everyone tells me that I don't want to experience that natural disaster.

As far as the work goes, numerically, we have about two investigators so we're going to be doing a lot of finding. I'm so exciting. There's nothing quite like knocking doors to make you feel unstoppable. haha (I never thought I would say that...) Oh right, back to my new companion: she's from Texas and has been out ten months this week. She's a native speaker and so she went to the Provo MTC for ten days. She'll go home the same transfer as me--I'm not sure how the math works out but it does. haha. She went to BYU and is a pyscholinguistics (?) major. She also was/is a dancer. Man I love her. We have so much fun together and get a lot of work done. It's fantastic.

This week...well I don't really know what's happening. Other than the regular stuff. The week after next is our mission wide conference. We found out it's just in Naperville--not nearly as fun as Nauvoo or Carthage--but I'm excited. It's going to be amazing. We're all going to miss President Fenn so much, but I am so eternally grateful for everything I've learned from him. This mission is truly the  greatest mission on the face of the planet, because we have President and Sister Fenn. [No worries; I'm excited to meet President and Sister Griffin too though.]

Oh, and because it's actually a rule that we're not supposed to give our apartment/home address to anyone, I won't be telling you what it is. In case I ever get emergency transferred again. So you'll just
have to go through the mission office address. It's better that way.

Anyway. The Gospel is true. It's the single most important thing in my life because every single one of the blessings which God has given me has come because of my obedience to the principles and  ordinances of the restored Gospel. I love Joseph Smith, and I love the Book of Mormon. No matter who you are: Read it, and then ask God if it's true. I know without a doubt that He will answer you.

Todo Mi Amor,
Tu Hija y Amiga,
Hermana DeBuck


Fotos:

 1. Us with Carlos. He's going to be baptized on the 27th of this month. On Tuesday, when we taught him, I got the very distinct impression that the reason I was called to Bloomingdale was for Carlos. And then two days later, I find out I'm leaving. Coincidence? I think not. haha and then when we told him that I was leaving, he legitimately almost cried. Oh man. haha but I'll be back for his baptism in a couple weeks. So we're good. haha

 2. Us with Karina, who is a recent convert. She's 9. And SO hilarious. Every time we taught them I 1)learned something new and 2)laughed so hard my face hurt. So great. We had a couple nice smiling photos too, but this one is so much better.

 3. Me with Hermana Martinez. We Skyped from her apartment on Mother's Day. She's so great. haha (:

 4. The phone call that changed my life....haha (ignore the bottom two messages. Those aren't what changed my life.)

 5. Our front door to the apartment in Bloomingdale. How appropriate, no? haha

6. Hermana LaBonte and I went running this morning. And we got five minutes and then saw lightning and had to turn around. We were soaked (for the second time in four days) haha of course...