Ringgold...Ringgold....Ringgold on my mind...

If you are following both of my kid's missions you know that I'm not doing well in keeping up blogs right now...so here are some excerpts of Kristen's last several emails along with pictures. She is doing great in Georgia! For those of you who are familiar with Kristen's writing know that she is usually typing on the fly and her spelling and punctuation go by the wayside - Lol! 

Kristen and Sis. Harper stuck in a park during a downpour
 

 From October 7

We are focusing  on PMG chp 6 - christ like attributes and it was awesome! we focused on all the attributes and have been challenged to pick one a week to work on this month....my first choice = patience. If you have some time....maybe pick one to work on this week or even for the month....just flip open to chp 6 and read a few and maybe have you and dad pick one...its really cool! 

 

Ok now for transfer news.....i AM NOT LEAVING!!!!!!!!! Sister harper and i are staying put in little ringgold which means i get to "kill" her! So excited BUT beyond that.....we are co-training a 3rd sister! We will go pick her up in farragut on wednesday and we will be a trio for 6 weeks til sis harper goes home! Oh man it is gonna be awesome! 3 of the 4 sister companionships in our zone will be in trios....missionary work is exploding and it is unreal.

 The work is still really slow and we cant contact anyone. it is just visits and member work. in reality i feel like a glorified visiting teacher, but i enjoy it all the same. Our less actives are just the sunshine to the day. Cristy and angela are really coming along and they are just so strong and trying their hardest. The best story i can tell you this week i just feeling the love of christ for those we teach and visit...its almost overwhelming. It is so strong and as i love them, i can feel his love for them. It is the most unreal thing i really cant describe.  

Caving with the zone

After caving

 From Sept 30th

we got k and a moved in.  We called half the ward and were really worried no one was gonna help move them cuz we got no for sures but we had like a dozen priesthood holders and two trucks so we got all the big stuff moved and quite a few boxes in 2 HOURS! oh my heck it was awesome. Even the new bishop came and helped. A told me she couldnt believe how many people showed up to help and you could tell K was amazed and truly grateful.  They are having a hard time adjusting going from a house to an apt but they are doing well.  It will really help them get back on their feet.  Their girls are also doing good.  they are both in soccer right now and LOVE it! they are just my favorite. We are always greeted with huge hugs every time we see them. As we taught last sunday they curled up between us and snuggled under their blankets as we taught. they are always wanting us to read scriptures and they sang us primary songs too! They are talking about the temple in class and they told us all about what they learned about it in primary....oh it is so awesome! 

From September 23

we did loads of service this week. we had a huge zone service project that took all day tuesday. his backyard would be your dream yard. he had this huge pond with this stream and founatin that was like 5 times as long as our little fountain into the pond....it was awesome. we did all weeding and it looked great AND more weeding. it is funny the very thing i hate is the very thing we do the most of ha. 

Georgia PEACHES!!!!!

Little bit of a run in with the poison ivy...or was this poison oak....hmmm

 um, oh i tried frog legs on sat! they taste like chicken but not as much taste. actually it is like a cross between fish and chicken.  pretty good they just needed more seasoning. i love trying these new crazy things down here. oh and poison ivy.....IHATE THIS STUFF! luckily i caught it soon enough so it wasnt HORRIBLE but it is still bad.....

Kristen with Bishop and Sis. Hunt

The last couple of things - Our former Bishop and his wife are serving in Kristen's mission, I received a picture from Elder and Sister Hunt last week with note letting me know that Kristen was doing great.












A day later Donna, who lives a couple of doors down from Kristen, sent me an email with a picture of her, Sister Harper and their new companion - Sister Messer from California.


Drop Kristen an email or send snail mail to her mission home address! I'm sure she'd love to hear from you!

No car....90% humidity...2.5 hour walk...to find....

I haven't posted anything from Kristen the past couple of weeks, because, to be honest, she's been pretty down and discouraged. This little town is spread out, hot, sticky, and the members haven't been very helpful. To top it off, the car the previous sisters left them - well, they had wrecked it - so this past week it went to the shop, which meant they had to walk to all of their appointments.....

We had a dinner appointment on Thursday. Well the walk to her house was a 2.5 hour walk along hwy 41, so we started our trek.....yes we were probably being stupid, but we both felt we needed to go and no one could give us a ride so we went. Well, we are about 20 mins away from her house and we pass a trailer park and this man throwing away his garbage.  

We passed him and 30 seconds later I hear "miss, miss" I turn around and he is literally chasing us down. He asks if we are Mormon and we said yes and he tells us his wife is Mormon and she needs some prayers....so we called our dinner appointment --She forgot she was feeding us!! Right then I knew we weren’t walking for our appointment we were walking to run into this man.  

Well he took us to his wife and we started talking. She is less active, partially due to the fact that she has every illness you can think of, but it was HIM asking us serious questions. He has taken the lessons and had a baptism date but doesn't like labels and organized religion. But we answered his questions and the spirit was strong and he told us that there will be more visits and he looked forward to us coming back.....HELLO! I knew there was a reason we didn’t have a car! 

Prayers have never been answered before like they are on a mission....every prayer and every fast answered....its cool.

Ringgold, Georgia - yup, she made it!

I just received a few pictures of Kristen with her companion and her mission president - here is a quick excerpt from her email from this week. She said that she was really pressed for time this week and apologizes if she didn't respond to your email this week and will do her best to write to you as soon as she can.

I am in a little town called Ringgold, Georgia.  I dare you to google earth it because it is so country.  It is really pretty and Ringgold itself is a small little town, but we cover SO much area.  We cover most of the georgia portion of the mission.  We luckily have a car!

There was a man, justin, that was just baptized 4 days before we got here so we have had the chance to do the new member discussions with him and work with his wife in preparing to get baptized.  Justin and casey have 3 kids.  ethan and caleb have already been baptized and emily will get baptized next year when she turns 8.  They are a really cute family!

it is funny the extremes down here.  80% of the ward is RICH RICH RICH! The houses and properties up here and mind blowing, but on the other hand the 20% is poor poor poor. You really either live in a mansion or a trailer, there is no medium like there is  in utah. beyond that most people dont take super great care of stuff.  The poorer end is very.....messy i guess you could say.  I have been to a couple houses that make Great Grandma's look like the cleanest castle you have ever seen.  The cool thing though is that it doesnt matter. I am able to see them through the eyes of Christ and you dont pay attention to the worldly things, it is all about the person and where they are going.

We have the Blaylock's that live 5 doors from us and Donna is just my favorite.  She is really sweet and down to earth.  The nice thing about the south is they tell it to you straight and like it is. There is no going around the bush, they just say it.

It has rained some.  My first night here there was a huge thunderstorm and rain, but surprisingly my hair isnt monster. I havent used my rain coat cuz it is too hot.  It has been like 95-105 with humidity and it is awful. Tracting was awful, but when we are in the car and stuff it is totally doalbe.  Thankfully our apt has AC. 

The rest of her letter was about - Mom..please send me... Heh.. 

Oh, that said, if you are sending mail or packages, please send them to the mission home and send them 1st class mail or parcel post so that they can be forwarded to her. 

Sister Fanny, you are hereby called to serve.......

Hi....my name is Fanny.

I was called to serve in the Steiner household over 21 years ago.

This is probably one of the earliest pictures of me on my mission, Yes, that little girl would put my hat in her mouth at any time - no warning! Sometimes, she would run with me in her mouth like that, chewing away, giggling through her teeth as we would play at the park, or at Jenny's house.


 I was her first real companion. Her trainer. Oh, there were other companions at times, but I was never transferred far, and when the time came I was the one she choose.

Our companionship chatting with Teacher Betty

You see, I went to preschool with her. I was even given my own place with my own name card. Teacher Val understood the importance of our companionship, I appreciate her for that. Teacher Betty and Teacher Jan and Teacher Mary all understood too, I was as much a part of preschool as any other student there. Because we were a pair, a team, best friends!

I was diligent in attending church as well, I was glad my companion was so eager to learn all she could in nursery. I loved going! We got to sing and have treats and color! Then we moved up to Primary! WOW! More singing and more coloring and we got to learn more wonderful things about Jesus and all he did for us. I loved her for taking me with her and letting me learn right along side her, she never left me.

We played. We learned to cook and clean and wash clothes and how to get dressed and pick up toys and make our bed and do our homework and how to drive and how to pray and how to read and how to make good decisions - and how to fix bad ones and what college we wanted to go to and what boys we wanted to date








We have some amazing family. This is a picture of us with our Grandpa Baumgart - he's pretty cool!  And the other picture is us with our Aunt Kelly at the Zoo. When we were little our family was sure that we were always together, they knew how important my mission was, they knew how important I was to her and that our companionship was vital to her happiness.

I'll never forget when it was time to go to first grade, she was so scared. I was so sad, because I knew I couldn't go. First grade teachers were not like preschool and kindergarten and primary and family, they thought it was time for her to be more grown up. But you know what? We figured it out -  and the first grade teacher never knew I was there! Neither did the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, middle school or high school teachers! I went to EVERY first day of school....EVERY ONE! Because I had to.

It was my mission!

Do you know why people on their everyday "missions" carry backpacks, or purses, or wallets?

I do.

It's to carry their companion in.

It's how I carried out my mission for her, I was in her backpack, every first day of school she had, right there, within touching distance, never out of sight.

And guess where I am now? That's right....in a suitcase, still her companion, still within touching distance, headed to Tennessee. Still on my mission.......

Here's to a great 18 months! 

Good luck Sister Steiner and Sister Fanny !

So long, farewell

Well friends it has been a great ride! I am now off to serve the Lord for the next 18 months in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission.  I know, without a doubt, that that is where I am needed.  I don't know why or for who, but I have learned the past few months that it doesn't matter and that I need to have nothing but the utmost faith in the Lord because he knows!

Getting ready for my mission has been a whirlwind between leaving my beloved Utah State and roommates to having to move home to sending my brother on his mission and enduring many stuggles and inner demon as I have prepared.  There were many more things I probably could have done to get ready for today because I will be the first to admit I am nowhere near as ready as I need to be, but I am holding on with firm faith that as I enter the MTC today with a my small understanding of the gospel and my firm understanding of God and a testimony of him that that is ok and that I will be directed and learn what I need to in time.

I leave with you a couple things as I go.  First, remember to always pray to our Heavenly Father.  He is always there and and always listening and knows literally everything.  Second, have as much faith as you can possibly muster within yourselves.  With faith comes so much understanding and love.  And third, remember who you are and that you are a child of our Heavenly Father who loves us.  He would not have put you here at this time and in this place if it weren't for his complete faith in you as his kids.

I love each of you and am so grateful for you prayers and support.  Please write and keep in touch! I do not know how great I will be at writing back fast, but I will.  Know that you are all in my prayers and I cannot be more thankful for the love and support you have given me over the years!

Much love,

Sister Steiner

PS - my mom will be updating my blog with pics and new happenings!