WEEK 9: Chased By A 'Roach

Hello hello, all!

Another great week has passed in the McCullough Hills Stake! Transfer day is TOMORROW!! Our news came last night and --DRUMROLL PLEASE--Sister Wood and Mudrow are staying together here in the McCullough Hills Stake, but I am being transfered into East Las Vegas! AHH I'm a little bit terrified, but I know it's what I need. In my interview with President last week, he asked what I was struggling the most with and I told him my biggest problem has been street contacting. It's just awkward and I can't figure out how to approach random people on the street and guide the conversation to their faith in Jesus Christ. So when I told him that, he laughed and jokingly said, "Well in that case, let's just send you to east Vegas where that's all you do all day long, and that'll be taken care of!" Turns out, he actually wasn't joking. I think my new area is up by the temple, so that is really exciting! My new companion is Sister Van, and I've heard that she's super super sweet, so I feel really good about it.

Well, as you can see by the title, my random story from this week is that *WARNING: EMOTIONAL* I was chased. By a cockroach. We were knocking doors in a very dark and very quiet neighborhood and the only life form was a large cockroach on the sidewalk. We walked by, completely oblivious until it ~actually~ lunged at me. When stressed, your body impulsively chooses fight or flight, and I chose flight. If someone was watching me through their window or caught me on their Ring camera, I hope they enjoyed witnessing my flight mode. I danced away but wow, roaches are SPEEDY. It kept changing directions coming towards me, and it was actually terrifying. Thankfully I lived to tell the tale. 

Saturday was Sister Mudrow's birthday!! Sister Wood and I spent all week sneakily planning a surprise dinner + cake + all the good things for her, and it was a great day! Not fully a success because Sister Mudrow accidentally found out by scrolling through the screenshots on Sister Wood's phone, but it was still a fun day!! We have the wonderful Sister Reeves who pulled through to help us with dinner and gifts, and Emil let us have the cake delivered to his place to keep it safe!

I think this is quickly becoming lengthy so I'll be quick. But I have one quick question for any return missionaries! And also anyone else who has any advice, this is open to everyone. I'm looking for advice about feeling inadequate as a missionary? It's not severe, I just sometimes have doubts and feel like I don't know as much as I should. As a missionary I've become hyper-aware of myself, my words, and my actions because there's so many standards and expectations to live by. But the other side of the coin is that I'm more critical of everything I do. I look around me and see the wonderful, experienced missionaries I'm surrounded by and I just feel unrefined and a little inadequate at times. So I guess I'm asking, how did/do you deal with it? I've been really trying to turn to the scriptures to find healing from it, but I'm wondering if there are other ideas and experiences anyone would be willing to share? Like I said, it's not bad and doesn't stick around for very long. I just want to find healthy ways to deal with hard situations!

I've heard from a couple people about the video I mentioned last week, but here's the youtube link if anyone hasn't seen it yet! It's very very good and I want to hear thoughts and feelings about it from every single person who reads this. https://youtu.be/ZwvazTjcAZE

This week had been so much fun! I am absolutely going to miss my Railroad Pass district, they've been so incredible! I truly do not know what to expect for this next week as I settle in to the Sunrise Zone, but I know it will be so so good. 

Until next week!!

Love, Sister Malmstrom

Pictures!

- We went to Crumbl!!!

- Picture after our last district council!

- Pictures while walking between lessons Thursday and Friday:)

- Picking up our mail!

- With Sister Reeves after Sister Mudrow's birthday dinner

- Rescuing Bella, a little dog who escaped from her family and ended up in a completely different neighborhood.

- The Dinosaur House: Created by a man who won the lottery, bought a bunch of random plastic Dinosaur figures, and turned his home into a dinosaur museum. It's very chaotic but one of the random but charming things about Henderson.

- I found this paragraph while reading our Adjusting to Missionary Life pamphlet, and it really helped me, so I wanted to share it.