We got a call in mid February 2012 asking if we would like to voluntarily house the missionaries. It was out of the blue and very unexpected. It is something we had never even thought of happening. We were surprised, to say the least. Our home is not big....there are single couples in our stake with much larger homes, so we just never dreamed we would be asked. We discussed it, and decided it would be a very special honor to house the missionaries. We have received so many blessings because of the two missionaries that came to us in answer to my sincere prayer in 1974.
Originally, when asked to house the missionaries, we expected to have Elders. In fact, it never crossed our minds that we may have Sisters moving into our home! In the entire history of our ward, I can't remember ever having Sisters serving. So we scurried to get everything ready for the missionaries. We have lived here for 35 years and we had empty rooms, but full closets! This meant we had closets to rearrange and painting to be done. They first told us we might expect the missionaries as early as March 1. We asked for a little more time, because we needed to do some alterations on our house to prepare for them. The powers that be gave us time....but soon April came and went, and May, June, and July, too. Finally, we asked, "Were are our missionaries?" They accommodated us be sending the beautiful SISTERS above, who needed a temporary place to stay. Sister M, from Tonga, and Sister W, from Utah. They moved in on Monday, August 20, 2012. Sister W was here for only a week, then she went home for medical reasons. She is going to return to her mission when she gets better. She is a very sweet sister and I enjoyed visiting with her in the evenings. She loves her family and the gospel.
Next came Sister S. She is from Nevada. She likes to cook! She has a very bubbly personality. She was here for 3 weeks. Sister M. was the first one here and was here for the last 2 months of her mission. She had 19 companions altogether! She has a sweet spirit, likes to sing, and in any spare minute she had, was teaching herself to play the piano.
In early September, Sister O took Sister S's place. That means that in the first month of having Sisters live with us, we had 4 different Sisters!
It is an interesting experience having different people in and out of your "family," just like that. :) Yes, it seems like the Sisters are part of the family. It doesn't matter who they are...it seems like they belong here. I feel like they are my daughters. Sister M told me it was like having their own "grandparents on the mission." Ha, Ha....I guess I'm not as young as I feel. The gospel is so wonderful. I feel totally comfortable having complete strangers living here in my home, even when I am not here.
Sister O had barely arrived when the next week things changed again! Sis B needed a companionship, so she came to stay with the Sisters for a week. This was our first "Trio," as they call it. Sister B was especially sweet. She good naturedly slept on a mattress on the floor and always had a smile on her face. She was nearing the end of her mission, too.
I haven't mentioned that the Sisters serving here are Spanish speaking. In fact, they were so happy when they came here and found it was closer to the Spanish speaking population, that they wished they could stay in this area....and they got permission! Even though we were expecting Elders, we are even happier to have Sisters! They are not in our ward, they are in the Spanish Branch, but we meet at the same building, though at different times.
I will close with a story I want to remember. One afternoon while I was gone to work, Sister M and Sister O were spending time at the table, studying their scriptures and/or planning. There was a knock at the door. Sister O answered the door. It was someone from the city that wanted to show her something on our property. She called to Sister M, and they both went outside together to see it (per mission rules that they are always in sight of each other). The door opened from the inside, but when they went to come back inside, they found themselves locked out! They couldn't get ahold of us, so they decided to knock on doors around the neighborhood. They had quite a day trying to do that in pink flip flops and no scriptures! When I arrived at home after work, I walked inside. I saw that the mission car was in the front of the house, but inside....no sisters! Hmmmm...I wondered. I called, "Sisters..." No answer. Again. "Sisters, I'm home. Where are you?...." Again, no answer. I saw that the table was left quickly. There was a 1/2 gallon of melting icecream in the center of the table. Their backpacks were sitting by their chairs. Their scriptures were left open to the spot where they were studying. I could tell they had been interrupted. I wondered if they had come to an untimely demise! I quickly turned around and went outside. I thought about calling the police, but I decided to call Mike on his cell phone first. He said he was almost home, so I sat and waited 5 more minutes. He went in and saw the same thing as I saw, but he went throughout the house calling, "Sisters, Sisters, where are you?" They were not to be found. Next, we noticed that their keys were also on the table....and their telephone! We were about to call the mission office and then the police when Mike thought, "Hey, maybe they got locked out." We checked the answering machine to see if there was a message from them, and sure enough, there was. We discovered they had indeed, been locked out of the house. Mystery solved.
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