Sister Akayla Juliann Ferrara: Hello Everyone! 4/27/2015

It has been a wonderful week, but SO crazy! Sister Brower and I have been all over the place so I better just get started!

Last Monday was Sister Hodges birthday (as well as my sister Adri's hehe!) so we went to the mall because she really wanted to make a build-a-bear. Wow, that was weird. Haven't been to a mall in a year! I thought I was going to die. Anyways, then we went out to eat and guess who happened to show up. Dr. Fischer! And of course, the stinker that he is payed for ALL of our food without telling us. I love that man! After that we went and saw Valeri. She is doing so well! We reset her for baptism so she will be getting baptized May 16th! I am very hopeful that she'll be able to do it then! She's cut down on her cigarettes a ton! She's only down to a few a day...the hold up is the coffee :/ She really loves her coffee, so we're trying to help her find something to replace it with. We also were able to meet her daughter that night and we gave her a Book of Mormon and we're going to try to get her to come to church with her mom! It was a very interesting visit....her daughter, Andrea, has absolutely no filter and told us more about her than we ever wanted to know before she even knew our names! Yikes! It was interesting.

Tuesday we served at the TC and got to go to seven oaks for the last time until October! Bitter sweet :) Sister Young, who has been sick for the past 2 weeks was resting at the TC that morning and not doing well at all. Couldn't keep anything down, throwing up, shaking really bad. The whole thing...so we contacted Sister Weston and ended up having to take her to the ER so we were there the rest of the night. We went to kind of a ghetto place and were seen by students and it was kind of a ridiculous experience. It was amazing we got out of there alive. The guy who was taking care of Sister Young wouldn't even wash his hands when he came in or wash her IV every time he put something in it. It was just weird. Not very professional. She got a CT scan and got lots of tests done and found out she has a colon infection. Not good! It was a really hectic night. While this was going on, her companion, Sister Durrant had to go out with another sister to her area while their companion was on shift so that Sister Durrant could still be doing something productive. She had been going out with a different sister every day to go out in her area and it was really taking a toll on her and the area and was getting really frustrating.

Wednesday we had district meeting and Sisters Durrant and Young are in our district and Sister Young seemed to be doing a lot better! We were on shift that night and everything seemed to be going well, and then we found out that Sister Young had thrown up a coupe times again. So Thursday came around and we finally decided to contact President Weston because this was just getting ridiculous. Typically when a missionary is sick for about 2 weeks, they get sent home. So, we came to the conclusion that Sister Young would be with us at least until she got better, and then Sister Durrant would be with Sister Slater who was in a trio in Kanesville so it worked out perfectly. Thursday night we went to the clinic and went out to Texas Roadhouse with the Bellevue 2nd sisters. Haven't been to that place in so long! It was so delicious! And one of the sisters had a gift card so none of us even had to pay! Love free food!

Friday morning we had the emergency transfer, so Sister Young rested at the TC all day while we went on exchanges with the Tranquility park sisters. Then Sister Slater got all her stuff to go with Sister Durrant. Let's see...to sum things up. I went with Sister Willis in her area. We had lunch with a lady in their ward and her 2 kids and almost had to help her give birth to her child. Yikes. Her husband wasn't home, and she started having really bad contractions so she called her husband and mom and while we were waiting for them to get there we started timing her contractions! Never thought I'd end up doing that on my mission! There's a first for everything! Haha! Then we saw a bunch of other people and had such a productive day and had no time to sit and rest. It was quite the full day!

Saturday Sister Brower and I finally had a full day in our area together! It was wonderful! Saw Christy, then Kaylee, got a new investigator, did service for a member in the ward, talked with Sister Young and she told us that she had been praying and Heavenly Father told her that she needed to go home. Well.....that was a shock. Such an emotional day for everyone. Sister Young's mom called her that night. It was really hard. Didn't really know how to handle this situation. Never had a missionary leave only 3 months out on their mission. It was kinda crazy. On Sunday President Weston texted us and asked if he could meet with her on Sunday after church. We were on shift, and no other sisters were there yet when we arrived, so we got stuck taking tours and had to rush out to the mission office so she could have her interview. She won't be going home! She will be in a trio with Sister Brower and myself for the next 5 weeks until the end of the transfer. It's going to be pretty interesting and definitely an adjustment! Trios are pretty hard especially while being a TC Leader. Please pray really hard for us! This will be an adventure! I know we'll figure it out though :) Well, that was my week! Hope you're all doing well! I love you so much!

Sister Ferrara :)