Sister Johnson and I went and did some dooring with the elders on the evening of the 31st (It was the closest thing we could think of to trick or treating)! We subtlety dressed up, brought candy, and we ate it in between doors! Fun, right? Wrong.
In the first building we klingled, an old lady buzzed us up. When we got up to her door, she was standing at it shaking and crying. We asked her what was wrong and she choked out "he died. He died. Two hours ago. He died". We stood, there not knowing exactly what to say...so I just asked "can we give you a hug?" The sweet old lady nodded her head and then the ever so bold Sister Johnson let her know that the Lord sent us to help her. She said she needed some time to be alone, but asked us if we would come back tomorrow (Sunday). Before leaving, we assured her that angels would be tending to her until we came over again.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. We were SUPER pumped and excited to teach her all about the plan on salvation and life after death. We got to her door and she was just as shaken up and upset as she was last night, but she let us in anyway. The second we entered her apartment, we both felt pretty uncomfortable for some reason...but she motioned for us to walk into her living room, so we did. On the floor were a bunch of lumpy, spread out blankets. I looked at them and didn't really notice anything strange, until I looked at the lady, then back down at the ground and saw a BLOODLESS, GHOSTLY-WHITE HUMAN HAND STICKING OUT FROM UNDERNEATH.
Oh my gosh I almost passed out.
I literally almost fainted.
I backed up and pretty much hid behind my companion...which was good because the old lady proceed to lift the blankets from over the guys head and sister Johnson was the one with the front row view.
I think I would have died.
Right next to the dead man (still don't know who said dead man was, btw. Her son, perhaps? No idea).
Anyway, she started rambling on about her husband and how she's looked everywhere for him and can't find him anywhere and I was just in such a state of shock that I couldn't even speak. Sister Johnson managed to choke out something along the lines of "I'm sorry but we have to go" and we bolted as soon as we could get our feet to function.
We called president once we were outside. He was in an interview, so we called his wife and we were like AHH WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO and she was like AHH I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO EITHER. He called us back a little while later and we had a conference call with him and the church's area legal representative man person. It was super intense. He briefed us on all the legal proceedings that would follow, counseled us on what to say to the police and pretty much just really freaked sister Johnson and I out. it was great. President added our bishop to the call and gave us permission to drive alone with him down to police station.
No one was at the police station.
And no one answered the phone at police station #2...so we just called 911.
Bishop told them everything that had happened, and they said it seemed very suspicious that we had waited so long in between finding the dead body at 3:00 and notifying the police at 4:30 and were were like OH MY GOSH WE DID NOT KILL ANYBODY LEAVE US ALONEEEEE.
Anyway. The police met us outside the ladies house, then put us on house arrest more or less until they could get a medic to come check out the body and remove it from the house. We sat in our apartment for the rest of the night waiting for the police to call us to come in for statement writing and questioning...but they never did. Aka the saga will continue today and we'll be going in at some point in the next few hours to let them know that WE ARE INNOCENT. except, funny. It totally doesn't seem like we are because that phone call with the legal representative made us SO NERVOUS to talk to the police and when they asked us what time we were over there and found the body, sister Johnson was like "umm 7:00. Wait. 5:00. Wait" and I was like "3:00. WE WERE THERE AT 3:00" And then later, when they asked me what my birthday was I was like "umm...uhhh.... oh my gosh Sister Johnson WHEN WAS I BORN?!" so yeah. We looked pretty sketchy. It's fine.
No worries, though. We milked the situation for all it was worth. We were on the phone with president before bed and were like "we're not so sure how well we're going to sleep tonight...is it okay if we sleep in?" And he responded with the most glorious sentence I've ever heard him utter: "you two sleep in as long as you want"
We woke up at 9:00 this morning.
Totally worth it.
In an attempt to leave you with happy feelings, I will now tell you a little story I like to call “Benjamin Is Awesome”. We taught him about the word of wisdom on Tuesday. He used to have major problems with a lot of things the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith as being harmful for our bodies (i.e. tobacco, drugs, coffee, etc.), but quit drinking/smoking/ingesting and injecting them by his own free will and choice because he recognized them as dangerous and destructive. We assured him that that recognition was inspired by the Holy Ghost and preparation for his acquaintance with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints...and do you know what he told us?? He said "I believe it! On my 30th birthday, I woke up and said 'okay. That's it. No more.' I determined to quit everything that you just listed...and then we met later that very same day!!" The Lord promised in ancient times that he would pour out his spirit upon all the inhabitants of the earth. Words cannot express the excitement that results in seeing the fulfillment of that prophecy as up close and personal as us Missionaries get to!!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few more emails to send before I join the ranks of the Book of Mormon legends and spend some time in PRISON. Wish me luck! I've been practicing my birthday! August 21, 1995! I won't mess it up again (hopefully)!!!
Love you lots!!
Sister Terry
PS: guess what God's present to Sister Johnson and I was on our year mark? Our RELEASE DATE. yup. The email came. I'll be flying home on the 4th of March-about 4 months from today. I've never been more un-enthused about anything in my entire life...I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE :(
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