Stake, not Steak

We got transfer calls on Saturday, and found out that I will be staying and Sister Dow will be leaving. It was pretty expected, since I just got here and she's been here for 7 1/2 months. But it is sad because Bonnie's baptism is next Saturday and Sister Dow is going to just barely miss it :( Bonnie took the news pretty well though. She is very excited for her baptism, especially since her brother is going to be there, and her kids might be able to come as well!

This weekend was Stake Conference. It was really good. We had a member of the 70, whose name I can't remember for the life of me, but he said a lot of really great things. He spoke about turning our lives to the Savior, and how taking the Sacrament is the ordinance of Enduring to the End. The main reason we go to church is to be able to take the sacrament. To renew our covenants. To repent and turn back to Christ once again. We've been having trouble getting some of our investigators to come to church because they don't understand its importance, and this talk would have been PERFECT for them, but of course they weren't there to hear it. (Oh the irony of giving talks at church on the importance of coming to church. It's always the wrong audience.)

Because we are up in Tehachapi and the Stake Center is in Bakersfield, some smart computer people in the area decided it would be a lot more convenient for everybody if they broadcasted the meeting up to us since 1. the whole stake probably does not fit very comfortably in the stake center and 2. it is really nice not to have to drive an hour away for church. So we watched it on a giant screen in the chapel. It was funny though because there were several times when the connection was temporarily lost, and the video feed repeated the last 5 seconds over and over again until the signal was picked up again. It was especially funny when it happened in the middle of one of the hymns and they kept singing the same thing over and over. :)

Also, side note, I hate trying to explain Stake Conference to investigators. Because you have to explain wards and stakes, and they look at you like "Why is it called a steak?" and you're like "Not steak, Stake" and they are still confused and then sometimes they think about it some more and then wonder why we call it a "ward" because that is also pretty weird since a "ward" is usually an institution for the mentally unstable. So yeah, Stake. It comes from Isaiah. Because we like to quote scriptures and confuse people.

I am excited for this upcoming transfer. I don't know who my companion is going to be yet, because our mission president decided to change the way they do transfer calls. They used to tell us where we are going and who our companion will be, but now the only thing they tell us is if we are staying or if we are leaving. We won't find out the rest until we show up for transfers  Gah, it is so frustrating! I don't like surprises!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Much love,

Sister Daelemans