Families Can Be Together Forever

Hi Y'all, 

This week I have learned so much. We had Zone Conference in Clarksburg on Thursday and then immediately after Sister Van Tassell and I went on Exchanges with Sister's Andersen and Wykstra. Sister Wyksta and I didn't get much teaching done but I learned more from this exchange than I ever thought possible. Sister Wyksta's mom passed away unexpectedly on Tuseday, two days before the exchange. We spent a lot of our time together talking with her dad on the phone and Skyping her family to make sure everything worked for when she Skyped in during the Funeral on Saturday. Through all of this I was amazed by the strength of Sister Wyksta and her entire family. Not once did she think about going home. Not once did she say anything negative. She knew that being out here on her mission is exactly where she needs to be. She told me that when she found out her mom had passed away she was studying and looked out the window and just saw all the people who didn't have the knowledge that families can be eternal and had the desire more than ever to share that with them. I am so glad I got the opportunity to be on this exchange with her because I got to see her family come together and talk about all the great memories they had with their mom. I got to see their strong testimonies as they talked about her being around them and how she is working hard in the Spirit World. There was sadness yes, but there was also faith and hope that they were all going to see her again soon. I got the opportunity to teach the lesson on the Plan of Salvation with them over Skype and the Spirit was the strongest I've felt it in a lesson as they shared what it all meant to them. I won't forget those 24 hours I spent with Sister Wykstra for a very, very, long time. 

 Grafton, WV where Mother's Day began (they also had a super creepy statue of "Mother"...)

So for the last couple weeks Sister Van Tassell and I have forgotten to put out our trash... and during the first week I was here we emptied the freezer of meat that had been in there for a really long time. We had put it in the garage and within a couple days realized that it smelt horrible so we set it outside our apartment. Two weeks goes by and it smells absolutely rancid. So we finally remembered to put out our trash last night and tried to lift the bag of rotting meat into another bag, trying not to breath in the toxic fumes. As Sister Van Tassell lifted the bag it ripped and maggots and rotten meat got all over her hands. I almost threw up everywhere. We had to push through and finally got the meat into another bag. We had an appointment immediately after that and quickly ran inside and tried to wash the smell from our hands. It sorta worked but for the rest of the night we had to coat our hands in hand sanitizer to keep them from smelling. 

On our way to district meeting in Buckhannon

The rest of the week went well and we had a good time. Elder Foster of the Seventy is going to be coming to our Mission in a couple weeks so we're going to have to make a trip down to Charleston to meet with him! That should be a great experience to look forward to. 

I hope y'all are doing great and that this next week is amazing!

I love you!

Sister de la Cruz 

Planning Sis Van Tassell's death (T-Minus 4 weeks)