I Am the Awkward Third Wheel

So you know the kid that was in high school that hung out with your group of friends because one of their friends was cool so everyone hung around the cool one while the other kid just shadowed that person and no one talked to them? Yes that has literally been me my entire life and still hasn't changed and probably won't change until the day I die. I'm just not cool enough to be in a group of 19-20 year old missionaries either I guess.

I really get along great with stoners, I've noticed. I don't know what that means but you know what, stoners need Jesus too.

So this week was speedy Gonzales, I don't even now what happened oh my gosh. We taught and tracted and taught and tracted some more. Once again, tracting is not the most successful way to do missionary work.

The good news is we had more lessons with less actives and recent converts, my favorite type of missionary work.

One evening we went to contact one of our investigators, and he wasn't home. We tried this less active across the street from him, and they weren't home either. I said a pray out loud that we would be able to contact our investigator soon as we got back into our car, and not two seconds later our investigator pulled up into his driveway. We got out and talked to him and scheduled a less for him later that week (and it was a bomb lesson btw). So his name is Tito Togar. He is from Liberia, Africa and he has the coolest accent ever. He wants to be baptized really bad and has been listening to the lessons for only a couple months. Who knows, maybe this might be my first baptism, knock on wood.

Ok so we have District Meeting every Wednesday right? You would think because it's every Wednesday that it would be ingrained into a 17 month out district leader right? Wrong. Our district leader completely forgot it was Wednesday so we were all at the church for an hour waiting for him to show up. He finally arrived and apologized profusely and we talked about villains and superheroes for the rest of the time. That might seem pointless to you, but it gives me comfort because even though I screw up all the time and I am incredibly awkward, I would never forget that it's district meeting.

Sunday was Stake Conference in Lincoln, and it was my first stake conference I've been to as a missionary. An area of the seventy, Elder Dube, came and spoke to us. We had an 8 o clock meeting with just him and recent converts, investigators, and less actives where they could meet him personally. It was awesome, Tito came and since Elder Dube is from South Africa and Tito is from West Africa , they could understand each other and he was able to answer Tito's questions. After the meeting Elder Dube pulled us and Tito aside and spoke to Tito personally. He bore his testimony to Tito and said that as long as he listens to the missionaries, he will be blessed and being baptized is the best decision he can make. I GOT TO SHAKE ELDER DUBES HAND LIKE THREE TIMES. That was the closest I have ever been to an area seventy, he actually talked to me and said, "Thank you Sister." It was like talking to a rockstar. I was internally screaming the whole time but I kept my cool. Elder Dube gave a conference talk back in October 2013.

Go watch it or read it. It's amazing.

K I'm off to go do P-day stuff. I love you all and the church is true.

Yeah I might not be the coolest or most interesting of people. I might not be included in the "cool crowd" but who cares, cause when Jesus is on your side nothing matters anyway. My job here in life is to comfort the lonely and less fortunate. I can do that because I know exactly how it feels to be lonely and less fortunate. I just know I have a father in heaven who loves me and I need to tell people that.

I love you all. Please keep me in your prayers, I need it. Talk to you soon!!

Love,

Sister Ginn

Flowers from our ward mission leader!

I like jumping in puddles!

I Really Hate Playing Basketball!

So we all get up at 6 and walk to the stake center and play sports for exercise, mostly basketball. I. Hate. Playing. Basketball. So.

Freaking. Much. I like watching it. It's great to watch, I love rooting for teams and stuff. It is not meant for people who are 4'11 and everyone else is 6'2. How about no. And I wanna believe that the other missionaries aren't judging me silently for how bad I play sports but they are totally judging me hardcore. I'm pretty sure that's why no one voluntarily talks to me, because I am so bad at sports. But hey give me a piano and I'll blow your ears off.

Anyway this week was great. Second week of the transfer already? What?

Wasn't it just Christmas yesterday? I don't even know what I had for dinner last night, this transfer is flying.

We have taught so many lessons this week to random people. We're out of people to teach so we've been tracting. Like five people have let us walk into their homes and allowed us to share a message with them.

What. How bizarre is that? They are mostly older folk, but they are really sweet and loving. I'm trying to see everyone I walk past as a child of God, or how God would see them.

Sister Morrison and I have started a contest on who can wave and say hi to the most people. Whoever gets the most responses wins. We aren't sure on the reward yet. We're just trying to be friendly to everyone.

We are teaching this progressing investigator named Assata. She is 17 and wants to be baptized, just not at the moment. I like her a lot, she has class and style, two things I have never owned in my life.

Teaching someone who is remotely interested is nice.

We went over to this recent converts house named Arielle twice this week. Turns out she is into hardcore screamo music just like me. I love it when people love my music. She had a girl named Sunny who had a stroke at 3 and it messed up her brain. She is the cutest kid ever who doesn't understand the meaning of personal space. But it's just two more people I am growing to love. We went over there for dinner and sunny accidentally spilled a pitcher of water all onto sister morrisons lap. I have never laughed so hard in my life. It was great.

Our ward mission leader, brother Carlisle, is the greatest man ever.

He is old. He is sweet. And he is funny. The three main characteristics you needs for a ward mission leader. He is so nice to me , oh my gosh. I love him. We had a meeting with him at his house Saturday morning and his wife baked us bread to eat with our meeting.

Apparently there is no hope of ever actually losing weight on a mission.

Sunday was good, we go to two sacrament meetings each Sunday. So I get to take the sacrament twice. We ended up going to three sacrament meetings this past Sunday, we helped the elders with a musical number.

I played the piano. It was interesting to take the sacrament three times in one Sunday. Every time I took it, it still had the same spirit as the last sacrament meeting did. I was tripley reminded of everything my savior did for me and the sacrifice be performed for me.

I love my savior so much. He knows how I feel 24/7. He knows when I am sad and how to best comfort me, and he knows when I am happy and how to rejoice with me. He does that with all of us. Knowing my savior gives me such a sense of belonging. I am glad to be here spreading that with others. It gives me joy to help people be happy.

I love you all so much. You are all my favorite people in the whole world. Thank you for all the support and love you give me. You are all children of God and I love you.

Love,

The Incredibly Awkward Human Being Called Sister Ginn (at least in California)

Cute little girl names Sunni

Haircut!

Playing with Sunni!

The People In Lincoln Are Rich

Ok so it's really fun and sad at the same time, I had completely forgotten what two story houses looked like because in Corning there's nothing but trailers and poverty. Then there's Lincoln. Dang these people got money. There's townhouses, giant mansions, bushes cut into rabbit shapes, and fancy water fountains galore. It's impressive. And our area is nice and close. Its lovely. I like it.

Anyway, my new companion is Sister Morrison. So far we get along just fine. She's exactly like me in a lot of ways, and we both have the same motto: "Work hard, play harder." So that's nice. The missionary work is done totally different then Corning is. I cover two wards instead of just one, Lincoln 3rd and 6th ward, so we have way more people to work with. We honestly don't see too many members, and every night we get dinner with them. It's great. Someone told people not to make us desserts so maybe I'll actually lose some weight. That would be nice.

So sister Morrison is sister training leader and she had to go to an all day meeting on Thursday which meant I was stuck in Lincoln and I had no idea where anything was. Another sister, Sister Patterson, was my companion and she's new to Lincoln too. We basically spent the whole day completely lost and didn't see anyone. So that was interesting.

The missionaries in my zone are great. They've all been serving around each other for about a year and a half so they're all great friends.

I'm kind of the awkward one around, I don't know any of these people.

I'm realizing that my entire life is just awkward and I'm okay with that. That's basically my first week.

We did a huge zone service project on Friday. We all did yard work for about three hours. Oh I miss yard work. It was fun, I raked soaking wet leaves into piles. It's been raining hard for the last week and the ground is absorbing none of the water since its rock hard so it's all just sitting there flooding stuff. The rain smells different here than in NC.

Saturday was a loooong day. We had every single appointment cancel on us so we spent the entire day finding, with little to no success. It wasn't until 4 that we finally found this part member family who actually let us in the door. We talked to them forever about the church and about Jesus and things like that. It went pretty great. It was such a tender mercy, especially after not seeing a single person all day. What a tender mercy. I was so tired after that, but I felt good about myself because I knew I had tried my best. It's whatevs.

It's only other people's salvation.

Sunday was nuts, so one ward starts at 9 and the other ward starts at 10:30. We have to flip flop every Sunday with church and ward councils and PEC and holy freaking heck so many meetings in one day. Our two bishops and two ward mission leaders are great though, they are willing to work with us and don't get offended when we don't attend their ward.

So far there's four progressing investigators here and I've met none of them. Hopefully I will meet some of them this coming week.

I live in an apartment again and it's wonderful. All the elders and sisters live in the same apartment complex.

The church is true guys. I wouldn't be on my mission if I didn't know it was true. I have never been a people person. I'm still not a people person. Ha you should see me interact with some of the elders. I have come to find that being a missionary really doesn't change you too much at all. It changes your testimony and how you act, but other than that you are still the same person. I'm still Caroline. My relationship with my savior has changed, and I've matured a lot, but I'm still Caroline. It's actually kind of great, I have zero tolerance for immaturity and idiocy because it just ticks me off. I am not a fan of dumb people.

My new address is 174 South O St. #22 Lincoln, CA 95643

Love you all! Talk to you next week.

Love,

Sister Caroline Elizabeth Ginn

New Companion Sister Morrison

First baptism for Caroline on her mission in Corning.

So I Skyped My Family and it Was the Greatest Thing Ever!!

Hello to all. I hope your Christmas was great this year. I had a good Christmas, I really did.

This week was one slow week, that's for sure. You know how people say that the holidays are the best time to proselyte? Well that is a lie and if anyone actually believes that then clearly they have never served a mission, at least in the United States.

Anyway. Not many lessons were taught. At all. We mostly just visited with members all week, which hey, members are one of my favorite parts of being a missionary so I'm not complaining. Tuesday we had a California Roseville Mission Christmas devotional and it turned out great. I played the piano and we all sang Christmas songs. I saw some missionaries I haven't seen in a while and it was fab. I loved it.

Wednesday was kind of slow, but we ended up helping one of our investigators make Oreo truffles for like three hours. I ate so many and I wanted to die. There's no such thing as a diet during Christmas.

Thursday on Christmas Eve we helped the same investigator cook her Christmas Eve dinner. Her name is Marybel by the way. Then we went to the Finefrocks, a family that loves missionaries, and we ate and talked and laughed and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Christmas morning sister Mackay and I recited the Living Christ to each other. That's right. I memorized it. And I suck at memorizing. We opened our presents and headed out to our relief society presidents house. Turns out the entire ward had gotten together to get us these GIANT SANTA BAGS filled with presents. I got these warm cotton pajamas that I try to wear as long as I can in the mornings and nights. We skyped our families at another members house and I didn't cry as much as I thought I was going to. I love my family soooooooo much. It was so good to hear them speak to me. I will never take them for granted again. Our Christmas dinner consisted of nachos and Oreos and jello.

It was delicious.

Saturday and Sunday were kind of a blur. They went fast and slow at the same time. I don't remember too much that happened but that happens a lot for me. I did play with playdoe with a little girl who's grandma is our investigator. That was fun.

I love the members here. They are like a giant ward family and I love it. The Relief Society President here is Sister Ellen Van Dyke and she is amazing. We are over at her house all the time. I adore her. We get along great.

Even though Christmas is over, I still feel the Christmas spirit inside of me. It's a happy and joyous feeling to be sure. I want to try to keep this feeling with me as long as I possibly can. Everyone else should try that too.

I know this gospel is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true.

I love knowing that I am sealed to my family forever. It's amazing to me to be able to know that for sure.

JESUS IS REAL AND HE LIVES.

I love you all ok? Happy New Years! 

Love,

Sister Ginn

Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal

It's been raining an awful lot in California and holy cow the people are still ungrateful. Typical.

So before everyone gets all disappointed, I didn't take too many pictures this week mostly because I was sick for about a third of the week.

Ok so this week was long yet short, another one of those. We had a little 9 year old girl baptized this week which was great, we had been teaching her and she got baptized, woo! So that was my first convert baptism ever.

I just realized there's only two more weeks of this transfer left, holy cow. Transfers are on the 5th for us, and I find out the Sunday before if I'm leaving and where I'd go of o leave. To be honest I would love to leave Corning. Which probably means I'm staying. Oh well.

Anyway, this week we picked up another investigator (which doesn't happen ever so I'm excited). Her name is Melissa and she has a little

6 year old girl named Anita. She is a sweetie. We started teaching Melissa's mom and now Melissa has a ton of questions. We helped them make a birthday cake for Melissa this week which was fabulous.

Sometimes it's really nice to be around regular people and not just Mormons all day. It reminds you that people have different morals and opinions.

We went on exchanges again on Saturday, I stayed in Corning this time with Sister Myers and Sister Mackay went to Redbluff. It was a weird day, sister Myers and I woke up feeling icky so we slept in a bit.

Sunday it turns out I have some kind of stomach bug and my stomach is in knots. I can walk, but we've been taking it easy the last couple of days. Hopefully it will go away before Christmas.

I am so pumped to skype my family for Christmas, you people have no clue how excited I am. I love my family more than anything.

 It wasn't a really eventful week. Friday was kind of a rough day, all our appointments cancelled on us so we tried contacting some less actives and former investigators. No luck, and we got yelled at a couple of times. Later that evening we were trying to get into anyone's home, and we knocked on a members door and she let us in.

Definitely a tender mercy for both of us. Be that member. If the missionaries randomly knock on your door, let them in. Talk to them.

Get to know them. Feed them cookies. Those are the best kind of members.

Oh I also played a piano piece on Sunday, I played an arrangement of Far Far Away on Judeas plains and everyone loved it. I'm glad I can share my talent with so many people all at one time.

I've seen a lot of autistic kids lately for some reason. I love autistic kids. They are so adorable.

The spirit of Christmas is a very real thing. I love it. I love that it is so tangible to so many people. I'm glad I was able to share some Christmas cheer to so many people. It's amazing how when people think of Christ, they become kinder. That's why people are nicer this time of year, it's because Christ is prevalent in more and more people's thoughts. We are going to a members house all day for Christmas. This member has 6 kids so this should be fun. We're also going to a members house for Christmas Eve, her family is throwing a party. I'm being taken care of this Christmas, that's for sure.

I love you all very much. You are all in my prayers. Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

Love,

Sister Ginn

Maggie would be jealous!

Love the Snowmen!

Cute Sister MacKay

Home sick but Happy at Christmas

So this week was a week filled with Christmas and things of that sort.

First off can I just tell you all that my mission president is the bomb diggity. I write him every p-day and I told him straight up how I was feeling last Monday: homesick as all get out. So what does he do?

HE RESPONDS AND MAKES ME FEEL TEN TIMES BETTER. So he is just as homesick as I am, if not more, cause he has all these grandbabies and kids back home in Utah that he can't go spend Christmas with. SO HE KNOWS. HE UNDERSTANDS. Yeah that made a big difference in my week.

Anyway, so this week we have been trying our hardest to use the Christmas initiative. We have given out a lot of pass along cards and did our best to show the new Christmas video, A Savior is Born. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch it. It's only 2 minutes long so it won't take up forever of your life. We honestly haven't had too much success with it. Either people are not home for the holidays or they don't care about Jesus. Ok. That's fine. The point is I feel good at the end of the day cause I tried. So there.

So Friday was a great day, we saw this recent convert named Marisela who has the cutest little boy in the world named Calvin. We played with him mostly, it almost made me like children haha. Later on that day we had the Ward Christmas party (pictures below) and woah it was a blast. I ate so much food guys. Holy heck. They had a Christmas nativity scene and I was asked to play the piano for it, so I did.

Everyone enjoyed and since it wasn't in the chapel people could clap.

So there's that. It makes me feel good that I can spread some Christmas cheer through my talent of playing the piano. That night we saw another recent convert who has yet another absolutely adorable son named Erik who is three and I want ten of him when I have kids oh wow, I normally don't like children but Friday was a day full of me actually liking kids.

Okay so here's something I have learned as a missionary: I will never, EVER, cancel an evening appointment on the missionaries unless someone in my family has died. Because let me tell you, trying to find someone to talk to at 8:30 at night SUCKS. these last few nights we have been trying to talk to people but they actually get angry at us because it's so late at night. Ok well you know what any time is a good time to talk about Jesus. Sometimes I forget that people actually have lives and do things that are normal, like sleep at 8:30 at night.

Can't wait until I can do that again <3 13="" months="" more="" p="" people="">

Not too much has happened this week. We found a couple of investigators, but we aren't sure they are emotionally stable so I don't know if we're going back to see them again or not.

We had exchanges Saturday, I went to redbluff with sister Wall and sister Mackay stayed in Corning. Exchanges are pretty much just normal missionary days. No huge miracles happen on exchanges. I prefer leaving the area I'm over so I don't have to worry about anything.

Sister Wall has only been out in the mission for two months. All of the people I've been companions with have been out way longer than me so it was kind of nice to have been out longer than someone.

Sunday was a good/emotional day. I think Sunday's are the days I miss home the most. Sister Mackay and I were asked to speak, and next Sunday I am playing a musical number. Fun right? Well, we both decided to speak on Christmas. During my talk I of course started to cry, haaaa not ok, and then I couldn't stop crying pretty much all day. I miss home. There's nothing else for it. But I feel like I am closer to my savior this time of year because I can't be close to my family.

Also we set up more Christmas trees this week. Heck yeah baby. We're setting up some more this coming week. On a roll man. Woo!

I love you all so very much. I hope you're all doing well, and merry Christmas to all of us. Jesus is the Christ, and without him there is no Christmas. I know that of a surety.  I know my savior lives. I know he loves me. I know he loves you too.

LOVE YOU GUYS OK

with all my heart and organs,

Sista G.

My Favorite Christmas Picture!!

Scary but Hilarious!

I Was A Wise Man For About Three Hours

Corning does this cute little Christmas event called Hometown Christmas. Some members of our ward put together a live nativity and we volunteered to be two of the wise men. Some nonmembers were apart of it too and we got to talk to them the whole time. They were hilarious and we sat together on bales of hay for a long time making Hebrew jokes and saying Merry Christmas to everyone who passed by us.

It was great. It was nice to be apart of something that helps everyone be reminded of the real reason for Christmas.

This week was filled with visiting a lot of older people. That is fine by me. They have some of the greatest stories to tell, it's amazing.

We picked up a new investigator who is like 70 and is slightly crazy but she wants to learn more about the church. Cool with me lady.

One day while we were waiting for an appointment we decided to go walking around this trailer park to try to talk to some people. We started talking with this old woman named Angela and she invited us to walk with her. We found out she knew everyone in the trailer park and that she was hilarious and super nice. We told her we were missionaries and asked if we could come back to see her. She said she didn't care, because we should all believe in God anyway so it's nice to talk about that. Freaking sweet.

We got to decorate several members trees this week, which kind of helps with the homesickness for me. Decorating my tree at home is one of my highlights at Christmas. I got to decorate three trees this week, which was great. People let us put up decorations and lots of people let us go to town with them. I love all the lights and stuff for Christmas. Its just a cozy holiday.

Friday was a day of service for is basically, we did a bunch of service for some members and I ended up slicing open my finger which exploded in blood and wouldn't stop bleeding for ten minutes but hey, I was serving so if I lost a finger in the process, more blessings for me cause it was in the lords time. (Good news: I didn't lose my finger and the members patched it up for me)

Saturday I got the chance to play for someone's funeral. I realized while I was playing that though I didn't get to play the piano for my grandpas funeral, I could still do it for other people. I still hate funerals, but I'm glad I can share my talent in any way possible.  I got emotional of course, but that's the spirit for ya.

I have been out five months everyone. Five. That's basically almost 6.

Which turns into 7. And eventually makes its way to 8 and 9. So I'm pretty much halfway done technically when you really do the math.

These five months have easily been the longest of my life. I'll be glad when Christmas and New Years are over. Then I can go back to not being as homesick and jealous of everyone who is spending time with their families. I am so excited to skype my family for Christmas btw.

Just saying.

Brianna has decided she no longer wants to meet with us. She is gonna be looking at other churches. She doesn't like ours. Yes that is probably the saddest thing in the world for me right now. Jeez. I guess it's her own salvation.

Sister Mackay is such a great person. She is quiet but she's actually really sassy on the inside. She's got feisty sass. Don't get on her bad side, she doesn't tolerate any nonsense and will eat you alive if you try. It's great. This whole week was fast but great.

I hope you all have seen the new Christmas video by now, if not go to lds.org and watch it. I've got it memorized, I've shown it to so many people now holy cow. I am grateful for the birth of the savior and all he has to offer with the atonement. I'm grateful the atonement is real. I love Christmas. I love all of you. You are all my favorite people and I wouldn't want that any other way. I wish you all good tidings. Merry Christmas indeed. Shout out to my mom this week, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, YOU ARE THE GREATEST MOM IN THE WORLD.

Talk to you all soon!

Love,

Sister Caroline Elizabeth Ginn