Week 14 (I think)

Well this week was practically INSANE! Last Wednesday we found out sister white would be leaving, so we started packing things up for her. She still wasn't feeling well and neither was sister Jensen, so I spent a lot of time with Sister Dalley. On Saturday we found out that Sister White would be going to Stamford and I would be staying here. They are replacing the other sisters in our ward with elders, so not only am I taking over the area, but we are the only sisters in the ward! I feel like I don't know anyone!  The week got REAL crazy starting on Monday. 

I can't remember how much I told you about Sister Douglas, but here's the DL. She's the cutest, nicest lady I've ever met. Seriously. she has SO much charity. She lives in the projects with her daughter. every time we go and visit her, we sit in her tiny bedroom for our lessons. Her bedroom smells like, well, the projects, but worse. There is always laundry everywhere and food everywhere. You can tell she lives in that tiny bedroom. She has a lot of health problems, so you'd think her daughter would take care of her but her daughter never knows where she is or when she will be home. Sister Douglas passed out on the street one day and her daughter didn't even know. So anyway, we heard a rumor from someone in the ward that her daughter was beating her. On Monday night she came to FHE at the Brown's house and she was talking to sister Brown and she told her that her daughter beats her. Her daughter also beat her husband as he was practically dying. She can't get her daughter to move out. WOW. Talk about a heavy burden. As a missionary, what do you do? how do you help these people that you LOVE so much? I've never experienced anything like that in my whole life. My heart broke for her. We went to visit her and she asked us for money because her daughter takes everything she has. 

Tuesday we planned on packing things up, visiting Manny and Lourdes and then going to an active member's house for dinner. We got a call around noon from another member telling us she was worried about a sister in the ward because she sounded suicidal on the phone. Um. HELLO! The ward trusts the missionaries SO much. We went to go visit the sister... She was fighting with her husband that she is separated from. She told us that they separated because he cheated on her and gave her an STD. She'd kicked him out numerous times because he beat her pretty frequently. She confronted him and his 'mistress' about something this last week and ended up going to jail... they took her baby away for 2 days and now she has Child Services checking in on her all of the time.

There is a recent convert Sister Griffin, who has had a pretty rough life too.  She had six kids and her husband was a drug addict.  He and her oldest son both committed suicide.  How hard would that be?  She talks about it like it was nothing too.

Brother V is still set to be baptized on September 14th. We are all really excited about it. He is just so awesome! I'm not sure what else you want to know, or what I need to tell you. Life is crazy here! I've been in new york for almost 3 months. Where did the time go? I can't believe school is starting soon and fall is around the corner. I look forward to some yummy fall-treats in my next package ;)

This letter sounds kind of depressing!  Sorry! We do teach some normal people :) I love all of them.  It's funny to think that I was worried I wouldn't love them when I first got here!

PS- I found an old program from our ward in my bag!  It has Joseph's address in it.  I really should write him.  Is my address in the program now?  Is my plaque on the wall?  Do you get to see it every Sunday> ;)  I think it is really cool that all three of the youth my age are serving missions.  We turned out OK, all things considered.