T Minus 12 Days!

How we usually look in the car
(when we aren't jamming)

So! I had a nice full weekly typed out, but then my tablet decided to delete the whole thing which means, you get the fun slightly shorter version. But I do know the first one started with General Conference is in 12 days! I put it at the top of the email so you're still awake and know it's important, plus I'm just really excited!

Mt. Shasta, featuring lumerians.
I mean the moon

It's not very often we get instruction from the living Prophet on the earth today, as well as from his counselors, general authorities, and other leaders!

Here's a list of ridiculousness from this week:

*we were driving to dinner in the middle of nowhere and saw a BEAR! Check that off of mine and Sister Taylor's bucket list

whaaat? a wildfire? where??

*we had interviews with our mission president and because of how chaotic our past few weeks have been, I gave him some popcorn to at least have a snack for the interview

*we reaffirmed that Sister Taylor is indeed allergic to pumpkin

hands down the best sunsets in the misison!

*we're so far out in the middle of nowhere that our map isn't accurate so we ended up driving on a road that shouldn't exist but does, and tried to drive on a road that should've existed but didn't

*our misinformed map led us to Lake Shastina, and it may or may not be pretty dry at this point so we walked into the middle of the "lake"

Cloudy days in the mountains are the best!

*we had dinner at the home of an unconscious man, his wife and 1-month-old child, his grandpa, and a lady who was on the verge of a stroke the whole time we were there...but she refused to go to the doctor and still cooked dinner

*we were fed 27 lbs of ribs

*one of our services was dusting and I didn't sneeze (takes skill)

(I'm still as photogenic as I was before the mish
don't worry)

McCloud Falls!

*Steven got all gung-ho on us and is reading 5 pages from the Book of Mormon a night because he wants to

*CALE IS GETTING BAPTIZED OCTOBER 13TH

I wasn't kidding when I said 27 lbs...

*congregation members still mention the fact that I chop wood

*we were found out. As we sat in our parked car trying to figure out which house we were supposed to be at, a rather intoxicated man came up and started yelling, gesturing, and trying to communicate with us, finally telling us a truth I never thought I'd hear: we are the Illuminati. Sister Taylor and I rioted as we drove away.

Sister Taylor on her rameumptum.
We filled the board during our
studies one afternoon.

*I learned the ultimate Mom trick, which is never learning how to play the video games your kids play so when they ask for help, you can honestly tell them you don't know (or try to help and then chuck a pick axe into an abyss) #momsplayingminecraft #hitler'slessknownbookonknitting

*I held a tortoise and it was fantastic

Field? Nope--Lake Shastina!

*my aim has not gotten worse since I left home, and I was able to obliterate a bug with an "a-salt rifle" (it shoots salt it's the greatest thing ever)

*one of the houses we went to, according to Sister Taylor, "feels like we're going to visit a long-lost relative who's going to take us on a magical adventure" and she was 100% correct

When you have the smartest
sister as your companion,
she's always contemplating
something

*we started a spiritual conversation by asking a guy about his bear, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time now!

*we didn't get evacuated and no other missionaries got trapped up here (whaaat!)

Despite all the ridiculousness and amazing things happening, I'll let you in on a secret: missions are hard! But I know for a fact that Heavenly Father gives us the strength and energy we need to make it through our tasks. Sunday morning was really rough. I hadn't slept well the night before and couldn't focus, a headache came from exhaustion and I was struggling. Well, after church I knew we had work to do and I wanted to be able to do it well.

We saw the opportunity and had to take it!

We literally walked INTO
Lake Shastina--it was great!

Sister Taylor was in the bathroom and I was tempted to reread a letter from a friend that was sitting on the table, but instead I was prompted to say a prayer. As soon as my knees hit the floor the spirit came so strongly! It gave me the energy I needed for the rest of the day, as well as direction regarding who we needed to visit next. He works in the little things, and that was definitely a miracle I needed!

Backstory: Cale wore a
beanie to the lesson. Somehow
the phrase "only sinners wear
beanies" came up. Sister
Taylor wears a beanie in the
morning since we walk and
it's getting cooler up here.
We created a picture to join
his Beanie Crew. He responded
in the best way possible :)

Next week I'll be sure to copy my draft or something, who knows. But, good luck this week! He knows you personally, and is doing everything He can to reach out.

If you're down, remember: we live in a world where if you so desire, you can mail someone a coconut as long as it has a stamp and address on it!

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

311 Old McCloud Rd. Apt B
Mount Shasta, CA 96067

Who's up for Round 2?

The congregation now knows me as
The Lumberjack, thanks to
our Service Friday

So, this week I could again have about 32 different titles. As far as my knowledge goes, it's not possible to have a normal week in Mt. Shasta! But, that's totally fine!

the view from the top of the stairs

Lots of pics to share. Some of our house, lots of Mt. Shasta.

Rose got baptized (we went
out of our area to be there)
and the deer came too!

had to get the nametag pic

some of the burn area driving up from Redding

Since were with them for 6 days
I count them as companions now!
of course I had to do the comp shot

what happens when you have 2 missionaries
who are visual, hands-on learners and
have to plan for the week

First things first: I'M HOME!! I'm emailing from the actual area I was assigned to this transfer! I got back Tuesday evening, so my week officially started on Wednesday. Which (fun fact) was apparently too late, according to a 3-year-old in the ward who angrily asked us at church, "Why did you get stuck in Redding?"

Our study room

And so many miracles and chaos happened.

(finally got the pics from 2
Tuesdays ago) Sister Johnson
and I are starting a band

WHAT HONEY? There have been so many Sister Whitesell moments I can't even tell you. But, the biggest one was probably Tuesday. We went to our district council, making that a "Full Circle" moment, where we left for the meeting and we made it home a week later, after the meeting.

Sister Wright wanted to carry me
too, so I got over my nonexistent
fear of heights to let her carry me

We had some of our studies at about
9000 feet elevation by driving
up Mt. Shasta! It was amazing :)

An amazing family in Corning gave us a jar of honey. So I put it in the back seat of the car, and it moved a little bit on the drive up to Redding. When I opened the door (barefoot mind you), it rolled out and shattered all over the parking lot...we had to clean it up with something, and the only thing we had was 2 Friend magazines from July of 2007. Did you expect any less from me?

another comp shot

Sometimes morning planning is difficult in
an apartment that's been at 61 degrees the
past week, since the heater doesn't work yet

Okokokok so here's the next Fun Thing. Remember how there's a huge fire going on up here? More like 3 huge fires? Well, the elders came up to do Rose's baptismal interview, and then this thing happened where the fire jumped the freeway again and they closed I-5 while the elders were still up here. The best part? They didn't have their phone... :) genius.

Welcome to Dunsmuir, air quality -2
(can you see me in the photo?)

Yes we live here

JOB DESCRIPTION: BE SOMEONE'S PHONE. We had to drive back to where they were (after an amazing couple of hours of proselyting btw), and give them our phone to call President Ward. So naturally, President in his own words, "deputized" Sister Taylor and I to being STL's again so we could figure out the situation. We had to be the elders' phone for the rest of the day. They came to our dinner, since they literally had nowhere else to go, and then during dinner the member got a call that I-5 had opened again. We called President again and he told us to "Go. Now."

weekly planning was a lot of memorizing for me

Thankfully our lesson had canceled that night, and we had the time to escort the elders back down to Redding. Yes, I was kinda terrified that the freeway would close again while we were down there, but it didn't, so it's all good! We made it back safe and sound and this time, driving back, it was nighttime so we could clearly see the fire on the mountains along the freeway. It was crazy! It did look really cool but it's also a fire, and that's not good at all.

R.I.P. in pieces, beloved honey :(

Despite the fact that our week started on Wednesday, there were SO MANY miracles! I'll list off some of the biggest ones, since there's no other way to organize my thoughts.

more views of Mt. Shasta

GOALS ACHIEVED. To start, we met the standards of excellence for our mission, which I've never done before! It's finding 2 new people to teach, having 2 come to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, 1 "on date" (scheduled) for baptism, and 1 baptism. So you can see how it might be hard to reach those goals when baptisms don't happen every week here.

Wednesday, our basically only normal day this week, we started the morning with a lesson with Cale, the most solid human on this planet. He loved everything we shared, and came to church LAST week when we weren't even here, because the Bishop invited him! His beliefs already line up with ours, and he talked to us about baptism. We didn't even have to ask! He's awesome, used to be a Mt. Shasta guide, and invited us to do a hike sometime 'cause he knows the area really well. And you bet we're gonna take him up on that offer in the next couple of weeks!

our living room: of course the hammock is set up,
what else did you expect? The beds are
downstairs since it was so hot in the summer,
and now we're too lazy to move them

Welcome to Weed!

WEED. NO REALLY, IT'S A PLACE. Later that day Sister Taylor and I left one of our appointments and saw how amazingly clear it was, and had an impromptu desire to go to a viewpoint in Weed. But we're missionaries, and we had work to do. So we prayed about it...and the answer we got was yes, go to Weed!

We were so confused but the reasoning was made clear later. We were led to a member who needed a visit and his neighbor was outside. We talked to him, gave him a Book of Mormon and will go back later this week to talk to him more.

look at the sun poking through the clouds!

And we didn't only achieve our goal of 2 people to teach; we found a THIRD one! Yesterday we visited Lake Shastina and ended up talking to the fiance of a less active member who wants us to come back next week :)

sometimes the smoke cloud did
actually have an end!

Then, we had not 2, not 3, but FIVE people come to church! It was crazy amazing and the best part? I'd only met 2 of them, since I was only in the area for 3 days before church.

a great day for all of us :)

BEAUTIFUL BAPTISM. Saturday, Rose Abbasi got baptized! It was amazing to be there, and I loved being able to see her take that next step. I know I didn't get to teach her much, but that's okay because she's taking the right steps, and has had such a strong desire to be baptized! Despite the fire pushing it back a week (nice try Satan), she still had such a strong desire.

even the college campus has a
river running through it!

We had to try out drinking Shasta, ON Mt. Shasta

SETTING TIMELY GOALS. Then it was Sunday afternoon, and Sister Taylor and I had the strongest desire to reach our goal of getting someone "on date," or scheduling their baptism. That one's pretty difficult, since it's not like we can pull someone out of thin air who wants to be baptized and set a date. But we prayed about it, and we had a lesson with Steven who the missionaries have been working with for awhile and, you guessed it, he's "on date" for October 20th! Thanks to so many amazing miracles this week, we were able to exceed the goals we didn't even have time to set, since we were in Corning last week!

Mount Shasta view

a RAV, a mountain, and a
Sister missionary

Mount Shasta is amazing and the spirit is so strong, and the people are so prepared! I've been learning a ton, and I can't wait to see what can happen in a full week instead of 5 days!

Good luck this week and if it rains, send some this way so it puts out the fires. Thanks!

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

311 Old McCloud Rd. Apt. B
Mount Shasta, CA 96067

There are too many

look at Mount Shasta!

(The following are all potential titles for this week, 'cause there's no way to explain everything...)

"A Warm Welcome to Mount Shasta"

"Through the Fire and Flames"

"Welcome to...Corning?"

"Where's the fire? There it is!"

"A reverent sorority"


"Wrightsell 2.0"

"The most interesting sisters in the mission"

"Not the adventure we wanted but the adventure we got"

"Sister Kemp what did you pray for?"

up close and personal with
the plume from the Delta Fire

"We literally owe you the clothes off our backs"

"Holy Smokes!!"

I think it's safe to say this has been the craziest week of my mission so far! But there have been so many miracles and new friends that have come from it.

If Sister Kemp and I were
companions the world would
explode, so we figured
it'd be okay not to be comps

SO, take a seat, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the story of how I ran from the flames and into my trainer's first area: Corning!

waiting in the car in Corning

Believe it or not, there have been a few fires in northern California...

Sister Wright today, and a year ago!
Now I can say I've been companions with both:)

the first night of evacuations, leading
to a living room "sleepover"

TRANSFER TUESDAY. But MY Tuesday was a regular Transfer Tuesday that took me from Roseville to Mt. Shasta, thanks to some amazing members who drove us. I even got to be with Sister Swensen and King and Kemp for a few hours which was glorious, I love them so much! We each got on our respective rameumptoms (high tower or stand) and shared bits of our past transfer.

when you carry
the full weight of the companionship

TANGENT. BTW, transfers also hurt sometimes, because you leave parts of your heart in your old areas. I loved Roseville 6th so much, and the connections I made were so much stronger than I ever expected! Also, leaving Sisters Tuha, Johnson, and Hales was so much harder than I wanted it to be but I survived.

Even the playground celebrates
Sister Taylor's birthday

Sister Swensen! One perk of transfers
is seeing some friends

So, we got to Mt. Shasta and let me tell you I know for a fact it's where I need to be! For 14 hours apparently. We got there about 7 Tuesday night, and it felt like a dream. I love it so much!! Then, we left a little after 9 the next morning to drive for an hour to district meeting because we live in the middle of nowhere compared to other missionaries (which is kind of amazing). The drive was gorgeous, the skies had cleared and the mountains were stunning!

Sister Hales and Johnson sending a
subliminal message that I
shouldn't leave

UP IN SMOKE. Then, after district council we headed back home, straight towards a huge plume of smoke. We got about halfway home when suddenly traffic came to a halt. We were directed off the freeway and instructed to immediately drive south. We called President Ward as we started to realize the magnitude of the situation, and canceled our appointments for the day as we drove south. The closest sisters? An hour and a half away in Corning: Sister Manning and Sister Wright, who would quickly become two amazing new friends and companions.

YOLO?
Welcome to our companionship

We stayed with them the rest of the day Wednesday, and called President Ward that evening for a check-in as well as the following morning. The news? We weren't going to be leaving for awhile. This left us in Corning for who knows how long, with the clothes on our backs and our proselyting bags. If anything, it's taught me I don't need much to live off of!

So far, it's been an adventure and a half, and definitely the craziest start to any transfer I've had so far. Sisters Manning and Wright have been amazingly generous, and some members dropped off some air mattresses. Oh, and Sister Taylor impulse-bought a hammock while we were at WalMart, so she's been sleeping in that for the past 4 nights!

I held a bird and pet so many dogs
this week! Including a small bear
(Malamute) one morning in Shasta

STILL EVACUATED. Our evacuation has lasted 5 1/2 days and counting. There have been so many miracles here, and we've both been successful in looking for reasons why we so perfectly ended up in Corning. Sister Taylor and I are counting Sisters Wright and Manning as companions 20 and 21. Between the two of us, we've had that many comps. We've both had crazy missions, and now we have an evacuation to add to the list!

"get you someone who looks at you the way
Sister Whitesell looks at me" --Sister Wright

Thankfully, we were able to join in on a lot of the work that the sisters had, and then on Saturday we planned a 'double day' and I went on exchanges with Sister Wright. Wrightsell is back at it! We saw so many miracles and had the opportunity to do what He needed us to! Plus, Sister Wright is amazing and I love her so stinkin' much. We had fun all day, and the work was so much better because of the attitudes we had! In such a crazy situation all you can do is laugh about it, and be sarcastic. Sister Taylor is pretty good at the sarcasm too so we had that covered.

Late Night Pancakes! We got honey from a
member and needed something to put them on

FORTNITE. But, one of the coolest things from Saturday was our lesson with David. He's someone the sisters have been working with but he is super quiet, a shy 12-year-old and just needed to strengthen his testimony but never opened up. So naturally, Sister Wright and I went in and talked to him about video games, particularly Fortnite. (Sister Johnson, sometimes good CAN come from that game)

hammocks, airbeds and bunkbeds

It's all I've heard about since January or whenever it came out, so we assumed he played it. Which, he did! Our lesson? Fortnite Foundations of the Gospel :) Your 'weapons?' Faith, church, prayer, and reading the scriptures (since apparently you get 4 weapons in that game?). But it was really fun, and we drew on the board and everything! Super cool lesson and the spirit was strong. David opened up and even shared some experiences where he recognized promptings of the Holy Ghost!

It was a great day. Honestly, it's been a great week. Granted, there were some times when Sister Taylor and I didn't know what to do since we could feel that we weren't in 'our' area, with 'our' people and couldn't receive revelation for the area we were in, but it's all good. Sister Taylor and I enjoyed making a vlog for the first few days of our excursions. What else do you do?

There's the smoke line I was waiting for.
It hit Corning a few days after we got there :(

THE R SORORITY. And on one of the calls with President Ward, he made the comment that four elders together in one apartment is a fraternity, and four sisters together is a 'reverent sorority,' but a sorority nonetheless. It's been so fun with the sisters though, and we of course have done plenty of ridiculous things. These  included Sister Manning making German pancakes for Sister Taylor's birthday Friday (happy birthday, you got an evacuation!) and running to a donut shop for our morning exercise. Missions are amazing!

Happy Birthday!!!

LESSON LEARNED. There's always a silver lining if you're willing to look for one. Or just a lighter gray rim of smoke to the dark looming cloud of ash. There are miracles no matter where you go! And now I can say I've served in Corning since I've been to church here, and know more about the people here than Mt. Shasta. Plus, I've been here 5 1/2 days vs my half day in Mt. Shasta.

If you made it this far through the post, congratulations!

You'll notice I'm wearing a floral dress.
When you're a refugee,
your options are kinda limited

Keep your head up, and since I'm with Sister Wright again (well you know, a different one but still Sister Wright...I did, though, get to see KELSIE JO WRIGHT ON TUESDAY!!!) Here's her motto: Remember who you are, don't let it get you down!

Sister Whitesell
teresa.whitesell@myldsmail.net

Corning, CA

JK! My address is still
311 Old McCloud Rd. Apt B
Mt. Shasta, CA 96067

**P.S. As of Wednesday, 12 September, Teresa is back in her apartment. The apartments themselves were not in danger; they had just closed I-5, the only way in and out of the area. Now it's open again, so they were able to return to their apartment.