California Sister Entrikin: Good Morning, America

Weekly Planning in Newly Arranged Living Room with Sunshine

Good Morning America 🇺🇸 🦅

February 6, 2023

Good morning friends and family!

We had a pretty wack week. It was a little stressful, but we also got lots of good things done. All-in-all it was very successful

We had P-day at the institute building last week, so I got to shoot some pool 😎 I won 0 games (sorry Grandad) but I had lots of fun, and that's what matters 😌

We talked to a member of the mission presidency and our house situation (the sewage) was classified as an official emergency situation 🥳 So we stayed in our wonderful member's basement for most of the week.

But they got the problem figured out! And we moved back into our official apartment. Then we deep cleaned that bad boy. We got new curtains and dishes and got rid of everything that was crusty and nasty, so now we're living like real people again. We also rearranged the furniture in our main room and it is much nicer now. In the words of Hermana Malan, "we made this poop house a poop home"

But rest assured that we are no longer in a hazardous situation and our mission leaders and members are taking care of us.

We had interviews with our mission President which was really fun. We talked about hardships. I talked about our house. It was good 👍

I hit 4 months on the 3rd. I have been a missionary for 127 days!

We also had zone conference. That was so fun! We had lots of good training (and good food) A lot of really awesome missionaries are going home this transfer, which is sad for us. But it's exciting that they get to move on to their next adventure. After we were all done crying and saying goodbye, Sister Hebdon and I went and got Red Robin together so we wouldn't be sad. It worked!

I've started running in the mornings with Sister Hebdon. I have never been so sore in my life. Every day is agony. But maybe I'll be faster than Dallin when I come home! You got to have the right motivation for these things 😌

We did some yard work for a lady in the pouring rain. I discovered that my rain jacket is water resistant, not water-proof. We all got pretty wet though, so it was OK. We had an absolute blast moving gravel together!

So yeah! Lots of good things this week, and more to come!

Spiritual thought:

Speaking of being water resistant and not water proof reminded me of a talk given in the October 2022 General Conference: "Building a Life Resistant to the Adversary" By Elder Jorge F. Zeballos

He talks about how we can't make something ‘anti-’ or opposed to, anything because it makes no sense, “because [things] will occur anyway, whether we like it or not.”

We cannot live lives that are anti- sorrow or struggle, but we can live lives that are resistant to anger and bitterness.

"The structure of our lives has not been demolished because of the adversary’s efforts or for difficult situations that we have had to face; rather, we are ready to move forward. The joy promised in the scriptures as the purpose of our existence should not be understood to mean that we will have no difficulties or sorrows, that we will have no 'cracks' as consequences of temptations, of adversity, or from the actual trials of our earth life."

We have trials and sorrows to help us learn and to see how capable we really are. There is a reason for all that we go through in this life, and God will ensure that everything that happens is for our benefit, IF we do our part to be resistant to the negative attitudes that drag us down.

I hope you're all doing awesome! As always I love, love, love you! And I love hearing from all of you! Stay safe out there!

Love, Sister Aysha May Entrikin 🌈

Pictures (with a better key so my mom can put them on my blog because I'm famous apparently)

1,2,3) Zone conference - including, a ridiculous amount of missionaries in one picture, Sister Hebdon has a monster and everything is beautifully chaotic, and the picture where Elders don't know how to make it look balanced and pretty and the sisters didn't know because they're short and were in front

4,5,6) Red Robin, Yum - including the limeade that was bottomless so I drank 3 of them, my beautiful signature, and my thumbs up approval of said signature

7) Weekly planning in our newly arranged living room that actually has sunshine! (I'm sitting in a recliner in this one mom) [lead photo]

8,9) Wet - including 4 missionaries who are very wet. Especially since the Elders kept jumping in puddles and splashing the sisters. It was epic

10,11) Leaving the beautiful basement haven - including, Hermana Nickerson was asleep but we wanted a pic, and Hermana Malan looking like a queen on the giant couch