Hello again!
I hope y'all are having a good day/evening! As per usual, I am very busy haha. I'm currently doing at a minimum 40 hours a week of mission work, but that's a low ball since I usually spend a lot of time at home working on our social media accounts. This is on average less than what I was doing a few weeks ago, but I realized that I had been setting myself up for burn outs and so I had to adjust more time for me to decompress. You cannot fill someone's cup with an empty pitcher after all!
Here's an update on each location:
Heidi's Village Animal Shelter- Oh my goodness I cannot believe that I get to hangout with cats as part of my mission. I wish I could take pictures of each kitty I see, but that would distract me from socializing with them. For those wondering about Bugsy and Cricket from my last email (the blind cat and his caring brother), they got adopted!!! While it is bittersweet to see my lovely boys go, I'm so happy that they were able to go to a home that will cater to their needs. Another somewhat hopeful story is that of French Toast. He has been with the shelter for quite a while, he even went into foster care with one of the employees, but he's now back in a suite. French Toast is a very difficult cat to put it lightly. He hisses whenever he sees anyone, he has really bad digestive problems, and spends most of his time hiding from the humans. However today, I made eye contact with him, and he didn't hiss! He slowly moved back behind the towel hanging, but that's progress! He even ate off of the licky pad I gave him! I hope that means he's starting to trust people. All that distrust is probably stressing him out mentally and causing his physical illness. I know this story isn't as happy as my last one, but hopefully French Toast will have a happy ending eventually.
Gathering Humanity Refugee Warehouse- From what I've heard, the first wave of Afghani refugees is almost complete. Meaning that the second wave will begin shortly. And there is the looming possibility of Ukranians also coming. This past Thursday, my mom and I took three cribs to three different refugee families across Chandler with babies. I don't wanna say too much about the people, but I'm so happy I got to give these parents one less thing to worry about. I will say though that it was a bit tricky to get all three cribs onto my dad's truck bed haha.
Sequoia Deaf School- We were on spring break this past week, but for the weeks beforehand, it's been the same as usual. There were two weeks where there was a Deaf substitute teacher and while I was worried beforehand about my comprehension skills, I think I did pretty well. Some of the Hard-of-Hearing kids had struggles communicating with the substitute though haha. Nonetheless these children always put a smile on my face with how smart and funny they are.
Thursdays- So you know how I had to cut back on my mission work, Pioneer Village Blacksmithing is unfortunately what I had to drop. The place is an hour away from my house and so it was becoming too much of a stress for me. Now, Thursdays are my "admin days". I work on the mission social media, the mission choir, and my sister training leader duties. Speaking of mission choir, we recently performed an arrangement I made of the hymn Israel, Israel, God is Calling at a ward and it was fantastic! After the meeting finished, a lady came up to me and asked if she could purchase my arrangement! I of course told her that she can have it, but I wouldn't charge her. So that was quite the compliment :)))
Casteel Seminary- This past week was the last week until spring break so I won't see my students until April... But in these past few weeks I've had such a great time with these kids and I'm constantly learning something new from them. I've learned such fascinating things from how Tonga's monarchy works to not one, but two murder cases. A little brutal, but I can assure you that these students' testimonies are outstanding.
Now before I get to the pictures, please consider participating in my virtual blood drive. It only takes about an hour to complete a standard blood donation, from entering the building to leaving the building. I’m taking part in their scholarship program in order to get up to $1,000 and while it would mean a lot to me, it would mean the absolute world to someone needing blood in order to continue living.
So what is a virtual blood drive? Well, an in-person blood drive means that everyone donates together on the same day. Virtual means that everyone is donating on/at different days, times, and even locations, but it’s towards the same group effort.
Here is the link to sign up for my blood drive: http://blooddrive.themtn.us/
My blood drive is until April 30th. You can check Vitalant’s website for donation requirements.
Thank you in advance for your help!!! Now onto the pictures!
And here's me, the happiest I am while away from my own cat, with both of them
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