The Lameness of Leighann

December Already?

2008-12-02T08:43:00.001-08:00

Well we've had a long 3 weeks, but an awesome weekend to make up for it! We got to see 3 baptisms this Saturday which were all fantastic! The only problem was that the water heater was broken so the baptismal font was FrEeZiNg!!! Samantha Wilson did in fact end up being baptized this past weekend! She was a miracle because we just started teaching her Friday of last week and she was baptized a week and a day later. I can't wait for her and her husband to go to the temple to be sealed! We also had a little girl named Jenna get baptized. Her mom is a member, but hasn't been active in many years. It was a very sweet baptism as well. To top it all off, we had a man named Tom get baptized. He is just incredible. When we first met him just a few weeks ago, we didn't see the potential in him at all. We just weren't looking at him the way Heavenly Father looks at him. But the more we've taught him about who God is, that he (Tom) is a child of God and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love him very much, we've been able to see a huge change take place within him. He's slowly but surely beginning to understand his self worth.

In our mission we have a "motto." The very last line of the motto is "Joy is the reward." After this weekend, that line has begun to make more sense to me. To see Samantha and her husband work toward the temple is so rewarding. To see Tom begin to understand WHO HE IS....the joy I feel is more than I deserve.

Even though there are hard times on the mission, I can still recognize the fact that I am so blessed to be here. I am humbled with gratitude to be a servant of my Heavenly Father. To wear the name of Jesus Christ on my chest day in and day out truly is such an honor. Time is slipping by faster and faster and I'm already getting panicked that the end of my mission will come faster than I think! Transfers are in a week! Oh well, back to work. That's all I can do to keep myself from thinking about how quickly this joyous phase of my life will be over.

I love my Savior. I love His gospel. I love y'all.

-Elderette TheUms

Week 16

2008-11-04T13:11:00.001-08:00

Well, this has been a trying week. Had some pretty sweet ups, but experienced some pretty hard downs. I'm experiencing the first of the difficulties of trying to figure out how to work with a new companion who's style of missionary work is so vastly different from mine. My new companion is GREAT and I'm already learning a ton from her, but we have different styles and this past week has been one of trying to mesh the two together.

I've experienced some heartache with investigators also. The blessing I received when I was set apart as a missionary sometimes feels like a curse! I was blessed with the ability to love the people of Washington immediately. And so I have. But as I've discovered this week, it really hurts when you put your whole heart into the work and you LOVE specific people so dearly, but then they reject this glad message we're trying to share with them.

I'm beginning to see just a small little bit that I'm entering into my "Gethsemane". I know that the Savior experienced every pain, every heartache, every trial, every disappointment, every everything that I would ever experience so that He would know how to comfort me. Now I just have to rely on Him. I know that I can't do this work alone. Without the Lord, my time here in Washington is basically spent just camping out.

The good news in all of this is that Heavenly Father is preparing His children everywhere to receive the gospel! Now Sister Stradling and I have the opportunity to go out and find those who are ready to receive the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm excited to meet them! I know that the Lord loves us and knows us each individually. I'm so grateful to have the knowledge that I do have a Father in Heaven who loves me. I'm grateful that I can turn to Him in prayer even in my darkest hour and He will hear me and send His spirit to comfort me. I know God lives. I know Jesus Christ lives. I know I'm doing the right thing by being out here sharing that with others.

I love you all,
-Elderette TheUms

Week 15

2008-10-28T19:21:00.001-07:00

Well, transfer calls came Saturday night. I was super curious to see who I'd be serving with because I figured I'd be staying in Silverdale (since Sis. Moore was going home), but no one seemed to fit logically in who would come here with me. Then the call came. I would be serving in Silverdale with.........Sister Stradling! Here's the thing: I've been out for 3 months, and Sister Stradling has been out for........1 1/2 months!!!!! WHAT?! How can WE be put together, we're too young?!

Now for the "stepmom" part. In mission lingo, when a missionary is brand new on the mission, their first 6 weeks, they get trained by a trainer (clever, I know). The trainer is called their Mom (or Dad for Elders). The next 6 weeks, they get "follow-up trained" by someone referred to as their "Stepmom". So there you have it, I'm follow up training Sister Stradling, so at 3 months out, I'm now a proud stepmom.

But in reality, Sister Stradling is a far better missionary than I am! She's just on the ball and knows how to do the work! I'm going to learn SO much from her! Here's a quick example: Today after our zone meeting, we all went to Wendy's. In front of us in the line are 4 hispanic men, taking their lunch break from work. Now Sister Stradling has been trying to learn Spanish and sees this a prime opportunity for both language enhancement AND missionary work! So she begins to speak to them in her broken Spanish and ends up setting up an appointment for us to teach them!!! How crazy cool is that! Man I love this girl!

We also have an AWESOME zone this transfer! My first district leader when I was in Puyallup just got transferred here to Silverdale, and a ton of amazing missionaries are here as well. No companionship stayed the same except for our zone leaders. This morning we discussed some goals we would like to see as a zone and I can already tell we're going to see incredible miracles over the next 6 weeks! I can't wait!

I must say, I'm very very sad Sister Moore is gone, but I know this work will continue to grow from here--especially with Sister Stradling on my side! I love y'all and I'm grateful for the knowledge I have that I am a child of God who loves me and knows me personally. I love getting to share that with people every single day!

Hasta Proxima Semana,
-Elderette TheUms

Week 14

2008-10-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

Awesome week! Sister Moore might have a slight case of pneumonia, so we've been having to take things at about 90% lately, but she is DETERMINED to finish strong! We had a really great week though!

We taught a recent convert's mom the plan of salvation this week. She's hilarious. Mary Ann (the recent convert who is 18) joined the church about 5 months ago and loves telling her mom about it. So Victoria (the mom) already loves Mormons and refers to herself as "Mormon-Catholic" She knows she's going to be baptized, it's just a matter of when. This Sunday was especially great! Victoria AND Skyler (Mary Ann's little brother) came to church with us! This was Victoria's second time and Skyler's first. He was so funny during the passing of the Sacrament. He got all nervous about how to do it and kept watching me for reassurance. I LOVE that family SO much!

As I think I've mentioned before, we cover 2 wards, so every Sunday we attend church twice. In the first session of church (the one before Mary Ann's) we had an AMAZING miracle take place! We've been working with this guy named Dan who's wife passed away about a year ago. He has 2 young boys and is just having a hard time of things and hasn't been to church since she died. Well he promised he would come yesterday, so we sat in the back with our "kid bag" full of goodies ready for them and in walks Dan with 2 SHARP looking little boys all dressed up and ready to go! AND they stayed for all of church! But the miracles don't end there! We also had a family come who's been less active for a while and they sat right behind us. THEN we had a lady named Carrie show up who's husband isn't a member and she hasn't been active for a few years! AND Carrie brought her friend Stephanie who's the non-member wife of a less active guy who is out to sea with the navy right now! We've been working with Stephanie for quite some time now. It was awesome! We had a little "Less Active Convention" in the back! We had a great time and I think all the families who came got just what they needed out of church.

So many ups and downs. I had my first bad "down" this week, but the Lord is merciful and quickly gave me the strength I needed to overcome it. I love this gospel. I love the fact that I have a Savior who loves me dearly. In fact, he loves me so much that he suffered immensely and even died for me just so he would know how to comfort me. I know this is his work.

Hope y'all have a great week!
-Elderette TheUmse

Week 13

2008-10-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hello loved ones, I'm sorry to say there isn't much to report this week. I got the flu and was super sick from Monday night through Wednesday. And because my companion and I are so unified and share everything, I graciously shared my disease with her and she was down from Thursday to Saturday! So we had a rough week of things.

We were able to see some miracles, however! Ryan (who just got shipped off out of the blue) was talking to his girlfriend, Erin and she tracked us down Sunday to relay his news to us, despite his request for her to keep it secret. Ryan told her that he was ready to be baptized when he gets home next week!!! Sister Moore was ecstatic because she's been working with him for FOUR months! The Lord truly blesses those who are diligent in doing His work - even if the results don't appear immediately.

I also want to share a cool experience I saw this week. Saturday night, Sister Moore was VERY sick. She's super stubborn, but finally gave in to receiving a Priesthood Blessing so she could get well and get back to work. I called Elder Hodge (our District Leader here in Silverdale) and asked if he and his companion could come over to give her the blessing. They said of course, of course, and came over. We just talked and joked around for a few minutes, being silly and talking about stupid things, and then Elder Hodge decided it was time to go ahead and give her the blessing. I said a quick prayer to invite the spirit and then they proceeded. It was incredible to see these young 19 and 20 year old boys go from being silly one minute, to stepping up and exercising that incredible Priesthood power they hold. The spirit was SO strong as Elder Hodge gave the blessing and it was the first time I realized just how REAL the Priesthood actually is. It amazes me that Heavenly Father loves His children so much that He's given us this incredible gift to bless our lives. I'm so grateful for the fact that I'm surrounded by worthy Priesthood holders who honor their responsibilities.

Well, I'm now 2/3 of the way through my second transfer on the mission. It's gone by SO fast! Even though Sister Moore and I felt useless this week, we're ready to hit the ground running to end this transfer hard! I love being here. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be surrounded by such strong servants of the Lord and to be able to do my simple part in sharing the gospel with God's children.

Love y'all,
Elderette TheUms

Week 12

2008-10-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

Holy cow! It's been almost 3 months since I became a missionary! Crazy how time goes. On one hand it FEELS like 3 months, but at the same time it feels like I just waved bye to the family. CrAzY!

Well, I still love Silverdale. Bill is making awesome progress. He watched both sessions of General Conference yesterday! He watched it at the Elder's Quorum President's house with another member and then called us afterward saying "Do you think this is funny? I just got finished watching FOUR hours of conference! That's ridiculous!" Apparently it was a bit too long for him, but he admitted that it was exactly what he needed. Awesome guy, just needs a bit of extra attention. By the way, who else LOVED conference? It's amazing how much more you appreciate it when your mind and spirit are in the right place. Sad that it took me going in a MISSION to get to that point, but at least I'm here! I loved the talks so much! I love how inspired the leaders of this church are!

So we got some sad news today. Ryan, the boyfriend of a member here, was supposed to get baptized this Saturday. We saw him just yesterday and taught him again. Then today we got a call from his girlfriend's mom saying that he got shipped off LAST NIGHT! Silly Coast Guard. They gave him no warning. So he's gone for 2 weeks and then we'll pick things up again when he gets home.

We also had a GREAT experience with this lady named Vanessa this week. We got a referral for a boy named Blake a couple weeks ago. Blake's grandparents live in TEXAS and they joined the church a few years ago. They told us that Blake really liked going to church with them and he wanted to get involved up here. He just moved to WA a few months ago to live with his dad and stepmom (Vanessa). Well we taught Blake and Vanessa about the Restoration of the gospel and had been trying to catch them at home again so we could teach them more. Then last week we called Vanessa one night and she answered crying. Scott (her husband - Blake's dad) had just left her and took Blake. It's a big long messy story, but we went over to see her the next day. It was just cool that she recognized the fact that EVERY time she's dealing with hard stuff like this, she has an encounter with this church. When we called, Scott had just left about an hour before! So we talked for a while about why we face trials in this life and I can't wait to go back and keep teaching her. I don't know how things will work out with her and Scott and Blake, but I know she is a woman of faith and everything will be made right.

Well today was awesome! Mondays are our "P-Days" and so for the first time in nearly 2 years, the Washington Tacoma Mission did a "Sisters P-Day"! All the sisters in the mission (all 12 of us) met up in Tacoma for the afternoon. We only get to see each other once every 6 weeks, so it was really good to see all of them and to get to know them better. We just got a temple square sister on Monday (T.S. sisters leave the square mid way through their mission to go somewhere else and serve a proselyting mission for a few months) and she's from DALLAS! Carrolton to be exact! AND we know SO many of the same people! Weird connections! She's way cool. So now we're near the end of our glorious day and life is great. Oh, I also chopped my hair off at 7:30 this morning. It's up to my chin. Scary.

Well, this is the life of Sister McCorkle: WA-TAC missionary extraordinaire. Hope life is great for y'all!

Love ya bunches,
Elderette TheUms

Leighann Is Not Actually Blogging...

2008-09-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hi readers, this is Veronica, Leighann's older sister. For the record, Leighann is not keeping this blog updated herself. That is against mission rules, but I have her permission to take all of her letters and post them here for anyone to read. Then when she gets back it will be a perfect record of her mission. Just wanted to clear up any confusion! -Veronica

Week 11

2008-09-29T20:23:00.001-07:00

Hey fans, this week has rocked! We're still working hard with Bill. He has these incredible spiritual experiences, but it's hard for him to stay motivated once the intensity of the spirit is gone. We're working on teaching him about diligence and helping him increase his faith. He actually had a really great experience at church yesterday. Sunday school was on Obedience and the teacher is awesome! After class Bill came up to us and said "Don't worry, most of your problems with me have just been solved." He's hilarious. Good guy, just afraid to let his wall down most of the time.

We had a cool opportunity with Erica on Saturday! We invited her to come to the Relief Society Broadcast and since her boyfriend is out to sea and she doesn't know anyone here yet, she agreed to come. I think she really got a lot out of the broadcast and just before she left she told me to make sure we came by to see her this week. She's such a sweet girl with SUPER strong convictions to the things she was brought up with. It'll take quite a bit of work with her, but I know that once she finds out the truthfulness of the gospel for herself, she'll by the type that will NEVER stray from it.

And we're working with a guy named Ryan now! He is 21 and is dating the daughter of a woman in one of our wards. Well, Sister Moore was working with Ryan starting about 4 months ago, but then some problems came up between Ryan and Erin (the girl he's dating) and he kind of dropped off the face of the earth. Sister Hosier called us the other day (Erin's mom) and told us we needed to come by that night because RYAN was there! So we did, Ryan came to church yesterday, we taught him last night, and he's on date for baptism for October 12! He's a GOOD guy with a lot of heartfelt questions. I'm super excited about him! He's just hard to get a hold of because he's in the Coast Guard and is only free sometimes on weekends.

Anyway, those are the big things we did this week. We saw some trials this week, but we've also seen some pretty great miracles. I am so grateful for the relationship I'm beginning to build with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It's really cool what happens to you when you get to focus on nothing but the Lord's work all week. What a privilege this is. I hope y'all are all doing well.

By the way, my new address is:

Sister Leighann McCorkle
7006 Dabob Ln
Silverdale, WA 98383

Love y'all,
Elderette TheUms

Week 10

2008-09-23T12:02:00.001-07:00

Well, as I said last week, I was transferred to Silverdale. The good news? I LOVE it! But more importantly I LOVE my companion, Sister Moore! Absolutely, completely, 100 % LOVE HER! She's big and loud and hysterical and loving and simply amazing! She and I just clicked from the first minute. We are having a blast tearing it up out here in the boonies (which, by the way, are NOT that bad...at least not compared to Joshua!). I really loved my former companions; I learned a ton from them. But the reason I love Sister Moore is because we have FUN while doing the work! Whether we're teaching or knocking on doors, there's never a dull moment. The only downfall is that we're running low on sleep because of how much we talk at night! But she is SUCH an incredible missionary! She's got a head full of knowledge and a powerful testimony to back it up.

So far we've got a pretty good teaching pool. We're working with a recent convert (MaryAnn) and her non-member brother (Skyler) and mom (Victoria). They are hilarious people and they know baptism is in the near future. We're also working with this guy named Bill. He's 62 and is pretty much falling apart because of how he's chosen to live his life. But he has the desire to believe and he comes to church every single week. I think it'll take some time with Bill, but he's on his way.

We had a cool experience a few days ago at a potential investigators house. Her name is Erica and she's 23, so we brought a girl from our congregation (Sister Bird) who's about the same age to help Erica find friends in the area (since they're both really new here). As we taught Erica the first lesson, she was agreeing with everything until we got to the end. At some point, Sister Moore made the comment in passing that we, as missionaries, only talk to our family on the phone twice a year. Well Erica freaked out over this. She simply could NOT understand how that would help us focus, how it could be GOOD for us, or how it could be good for THEM. After about half and hour of talking about this (which was NOT our intention), Sister Bird explained it this way:

She said that because we are willing to leave our family and friends behind for this short period of time, and vice versa, that shows just how much we know this gospel to be true. I had never thought of it that way before, but that's exactly right. I had a lot of things going for me before the mission. I had a lot of loved ones surrounding me. But I know this is the Lord's work. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ and I KNOW that THIS is where I need to be. That's why I gave those things up for just a year and a half. That's why I'm here. My mission is a testimony of my faith.

I know that Jesus Christ lived and died for me. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and through him, Jesus Christ's church was established on the earth again. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Christ and it works hand in hand with the Bible. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet on the earth today. I know that God loves each of His children and that's why he's given us these truths. This is my testimony and I leave it with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love y'all,
-Elderette TheUms

Week 9

2008-09-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I got the dreaded call Saturday night.....Transfer Calls! I had afeeling I would be getting transferred, but I REALLY didn't want to be.I LOVE Puyallup, love the wards and love the people! But alas, the callcame and I'm off to a town called Silverdale up north on the other sideof Puget Sound. Apparently it's pretty po-dunk, but everyone says I'lllove it, so I'm sure I will. I'm really excited about my new companionthough! Her name is Sister Moore and she is CrAzY...in an awesome wayof course! She's going home next transfer so I'll kill her off too.First Sister Allred, then Sister Moore....what kind of person am I?!This week was pretty good. A little slow as far as "numbers" go, butwho counts those anyway? Kimo and his family are doing great! We wentout to dinner with them a few nights ago. It's always fun when peopletake us out in public! As missionaries we get funny looks from peopleas we're walking along the street, but it's especially funny when peoplesee you in a normal setting (such as a restaurant). I think they're alittle confused! But it was really fun, and I'm going to miss thatfamily TERRIBLY.We met with Rachel Saturday night at the church as always, but this timeshe brought her little brother with her!!! I swear, that girl is alittle missionary already! She is a gospel-sharing machine! Anyway,her brother has been giving her a really hard time this whole time she'sbeen meeting with us, but she finally convinced him to come with her sohe could meet us for himself and see what we're all about. Well longstory short, he now wants to learn more about the gospel too! We toldthem we can't really start teaching him until HE gets permission fromhis parents too. Goodness, so much turmoil in one family! Even thoughthe prospect of them getting baptized looks bleak right now, I havecomplete faith that the Lord will open a door for them soon. By theway, Rachel convinced her parents to let her go to UTAH for her seniortrip (instead of Hawaii, like she had originally planned)!!! That girlis a riot! She's also about 99.99% sure she's going to go to BYU forcollege. Love it!Other than that, we haven't been working too much with anyone personconsistently. But I'm about to have new people to report on, so theemails will be exciting once again.Just one last thing, even though none of y'all know Sister Allred, Ihave to praise her for a minute. I was a little worried when I firstgot here about having a companion who was about to go home. I had heardWAY too many horror stories about how the old companion was burnt outand lazy and wouldn't work anymore because they were almost done withtheir mission. But Sister Allred has been an incredible example to meof the type of missionary I want to be throughout my entire 18 months.In the 6 weeks I've been with her, never once has she slacked off.Never once has she wasted a single minute of the Lord's time. She haspushed and pushed to finish strong. I'm sad to see her go, but such isthe mission life.Well peeps, time is up and I have a new town I have to get to.

Hope allis well.
Lots o' Luv,
Elderette TheUms

P.S. If any of y'all plan on writing me anytime soon, send it to themission office in University Place until I get my new address.

Monday, August 11

2008-08-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Hey People,

Well I made it through the first week in the field! Life is good!
There were times this week when the work was just plain hard, but I
discovered a secret. If you're diligent and work HARD throughout the
week, the Lord will bless you and you'll see miracles on Sunday. It's
so true. This week we met a guy named Ryan who was REALLY tough to get
through to at first (actually, just tough to get him to show up!) but
out of the blue on Sunday, he called and said he wanted to meet at the
church right then. So we met him, gave a tour (which a WA-Tac thing)
and taught the first lesson. From the very beginning I just had a
feeling about him and I couldn't let go of him. I'm not sure what will
happen with him, but the lesson was awesome! Stay tuned...

We're also teaching this incredible girl named Rachel. She's 16 and her
family is SUPER active in a different church, but she's looking for
something else. She's terrified to tell her parents she's meeting with
us because they'll probably disown her. But she's amazing. She came to
church with us yesterday and you can tell she is super prepared! She
even wants to bring her brother to learn more with her.

Yesterday we had 2 guys just walk in from off the street. They didn't
know anything about our church and we had never seen them before, but we
were able to teach them and we have a return appointment for this week.

We're also working with this awesome family who's been inactive for over
20 years. The mom just died and that really opened their eyes to what
they need in this life. They also came to church yesterday and they are
seriously just the most incredible people. You can feel the sincerity
and love when you're around them. I'm so excited to keep working with
them.

There were a ton of other way cool things that happened this week, but
this email is sufficiently long. I hope y'all have a great week! Know
that I love this gospel and I love this work!

Love y'all,
Elderette TheUms

Tuesday, August 5

2008-08-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hey Beloved People,

Well I made it. Got to Seattle around 9:30 and headed over to the church
in Tacoma with the Mission Pres, wife, and APs. Had our "orientation"
thing and then transfer mtg. I have 2 trainers! One's name is Sister
Allred. She is from West Valley in Utah, and she goes home next
transfer. The other is Sister Neumann. She is from West Jordan, UT and
she still has a year. I'm in a town called Puyallup (pronounced
Pew-All-Up) and it's BEAUTIFUL! But then again, so is ALL of my mission!
Found out that as of yesterday, August 4, 64 baptisms had already taken
place in the mission for the month. Crazy, eh? Apparently that's pretty
normal.

After transfer mtg we went to lunch with a bishop from another ward and
then we RIGHT TO WORK! We tracted for a bit, tried to contact some
referrals, and then they took me to meet a couple members of the ward.
We then did a "member inspiration" which is just to get the members
pumped about doing missionary work and to get referrals from them. It
was a great, but thoroughly exhausting day!

I think all of the missionaries in Wa-Tac now live with families. We
live with a lady we call "Mama Skilly". Her name is Sister Skillacorn,
or something like that. She's probably in her 50's and is divorced. She
is SO great! Apparently we don't get to see much of her though because
of her work schedule. She's a finance analyst for military hospitals.
She has 2 kids. One's name is princess and she's black and brown. The
other is comfry and he's black and white. They leave their hair
everywhere. And yes, they're cats.

Anyway, that's the doings of my life thus far. Our P-days are Monday,
but my trainers are kind and decided to let me email today! We have a
couple appointments this afternoon, and we'll be doing a lot of
doorstepping and such later on. I hate being new and not knowing how to
do this because I REALLY want to get out there and exhaust myself! I
think my trainers are trying to take it easy on me, but I've explained
to them I don't want them to! I want them to push me out of my comfort
zone and work me to death! They'll probably pick it up soon. I hope.

Ok that's it for now. I love this gospel. I love this work. I know my
Savior lived and died for me, and that's why I'm here.

Love y'all,
Elderette TheUms

Wednesday, 7-30-08

2008-07-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hey family and friends,

This week has been amazing! Our 3 other sisters we were sharing a room
with left for Hong Kong last week, so it's been pretty lonesome in our
room, but we're getting 3 new sisters today! I think they're all going
to the Philipines (which is where our 3rd roommate-Sister Kaufusi-is
going) so that'll be fun. We did have a sad experience with one Elder
in our district just up and leaving last Wednesday. He simply didn't
want to be here, so he walked out of the MTC and went home. It's so sad
what he's giving up. If he only understood the blessings he and his
family would receive by his service...

This week we've just been working on getting better at teaching lessons
1 and 2. On Monday, our district went to the TRC where we practice
teaching pretend investigators and we had an amazing experience! We've
been working on figuring out what the needs of the investigators are and
then tailoring the lesson to help them instead of just teaching it
straight through. Well, we had lesson 2 all set to teach them, but when
we got there, Sister Earl and I just really felt like it would benefit
them to teach more about baptism. They just kept asking questions on
it, so without having ANYTHING prepared on that topic, we ended up being
able to teach about it for 45 minutes! It was such a good experience!

Other than that, we've just had meetings on various topics about how to
be better, more efficient missionaries basically. As it turns out,
numbers really DO matter because each number represents another person
you're bringing to Christ - not just another baptism to stick on your
belt.

Well, we leave for Washington in 5 days! I'm SUPER excited, but a
little nervous too. We'll be getting into Seattle around 9:30 Monday
morning, so that means we'll have the ENTIRE day to just get out and
work. I get the feeling that we won't be given ANY time to unpack that
first day. But hey, what better way to get into missionary work than to
just jump into it?!

Ok, that's it. I love this work, and I'm so grateful to have the
opportunity to be here. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Take Care!
-Elderette TheUms

Wednesday, 7-23-08

2008-07-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Familia and Amigos,

Oh, wrong language...Well I only have a couple minutes on here. Todayis my first P-Day of my mission and we have a few computers here in theMTC to use for email. Just a quick recap of what's been going on inhere: Last week was full of meeting our district and zone, lots oflarge group meetings, and LOTS of class and study time. My companion'sname is Sister Earl. She is 24 and from Salt Lake. She's quiet andshy, but SO loving and a wonderful girl. I'm already learning why wewere put together. I guess we need at least ONE wonderful person in thecompanionship!

I was called to be senior companion as well as coordinating sister forthe zone. From what I can tell, that's kind of like the sister-versionof being a zone leader. We taught our first lesson to "investigators"in the Teaching Resource Center on Monday. It went pretty well. Wehave our next lesson tomorrow. Man, I love this missionary stuff!Sorry this is so short! My laundry is now done and I need to get out ofhere. We have tons of studying and planning to do today. We're goingto the temple in a few hours and I'm pretty excited about that!Well peeps, I love this work. I know this gospel is true and this workis so vitally important. I'm so grateful for this incredibleopportunity I've been given to do nothing but serve the Lord for 18months. What a priviledge it is. I love this gospel.

Keep on keepin' on,

-Sister McCorkle

The Time Has Come

2008-07-15T20:44:00.001-07:00

Well peeps, the time has arrived. That's right, I go into the MTC tomorrow! But first, a quick recap of the last few months:

May: Left for El Salvador and began the most incredible 6 week journey of my life! I learned so much about so much while I was down there. I am so blessed to have been given an opportunity like that. For 6 short weeks I lived basically outdoors, I was sweaty, dirty, and exhausted all the time, I worked from sun up (4:30 am) until sun down every day, but I miss it terribly. SO incredible.

June: Got back from El Salvador mid June, and had a week and a half to get ready for EFY. Went through the temple the night before I left for EFY, and, well, ya know.....it was so stinkin awesome. It is such an honor to have been able to do that. Then it was off to EFY. That week of being a counselor at EFY was also so incredible, but in a very different way from El Salvador. Again, I learned so much about so much there. People were really worried I would be way too burnt out after doing El Sal and then EFY and then a mission, but in all reality there is NOTHING better I could have done with that short time before my mission. El Salvador and EFY were SUCH incredible mission prep.

July: Got back from EFY, exhausted but extremely happy. I had a week to get ready for my mission. Crazy week, but I learned several times that the Lord truly does answer our prayers. Through all the stress and chaos, I was able to remain perfectly calm and peaceful and get everything done in time! I'm now up at my sister's house, waiting to go into the MTC in 14 hours. It still doesn't feel real. People keep asking if I'm excited, and at first I thought there was something wrong with me because to be honest, I'm not excited about what I'm about to do. I'm ready. I'm calm and feel good about my decision. I know that the work I'll be doing for the next 18 months will be the most important thing I've ever done in my life. I know it'll be hard. I know it'll be awesome. But I'm just at peace with it all. I'm ready.

The point of this blog wasn't actually to update the few who read this thing on my life. The point was actually to let everyone know that my sister will probably be updating this blog for me from here on out. For those who know her, you should know by now not to trust much of what she says. She will likely put ridiculous things on here, making it sound like me, causing me to look like a fool. So, even though I am kind of dumb sometimes, don't trust the stupid stuff that is sure to be on here! It's Veronica's doing; not mine.

Ok, see y'all in a couple years.

It's Here! It's Here! IT'S HERE!!!

2008-04-10T00:46:00.000-07:00

Well my peeps, it's that time! Yes, in fact my MISSION CALL came today! I was a little worried that it might be delayed a week due to General Conference, but the Lord took pity on me and decided I had waited long enough throughout the course of all this mission nonsense, so he let me have it on time! I had it sent up to my sister's house which is about an hour north of where I live just to be safe in case my call didn't end up coming before I left to go back home in a couple weeks. Today was the first plausible day the call could have arrived so this afternoon I started calling my sister like crazy trying to get a hold of her to see if it had gotten there. FINALLY at about 4 I got her and the first thing she said when she answered was "You need to get your butt up here!" Oh what joy! Sadly I still had a couple more hours of class reviews I had to get through before I could make the trip up there and find out my destiny. But I made it somehow and brought my dear friend, Melina with me to partake in the excitement!

And so, for the couple of you who DON'T read my sister's blog, I'll let you know where I'm going........................are you ready?......................drum roll........................................I have been called to serve in the................................................WASHINGTON TACOMA MISSION!!! And I could NOT be more excited about it! Of course I really wanted to go foreign and learn a different language, but I knew as soon as I turned in my papers that I was going to stay stateside. It was just a feeling I had. I was really thinking I would go somewhere on the east coast, but it's quite the opposite! My mission (how COOL is that?! I have a mission now!) covers the whole western half of Washington so I get the BEAUTIFUL west coast of that BEAUTIFUL state! AAAAHHHHH I can't wait! I'll post pictures that Veronica took later when I don't have 2 hours of a final staring at me. WASHINGTON!!! Whoo hoo!!!

Shock and Awe

2008-04-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

Well an interesting thing happened to me today. It was a Tuesday like any other: I got up, went to class, studied a bit, did my physics lab prep work. Nothing special. Ah, but THIS Tuesday WAS special. At 2:54 I entered my physics lab and headed over to my table where 1 member of my group was already setting up. I opened my bag to get my stuff out when my bag started buzzing. Obviously it was my phone so I pulled it out and looked at the number. It was a Texas number that I didn't recognize. Well I had been expecting a call from my friend John who is from Texas, so I assumed it was him with a new number. So I answer it to find a male voice on the other end. Here's how the conversation played out (I am L - obviously and the male voice is M):

L: Hello?
M: Hey Leighann!
L: Hey what's up?
M: Nothing, you?
L: Oh not much, I'm just about to start my physics lab. What's up with you?
M: Well I'm just chillin. Do you know who this is?
L: I'm going to guess John?
M: JOHN?! WHO THE CRAP IS JOHN?!?!
*pause in conversation as realization dawns*
L: AAAHHH! Holy crap! SKYLAR!!! Where are you and why are you calling me from a Texas number?! You're supposed to be in POLAND!
M: Well I'm home.
L: For good?
M: Yup.
L: Why? What did you do?
M: Well I broke my leg so they sent me home.
L: Seriously?
M: Yup.
L: Sweet. Well I can't talk right now but I'll call you later so you can explain yourself.

Now to fill in those who are lost here's the deal: Skylar is my best friend (whom I dated for a couple years and considered marrying rather than serving a mission myself) and he has been in Poland for the last 2 years serving his mission. His mission got extended so even though he passed his 2 year mark a week ago, he wasn't supposed to be coming home until May 2. So you can imagine my surprise when I get a call from him telling me he's home 3 weeks early and he's home for good. Basically he broke his leg YESTERDAY being tackled while playing football, went to the hospital there, they thought he needed surgery so his Mission President decided to go ahead and send him home to have it fixed here. Obviously by the time he recovered his mission would have long ended so he wouldn't go back into the field for the last few weeks. He's going to the doctor tomorrow to verify whether he needs the surgery or not so plans are still up in the air for him right now.

This is all just so surreal for me. I didn't have time to get anxious and excited awaiting his return. I didn't have time to start counting down until he got back. I just wake up one morning and find out he's already home! I'll be excited once reality sets in, but for now I'm still just in shock. This is really good news, however, because it means that we get an extra week to spend time together before I leave for El Salvador rather than just one day! Originally I was going to get home around April 27, he would get home May 2, I would see him May 4 or 5, and then I would leave May 6. But NOW, I get to see him the day I get back!!! So I'll get home, see Skylar, go to El Sal for 6 weeks, be home for a week and a half, spend a week as an EFY counselor, be home for about a week, then head off for the mission! Busy summer, but amazing!

I can't believe he's home!

So Let it Be Written, So Let it Be Done

2008-03-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

It is finished. I didn't want to really tell anyone until it was official, but now it is so I can let the secret out................................................................................................................................................................I'm getting married!

Ok, that's a lie. And now the truth might be kind of a let down. It's quite the opposite of getting married, actually.....I'm going on a mission! I had my final interview with the Stake President and submitted my papers today! Whoo hoo! It all happened pretty fast. I've wanted to serve a mission since I was 12, but up until several months ago it was just something I hoped to do in the future. Then a situation came up back around August where I had to make the choice: Would I serve a mission? Or would I stay here, keep working on school, and get married? I struggled for months and months over this, but was getting nowhere. FINALLY, 2 weeks ago today I got my answer.....Go on a mission! So that Sunday I met with the bishop and started the process. I had my physical and dental exam done within the first few days, had the online papers done the next day, went through the interviews, and BAM! From start to finish, it took me a week and 2 days. I know, I'm impressive.

This has been a very strong desire of mine for so long and I can't believe I actually get to do it! The next few weeks are going to be torture, just waiting to get my call. I've heard that the few weeks between the time you put in your papers and get your call are hell because the adversary is working overtime trying to convince you that you made the wrong choice. But good luck, buddy. I got my answer and I'm doing this! Now it's all just a waiting game...

Completely Non Sequitur

2008-03-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

I've decided that there's a secret society among us. The members all have one thing in common and that one thing is what gives them membership into this cool club. This club is only for those who drink and who genuinely believe that the mere act of drinking is what makes them special. Though this society is secret, it's easy to pick out the members because they all share the same pose, their "secret membership" pose. In every single college student's photo album of their "college life" at every single university (that won't ban you for drinking alcohol) across the land, you will find a ridiculous amount of pictures that all look exactly the same. I like to call this secret sign of membership the "I have to show everyone that I can be cool by posing in this very unnatural position with my beer up by my neck" pose.

I really don't understand this phenomenon. You would think that someone, somewhere, in the midst of all the drunken-ness would one day say, "Hey, I'm tired of holding this somewhat awkward position over and over throughout the course of the night. Screw the membership pose, I'm holding my beer at the normal waist-high level!" Seriously, are these secret members really so afraid of losing their membership that they will repeatedly strain to hold their arms up by their face just to make sure that their drink makes it into the picture with them? I wonder what the punishment is for those who fail to get their beer in the picture? Is it certain death? Or perhaps having your limbs torn off one by one? Or worst of all......will someone simply see the picture and NOT immediately assume that this person was wasted beyond reason, thus the member will not have the "cool factor" in the eyes of the viewer? What a shame that would be.

I have thought long and hard about this topic. I've done research long into the night, searching for just ONE picture of me holding the ever so unnatural pose (where a drink was not involved, of course) of the fake smile, arm wrapped around a stranger's waist, and my other arm bent upward so that my hand was up by my neck. But alas, my attempts at finding such a picture have failed. I couldn't even find such a picture when I WAS holding a drink (that didn't contain alcohol, of course). Perhaps the neck has a magnetic effect on the alcohol, causing it to be drawn upward? Perhaps not, in which case the only logical explanation for such behavior is simply that of the secret society.

I'd Make a Great Missionary

2008-03-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

For the last 2 nights, I've spent about 4 hours each night talking non stop to strangers about HELP International. The funny thing is, I NEVER got tired of it! I said the same thing over and over again, but the excitement only continued to grow. I volunteered to "man" the booth for Help at the annual Hunger Banquet a club at BYU puts on every year. It was pretty cool. The hunger banquet is basically to raise awareness of poverty in developing countries, get people interested in helping out, etc so they have several non-profit organizations (such as HELP International) come and set up booths to talk to all the people that come to the hunger banquet.

I was really surprised how many people are genuinely interested in getting involved in development work and also how many people were just at the hunger banquet for show. Nevertheless, I gave them all some good exposure to a little bit of the world outside of their comfort bubble and got some of them pretty darn excited about joining our organization and "being the change they wish to see in the world." I just barely joined Help and I'm already trying to recruit everyone to join us! It's such a great organization and I really can't wait to get down there and do something!

First of Many Lost Saturdays

2008-03-08T23:04:00.000-08:00

WOW! Today I had my first day of training meetings for HELP and holy cow, it was amazing! I had meetings from 9 this morning until 6 tonight, but it hardly felt like 9 hours at all! The first 4 hours were on public health in developing countries. It was really interesting and VERY informative, but we didn't get a whole lot of information about the medical aspect of the health issues because they vary so widely depending on the country in which you serve and the area IN that country, etc. Everyone going to all 3 countries goes to the same meetings so they couldn't be too specific about the exact health/medical issues because they're so different in each place. But it was very good, nevertheless.

We had an hour for lunch where we got to just sit and pick the brains of previous HELP volunteers and the country directors for this year for each country. That was probably the most helpful thing of the entire day. I talked to Blanca, one of the CDs for El Salvador for a while last night and A LOT more today. I also talked quite a bit to the CDs for Guatemala today. The awesome thing about HELP International is that you create your own experience. If you get into the country and they don't have any projects already going that you think would be great to do, you can set it up and do it! ANYTHING! So I've really been trying to decide between Guatemala and El Sal, but it sounds like my experiences in each place would be pretty similar. The main difference is that in Guatemala, they're pretty much out in the country the entire time, working in the villages in the mountains. I would LOVE to do that. But I think El Sal will give me a more well rounded experience. In El Sal the volunteers live in the city ("live" implies merely sleeping because that's basically all you do when you're not working!) and this summer, they're going to try out working in the city 3 days a week and working in "el campo" (the country) the other 2 days. Doing this would really help me see more of the dynamics of the 3rd world living conditions. So basically, I'm leaning towards El Salvador, but I'm not 100% positive yet!

So the second 4 hour meeting today was on the orphanage work and that was AMAZING!!! I seriously cannot WAIT to do this! The girl who came and talked to us is incredible. She can't be more than 21 or 22 years old, yet she's already crammed more good work into her life than most people do in an entire life time! She's a Chemistry Education major at BYU and she's worked for years in impoverished countries mainly in orphanages trying to get programs started to help the children grow mentally, physically, emotionally, etc, and has worked to make these programs sustainable even after she leaves. We talked for an hour or so about the different things you'll see in orphanages and I'll be honest, my egocentric American eyes were OPENED WIDE. As Americans, we generally think of orphans in the "Annie" sense, where the parents have died or left their child on the orphanage door step. This is not how it works in the rest of the world. A huge majority of the orphans you find in 3rd world countries are disabled people ranging in ages from 2 to 30 years old! Often times their parents can't take care of them or afford their medical bills so they "give them away" in a sense. Of course there are the children who don't have parents at all, but it was just an eye opening experience. The remainder of the time was so much fun! We talked about the various types of activities that the children need from the volunteers including English teaching, art activities, physical games, "board" games, recreational therapy, and song activities. Really, it's a lot like teaching kindergarten. But all these things you do with them aren't just to entertain them and show them that they're loved. The main purpose behind these things is to teach them valuable life lessons and skills and vocations they can use to earn money one day. It's SO awesome. HELP has funds for buying supplies for crafts and all that, but those funds only go so far so the rest needs to try to be attained through donations. SOOOOO I talked to my mom tonight (who recently was called as RS President) and asked her to start hounding the women for donations for things like childrens books, games, craft supplies, old sheets, etc. The cool thing is that she told me she had decided that service was going to be her "platform" so to speak (because all leaders have one thing they really stress) and she had just been racking her brain trying to figure out what kind of service they could get involved with! GOLDEN!

Anyway, there are TONS more details I could divulge, but that's really way more information than most of y'all care about, so I'll just leave you with a few more thoughts. The way these training meetings work is there are 3 mandatory meetings on things like safety in developing countries and intercultural communication, and then there are 6 "additional" meetings on the different areas of concentration (business, teaching English, orphanages, square foot gardening, public health, and libraries/literacy), but you're only required to attend 2 of them. I was originally planning on just attending the 2 I did today, but I've decided to go ahead and do all of them so I'll be able to really get involved in EVERYTHING down there, including teaching business skills to the natives - something I have absolutely NO idea about! All of these meetings are 4 hours long each except for the business meeting which is in fact TWELVE hours! They were kind though and split it up as 8 hours on a Friday and 4 hours the following Saturday. I'm so excited to do this. I only wish I could go for all 3 waves (each wave is a 6 week period and I'm signed up for the last wave which runs July 15 to August 26), but alas there are time, money, and work constraints. Oh well, there will be other summers! Hopefully sometime within the next few summers I can be a country director or something and plan and work all 3 waves. How awesome would that be?! Ok, that's my horribly long spill. Hope you enjoyed!

Much Needed Break

2008-03-06T23:18:00.000-08:00

Things have been absolutely crazy for the last week. I've had midterms in every one of my classes, papers, homework, more tests, quizzes, work, and trying to get settled into my new apartment. I FINALLY finished my last midterm and turned it in at 8:00 this morning (you may be thinking, "take home test? easy!" But you would be oh so unbelievably, horribly wrong on that)! I love Thursdays, especially when you finish your last for that round of midterms. I was done with classes by 11 this morning and had 7 hours to do NOTHING before I went up to SLC for my once-a-week physics class on Thursday nights. So what did I do during my 7 hours of sweet freedom? I went grocery shopping, goofed off online, watched a movie AND took a 2 hour nap because I've only gotten a total of 5 hours of sleep in the last 2 nights due to homework and tests! It was amazing.

I think God must have really been on my side today because things were just going so stinkin' well for me! I'm a pretty impatient driver and don't like to get stuck behind slow people (anything under 80 on the freeway is slow to me), so I tend to go around them at pretty high speeds. In my 5 or so years of driving, however this has really hurt me and my wallet with all the tickets I've gotten. But somehow tonight, I managed to escape 2 tickets I definitely should have gotten! I know this is a strange thing to blog about, but seriously I should have gotten pulled over twice and both times the cops just let me go on by! That NEVER happens!

All in all, today was simply a good day. I somehow managed to make it through all the craziness of school and work and I finally got my well deserved break today! Good thing too because this weekend is when the business starts up again. I am meeting with one of the country directors for HELP-International (the volunteer organization I'm involved with for the summer) tomorrow to figure out if I want to go to Guatemala or El Salvador, then Saturday I get to sit through NINE hours of training meetings for Help (and that's only the first of 4 Saturdays I get to do this before I leave for the summer)! And of course, I have mountains of homework and studying to this weekend before school picks up again next week. But for now, I'm just enjoying the bit of calm that surrounds me for the time being.

Ridiculous Roommate Rampage

2008-02-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

What a week I've had! So much has happened since my last post just a week ago that I don't know where to start! Well, the beginning would probably be a good place, but I'm going to cut out as much of the detail as possible.

For over a year and a half, I have lived with the roommate from hell. This girl is absolutely crazy. She transferred apartments within our complex back in September of '06 and ended up moving into my apartment with the 2 other girls I willingly chose to live with. Let me give you a brief idea of how my first encounter with this girl went:

L: Hi, so you're the new roommate? Good to have you.
S: Yeah, I hated my other roommates so I had to get out.
L: What happened?
S: Well the dumb ho I used to live with was my best friend for 10 years but then she started flirting with the guy I liked, so I slit her frog's throat and moved out.
L: Wow. Cool. I don't even know what to say to that.

So for the first month she was there, my 2 other roommates and I were terrified of her and slept with our doors locked at night for fear that she would get mad at us for putting the remote in a different place than she had it and she would slit our throats in the middle of the night like she did to her best friend's frog. In fact, there were some pretty dang close calls over the last year and a half. Anyway, this girl is crazy and I've tried dealing with it for far too long. Finally, I couldn't take it any more and when she tried starting stuff with me again last Tuesday night, I let her have it and left. I was homeless for 2 nights, but fortunately I have a WONDERFUL friend up here who pretty much saved my life. She did more for me in 2 days than any of my other friends have ever done for me! She helped me pack up my stuff, clean my apartment so I could check out, helped me move into my new place, AND found me places to stay and food to eat while I was without a home. She is so incredible.

So I've been in my new apartment since this past Thursday night. So far my roommates are wonderful! One is 27, one is 26, and one is 19 and is getting married in June. The 27 year old is amazing. She is so warm and welcoming and really made me feel at home here. The 19 year old is just a cute girl excited for her wedding. Normally I would be very cynical and skeptical about that situation, but she's been dating this guy for 3 years and they have an awesome relationship, so I think that's pretty cool. I only met the 26 year old for about 8 seconds tonight because she's been out of town. Not quite enough time to see how I feel about her yet. But the apartment is nice, clean and smells good, and so far the girls are awesome! The spirit here can't even be compared to that of my previous apartment. Back there, all you could feel was negativity. No matter how happy or peaceful you felt before, as soon as you walked through that door it all vanished and left you with an incredibly uneasy, pessimistic feeling. Here though, it's just pleasant! There is NO negativity, it's just a warm safe haven kind of place. I'm seriously so much happier here! I only wish I had decided to make this move long ago.

So that's pretty much been my life for the last week. Just trying to find a new place to live, then trying to get things packed, moved, then unpacked. I'm just about settled in, and ready to be happy for the last 2 months I have here!

The Freakin' Sweetest Summer of my Life!

2008-02-19T20:14:00.000-08:00

The reason I'm so against having a blog for myself is that normally I have NOTHING to write about. However, the information I'm about to divulge I feel IS blog worthy! I just found out I got accepted into this volunteer program I applied for this summer! It's called HELP-International (www.help-international.org for anyone interested in checking it out), and they basically go to 3rd world countries for the entire summer to try to help the natives improve their standard of living by teaching them valuable skills and such. This summer, HELP is going to Uganda, El Salvador, and Guatemala. I have my pick of which country I want to go to and I'm kind of leaning towards Guatemala! They have several different areas in which they help these people: teaching business and economic skills to help the natives improve their small businesses, teaching English to the natives, teaching them how to be more efficient in their gardening by packing in as many nutrients as possible into the vegetables in order to feed their families better, working in orphanages with the children, and working in health clinics and teaching health awareness to the natives. You can do any of these things once you're in the country, but I'm mainly interested in working in the orphanages and health clinics.

I'll only be in the country for 6 weeks, but they have people working there all summer long. I think I'm going mid July to end of August. This is probably going to be the highlight of my summer, but I have some other sweet things planned too! I get to be an EFY counselor for a couple of sessions in Texas, I'm planning a road trip to go visit all the medical schools and PA schools I'm interested in applying to in Texas so I can sit down face to face with someone in admissions and have all my questions answered, AND my best friend is coming home from his mission the beginning of May! This is seriously going to be the sweetest summer of my LIFE......so far. AAAAAHHHHHH I can't wait for summer to get here!

My Super Awesome Sister

2008-02-15T23:08:00.000-08:00

Ok, not that anyone is going to look at this except for my lame sister who claims to have a crazy-busy life chasing her 3 little kids around, yet has time to check on my blog like 20 times in the last 2 weeks and harass me about not using this thing, BUT I will now officially do my first post. Yes, there is a post before this one, but this counts as MY first because my wicked cool sister thought it would be awesome to create a blog for me and then she proceeded to create that amazing first post of nothingness and THEN proceeded to edit my "about me" thing and THEN proceeded to comment on several people's blogs posing as me begging them to be my friend because I'm lonely.

Now then, can you believe that I made 124 words fit into 2 sentences? I know, I'm a syntax god. And if you go back and count the words just to make sure I got the number right, you're a loser. And if you dare to correct me on the slim chance that I made a mistake in counting, then you're an even bigger loser and shouldn't be reading this because I'm a horribly cynical and sarcastic piece and will harass you to the end of your days.

Ok, that's about it for my first official post. See, Ica? I told you I'm lame. Kudo's on the title of this incredible blog.

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2008-02-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

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