Week 78: Happy 18 Months!
Actually, we're two days past 18 months, but I didn't have a new email to post two days ago. I can't even tell you my feelings right now -- I am floored to think that our beautiful Becca will be home in 2.5 weeks!!! I'm not sure how I'm going to focus on anything until then! I promise to be mindful, though. About 2 weeks before Ryan and I got married, my dad warned us to not get distracted by thoughts of our upcoming wedding, because that's when car wrecks and other things can happen (which he knows firsthand). I've recalled that advice more than once over the years in an effort to be present no matter what excitement might be on the horizon. *DEEP BREATH*
We had a great visit today, but it seemed SO SHORT, even though we had a harder time coming up with things to talk about... We are trying so hard to help her stay focused, but it's tempting to spend the whole conversation talking about her coming home! It's not that we avoid the subject, but we try not to dwell on it. Here's some of her email to me:
Hi Mom!!
I'm SO glad to hear that Rissa is feeling better!! I bet she is happy about that too. How is her arm doing? Speaking of that kid, I got to see the introduction to the cool new children and youth program in Sunday school yesterday. How amazing!! Is Rissa excited? I am!
This week was pretty good! It FLEW. Holy cow it went so fast. Which was nice and not nice all at the same time. But I felt less stressed in general, so that was nice. Monday and Tuesday were good.
Wednesday was zone conference!! Guess who got asked to play piano...? Thankfully it went pretty well. Except when President stopped us in the opening song and asked if we could go faster! Scary. But it was fine. Zone conference was fantastic!! I was SO happy since it was my last one. It was wonderful. I gave my departing testimony, which was actually a very sweet moment for me. And I didn't even cry. :) At one point, President Vest was talking to all of us, but looked right at me, seemingly into my soul, and said, "We love you for you goodness." It warmed my heart. He said a lot of things that day that seemed just for me. It was also a good chance to say goodbye to some of my favorite people.
Thursday was super busy! It was full of planning and lessons and craziness. I was feeling a little stressed that morning, but I let myself shed a couple of tears and felt better. I felt better the whole rest of the week.
Friday was really good. Friday Forum was a lot of fun. That afternoon we had a lesson with Martin and then went to a lesson with a Muslim family. They are more curioius than interested in converting, but they were so kind to let us in their home! It was a great experience. The father had a LOT of very intense questions for us, but we were able to find a lot of common ground too. He said he did notice something different about us versus other Christians. He said, "You act and dress more like us!" Haha, it was actually a great compliment.
Saturday morning, we went to the church so I could practice with Brother Brown who agreed to play for me [to sing in church]. It went a little better than I was expecting (prayers answered) and Sister Moore was there and gave me some good pointers. She told me to open my mouth, haha go figure. But she said that I have a beautiful voice and that made my day. She doesn't give out compliments lightly. My voice was gone after 20 minutes of practicing... So much for my hours and hours of endurance, haha. (And happy 18 months!! Crazy.)
Sunday was really great. We had two people come to the branch, so that was exciting. And my solo in the ward went pretty well! I was happy with it and had fun. I got a lot of very meaningful compliments from members in the ward. Prayers were definitely answered.
I'm so excited to talk to you today!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!
❤❤❤ Sister Fairbanks
Sorry the pic is kind of fuzzy, it was getting dark. :)
We had a great visit today, but it seemed SO SHORT, even though we had a harder time coming up with things to talk about... We are trying so hard to help her stay focused, but it's tempting to spend the whole conversation talking about her coming home! It's not that we avoid the subject, but we try not to dwell on it. Here's some of her email to me:
Hi Mom!!
I'm SO glad to hear that Rissa is feeling better!! I bet she is happy about that too. How is her arm doing? Speaking of that kid, I got to see the introduction to the cool new children and youth program in Sunday school yesterday. How amazing!! Is Rissa excited? I am!
This week was pretty good! It FLEW. Holy cow it went so fast. Which was nice and not nice all at the same time. But I felt less stressed in general, so that was nice. Monday and Tuesday were good.
Wednesday was zone conference!! Guess who got asked to play piano...? Thankfully it went pretty well. Except when President stopped us in the opening song and asked if we could go faster! Scary. But it was fine. Zone conference was fantastic!! I was SO happy since it was my last one. It was wonderful. I gave my departing testimony, which was actually a very sweet moment for me. And I didn't even cry. :) At one point, President Vest was talking to all of us, but looked right at me, seemingly into my soul, and said, "We love you for you goodness." It warmed my heart. He said a lot of things that day that seemed just for me. It was also a good chance to say goodbye to some of my favorite people.
Thursday was super busy! It was full of planning and lessons and craziness. I was feeling a little stressed that morning, but I let myself shed a couple of tears and felt better. I felt better the whole rest of the week.
Friday was really good. Friday Forum was a lot of fun. That afternoon we had a lesson with Martin and then went to a lesson with a Muslim family. They are more curioius than interested in converting, but they were so kind to let us in their home! It was a great experience. The father had a LOT of very intense questions for us, but we were able to find a lot of common ground too. He said he did notice something different about us versus other Christians. He said, "You act and dress more like us!" Haha, it was actually a great compliment.
Saturday morning, we went to the church so I could practice with Brother Brown who agreed to play for me [to sing in church]. It went a little better than I was expecting (prayers answered) and Sister Moore was there and gave me some good pointers. She told me to open my mouth, haha go figure. But she said that I have a beautiful voice and that made my day. She doesn't give out compliments lightly. My voice was gone after 20 minutes of practicing... So much for my hours and hours of endurance, haha. (And happy 18 months!! Crazy.)
Sunday was really great. We had two people come to the branch, so that was exciting. And my solo in the ward went pretty well! I was happy with it and had fun. I got a lot of very meaningful compliments from members in the ward. Prayers were definitely answered.
I'm so excited to talk to you today!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!
❤❤❤ Sister Fairbanks
Sorry the pic is kind of fuzzy, it was getting dark. :)
She said she was going to title her group email "When September Ends," but she didn't!
Good Morning!!
It was a very beautiful fall week here in New York!! We had a lot of awesome lessons and other experiences this week. We had zone conference, too, which was fantastic. It's really fun to get trained for about six hours by President Vest. He's one of my favorite people ever. We learned about becoming disciples of Jesus Christ and really making the Lord first in our lives. We also learned and practiced some ways that we can help the people we are teaching.
Last week I talked a little about how prayers were answered. That happened several times this week too! We prayed for good days and got them. We prayed for safety and we were kept safe. It was a great week. And it went WAY too fast, haha.
Sorry it's short today! I don't know what else to talk about. :) I hope you have a fantastic week!
Sister Fairbanks
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