Well, I'm sure I have oodles to write, I just can't think of any of it right now. How about families? I have had a handful of people ask if I'm related to so-and-so Cloward. I always yes, even if I've never heard the name before, but one person actually said 'I'm related to Clowards a few generations back' and started rambling off names (do you know how we connect to the Burrs? The name sounded familiar) we finally made the connection when I asked if they knew Thomas P. cuz that's the only name I can remember all the way back then. And one among the younger set (actually the first person I met in Fallon, besides my comp) said 'I had an institute teacher named Cloward.' That sparked my interest and I asked where and what his first name was, to which she replied: 'Cedar City, I just remember he was really sick'. (Editor's note: Our Uncle Bob taught institute in Cedar City. He died of ALS a few years ago.) So that's the first person who actually knows someone I know. On the flip side 75% of this town is related to each other. There are four or five families that have married each other and of course all live nearby one another so they have to get crafty when making the ward boundaries to divvy them all up, and even then it's tough. We have half a dozen Whitakers in either ward, you need a family tree rather than a ward list to figure out all the Sorensens (especially as this last generation seems to have been all sons, so you can't tell who's brothers and who's cousins - they all look related), and when your ward council has three Schank brothers you get a lot of references to 'Mom' and they refer to everyone by the old-fashioned Brother Bill/Sister Sue, it's the only way to know who everyone's talking about!
Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat...I can't believe Thanksgiving is this Thursday! It doesn't seem real yet, even if it is actually cold - maybe that's it, I've forgotten to associate cold with the holidays. But Christmas decorations are starting to peek out, so that should help, though it's driving my companion crazy. She goes home Dec. 16 just in time to spend Christmas with her family, so any reminder of Christmas makes her a little trunky and she's trying so hard (and doing quite well) to stay focused. We've developed a system we hope will help: she can only refer to days of the week, I handle all the specific dates, and she doesn't look at the calender. So far, so good...until she got her Exit Interview Paperwork more commonly referred to as 'trunky papers' which just happen to be due on her birthday (Dec 4) so she can't conveniently forget about them. But we're still working hard and trying to stay busy. Let me know how your holidays are going - pictures from Halloween, more video evidence of Santa desecration (ah, fond memories) and what not. (Editor's note: I'm sorry, this would just take too long to explain here. Good times.) I guess I'll talk to you in a month or so and see you in 14!
-Hermana Cloward (did I tell you - when we asked our ZL for new planners (we get new ones every transfer) the only ones they had right then were in Spanish, it's a good thing I've been out long enough to know what everything says!)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Email received Nov 16, 2009
It's nice to see an email from home in the inbox when I log on. Yes, I did get your nice, long letters and the pictures, they were wonderful. I laughed out loud and still can't help smiling whenever I think about the news of Castle/Firefly. (Editor's note: This is in reference to the Halloween episode of Castle which I told her about. We are big Firefly fans.) Is it turning out to be a good/decent show or just another investment of time & interest that may be canceled at the end of the season? I've walked into several homes wherein the tv was playing Medium, Ghost Whisperer, or Bones, but I think the hardest was yesterday when someone was watching Serenity (Editor's note: The movie sequel to the TV show Firefly). I was highly tempted to take off my nametag and plop myself down on the couch. But it's not all bad, sometimes our Zone Leaders get permission to show video clips for our training meetings; this last week they showed pretty much all the highlights from Rudy - very inspiring; at my first Zone Conference two months ago we actually watched a clip from Bourne Supremacy, that was exciting.
(Personal note removed regarding our brother in the Navy.) Speaking of seamen, one of our investigators up here is everyone's favorite curmudgeony old sailor. He's been meeting with missionaries for six years (his wife got baptized at the beginning) and has made leaps and bounds of progress but still insists on dragging his feet. When the area got transferred to sisters a couple years ago there were three sisters so he started calling them his 'angels'; now after the first meeting we are officially dubbed 'angel' and thus we will be forever more, it's quite on honor. I hope one day y'all can meet and he and dad can swap sea tales (he's quite a storyteller). Did I mention, there's a Navy base in Fallon...okay, so it's an Naval Air Station, but still, I'm sure they'd have an NFCU branch; in fact, several of the homes we go to have NFCU magnets on their fridge, it's very heartwarming. So, the question is: Why Fallon? But my bigger question is why is there an Army Base in Hawthorne? (another small town to the south) Oh well, who can say why the government does what it does. We do cover the military housing in one of our wards so sometimes when we head that direction we can see jets flying circles in the sky, other times we just hear them. Kind of makes me homesick for Las Vegas as our area was in direct flight paths for a lot of the planes taking off or landing at the airport, we got to see a lot of low-fyling underbellies, I miss it. I also miss the warmth (not the heat - just the warmth) as it's getting quite chill up here in the north. I bought a nice coat, but it can only do so much after the sun goes down, I plan to do a lot of layering through Jan & Feb and stay inside as much as possible (pray we'll have a lot of people to teach!)
(Personal note removed.) Thanks so much! Keep on being the wonderful family you are!!
-Sister Cloward
(Personal note removed regarding our brother in the Navy.) Speaking of seamen, one of our investigators up here is everyone's favorite curmudgeony old sailor. He's been meeting with missionaries for six years (his wife got baptized at the beginning) and has made leaps and bounds of progress but still insists on dragging his feet. When the area got transferred to sisters a couple years ago there were three sisters so he started calling them his 'angels'; now after the first meeting we are officially dubbed 'angel' and thus we will be forever more, it's quite on honor. I hope one day y'all can meet and he and dad can swap sea tales (he's quite a storyteller). Did I mention, there's a Navy base in Fallon...okay, so it's an Naval Air Station, but still, I'm sure they'd have an NFCU branch; in fact, several of the homes we go to have NFCU magnets on their fridge, it's very heartwarming. So, the question is: Why Fallon? But my bigger question is why is there an Army Base in Hawthorne? (another small town to the south) Oh well, who can say why the government does what it does. We do cover the military housing in one of our wards so sometimes when we head that direction we can see jets flying circles in the sky, other times we just hear them. Kind of makes me homesick for Las Vegas as our area was in direct flight paths for a lot of the planes taking off or landing at the airport, we got to see a lot of low-fyling underbellies, I miss it. I also miss the warmth (not the heat - just the warmth) as it's getting quite chill up here in the north. I bought a nice coat, but it can only do so much after the sun goes down, I plan to do a lot of layering through Jan & Feb and stay inside as much as possible (pray we'll have a lot of people to teach!)
(Personal note removed.) Thanks so much! Keep on being the wonderful family you are!!
-Sister Cloward
Thursday, November 12, 2009
From the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission
*ATTENTION*
November 11, 2009
TO: Missionary Families
SUBJECT: (1) Holiday Mail and (2) Mission Visits
(1) With the holiday season at our doorstep, we assume that you may be planning to send mail and packages to your missionaries who are here in the field. If you will follow the suggestions offered, you will help us in the office immensely during this busy time of the year. Also you will have the best assurance that your mailings will get to their desired destination in time.
a. Mail early. Plan to shop and ship in a timely manner.
b. Letter mail should continue to come to the mission office. We faithfully turn the mail around in 24 hours.
c. Packages (UPS, USPS, or FedEx) should be sent DIRECTLY to your missionary. These should be sent before December 15, 2009 as transfers will occur on that day. We will ask your missionary to e-mail you their addresses on Monday, November 16th. We will also ask them to e-mail their new after December 15th. If you have not sent a package to arrive before December 15th, please wait for the new e-mail from your Missionary. (Editor's note: If you intend to send a package to Katie please email me at sarawithanh1@gmail.com for her current street address.)
d. After January 1st, please resume sending everything to the mission office.
(2) Our mission receives many requests from family members who are passing through Las Vegas to visit their missionary serving here or in the northern sector of the mission. We are, regretfully, a convenient thoroughfare for business travelers and vacationers with Utah and California in their plans. We are generally advised not to honor such a request.
Visits by family members are far more disruptive to the work than many realize. We work tirelessly to keep our missionaries focused, battling a multitude of distractions that are naturally here. We ask you to PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ASKING TO VISIT YOUR MISSIONARY IF YOU ARE IN THIS MISSION AREA – FOR HIS/HER SAKE. We constantly express obedience and we appreciate your help in this regard.
Sincerely,
President Kevin D. McCracken
Email received Nov 12, 2009
Well this past week has been a little crazy - with the unexpected transfer, then this week we went to the temple on Wed (yesterday) so that threw off our p-day - so I'll just make this a brief note and write again on Monday.
I loved the ride up - everyone says it's a flat and desolate trip but I thought it was just beautiful - definitley not flat and I don't know if I'm just mountain starved after CT and TX or if this landscape just brings back fond memories of my childhood, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the scenery it was so beautiful. It felt so good to be road-tripping, though I could tell all the elders in the van with me were not experienced road-trippers - they all fell asleep right off (just cause we left early in the morning - no excuse!) and took too long and bought too much at the first rest stop (the gas station also contained the Death Valley Nut & Candy Co - made me homesick for Queen Bee) whereas I set myself up with a few snacks from home, some cross-stitching to keep me busy, and never slept a wink the entire trip. I was the first dropped off in my new area of Fallon (The Oasis of Nevada) which, if I compared to places I've lived before, would fall somewhere between the outskirts of CT and Stanley, ID. It's a small town (pop. 8000) with lots of rural outskirts (read: lots of dairy farms) and apparently a 20-25% LDS population - that's even more than Vegas' 10%! (and just the beginning of the differences between the two towns.) I'm settling in well and getting to know my new companion, though I have a heads up we'll only be together for 6 weeks (she's going home in Dec) which means in my fourth transfer I'll already be on my fourth companion! Crazy! Well, I hope you got the packages, I had to leave the last one for my last comp to send out but she said she did. Hopefully I'll have the means to send more pictures soon. Can't think what else to say now, so I'll write in a couple days! Bye!
I loved the ride up - everyone says it's a flat and desolate trip but I thought it was just beautiful - definitley not flat and I don't know if I'm just mountain starved after CT and TX or if this landscape just brings back fond memories of my childhood, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the scenery it was so beautiful. It felt so good to be road-tripping, though I could tell all the elders in the van with me were not experienced road-trippers - they all fell asleep right off (just cause we left early in the morning - no excuse!) and took too long and bought too much at the first rest stop (the gas station also contained the Death Valley Nut & Candy Co - made me homesick for Queen Bee) whereas I set myself up with a few snacks from home, some cross-stitching to keep me busy, and never slept a wink the entire trip. I was the first dropped off in my new area of Fallon (The Oasis of Nevada) which, if I compared to places I've lived before, would fall somewhere between the outskirts of CT and Stanley, ID. It's a small town (pop. 8000) with lots of rural outskirts (read: lots of dairy farms) and apparently a 20-25% LDS population - that's even more than Vegas' 10%! (and just the beginning of the differences between the two towns.) I'm settling in well and getting to know my new companion, though I have a heads up we'll only be together for 6 weeks (she's going home in Dec) which means in my fourth transfer I'll already be on my fourth companion! Crazy! Well, I hope you got the packages, I had to leave the last one for my last comp to send out but she said she did. Hopefully I'll have the means to send more pictures soon. Can't think what else to say now, so I'll write in a couple days! Bye!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Letter received Nov 3, 2009
(Editor's note: The salutation dates back to the mission experience of Katie's brother, who served in Hungary...the country. Anyway, the Hungarian words for 'Dear Family' are apparently very similar looking and sounding to the words 'dragon salad,' so many of his letters were addressed thusly. We found Katie's first letter from the MTC addressed to Dragon Salad, which brought surprise, memories and great happiness to us all. Usually it's only on the address on the envelope, which is why you haven't seen it. But since this letter came in a box the letter itself specifically starts with the happy greeting. Now that all that's out of the way...)
Dragon Salad,
Allright, so I'm leaving for Fallon in the morning & these are things (Editor's note: Some clothes and stuff.) that I have not found useful in the last 3 months - so I'm sending them home to make more room in my suitcase for the results of Makeover Session #3 - clothes shopping. I felt like I was on "What Not to Wear." Sis. Chapman literally went through the racks at lightning speed throwing things in the cart "I like this, I don't like that, too long, too short, try it on, faster!" (We didn't have much time because - long story - too many people have been going over miles so the entire mission had to park their cars for one day & we actually went over just a teensy bit over so we got parked a second day so we had to work around member schedules for rides and didn't have the leisure time to dilly-dally.) But, she is a tremendous shopper & has a great eye - I think I've come out looking like the dignified missionary I had hoped to appear but didn't have the time or skills to prep for. So Mom can have her skirts back, Amy can take her slip, the rest can go in my closet till I get back. Also, wilst thou include in the next package the long sleeve shirts I recently purchased from Shade as well as my long sleeve brown shirt, I thank thee & should be able to provide the street address in my next email. I'm including a reply letter to the Flowers to save a stamp - would you be so kind as to hand deliver it? And thank you for the FedEx slips - if I had only known I would be sending this package so soon, I wouldn't have sent the other one separately. But I guess (well, I know) it's nice to get lots of things in the mail, so I hope you enjoy! Oh my, I can't believe I'm leaving already; everything about this area is so precious to me. My next companion, Sis. Compten, is going home in six weeks which means in my fourth transfer I will already be on my fourth companion! I only have to think of how many companions David had to realize it may be a family trait, but I'm sure the Lord knows what he's doing and I'll just take what He gives me. Well, I still have some final packing before I go to sleep so I'll let you go for now - let me know if there's anything you need from me or anything you want to know more about. Oh, I guess we'll have to start all over with a dentist, but I'll ask around the first week to get some recommendations - thanks for all the info you sent, Dad, it was very helpful!!
Sister Cloward
I LOVE YOU!!!
Dragon Salad,
Allright, so I'm leaving for Fallon in the morning & these are things (Editor's note: Some clothes and stuff.) that I have not found useful in the last 3 months - so I'm sending them home to make more room in my suitcase for the results of Makeover Session #3 - clothes shopping. I felt like I was on "What Not to Wear." Sis. Chapman literally went through the racks at lightning speed throwing things in the cart "I like this, I don't like that, too long, too short, try it on, faster!" (We didn't have much time because - long story - too many people have been going over miles so the entire mission had to park their cars for one day & we actually went over just a teensy bit over so we got parked a second day so we had to work around member schedules for rides and didn't have the leisure time to dilly-dally.) But, she is a tremendous shopper & has a great eye - I think I've come out looking like the dignified missionary I had hoped to appear but didn't have the time or skills to prep for. So Mom can have her skirts back, Amy can take her slip, the rest can go in my closet till I get back. Also, wilst thou include in the next package the long sleeve shirts I recently purchased from Shade as well as my long sleeve brown shirt, I thank thee & should be able to provide the street address in my next email. I'm including a reply letter to the Flowers to save a stamp - would you be so kind as to hand deliver it? And thank you for the FedEx slips - if I had only known I would be sending this package so soon, I wouldn't have sent the other one separately. But I guess (well, I know) it's nice to get lots of things in the mail, so I hope you enjoy! Oh my, I can't believe I'm leaving already; everything about this area is so precious to me. My next companion, Sis. Compten, is going home in six weeks which means in my fourth transfer I will already be on my fourth companion! I only have to think of how many companions David had to realize it may be a family trait, but I'm sure the Lord knows what he's doing and I'll just take what He gives me. Well, I still have some final packing before I go to sleep so I'll let you go for now - let me know if there's anything you need from me or anything you want to know more about. Oh, I guess we'll have to start all over with a dentist, but I'll ask around the first week to get some recommendations - thanks for all the info you sent, Dad, it was very helpful!!
Sister Cloward
I LOVE YOU!!!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Email received Nov 2, 2009
Thoughts from earlier in the week: #1 Okay, now you're just spoiling me with all this bread! And thanks for the candy, I won't even need to hit the post-Halloween sales to bulk up my personal stash. BUT (funny story) both Sis Champman and I have been a little concerned that even our mandatory exercise every morning cannot keep up with cookies and dessert at every house every night, so we called our Zone Leaders and asked to be put on dessert restriction (no dessert except on Sunday.) They kindly obliged and even followed with a threat to take away our Sunday desserts if we misbehave (of course, when we're at home there are no restrictions, especially at Halloween, so don't worry that I'm suffering complete neglect.) Now don't tell anyone we were the instigators of this mandate, we've already used it to great advantage this week - laying all blame on our missionary leadership! But I am interested in investing in some more healthy snacks - any ideas? With all the money I've saved not having to buy bread perhaps I can experiment with more fresh fruits and veggies.
Thank you all for your loving care and concern during my recent troubles, I almost didn't even mention it but it was the second Monday in a row we had been in a disagreement (we had been doing better during the week) and I just really needed to talk to someone. Things have been going MUCH better, we talked things out Monday afternoon and got back to work - we've had quite a fabulous week actually. We had make-over session #2 with make-up tips (#1 was clothes and hair last week.) We laughed so hard on Wed night we were practically rolling on the ground, we couldn't even walk back to our car - it felt fabulous! We went to two Trunk-or-Treats on Friday night (the best costumes we could come up with was switching name-tags (it felt really weird) and we even tried imitating each other to much giggles and laughter.) We also tried to set up a couple people we've been working with, it was a little awkward, but you never know... Sis Chapman keeps trying to play matchmaker with everyone we meet, the latest is two return missionaries (one in each ward) that just got home in the past month - could be interesting. For Halloween night we had to be home by 6:oo pm with no instructions on specific use of the time, so we grabbed a stack of church videos, changed into our pjs (it felt so weird to be chilling in my jammies at 7 in the evening - I nearly felt scandolous!), and spent the evening catching up on Church History while helping pass out candy. There's an excellent video about Wilford Woodruff's (Editor's note: Wilford Woodruff is Katie's great-great-great grandfather.) experience finding the church - check it out at an LDS library near you! BIG NEWS: With thoughts fully turned to the jovial holiday and absolute surety of our current station, we both forgot Sat was also the night of Transfer Calls. When we checked our messages I thought it was a prank - I'm going to Fallon! That was Sis Moreno's first area up north (used to be the only sister area up there.) Well we both wailed and bemoaned and I haven't even started packing but I'm running out of time on this email, so I guess I'll share the continuing story next week - stay tuned for the address change!
Thank you all for your loving care and concern during my recent troubles, I almost didn't even mention it but it was the second Monday in a row we had been in a disagreement (we had been doing better during the week) and I just really needed to talk to someone. Things have been going MUCH better, we talked things out Monday afternoon and got back to work - we've had quite a fabulous week actually. We had make-over session #2 with make-up tips (#1 was clothes and hair last week.) We laughed so hard on Wed night we were practically rolling on the ground, we couldn't even walk back to our car - it felt fabulous! We went to two Trunk-or-Treats on Friday night (the best costumes we could come up with was switching name-tags (it felt really weird) and we even tried imitating each other to much giggles and laughter.) We also tried to set up a couple people we've been working with, it was a little awkward, but you never know... Sis Chapman keeps trying to play matchmaker with everyone we meet, the latest is two return missionaries (one in each ward) that just got home in the past month - could be interesting. For Halloween night we had to be home by 6:oo pm with no instructions on specific use of the time, so we grabbed a stack of church videos, changed into our pjs (it felt so weird to be chilling in my jammies at 7 in the evening - I nearly felt scandolous!), and spent the evening catching up on Church History while helping pass out candy. There's an excellent video about Wilford Woodruff's (Editor's note: Wilford Woodruff is Katie's great-great-great grandfather.) experience finding the church - check it out at an LDS library near you! BIG NEWS: With thoughts fully turned to the jovial holiday and absolute surety of our current station, we both forgot Sat was also the night of Transfer Calls. When we checked our messages I thought it was a prank - I'm going to Fallon! That was Sis Moreno's first area up north (used to be the only sister area up there.) Well we both wailed and bemoaned and I haven't even started packing but I'm running out of time on this email, so I guess I'll share the continuing story next week - stay tuned for the address change!
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