This picture is her proof that, yes, everything that she packed fit into one tiny closet. For those of you who are nearest and dearest to her, this is quite impressive.
Here is her proudly displayed nametag complete with missionary "dork dot" (or so I'm told by my husband". For those of you reading this who may not be members of our church, Hermana is the title she will use over the next 18 months. It is Spanish for sister. When I was young I just thought all the female missionaries had the same horrible first name. Anyway, I digress...
Caitlin was placed into a trio of sisters as there was an uneven amount in her district (5 sisters, total). Here is is in between Hermana Villareal and Hermana Fillmore (more on their disastrous companionship later...she looks happy now...). Caitlin describes Hermana Fillmore as having "a ton of energy...all the time."
Here are the 5 sisters in their district...Hermana Villareal, Fillmore, Shumway (who is apparantly quiet but when she opens her mouth it's always funny and she and Caitlin pointed out which sister's had the "best" hairdo's during general conferance), Haase (pronounced Hozzy, don't forget her because she becomes important later in the month) and Caca (I should point out that this is what my children call their Aunt Caitlin and the name has stuck. Feel free to use it. I do....on every letter and package) :)
I warned her that they don't like you to walk on the grass at the MTC. I've never actually served a mission but it's what I heard from return missionaries. See? I'm not wrong. Check out the sign she found.
Here are a few pictures of her district but I'm not going to name all the elders because it would be long and boring :) Scroll down for the brief recap.
(I think they are all trying to figure out which camera to look at here)
Ok, so her mission started out with a bang. Her companions had a difficult time figuring out that if class is scheduled for 7:30, you have to be there at 7:30, not leaving the room at 7:30. She also came to the realization that at 23 years old, she is one of the oldest missionaries there. One of her instructors is only 8 days older than her. Ahhhh, the older the wiser, right?A few days into her mission she was diagnosed with an ulceration in her eyeball. Sounds gross, right? Basically she had to wear glasses for a long time and no contacts and the doctor told her to "repent if she was sleeping in her contacts and not washing her hands when handling them". Funny Mormon doctors....She has recovered.
She had continuous problems with her two companions wandering off without her. They don't realize that when they leave, she is left alone and then she gets asked "where's your companion?" and she didn't even know they had left. Girls....
Her Spanish is coming along and she actually got put on an independant study program because she was more advanced than the rest of the district. This made things a little less boring in class.
After much more frustration with her companions, she was temporarily assigned to be Hermana Haase's companion since Hermana Shumway was sick and bedridden. Later, they were assigned as permanent companions which was a real blessing for Caitlin. Hermana Haase is a hard worker and much less drama.
Things were going well until she decided to injure her shoulder playing volleyball. The good news is, she was serving the ball, not falling :) The shoulder was partially dislocated but when they moved it do some Xrays, it popped back into place. That's the good news. The bad news is that they looked at the other shoulder and decided that all her ligaments were overstretched and could no longer support her humerous (upper arm bone) and she required surgery. She had surgery last week and things went well but she is in a lot of pain and on lots of medication. The plan was to have her start physical therapy on that arm but after she "overdid it a bit" she has been assigned to bedrest and won't be able to start physical therapy until December 1oth. If you're keeping track, that means she will be spending LOTS of extra time at the MTC. She will probably be there until January, at least. No fun.
That was a very brief recap but hopefully it fills you in a bit on her MTC life. Keep her in your prayers and let's hope there are no more injuries!
Until next time, this is her sister, Jocelyn, signing off.
