Somehow, they called her on a mission....

So, I promised Caitlin that I would update the blog for her. What was I thinking? I can barely keep up with my own. So what you will get is a month by month lowdown on her goings on. So here is an update on Hermana Caitlin Hargis's first month on the mission. She was safely delivered to the MTC on September 30th, 2009. Family is no longer allowed inside the MTC at this point due to the whole swine flu epidemic. So some good family friends dropped her off and she officially began her 18 month adventure.
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.

A Sale from Heaven

So, in order to get ready for a mission, one has to get a few key items...comfy shoes, nylons, long skirts, etc. I was at Dillard's at Oak Park Mall getting a good pair of shoes and decided to run over to JCPenney to get some nylons (these are really the only ones I can stand to wear and buy because I've found they last the longest). Well, I walked into JCPenney and I think I heard angels singing. There was a big yellow sign saying "75% off Store wide." At first, I was really bummed, because I knew that I couldn't buy any "street" clothes because I was getting ready for a mission and wouldn't be able to wear them, and I hadn't had any luck thus far finding skirts long enough. Well, I looked to the left and more angels started singing. There was an entire section of mid-calf length skirts...that were cute...and ON SALE!!!!!!!!!! BINGO!!!! So, needless to say, I left that store with more than just a few pair of nylons. In total, I got 6 skirts, 6 tops, 2 sweaters, 1 slip (which I might add was the most expensive purchase of this trip), 2 pairs of tights, and 2 pairs of nylons...all for an AMAZING price. So, I am that much closer to having all my "stuff" for my mission. YAY!

Now, I'm home.

Our car trip home proved to be VERY exciting. Well, to preface the story, our trip up to Illinois was a HOT one. My car doesn't have air conditioning, so needless to say, we were all drenched in sweat by the time we got there. We went to get the suitcases out and noticed that one of Jazon's suitcases had a small spot that melted to the carpet in the trunk. We knew it was hot, but we didn't think it was THAT hot. Fast forward a week to the trip home. It was cool, and rained off and on the whole trip home. Well, Jazon and I are convinced that this was because we took the time to do a temple session... Anna, who was in the back seat had commented that her seat was a little "warmish" and we just thought that it was getting hot again from the semi-muggy weather. We got home, and a section the carpet in my trunk had completely melted through, and one side of my suitcase was melted too. Inside that suitcase, were my scriptures, which melted. After finishing my panicking session because I was a little more than a month away from my mission with melted scriptures, we figured out what happened. My tailpipe had rusted through, and separated from the muffler, so the exhaust was blowing directly on my trunk, causing things to melt. I swear, they are going to start investigating me soon if more of my cars start melting or catching fire. To make it a little more dramatic, I might add that this was about a foot away from the gas tank...we are SOOOOOOO glad we went to the temple and had that little extra protection:) (Oh, and by the way, we were able to fix my scriptures with some duct tape and a little bit of love, now I don't have to break in a new set...whew!)Now I am back home, getting ready for my church mission. I gave my “farewell” speech at church last Sunday August 30. I report to the training center in Provo, UT for up to 8 weeks learning Spanish, then go to my mission in Seattle, WA. I’ll be working with the Spanish speaking population there. I won’t know my exact assignment or the area of Seattle I will be in until I arrive there. I will definitely keep y’all updated.

P.S. Yes, there will be some sort of going away get together before I leave for the training center. Those details will be sent when I figure them out

Summer excursion-stop 4 and 5

Well, all summer, I had been trying to get a week as a "normal" counselor instead of a health counselor because the experience is SO different, and because I'll be on a mission, I won't get to next summer. The Wednesday of my last week in NH, I got a call from BYU saying that I had been offered a "normal counselor" week at a Special Edition EFY in Nauvoo, Il. These counselor spots are few and far between because the session is amazing and in a location where SOOOOOO much church history took place. After jumping up and down and announcing to everyone at lunch that I got the job, I realized that I had 3 days to prepare....it all worked out, though. Anyways, I made it home for about 20 hours, then drove up to Illinois for one more week of camp. It was SOOO much fun. It was pretty much my dream week. I got a small group-only 6 of the older girls (they are broken into two groups, 14-15 year olds and 16-18 year olds, and I got the 16-18 year olds), with one of the most amazing guy counselors I've ever met as my co-counselor. My group of youth were amazing, and my girls liked sleep just as much as I did. The counselor isn't allowed to go to bed until all their youth have lights out...well, my girls always had their lights out before 11pm, when it's required. It ROCKED!!! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I love working with the youth and teaching the gospel. I was able to go to the Nauvoo temple too. Not only did this bring a few "interesting" experiences, but it was great to see the temple after it was dedicated a few years ago. I got to see the temple when it was still "in progress" for 2 youth conferences, but this was the "finished product." It was SOOOOO beautiful. AND the perfect way to end my EFY summer.

Summer excursion-stop 3

After 5 weeks there, we flew up to Plymouth, NH. The town was a little bigger. The closest Walmart was only two highways and 10 minutes away here. No air conditioning, 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. It was a blast! The first week went by without any major incidents, I got to attend all the classes, which made a HUGE difference. One of the teachers was Curtis Jacobs, who was the speaker at my very first youth conference ever, and is one of my absolute favorite speakers ever. Our session director (the "father" of the session) had also been a teacher for several of the years that I attended EFY as a participant. Well, then Saturday morning check out hit. I got a call saying that a girl was “kind of sick on the 2^nd floor.” I got changed (i had just been awakened by that phone call) then went to go check on her. It turns out “kind of sick” means unresponsive, and breathing at a rate of about 60 a minute. So I called 911…I never appreciated Johnson County dispatch as much as I did after talking to dispatch in NH. As my old supervisor, Joe Reynolds would say “wow.” The ambulance crew showed up and I knew I wasn’t in Johnson County anymore…two people TOTAL (for those of you who took part in my training, thank you, the ambulance crew said my “report” was one of the clearest, most concise ones they’d received in a long time.) Her blood sugar was 450 (first a blood sugar in the 600s in VA, then this...what was the deal?) She had never had any health problems in her life. After life flighting her to Boston (the nearest pediatric hospital), we had no more major incidents this summer. What I wouldn’t have given for a nice trauma. We went to Boston on the weekend in between sessions, which was very interesting. I’ve decided that I will NEVER drive in Boston again. I was able to go to the Boston temple, too...which was difficult to find, but worth it.

More Cali

I was reading through my last post and realized that I forgot my mini-trip to the mountains. I got to go visit my grandparents in the mountains in California. It was GORGEOUS!!! I got some amazing pictures. My grandma and I went up to the fire watch tower where we were above the clouds. We also attempted to watch the sunset from a great rock, but due to clouds, we didn't get to see too much. Living in Kansas, I try to get to the mountains as much as possible whenever I am near them...seeing as how there are NONE anywhere near Kansas. As my good friend Jazon put it...enlarge a pancake to the size of Kansas and you have the correct changes in elevation.

Summer Excursion-stop 2

After about a month and a half in California, I went to good ol Buena Vista, VA (pronounced Bew-na Vista). It was a VERY small town. The closest Walmart was 20 minutes and 3 highways away. McDonalds was closer, but still 10 minutes away. I was a health counselor at a church camp called Especially for Youth, of EFY. 5 weeks in Virginia only required 3 trips with camp participants to the ER (one kidney stone, a diabetic who neglected to inform us he ran out of insulin, therefore having a blood sugar in the 600's-it's supposed to be between 80 and 120ish, and a swine flu pt.) I desperately tried to convince the nurse (who was the only nurse in the whole 12 bed ER, keep in mind) to let me start IV’s to “help her out”, but she didn’t give in. We had weekends off, so we went exploring. The first weekend, we went and saw the movie "Up". I highly recommend it. It was so much fun. We practically bought out the small theater with most of the counselors all going to the same showing. So much fun. I got to go to Washington DC for the 4^th of July, which was pretty cool, we slept one weekend away, and we visited the Raleigh, NC temple on another weekend. It was in my first week in Buena Vista that I actually received my mission call packet for Washington. I got to open it in front of all the youth. I got a standing ovation! I have video of it, but my camera was stupid and right now, I am trying to figure out how to access the audio. Once I figure that out, it will be posted. Overall, VA was very pretty and we lucked out with the weather, no TOO many really hot days.