So Sapulpa is about 20 minutes from Tulsa and we actually meet for our district meetings in the New Haven building, which is the same building as the mission office--I have become rather close with the senior missionaries that work in the mission office and I often run into Sister Shumway. It's neat because most missionaries don't get to be so close to Tulsa--and I have been in two areas now that are the closest to the actual mission home. I don't know--kit's kinda neat I think.

Anyway....the point is I have been in the new haven building most all day today--having a blast with the elders in our district as well as the assistants and the odd senior. The cool think is...the senior missionaries bought us all pizza! Even better...I didn't eat any! I said no! Even better, nothing bad happened! and better yet--something amazingly good and awesome/ miracle/answered prayers happened. While we were waiting on the pizza, Elder Taggert disappeared. He reappeared about 10 minu. after the Papa John's guy had delivered the pizza and he handed me a warm, right from the oven pizza! He had gone to Braums with the leftover money from the seniors and bought me a frozen gluten free pizza--and then heated it up at his apartment for me!

I struggle to believe that anyone honestly cares about me out here--but I think I'm starting to understand that I am loved! God loves me and He will send angels to help me! No matter where I am, I will always have people around who love me.

District outing and my Gluten free pizza!

my Yoda fruit snack distracting me during studies
and then the moment that I chose to eat him! 

Thoughts on the Book of Mormon

Did you know its the best book I've ever read? Yeah--it is. Honestly! It has Everything! war, love, action, adventure--and it's all true! It's all from God? 

WHAT?!?!?!

Why don't people want to read this?

My favorite story = Alma 46 (Moroni is my fave person--Alma 48:11-13, 17)

My personal favorite scripture = Alma 26:26-28.

AND the scripture I wish I had used for my missionary plaque = Alma 26:12.

What's your favorite story/thought from the Book of Mormon?

You sent me a pretty pic of the mountains.  well... BAM!  That's the sky in Oklahoma!

also... one example of the blessings of the members here in sapulpa!  :)  
FYI, transfer calls are this Saturday....

yesterday was my 4 month mark :)

yay for me.

this week was really slow.  we are definitely having a hard time here, but the people we are teaching are AMAZING!
there is a less active sister that has so much love of the gospel.  she has a smoking issue... I don't think she totally understands the importance of following the commandment and why we have them... but we are working with her on that and she is making serious strides!  she has opened up so so so much in the past few weeks and will talk with us about her concerns for her family.  earlier this week she shared her story about her son who died just a few moment after he was born and how she has been so worried because he was never baptized.  who would have thought that a member of the church would understand the Plan of Salvation so little?  we explained it to her and she cried and cried.  it was amazing!  I've been trying to understand the plan of happiness better myself... I've struggled my whole life with the "eternal perspective"  and I'm just now starting to comprehend what it all means, and my favorite thing is to learn this for myself and then teach it!  it helps me and helps others.  win win situations!

I made my own Plan of Salvation cutouts.  they are the cutest things!  I need to take a picture when they are completely finished and show you.... I'm so proud of them!  I also made an little Armor of God display that we show to members with children.  it's a blast!  I love getting creative with missionary work :)

soooo, Sister Magness just sent me this picture... what the !  so trippy.




as promised... here is the quick version of my last day in claremore :)

my three favorite picture from claremore!

#1)  Terry's Baptism :)  went so smoothly and so amazing!  the next morning we had to leave at 6am and he showed up outside the house with a sweet, quick note for each of us and a small gift.  mine was a shirt.... actually fits to!  he was sooooo grateful to us and was so sad to see us leave.  I'm glad we got to be there for his baptism :)
 
#2)  sister Blackwell.  an older lady we met with.  we went to say goodbye to her and right after I took that picture she got a call from the doctors office saying that her "stress test" had come back and it was "abnormal" so she needed to go the hospital right away... like ambulence sort of right away.  sister magness and I jumped on her and tried to help her gather her stuff and get her phone out to call 911 but she finally had to shout at us to stop and told us to kneel with her a pray.  we both felt kinda silly that we hadn't thought of that.  we stayed with her till the abulence took her away.  I wrote her a letter, she is back home and fine now.

 #3)  Kim and her son Eric.  aka, the ditch lady.  this is the woman that sister magness drove into her ditch and we started to teach her the gospel.  she has a problem with smoking.... but Eric is so ready and so willing to join the church!  she called us one day and left the most amazing message saying he wanted us to help him talk to his dad about being baptized.  they are amazing, and someday, it will all come together for them.

first picture is the giant Tulsa gold thing guy.... I don't know but I guess it's famous?  anyway.... I was driving around Tulsa during transfers while waiting on Sister Hatch to get here from Kansas. it was a long but fun day :)

second pic is the fridge in the mission home... it's almost every acronym for OTM.... so crazy!

third is where we do laundry... yeah.  I just though that would be a cool picture to send you for some reason :)  it says Sapulpa Laundry on the window!

I just wanted to show off my hair.  we were doing laundry early morning so it looks poopy, but there you are!  and then sister hatch and I at the Dump today!  yup.  we went to the Sapulpa dump to do some service for a less active family.  it's been a good day!  sadly on days like this I don't bother with makeup or anything.... so thats my face!  yay.... :(

remind me next week to make sure I send you the pictures from my last day in Claremore... I just realized I didn't ever do that!  Terry's baptism!!!! it was so amazing!

but, back to sapulpa:

I need to take more pictures.... for example, the crickets.  there are a million of them!  in the stores, on the windows, in the food..... it's a plague!!!  I took a picture, but then had to delete it because it made me seriously ill to look at!  I swear it, Cricket do NOT look like that in utah!!! these guys are inky black and they just squirm around everywhere... so messed up.

we had Zone conference this week, which is always a blast.  Elder Ellis was there and he talked to us about some cool things that I wrote down and when I get more time (like when I'm home) I might just share it with ya'll!!! 

we are teaching a Less active family, but the son has a live-in girlfreind that is super interested in the gospel.  Rena is a sweetest person and I love her to death!  this family is the bomb and I love going over there :) 

so, that's about it.  we try to stay busy, but a lot of this area is about finding people... its slow but we are working on it! 

<3 sister Longberg!

I'm not sure these computers will let me upload pictures....
I'll try next week....

wait, no I won't because next monday is a holiday... I think I won't be E-mailing next week at all.  oh dear!

Sapulpa is HUGE... and we don't have a lot of miles on our car so we walk.  we walk alot.  luckily it's cooling down a little.... a little.

shotgunning an area is the hardest thing ever!  we have no clue whats going on!

sister Hatch is my companion... eventually I'll get a picture to you.... we need to take a picture...
she is cool.  she loves Anime and relates everything back to it.  she is a character :)

I did an exchange back to Claremore this week.
I cried the WHOLE time!!!
we visited some old investigators and I learned some things that I would rather not have known.
Jason (a guy sister Magness was teaching who came to church... just had to quite smoking...) we knocked on his door and a different lady answered and said he had been evicted and was living out of his car!  him and his girlfriend and his 12 year old son.  it made me sick!  how do we find him, how do we help him?  and worse yet.... I'm not in Claremore anymore.  I don't get to know the rest of this story!  the sisters in Claremore just rolled it off.  they've dropped some people I wouldn't have dropped.... made me sad.  I didn't realize how much I loved those people until this week.

but Sapulpa has its own set of people to love!  I just need to move on, I guess..... easier said then done though.

we are teaching a kid who is 17 and was tracted into by the sisters 5 months ago and wants to start taking the lessons now.  he is GOLDEN!
we also have 2 part member less active families that are ready to return to the gospel and take the lessons... they are amazing :)
we were out walking to the library for service and we ran into another guy who was intrigued by the name tags and started asking questions... we got his info and we will visit with him later.

so sapulpa is amazing in it's own way....
our apartment still freaks me out, but it's so close to everything it's easy to walk which is good.

well, time is up.

sorry about the lame mail.

Dear Family and Friends,

Please pray for Karen. She is struggling to get her bearings in this new area. Three transfers in three months has taken a toll on her spirit.

In her words,
"I am so tired of getting comfortable and then leaving....I'm so homesick! I miss my bed and my MTC bed and my Mena bed and now my Claremore bed."
She also misses her family and the three companions she has learned to love and then had to leave.

Missions are hard--both for the missionaries and for the families they leave behind. As Karen's mother, I also miss her terribly and it breaks my heart to know she is suffering, but I also know that we have the potential to learn the most in times of suffering. During my prayers the other day I was prompted to ask Heavenly Father to please let my mother, Karen's grandmother, come and comfort her. I asked that Karen be able to feel her presence and be comforted in knowing that her grandmother and other family members on the other side are there to buoy her up and help her continue on. I am grateful for Karen's faithful obedience to the call to serve. She has a testimony of God's love and of the power of the atonement of the Savior. Not long ago she shared with me the BYU devotional talk, "Believing Christ: A Practical Approach to the Atonement" by Stephen E. Robinson (May 29, 1990). She says she loves reading this talk and has been studying one section at a time each day during personal study. I offer a link to this talk for any who would like to read it.

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=489

The message of the Gospel is true. It has been restored is its completeness to the earth. I know it and I love it and I am grateful for my missionary daughter who is sacrificing to share it with all who will hear and seek to understand.

Love,

Karen's Mom

Drum roll please.......

I am Shotgunning Sapulpa with sister Hatch.

yup.

so here is the story:

August 10th 2013 -Transfer Calls-

we tried so hard to stay busy.  Sister Magness knew she was leaving.  the entire day was spent with her saying goodbye to people and telling me where things were.  because she knew that if she left, it was up to me to run the area and take over where she left off.  so I'm freaking out just thinking about all the responsibility that comes with that!  

at 1:30 that day was Terry's baptism interview... and we didn't know it but the Owasso ward was holding a baptism at our building because theirs was being renovated at that moment.  so sister Magness and I quickly call up Kim and get her to come see a baptism. 

Terry loved watching one!   he is so excited for his baptism!  and Kim was in tears the whole time... her son Eric and Dylan were peaceful angels through the ordinance.  it was a miracle. 

we wanted so badly to meet with Kim afterward, but she was busy and we had to be home at 9:00 to sit and wait for the Transfer calls to come through.  

anyway.  we got home a little late.  at 10:25 we finally got the call.  

Sister Magness is going to Bentonville Arkansas!  she is shotgunning the area with Sister Gonzales... wow!  

and then... the worst.  no one thought I would leave.  but not the case.  I am going to Sapulpa.  

okay, are you ready for the Sapulpa story now?

Sapulpa is like Claremore, but south.  

Sister Magness was over the sisters in Sapulpa.  

I did an exchange in Sapulpa on Wednesday!  

I was there!  I know that place.... so it's not a super shock and crazy insane because I spent 24 hours there earlier this week.  

so here is the Sapulpa story.  I contacted a little (13 yr old) boy there with sister Gonzales (who is going to be Sister Magness new companion)  his name was Benjamin and I connected with him so well!  I told him all about King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon and he just ate it up!  he wanted to read it for himself.  I told him about prayer and he said a prayer with me before we left.  it was amazing!  in my journal I wrote : "I hate these 24 hour exchanges because I have experiances like that and I will never know the end to the story"  

and two days later, I get called to Sapulpa.  insane!  

the other thing about Sapulpa.... they live in an alley between walgreens and taco bueno..... no joke.  when I get there, I'll send pictures.  

actually when I was there with Sister Gonzales I took a couple pics.... mostly of me trying to get in and out of the bunk bed... because yes, they have bunk beds.  and also fleas and termites.... and Jesus pictures pasted in the shower.  

I'm not excited about the change in living.  I'm going to miss the Cruce family so much!!!! I was so spoiled in that house!  

Do you see the crazy pink carpet... and my super excited face about being there.... yeah.  and this was all before I knew I was going to be staying a transfer in there!!!

Sister Gonzales is from Mexico... she hardly speaks English... but when I was in Sapulpa with her she made me the best mexican food for lunch and dinner and breakfast!  she is the cutest thing ever and sister Magness is so lucky!!!  :)

The Calvert Family!   We taught them every Sunday :)  

Sister Rawlinson.  She is the stake YW president and she did splits with us almost everyday... this was Sunday night and my makeup is GONE because of all the tears!



Sister Nelson who fed us every Saturday.  She gave the best hugs!!!  reminded me so much of my moms hugs.  Her Daughter, Kat, came with us on splits all the time.  Kat is in the MTC right now, she is headed to Canada :)


The Eastmans!  I love these guys :)

So no more letter to Claremore please... although cool thing is the new sister coming to Claremore is a sister training leader... so I'm going to go to Claremore again for an exchange :)  yay!  

and we set Terry's baptism for the 17th, but when he learned that we were both getting transfered he asked that we move it to this wednesday!  so we will still be there for it!  I love that the Bishop and Brother Nelson did that for us and I am so excited :)  

I love Terry and I'm sad that Sydney won't be ready..... hopefully the new sister will be able to help her!

I hate that I am leaving this area.  I love these people!  

being a missionary is literally the weirdest thing ever. it's crazy and busy, yet all your doing is being friends with people.... yet you can't actually be friends with anyone because your a missionary and not an actually human being... but I am a human being... you can't have issues, you fix issues.  you can't have a "crisis of faith" because you have to teach faith.  being a missionary is the weirdest thing ever. Transfer calls are coming up soon..... oh dear! pray for me, I don't want to leave!  Claremore is amazing. we are almost done with exchanges.... two more!  one tonight and one on Wednesday.  I'm going to Sapulpa.... yup, I don't know where that is either!

the past exchanges have been..... an adventure. I was in Pawhuska last week.... they have a little house there, totally run down and dirty on the darker side of town, but okay. hey, did you know Oklahoma had tarantula?  yup.  did you know that they all live in the little house in Pawhuska?  yup.  did you know wolf spiders carry all their babies on their backs?  yup, I learned that this week as well.....

(a little swinging bridge in Pawhuska)


and me with green water.... sister Fox is a member in Claremore who just love Greenies!  (greenie = new missionary)  and she gave me some green water.... so that was fun :)  also, I have a bug bite on my neck.... cuz it's summer and humid and the mosquitoes are insane. 


so.... that's it really....

we had a really cool lesson this week on Thursday.Terry (who works with Brother Cruce) is on his way to be baptized on August 17. yay :)  we had a lesson at his house on Thursday and his twin brother, younger brother, friend and his brothers fiancé and her niece were all there.  we watched the restoration and talked about it and Terry and Sydney expressed how much they love the Book of Mormon.... coolest thing ever!  I kinda feel like we hit the jackpot with this house!  all of them came to sacrament meeting this Sunday as well... and it was testimony meeting!  yay  :)
we had a mission fast this Sunday.... for help with the coming months and all the new missionaries.  it was really amazing!  every one kneeling at exactly 5:00 Saturday night and then again at 5:00 Sunday night.  wow.

okay, well, that was my week. hope everyone is doing well!
Bye :)