April 12, 2013

Well, I'm back in Nauvoo. It was really difficult to leave, but I asked for a blessing from President Riggs and things started to feel better from then on. He told me in the blessing it was time to "look forward". Leaving was still hard, but my heart was going back to Nauvoo before I was. I traveled to the Dulles Airport and actually met another Nauvoo Sister, Sister Petricek, there for her connecting flight. We were so excited to see each other and got to talking....and talking. We were completely in our own world and yep, we missed our flight. Oh my goodness! I couldn't believe it. It was like a bad dream when we realized. I know that Heavenly Father is in the details of my life. He knew we'd miss our flight, so he had another flight scheduled for the same place about 2 hours later. We talked with the man who boards people on the plane and he seemed frustrated with us. He said he had called our names numerous times. We accepted and took full responsibility for our actions and apologized profusely. He was kind enough to get us a new boarding pass on the next flight to St. Louis Missouri; no charge. Wow. What a miracle!
Now we had to tell President Gilliland...We didn't have phones, so we used the pay phone there. We called the Emergency number which the Church gave us and informed them. They told us President Gilliand already knew we missed it. We felt terrible! We called the Nauvoo Visitor's Center and tried to make contact with the secretary so she could call President or give us his number. We didn't get through, but we made it on our flight this time just fine.
Six of the returning sisters had things go wrong with their flights. Either we missed the flight, or there were storms and the planes couldn't land. Finally about 5 hours after what President had originally planned, we were on our way home. The other 14 sisters had already left.
President Gilliland called two sister Assistants and we were off to Nauvoo from St. Louis.

Coming back has been overwhelming. It is strange to completely leave everything from DC in the Lord's hands. I can't even think about that part of my mission anymore. I can't even hardly pray for my previous investigators. It is almost like completely cutting ties. I just must focus on Nauvoo and these amazing sisters. We have 10 wonderful new sisters here fresh from the MTC. I am training Sister Richardson. She is amazing. I love her so much already. She is an ASL sister and just so motherly. We are similar in personality. She is from Elkridge UT.
There is a lot to do here in Nauvoo. Much to plan and figure out. We got our site dresses yesterday and moved into our different rooms in the Hatch house. 6 Sisters are serving in Carthage. The next few days we are going to be watching the movies, seeing some sites and shows. President Gilliland and his wife left yesterday at 11am. They have a mission President seminar for 3 days. So he gave us the information and schedule for the next three days and had to leave. He gets to sit at the feet of an Apostle of the Lord; Elder Quentin L. Cook. President and his wife are not happy that they had to leave, but they know they are supposed to be there. We had a wonderful meeting with them before they left. We talked about Proverbs 31; being a virtuous woman. I loved that chapter. It says about a virtuous woman that "strength and honor are her clothing". That is what it takes. All of these sisters are amazing and are these virtuous women. The Assistants have taken over all the scheduling and different room, fridge, and cleaning assignments. It is pretty overwhelming.
But it is so great to be back in Nauvoo. All of the returning sisters had about a 2 hour talk about our outbounds and different experiences we have had. We discussed what more we can do to better prepare these new sisters for their outbound experience.
I've got to go, but I love you all!

-Sister Zibetti