I heard yous laughed about my friends car...

So, when we read Jessica's letter about Yolanda's car, I won't lie. Our family laughed. Out loud. And couldn't stop. The idea of a car getting stolen and them beating everything with a bat was humorous to us. I know. Sick. Especially our Sam. He was red faced and suppressing the whole rest of the letter. But  we DID pray for Yolanda to get some new wheels. We repented. However, to fully be repentive we confessed it to Jess, and she replied with this letter.


That's okay. I did too. I laughed hard. Tears rolling down my face, biting my tongue, can't breathe. Here's the story.

So I already told you about how her car had been broken down for several weeks, right? Well it was a big issue and was causing her lots of problems. So that was a HUGE thing on our mind was trying to fix Yolanda's car. After several weeks, Bishop was able to help her get back on the road. The following Sunday, just as she said she would do, she showed up to church with her kids. It was a movie moment. (Imagine Father of the Bride music playing in the background) She walked
through the door beautiful and dressed up with a big smile. I ran up to her and she gave me a big kiss on the cheek and we hugged each other tightly. I was bouncing around so happy. She invited us over for dinner that night and her house was clean and we shared dinner with two other families. She made us her seveche which is her family favorite and people will roll over and do tricks for. There are never left overs.

We enjoy a beautiful evening, teach Mario his lesson, and then we leave, satisfied that life might once again, have something familiar. Seeing them makes everything worth it, ya know? And now they have a working car.

*Record scratch*

So we find out at church what happens. What I didn't tell you: I was dying the whole time. As soon as they said her car was stolen and totaled I lost it. I was laughing so hard but trying to keep it in.
After church we rush to her apartment and we walk up to her while she is sitting on our couch. She turns around, looks at us, and the first thing she says was, "They found my car."

*insert violent coughing as I try to cover my laughter*

Me: *cough* *laugh* Yolanda. *cough* what happened??

Anna ( Sister-in-Law): They drove it into four parked cars, then the cops came in from either side and pinched it! *hand gestures to back up her story* which made it even funnier.

Me: *no longer able to cover my laughter* I'm so sorry. It's not funny. I'm not laughing at you.

Anna: It's okay. It's funny.

So we talk more about the situation, and it gets funnier and funnier. I had to bite my fingers to keep it together. Literally.

Let's rewind.

Remember that last Sunday? Everything was beautiful and Father of the Bride music was playing in the background? Well turns out, right after we left dinner, things started to get crazy. Her kids went out to the car to get water. On the way back, they drop the key. Later that night, some jokester finds the key, and he and his buddies try all the cars until it clicks. They take off with the car.

The next morning Yolanda comes out. Her PT cruiser is gone. She calls the cops and they start the search. Everything in the car is gone, including her sons baseball equipment. They call around asking if there were any reports of stolen cars. There aren't. They tell her the only car report is in woodland that same weekend her car was stolen, but it isn't relevant. It was just a bunch of vandals were driving
around in a white PT cruiser bashing in windows with a baseball bat.

But nope. Hadn't heard anything about her car.

She just looked at us like, "White PT Cruiser?!? Baseball bat?? Coincidence?"

I was literally dying. I thought I was going to implode. It was so funny. But wait. It gets better.

So they chase the car all the way to Vacaville (like driving to Idaho Falls), and get caught in a high speed chase. At this point Yolanda was like:

 "It's a cruiser!! Not a RACE CAR!"

The cops chase them down and demolish the car.

So a week after her car had been totally useless, it gets fixed, and five seconds later it becomes nonexistent. Welp. Back to square one.

We start talking about other things and she stops, turns to us all serious and says, "You guys, guess what I did last Sunday! Remember that big bowl of seveeche? I spilled it all over the table!"

That's the equivalent of spilling a gallon of huckleberries.

We were like, "WHUT. NO." And she was like, "Yeah! That's probably when they stole my car. While I was cleaning it up."

I don't know why, but that set me off again.

---------
Later that week, we were over at her house and we said, "Hey Yolanda, we saw a white PT cruiser by the church and we were going to steal it and give it to you."

She was like, "Ah man. Start the cycle all over again, except this time I would be the one running from the cops. 'Why are you chasing me? The Sisters gifted this to me!"

Oh man. That just sealed everything. I will never not laugh about that car. Of course it's sad, but here is why it's okay to laugh :)

ONE) God takes every heartache and turns it into a miracle. Now that they are always home, we have been getting through Mario's lessons consistently! He is going to get baptized!

TWO) Even though a car is a big thing, it's just a thing. I'd much rather have their car stolen and totaled than one of them in the hospital.

THREE) Heavenly Father takes care of everything :) because of this, I know that everything is going to be okay :) the car is gone. You can laugh or you can cry. But Marios family is safe, and they are coming back to the gospel. Satan can't stop them if they don't want to be
stopped :) not even if he destroys their car.

So. It made me feel so much better to know you laughed too. Made me feel like I wasn't an alien :) somehow, I knew you would all find humor in it the same way I did. Especially you Sam :) While I was typing it out, I was thinking of you specifically and I knew if anyone would, you would get a kick out of it the most :) I think because we have the same humor!

Love you guys! Laugh hard! Life is to short to weep over things.

Sister Julander

Back roads, Bridges, and Breakin' the Rules!

Hello!

First of all, don't panic about the subject line. Everything is fine and we didn't break any rules....on purpose...

It was great to hear from all of you! Thanks for your emails and notes! So last week I mentioned things were a little busy because we were in a trio and my companion was going home early unexpectedly. She's fine! Don't worry. She's happy :) here is a rundown of the week! It was one of the biggest adventures of my mission! 

Sunday - Sister Haefeli decides to go home. We call President. 

Monday - She calls her parents and packs her bags.

Tuesday - District meeting, packing, organizing, visit with Sister Wadsworth. That visit was super special. I love Sister Wadsworth with all my heart. Sometimes it's hard to imagine people like her are actually out there. She is a true gem. Every missionary needs a Sister Wadsworth. 

Wednesday - Leave town, Tiff isn't home, so we didn't get to say goodbye, so we just leave town. Well, ten minutes down the freeway, we hit traffic. Like, 0-5 mph traffic. We are stopped longer than we are moving. So naturally I come up with the brilliant idea of getting of the freeway and driving through town. Oops. That was a mistake. We hit lunch traffic in town and it took us 50 minutes to get through three traffic lights. In fact, the traffic is so slow, some people are going backwards. Seriously, this guy next to us was slowly moving backwards, but we weren't even on an incline. So we finally get to out of town and start driving on this road that parallels the freeway and we take it all the way to Fairfield, and then take some back roads to Cordelia. At this point, we decide to stop for Arby's because it's Sister Haefelis favorite thing in the whole world and Fairflied is literally the closest place to get it within three zones and she's been searching for months. 

 As we are pulling up, she shouts, "What the heck is SS Roast Beef?!?"

Turns out that Arby's had been replaced with SS Roast Beef. The funniest part about it is that it was an Arby's two weeks ago. My new companion just came from Fairfield zone and she had eaten at Arby's two weeks before. They changed it up pretty fast much to Sister Haefelis horror. So we keep driving and decide it's time to get back on the highway. 

Well we get to the highway and take it all the way to Vallejo. Now. Let me tell you a little thing about Vellajo. It is easily the sketchiest place I've been through on my mission. It's got a rep too. Sisters don't serve there. Sister Haefeli did serve in the zone though, and as we were driving it didn't look right or feel familiar, but we keep driving because Sister Fernandez is using a map. 

Sister Fernandez goes "We are about to cross over some water." Sister Haefeli "Mayr Island?" "No? It's not connected to an island." "We shouldn't be crossing water. Wait, has this map been upside down this whole time?" 

Literally as those words are coming out of her mouth, this signal comes out of nowhere at the bottom of this hill. Both my companions turn to me and say, "If we keep going, we are going to leave the mission!"

Well we can't turn around. We drive up the hill and this bridge appears out of nowhere. It was so creepy. It's HUGE! We cross the bridge (aka the bridge that takes you to Oakland aka the bridge we don't cross because we are leaving the mission aka that bridge) and my companion starts to hyperventilate like legit hyperventilate. We get off the bridge, get her breathing properly again, do a u-turn and head back on, pay the toll to cross, and start on our way again. 

On our way through Vallejo the second time, we are driving toward this intersection when this crazy car flies down the hill , breezes across our path, and through the stop sign. Then he SLAMS on his brakes so hard they start to smoke, probably because they had ignited at this point, and pieces of his already damaged car fly everywhere from the impact of his extreme stop. After coming to a complete stop in the middle of the intersection (obviously the most logical thing to do) he hits the gas and takes off again leaving impressive skids marks in his wake. It was so loud. We were all expecting to see cops come flying after him. My companion was certain he was fleeing a murder scene. I was laughing so hard I could hardly see straight. 

We get back on a main road and over Mayr Island, which is nicknamed Zombie Island, because it is an abandoned army base. It was pretty creepy, and rightfully named Zombie Island. Something you would see in 'I Am Legend" or something. After getting off the island, we hit dinner traffic and we are once again stuck in 5-10 mph traffic. At this point we had been on the road for four hours and we were so tired. We were still a ways out from Santa Rosa though. We didn't know how far, because at this point we just didn't trust the map. Well we continue onward and suddenly we pass this sign that says 'Petaluma City Limits' and we were like WHUT , how did we get HERE?! 

So apparently we were going the Petaluma way to Santa Rosa. Well, we made it to Presidents house right on time for our meeting. He welcomes us and we go sit in the living room and he talks to us and asks us how our trip went. I turned to him and I said, "President, sometimes you just have to laugh!" And he just starts laughing and he says, "Sisters. What do you mean?" And Sister Fern says, "President. How long does it take to get from Davis to Santa Rosa?" And he goes, "About an hour and a half?" "We left at noon President." "What??" And then Sister Haefli said, "And we left the mission." And he was like, "What??? Who was driving?" And then I raised my hand and he was like, "Sister Julander?! I wouldn't expect that from you? What were you thinking driving outside of the mission? I need to know your name so I can scold you properly." Of course he was all tease. So Sister Wright comes in and he was like, "Honey. Guess which one of these sisters drove her companions out of the mission? Sweet little Sister Julander!" So while I was talking to Sister Wright he opened his records, found mine and he shook his head at me and said, "Jessica Nicole Julander. Maybe I should tell your bishop? Is it Bishop Garrett? And President Moore is your stake President?" Hahaha!! No one has used my middle name for a long time. Even hearing my first name was weird for that matter. It was so funny. I love President a lot! He just laughed and made me promise to never leave the mission again. (Again, just teasing) 

So we stay the night in Santa Rosa and we get up, say goodbye to our companion, and then heade home. We decide to stick to the freeways and highways this time and go the way we know. So I take the most familiar route that I've driven a few times before and I have mostly memorized. Well we start going and the map tried to reroute us to Mayr island. We were like, 'there is no way we are going anywhere near that bridge.' So we created a new route for as far away from that bridge as we could. 

It worked too well. 

We were driving along when suddenly my stomach dropped. "I think that was our exit." 

Sister Fernandez was like, "Oh, really? Are you sure?" And I was like, "yep. I think we are about to leave the mission again." As soon as I said those words, we came up over the hill and there was another bridge. Except this time, there was no getting off because it was a six lane freeway to San Jose. So after getting off the bridge, we had to exit, drive a little and then jump back on. It was of course another five dollars to get back into the mission because it was a toll bridge. 

The whole time this is happening, Presidents words are playing in my head, "Just promise not to leave the mission." So we get home and crash because we are exhausted. Then that night after everyone I call President and I said, "Remember that time you told me not to leave the mission? We accidentally left it." "You are not serious." "We were trying so hard not to go over the other bridge, we went over a totally different one." He just laughed and laughed and said, "Thank y for making me smile. Don't you even worry. I'll tell Elder Marshall." So he gave us a pass.

Elder Marshall is in charge of the Tiwis which are the governors in the missionary cars. They tell him where we've been and they tell him when we leave the mission boundaries. 

So the next two days are spent as normal, but trying to adjust to being a duo instead of a trio and then Sunday hits. We get to church and we start discussing things we need to do and things that need to be addressed. Well Bishops says, "So one point is Yolanda's car." And in my mind I'm thinking, "What? I thought we fixed her car? This isn't a problem anymore." 

Yolanda is Mario's mom and she had stopped making appointments because her car broke down and she couldn't drive anywhere and so she couldn't come to church, she couldn't go anywhere and it made her life too crazy. She was also housing 13 additional people in her little apartment because they were homeless for a little while but then they left. So her car was a big issue for a while because she needed a way to get to church and stuff and it was occupying her whole mind so we didn't want to stress her out. Well Bishop helps her get her car working and she came to church last week. It was a beautiful beautiful day. She was all cleaned up again and she looked glow-y and just doing well. So we started the lessons again. 

Back to Bishop. He's talking about Yolanda's car. Someone else piped up and said it had been stolen. Wait, what?!? I just sat there trying to process that for a moment. Meanwhile they expounded and said, "and it got totaled." At this point I'm still trying to process that her car that we had so long waited and tried to help her fix was stolen and now possibly totaled. "...in a high speed chase." 

Me and my companion both just sat back in our chairs. We were like, "Wait. What?" 

After church we went to her apartment and Elias, the four year old nephew, opens the door and Yolanda is sitting on the couch. She looks up and says, "They found my car." And we were like, "GURL, WHAT HAPPENED." Her Sister-In-Law, Anna, was like, "They ran it into four parked cars and then the cops pinched it. In Vacaville." 

So what had happened was, last Sunday we were over at her house for dinner. After we left, someone had found her key on the ground and taken her car for a joyride. They took everything out and were driving around vandalizing things with the bat her son left in the car. When the cops finally chased them down in Vacaville and stopped them the car was totaled. The best part. She wasn't covered. 

So. Back to square one. But this time there is no car to fix. 

She does want us to continue our lessons with Mario though. I hope I get to see him baptized. He is my favorite. This one time, he was looking at me and he goes, "You're my favorite." And he smiled real big and I said, "You're my favorite too!" And he was like," Really??" And let me tell you. If he hadn't had my whole heart before, he did after that. I love that boy so much. He's Rachel's age! 

So we are winding down and we go to dinner at a members house and she made us authentic Japanese food because she is originally from Japan. We were with another young couple from the wars. As we were eating the food is starting to turn my stomach a little and I get to the point where I can't eat anymore and I don't think I'll be able to keep in what I already ate. My head starts to ache too. We make it through the meal and we get out and my companion turns to me and says, "We're you feeling okay? I looked at you sometime during the meal and your face was tomato red and it didn't go away." I said, "I don't feel very good. That made me sick, and I have a headache too." So we started driving and my lips started to tingle and my cheeks started to feel a little tingly and numb and I mentioned it to my companion. She got a little concerned and she said, "I think you're having a mild allergic reaction..." Then she gave me a series of tests to do and then we tried to decide what I could have been allergic to. We can't decide and then the feeling went away after our lesson so. Not sure what happened there. 

So me and my companion decided to spend our pray at home. In our blanket fort. Yep. 

I'm not going to lie. I've laughed so hard at so many things this week. The more I think about it the harder I laugh. My companion has even taken a few videos of it. Anyway. Of course there is something to be learned from all of this, but that will be next weeks email. I'm about out of time. Just know there is a miracle just around the corner! Miracles always follow craziness :) love you! 

Sister Julander

Jessica and Mario

Relaxing tent fort after bad day.

Last day of the trio.

Transfers, Trips and Trios :o)

Family!

Oh so good to hear from yous! Thanks so much for your notes.

TRANSFERS!

Sister Haefeli and I are staying together in Davis! But we are still going to transfer meet is in Santa Rosa tomorrow to pick up our new companion  yep. We are going to be a trio! Did not see that coming at all. So I will still up your package in the mission office and you can still find me in Davis.  how cool? Sorry, today has been busy.

We need to find another bed and desk for our new comp. her name is Sister Fernandez! I feel a lot of peace, and I know this is where I need to be. There is much work to do. This is going to be a challenge, but it's going to be good  there are so many blessings that come with a trio! I'm super excited  plus I get to stay in the same zone as Hermana Burton!!! She cut my hair today  it's short.

Anyways. Sorry my mind is scattered. I can't believe I hit my three month mark and my one hundred day mark! My companion is keeping track  haha, I don't want to count. Makes me sad.

This week went by so fast I can hardly remember anything. We did have a good lesson with Tiff! We let her binge watch Mormon Messages while we kept her kids at bay. We have a great picture that perfectly captures what visits to her house are like.

I hope you have a great week! Sorry this letter is short. I will have much much more to tell you next week  love you!

Sister Julander

Jessica is under the bean bags. Now that is missionary love.

She's got a regular salon going on in that apartment.