Valdivia Arrival Call with You, March 8, 2026
Sunday-morning call, your first weekend after transferring to Valdivia. You are with your new companion Hermana Artieda and effusive about her.
Mom's cultural-compatibility marriage note
Opening monologue. Cultural fit matters in marriage - money, work, daily rhythm, church service. Different cultures and different ways of doing stuff bring contention. Not impossible to bridge, but harder.
"I'm going to marry a black man"
Your response - partly serious, partly riffing. You've been teaching a 13-year-old Haitian boy and his little brother Mathel (5 or 6 years old). Mathel is a "little ball of energy" you want one of your own.
Me: "I do not like this conversation at all. Let's talk about how your week was."
Travis (IHC boss) - post-mission job email deferred
You need to email Travis at IHC (Riverton Hospital, labor and delivery) to let him know you're coming home in August and would like your job back. You're hesitant about working there post-mission - two days/week "genuinely slightly killed me" pre-mission - and aren't sure how class schedule will allow days off.
I coached: focus on school first. Job will come. "Sometimes the day is unto itself. It'll take care of itself." I'll draft an email and we'll finish later. Plan deferred.
Travis Lu (Valdivia investigator)
Brief mention. A man you and Artieda met on the street. Believes in Jesus Christ. But also told you he'd done voodoo / witch-doctor magic on himself for healing. Said he wanted to come to church.
The new companion - Hermana Artieda
The substantive thread. You on Artieda:
"I love her with all of my heart. She's honestly one of my favorite comps just right off the bat because I have complete and 100% trust in her. I don't know what's different about us as a comp than all of the other comps I've had, but there's just no fights. Nothing. Not even any needling. She trusts my ideas. I trust her ideas."
I asked what advice you would give your past self about new-companion stress. Your answer:
"I would tell her to one, be patient. Two, just love and accept the bad ideas, even if you don't think they'll work, because your ideas aren't always the best. Let go of your pride. I think that's a big thing - to let go of your pride and go into it with a mindset of helping her and serving her."
You named the prior pattern as the contrast: "The biggest problem I had in [my previous companionships] was that I was very selfish. I was very in my own head: 'Your ideas are stupid because you are a young missionary and don't know anything. But I'm older and I know.' [I should have said:] 'I'm here to learn from you. We can learn together. I am ready for your ideas and ready to serve you, to love you, and to help you however I can.'"
I flagged the synchronicity - I had sent you a quote about pride the day before, and here you were arriving at the same lesson independently.
Natalie mission-call logistics
Brief follow-up to the Mar 2 family-prayer event. Natalie's papers are pending - she has to wait until Sunday to meet with the stake president (which is the holdup). You and family riffed on what language she might get called to:
- You hope not Tagalog ("never used a useless language ever - you can only use it in the Philippines").
- French would let her speak with Haitian and Mexican-mom clients post-hair-school.
- Me: "What if she got called to Chile? And she was your last companion?" You: "That would be really cool."
Logistics: Natalie's earliest mission departure is approximately late June 2026. Your homecoming may double as Natalie's farewell - You: "Do you think my homecoming will be her farewell?"
BYU-Idaho registration marathon
The longest stretch of the call. A Box account invitation came through from BYU; you went to the church to use a computer to handle it. Mom remoted in via your logged-in browser. Walking through:
- Box invitation: third-party file storage; you needed to accept.
- Financial hold: had to be cleared via a financial-agreement re-acceptance.
- Deferment confirmation: came through during the call - "Welcome back from your mission. We have received all the information we needed to conclude your deferment to BYU. You will now be able to register for fall 2026."
- Course repeat policy change (winter 2026 onward): only the most recent attempt counts toward GPA / earned credits - you realized you can retake chemistry and nutrition cleanly. You were relieved.
- GPA review: 2.46 at your U semester; 3.82 at Salt Lake Community College. Me: "Don't be hard on yourself on your GPA. The reasons why you needed to go to school then were not academic. It was other things - and on the other things you got an A+."
- Registration window: Doesn't open until April 1.
- Nursing program planning: BYU-Idaho nursing requires 6 months of healthcare experience; you have that from IHC. You're "really nervous about getting into" the program but I flagged: there's more than one way to become a nurse.
- Centennial housing: Pending approval - Mom will call them later if no movement. You ended up choosing Centennial.
Closing
Sign-off. Mom will keep checking for the Centennial approval and will take care of Bonnie shortly.
Cleanup Notes
- Speaker mis-labeling: The auto-transcript labeled the BYU-registration section under Mom even though most of those lines are you at the church reading your screen. Cleaned narratively.
- Travis vs. Travis Lu: Two different people with confusingly-similar names. The IHC boss is Travis (last name not captured); the Valdivia investigator is Travis Lu.
- Mathel: One-line mention. No wiki note.
- Haitian 13-year-old: Unnamed in source. No wiki note.