Hi y'all!
It's sure been an awesome week, as usual. ; )
It
all started Monday morning with Transfer calls--Sister S was
transferred to do member missionary work in Utah, and I would be
training a new Sister! President Anderson gave me a lot of good advice
on training, and then he informed me we'd keep up the Belle
Fourche/Sturgis areas the next couple of transfers. 8 \ <-my first
thought of combining two areas with training. But every transfer is
inspired, so I knew it would all work out. Surprisingly, I wasn't really
nervous at all. I did ask Sister S about everything I should
make sure to do for training. : )
We spent the
rest of the day visiting the people of Sturgis, giving service and
saying goodbye (for Sister S). She used her amazing stylist
skills to cut Mandie's hair, and it looked super cute. Jackie and I
practiced singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" while we waited.
Tuesday
was about the same--we visited Roze, Carla, Cindy, Punkie, the Ds,
the Hs, the Bs, Lisa, and then had dinner with the Hs.
By then it was really starting to feel bittersweet. The unimaginable was
now inevitable, and happening--Sister S was really leaving!
Wednesday
morning Jackie brought us donuts from W's (I said I'd never eat
there again but you have to make exceptions for things like this : ) ),
and then we went to the food pantry. Sister Springer and I sang for our
farewell there. The music really invited the Spirit--even when someone
walked into the store, they were immediately quiet and listened.
Afterwards they thanked us and most all of us were wiping our eyes.
Brenda fed us lunch, and then shared a special message with us--she
read a card for Sister S and sang "I Know That My Redeemer
Lives," which was super powerful since Sister S was the one who
taught Brenda about her Savior. Then we packed up the hair gear and
Sister S cut Connie's and Crystal's hair for a trade of getting
acrylic nails done--a cute cream and gold pattern. It took forever,
which must be why I've never gotten my nails done. I don't know if I
ever could wait that long. It was fun, though, and the results were
awesome. : ) Sister W had us over for dinner, and we got to meet
her granddaughter that's staying with her for the summer. I think Sister
W really appreciates the company. I know I'd get lonely if I was
home alone all the time. Then we dropped Jackie off at her car in
Sturgis (super sad to watch her and Sister S hug goodbye) and
drove to Rapid City to stay the night.
And guess who was there?
Sister D! Our trio was reunited at long last!
I'm
very grateful for our amazingly patient Sister hostesses, who handled
our excessive giggling and storytelling very well. I can't imagine what
mission reunions are going to be like!
And then
it was Thursday morning, and we took our final district picture, and
then Elder W, Sister S, and Sister D left us to go
home. I almost cried super hard, but I was able to hold it in. It's
amazing how quickly you can learn to love someone--we three were only
together for one transfer, but we're like sisters now. Missions are
pretty incredible that way.
The new missionaries weren't supposed to
arrive from Bismarck until 6 pm that night, so Sister P (the other
sister who'd be training) and I worked together in Sturgis for the day.
We got in a fresh caramel roll breakfast with Roze, an awesome lesson
with Robert (and Jackie came along so there was a member with us!), and
we even got to do our two hours of studies! We drove back to Rapid at
5:00 in case the transfer train came early. They actually arrived at
8:30 p.m., so all we waiting missionaries had a fun time chatting and
hearing about everything that's happened. At this point I still didn't
even know the name of the Sister I'd be training--you don't find out
until they come off the van and say they're looking for you. I didn't
know that a couple weeks ago!
Sister P running three phones--Belle Fourche, Sturgis, and Valentine (Nebraska).
The
"train" finally arrived, and now I'm with Sister C, an
amazingly-prepared Sister from Tooele, Utah. I have so many good things
to say about her! I'm seriously so impressed at her missionary skills.
She already talks with everyone and tracts and teaches and asks
questions and listens and studies like a boss. She's also an amazing
Phone Master (I made up that title but I hope it sticks.)
I
remember my first day as a missionary in the field--I climbed out of
the van, put my things in the members' home we stayed at, and then went
to two lessons (and invited Bill to be baptized!). I wanted Sister C
to have a jump-right-in experience, but we arrived at Sturgis at 9:15
p.m. so we really just had to plan and go to bed.
Friday
morning we woke up, exercised, and loaded up the car to drive to Belle
Fourche. And then we were super busy. As Sister C has put it, we
were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We went to a
volunteer meeting at the Tri-State Museum, then District Meeting (cut
short for our next appointment), lunch with Sister O, a lesson with
Sister Shields, then a trip to Walmart for sheets and pillows and food
for Sister C (we contacted the cashier who ended up being an awesome
girl we'll be meeting with next week!), came back in time to look
through the Area Book, have dinner with the Jones family, then train at
8:00. Whew! Sister C was amazing all day as well. All I've had to
teach her are the random things like how to update our car's mileage
report and how to use T9 texting (Sister W had to teach me that too!).
Saturday
was really busy too--some highlights: we went to Sister B's home out
in Fruitdale to have lunch and to look at her lambs. She took us on a
tour out to her pasture in the valley, and it was so beautiful! I've
always had to look at the country from the distance in the car, and it
was so wonderful to be able to be right in it!
We
also helped the S's plant their garden, and we had an awesome
visit with the Ookas. They did grilled shishkebabs for dinner;
afterwards we talked about eternal families. They really liked the "The
Family Is Of God" music video from General Conference. They both want to
have their family be sealed for eternity in the temple, so we're going
to help them with that goal each week. They're doing so well now,
though! And then we had a lesson with Bill. Sister C invited him to
be baptized (again), and he still doesn't feel ready (I kinda' knew that
was going to happen but it was a good training experience). If he will
read in the Book of Mormon and attend Church I know he'll come to know
for himself that this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ again on
the earth.
As you can probably see, those were
two likely overwhelming days for a new missionary. So (as Sister
S recommended--thank you Sister S!), we both received
Priesthood Blessings after Church, for both comfort and counsel. Once
again, it was perfect and comforting and now we're ready to take on the
world. : ) One day at a time, right? That's all we have to do. The
Langfitts had us over for dinner as well as Brother White, an LDS truck
driver who found the Church in town and was invited to eat with us. We
were 45 minutes late since we thought they wanted us over at 6:00;
however, they were super awesome and forgave us. And our dinner message
was actually taken care of by Brother W since he'd brought Meet the
Mormons and wanted to watch it during dinner. So we got a nice
dinner-and-a-show break, which was awesome. Sister L always makes
us fun desserts--for this meal we had Terrible Torte, a
deliciously-rich chocolate mousse wedge topped with cool whip. It was
amazing! We dropped a birthday card off for Sister O, then drove to
Sturgis for the night.
This is going to be an amazing transfer!
I
love you all so much! I hope you've had a great week, and I hope you're
learning lots. : ) That's what it's all about, isn't it?
Until next week,
Sister F
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