It feels like it's been about a thousand years since I last checked in, so there's absolutely no way I'm going to be able to cover all of the things that have happened in the last week and a half. But I'll do my best. :D
We had a really great couple of devotionals this week, which was nice for my last week in the MTC. Stephen B. Allen gave a really powerful talk about how we're supposed to teach the gospel of repentance, and if we're trying to get other people to repent and change, we have to go through that process on our own every day. He really didn't pull punches. And then Brent H. Nielson of the Seventy gave us a list of the things we need to remember to be successful misisonaries, each from a different general authority. One of my favorite things he talked about was the Doctrine of Proximity. The idea is that if we want to be lead my the spirit, we have to be close to where the spirit needs us. So basically we have to be moving before we can be guided.
The last day was really weird for me. My companion and I were the only two left in our district, so we spent the day doing laundry and packing and teaching some new investigators. We got to roleplay as investigators for another district of younger missionaries, which was actually really fun. We also got to teach the Law of Chastity, which was not was I was expecting to do that day, but it wasn't the worst. (District 36: we taught it to Austin. Be jealous that you missed that amazing opportunity :P).
And then on Wednesday we took FrontRunner to SLC, TRAX to the airport, and then we were off to Minneapolis! There were so many nice people who helped us lug all our stuff around on the train and around the airport. One guy was saying that he takes TRAX to work every day and his routine is to help that week's missionaries get to where they need to go. Which is amazing. There were moms taking pictures and offering us phones to call our families and giving us hugs and the whole bit. And then we got to Minneapolis and everyone pretty much totally ignored us like they'd be burned if they paid us too much attention, which was kind of funny. Living in Utah is a blessing! Remember that! But honestly traveling wasn't bad at all. I'm a nerd and really enjoy riding the train and getting to fly around, even though it was foggy and there wasn't much to see for a lot of it because of that.
The whole mission office was waiting in the Bismarck airport to meet us when we finally landed. There were pictures and hugs and everyone was really nice, and then we headed past the temple on the way to the mission home. President & Sister Hess are amazing. They're really positive and fun without being like too bubbly, which I appreciated as an over-tired and stressed new transfer. And they recently purchased a soft-serve ice cream machine for the mission home, of which I took full and unashamed advantage.
Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for: transfer meeting! Because all of the areas are so spread apart, all of the new trainers came to the mission home to meet us. So we knew that we'd be with one of those sisters, but we didn't know which one or where we'd be going until that night. I have been assigned to Mandan, North Dakota! Mandan is pretty much the Meridian to Bismarck's Boise. It's right next to Bismarck and a lot of it is new and developing as it grows. Nothing really exciting, but I didn't have to spend a thousand years in a van to get to my area, which is pretty nice. My trainer is Sister Wells, and she's also pretty nice. We're getting along really well for now. I'm her first trainee, and she's only been out like four months, and she spent those four months with her trainer in Mandan. Since I'm her first trainee and only her second companion, we're both doing a lot of adjusting because neither of us really knows what we're doing. Sister Wells certainly knows way more than I do, which is great, but we've definitely got a long ways to go before we'll be really using our time to the fullest. It's probably partly because I'm right out of the MTC and the pace of the work changes a whole lot once you're actually out here. I'm trying to learn patience and remember that the work proceed's on the Lord's time, but I really feel like we're wasting time. We'll try to keep working on that.
So far we don't have very many people to meet with, so we're trying to involve the members and get referrals, but I see a lot of tracting in our future. And we're both not very experienced with that, so we'll just have to figure it out together! We've knocked on a bunch of doors and most people are just like "We're Catholic, so bye!" At least they're nice about it, right?
I haven't taken any pictures in Mandan because I'm lame, but here's some from the MTC now that I have a computer with a card reader!
Thanks to everyone for your support and love! It means so much. You're the best! God still loves you!
