Ckemi!
Holy moly- the leaves are starting to turn. The temperature is dropping fast and so I am saying goodbye to summer :(
So a TON has happened since my last preparation day. I had one last uber fun one, and then got moved to the boonies... Literally.
President called an emergency mission meeting for transfers. It was huge, the whole mission came and he revealed the new plan. We are to read the entire book of Mormon with our companion in one transfer... that's 13 pages a day or 7 chapters. It is A LOT of reading. And we are not to do it during companionship study but in our lunch breaks and dinner...which we get very few of. It is definitely hard to fit in, but we are managing. It was a neat conference and he had one missionary get up and sing on spot which was fun.
I won't lie I shed some tears when I said goodbye to Sister Carver, and she really did become one of my best friends. It's hard because I was the ONLY one in my zone leaving, I will not be seeing them for a long time. It felt like being ripped away from Albania. So I moved my cornucopia of stuff from car to car and said goodbye to the elders I started with because they did not get transferred....
So Shortsville, its COMPLETELY different. It is the country, it is a house, it is only 5 mins from the sites. The people that come to church have cars for the most part, and they have clothes to wear. It is a whole new atmosphere here. We have people to teach, and we are working towards a family baptism on September 10. After last night though we don't know. I think he was on cocaine again....The family is so ready, he gave us like 20 cartons of his cigarettes and gave them up.
Working with Sister Correia is different because her trainer just left, so she is in the stage of not being told what to do. Apparently me and her trainer are complete opposites...so she is trying to get used to it. We have worked at the sites almost every day, which is nice. Our hours change back on Thursday to fall hours, which will be nice so we can have dinner appointments.
Wednesday we had a Site meeting and The Site sisters asked me and Sister Carver to get up and bear our testimonies as we would at the sites. It was a very neat experience. I had the whole room in tears......just kidding :)
Friday night we had Sis. Carver and her new Greenie Sister Green come and sleepover because they had to work early. It was SO much fun to see Sis. Carver again, and Sister Green is 23 and from Jarom, ID, and played Basketball for ISU.
I can't remember what day, but we had the Adams family come to the JSF and we took them on a tour. It was really cool, Sis. Correia has never asked someone to be baptized. So she told them at the beginning that we were going to ask at the end. When we reached the part on Stafford road where you can see the temple, I stopped them and explained baptism is the first step and the temple is the real goal, and then eternal salvation....The dad turned to me and said you should have given us at least a 72 hour notice to baptize us today! Haha.... we had to explain we were only going to ask them to be baptized on Sept 10. So when we reached the Cooper Shop, we asked them and they all said yes! Then we took a stroll through the grove and at the end we looked over the bridge and we SAW A HUGE TURTLE! I'm pretty sure it was a snapping turtle.
This Sunday we worked at the BOMPS. We get to leave church early...I remember Mitch saying "When you go on a mission you will have like 3 wards to cover"...in this mission we barely make it through an entire meeting without leaving to a site...You can imagine my thrills of getting out of Sunday school :) Just kidding!
At the sites we have been trying to get our tours down to about 20 to 30 min tours, some senior couples have made them 2 hours....
Today we got to go on a "special tour." It is very rare to go. Bob, the grove whisperer took just me and my companion to the Hill Cumorah, and he showed us trees and pointed out and talked about things that are very rare for a missionary to hear. After that was said and done, he told me he thought I didn't like him, but I am like a pine cherry tree. He said things change and also I am not a surface person- you have to dig deep.I thought it was cute..... we are friends now...don't worry, then he took us on the Indian trail around the temple. I am finding some cool things I know Mom and Dad are going to love...when they come pick me up right? :)
Anyways the life of a missionary here is great, I can't wait to send pictures of the leaves. My scrapbook is coming along, my knowledge of the things in this sacred place and my testimony .
Clare