So I have to tell you about my last experience in the Haymarket Ward the night before I left. So the Wednesday before transfers we took Ashleigh up to the temple visitor center for a lesson. We showed her the video called, God's plan, and everyone in the room was bawling expect for Ashleigh...it was really confusing. We did everything that we could to help her. We testified and promised her blessings and everything...we just couldn't get through to her! When we got back home, we talked to Ashleigh for a minute before we drove away and she told us that she was sorry that she wasn't responding very well. We called a member who Ashleigh looks up to as a sort of father figure, and he gave her a priesthood blessing. I did not feel right about leaving Ashleigh by herself, but we couldn't be with her all night long. :( that night I prayed harder than I have for another person in my life!!
Sister Anderson
That was slightly stressful...and packing took forever (I really hate packing), but transfers happened...and I saw Dan Hernandez!!!!!!!! It is sooooooo awesome that someone from home is serving in my mission!!!!! I was sitting in the back of the chapel where all the new missionaries walked in at the beginning of the meeting...and I totally freaked out! I was really excited to see him! I wasn't sure when I'd see him, and I kinda forgot he was coming so it was a small surprise when he walked in!
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| Hey LOOK, It's Elder Hernandez!!! Julie was SO excited to see someone from home! |
OH MY GOSH. So. When Sister Lamborn and I were companions, she got a video recording of me laughing in my sleep! And she gave it to President Riggs!!! How embarrassing right??? Well. To start off the transfer meeting, President Riggs played it over the PULPIT!!!!! I COULDNT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!! Everyone was laughing! When I got my new companion, literally everyone came up to her and told her to keep her camera on hand whenever I was sleeping! Oh man... so now pretty much everyone in the mission knows me for my crazy giggle. Sooo. yeah. I don't know what else to say about it. haha.
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| Sister Lamborn going home. |
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| Sister Udall going home. |
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| Another cute sister going home. |
So I am now serving in the Ashburn Ward with Sister Jillynn Christensen. This is her very last transfer and then she goes home!!! She has a really good attitude about going home which is awesome. There are lots of Sister missionaries who are always complaining about how they never want to go home because they love their missions so much, but she always says, "I don't wanna serve a day less or a day more! 18 months is perfect for me!" She super awesome and chill. She is from Provo, Utah and is number six of eight kids. She is one inch taller than me!!! Wooo I have a companion who is taller than meeee!!! But I wear size 11 on shoes and she wears a size 10. How does that work out?! Haha. The apartment that we live in is SWANKY. It's the nicest apartment I've lived in on my mission...and probably my entire life. It's brand new. I'll have to take pics to send to you next week. I hope I remember! Haha. But there's a super nice theater room, gym, game room, pool (that we will never use because we are obedient haha). It's super nice. I feel spoiled! And we're driving a new chevy cruze. I think it's either a 2013 or 2014.
This Ward is totally awesome. They just barely called a new Ward mission leader right before transfers and he is young and excited about the work. It's really nice to have a Ward mission leader who actually cares about the work we are doing. It is way awesome! He goes out and meets our investigators when he feels like it. And yesterday at church he gave the best talk about how doing missionary work is how we show our gratitude for the savior and the atonement! The work is going to hasten in the Ward, I just know it!
Thanksgiving was really good! We went to the Dallin's for the big Thanksgiving feast. They invited another family from the Ward names the Angels. It was so fun. I wrote out the text on Sister Dallin's phone about how she is so cute and awesome...she wanted me to make sure to clarify that so that she wouldn't sound conceited..hahahahaha! Then we went to the Willis's house and we played games to let our tummies settle before eating again. We played Telestrations, which is the funniest game and I love it, and a card game. I think it's called the Great down moody or something like that. I don't know...but it was pretty fun. I just found out that the Willis's have a daughter who's birthday is the same day is mine and they totally invited me over to dinner next Sunday to celebrate together! I'm so excited!!!!! :) the Willis's then made us grilled cheese sandwiches because they wanted to eat something light and easy other than turkey. It's one of their family traditions.
I feel like with every new place I get transferred to, I feel a greater urgency to work harder and harder. This past week, we started off with no one one date and only a few new investigators. But since Sister Christensen and I have been put together, we've hit the ground running. We now have two people on date for baptism and found four new investigators on Friday and Saturday. I totally stressed myself out on Sunday when no one showed up for church... man I am constantly reminding myself that agency is actually a blessing from God..hahaha! It just kills me that we work so hard during the week, and no one shows up. I also have to remind myself that I can be happy knowing that I did everything that I could. I know that if I keep working hard, God will bless us with investigators who will have real intent enough to come to church!!! I am just way excited for God to lead us to those investigators!!
So about my Sister Training Leader responsibilities... I'm still trying ot figure out what they all are. It's a newer leadership position for Sister missionaries that the church made when the age changed and a TON of sisters were coming out. Being a sister training leader is about the same as being a Zone Leader for Elders. We go to a special meeting about once a month called the Mission Leadership Council that councils together with President Riggs about certain issues and concerns that we see amongst missionaries in the mission and we come up with the solution together. Then we take it back to the sisters. Sister Christensen and I are assigned five sets of sisters to be in our stewardship and we are to go on an "exchange" with them once every six weeks. We just trade companions for 24 hours. During the exchange, we take time to train the sisters on what President wants us to train them on and we practice teaching with them. Then we go out and work like it's a normal day. We go to lessons, we go finding people to teach, and we plan together for the next day. Around lunch time we switch back and the exchange is over. Exchanges are a good time to find out how the sisters are doing emotionally, so President Riggs wants us to have "pillow talk" with them late into the night to figure out if they are struggling with anything from back home, how their companionship is doing, how they are handling stress, those kind of things. (So pretty much, we don't get much sleep! YIKES). I'm pretty much President Riggs' eyes and ears for the Sisters that I am in charge of. There are a few times for zone conferences or Zone Training Meetings that we have to get up in front of the Zone and teach the whole group of missionaries, but that doesn't happen all too often. I have to do all of this on top of my normal missionaries duties! It's kind of stressful when I think about it, so I just try to go with the flow and have fun!! haha. So far, it's gone pretty well. I've only gone on exchanges once in the two weeks that I've been here and I went to Catoctin with Sister Gray!!! Cray cray Sister Gray! She was my roommate in my first area, so it was a BLAST to be companions with her for 24 hours!!!! We just laughed the entire time! I love laughing. I figure that laughter is the best medicine....and I guess I jsut need a little more medicine than normal people do ;) The exchange was a little awkward during the training part because I didn't really know what I was doing, but I was so grateful that my very first exchange was with Sister Gray because she is one of my really good friends and was really supportive of me being her brand new sister training leader.
I hope you have a better understanding of what I'm doing as a sister training leader!
I hope you all have a great week! Know that I am doing well! I am completely in love with this work. I love every bit of it! Especially the hard parts because they help me to more fully rely on God.
Oh hey- you didn't give me a report on your Book of Mormon reading this last week! How's it coming? I challenge you to finish it before I get home in April! :) I'll try to read it again before then too!
Love you so much!
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