SO
I am training!! Oh, mi hija es tan linda! I just have to say...training
is the greatest. I hope I can train for the rest of my mission. I know
I've only been doing it for a couple days, but I think I was born to
love training. My parents can just sit and laugh to themselves imagining
me talking so much and giving so much advice to my greenie that I
literally woke up with a sore throat from talking the day after she got
here. Just imagine, guys. And it doesn't stop.
So. Hermana Arellano and I got to transfer meeting
on Wednesday and I went straight into a trainers meeting with the
president. He talked to us a little bit about the sacred trust that a
trainer has...and I totally agree with everything he said. I have
thought back so much to my first two transfers in the mission, and
Hermana Pineda, and tracting, and not understanding anyone...it is a
sacred trust to help a new missionary adjust to mission life! He said
that our attitude about leadership with be theirs, our excitement to
work will be theirs, our determination to bring people to Christ will be
theirs for the rest of their missions! And it's true! I can see how a
lot of my attitudes about the mission have stemmed from what I saw and
learned in the first two transfers out in the field...most of them are
good! Anyway, then they invited the greenies in, and they sat in the
front. Then the rest of the missionaries that are getting transferred
filed in behind us, and we all sat and waited for our fate to be
revealed...
Anyway, President Toone talked for a while about a
few mission-matters, then started listing off the new companionships of
the transfer. I was getting so nervous. I was looking at all the
trainees and trying to guess which would be my next companion. There
were only four girls, so I had a 25% chance of guessing right. Then I
realized that one of them was English speaking, so that made it
33%...anyway, long story short, I decided that I had a feeling about one
of them. And all the while, the names were getting called, and my hands
were getting cold since the blood was rushing out of them, and
finally...
I got assigned to Hermana Johnson! And she is so
totally the one I had a feeling about! She is just lovely. First of all,
we are two blondies, so that's a blast. I just love it when we walk up
to someone and ask if they speak English or Spanish, because they
usually say Spanish and assume that that will get them out of talking to
us, but then we just whip out this Spanish out of nowhere and their
faces are priceless! It's awesome.
Also, SHE IS EXACTLY HOW I WAS. Exactly. She came
from el CCM en Mexico and she is pretty worried about the language...she
speaks about the same amount of Spanish as I did, and understands about
the same as well. (Remember one of my first emails when I said that I
had the vocabulary of an "intelligent rock"?...well, she actually
probably understands more than I did. So I will not compare her to a
rock.) (And she is much prettier than a rock.)
But...BAD NEWS. (Well, not really...but...still...) I
HAVE THE BIKING AREA. That means I had to say goodbye to all of my
investigators, and we are pretty much white-washing! Ayayay! I will
never not white-wash! I swear, my mission call should have said: "You
are assigned to labor for 8 and a half months in Chile, Rancagua, and
then switch your mission to Tempe, Arizona, and by the way, every area
you ever go into will pretty much be white-washing so yeah. You leave July 17th.
Also you think you're going to the Provo MTC but you can forget about
that and strap on your sombrero cause you're going to MEXICOOOOOOOOO
ARRIBA ARRIBA!"
Sorry about that. I think I got a little out of hand with that thought there.
Anyway,
we've been on bikes. But we actually have a car to drive to our area
every day until we move out halfway through the transfer (since our
lease is ending this month.) So every day we strap on our bikes and head
on out to work...except that makes it sound so much easier than it
is...because these bikes pretty much resist being strapped onto the car
with all their might, mind and strength. I'm serious...we've had the
hardest time strapping our bikes to the bike rack. At one point we got
so messy with so much oil all over our hands that we decided to take it
down and start over, when the chain got caught on my companions skirt
and ripped a little hole in the bottom of it. She's such a trooper.
Honestly, Hermana Johnson is the greatest little
greenie in the world. She's excited to work, and willing to put up with
all the weirdness! (I attract weirdness.) I've loved being with her, we
laugh all the time! Our personalities really have clicked, which is
great, because if you're not friends with your companion, it's hard to
enjoy the work! I LOVE TRAINING, YOU GUYS. I so love it. You just forget
yourself so much. Honestly, I don't think I've thought about something
for myself for more than three minutes total for the last five days.
Even eating. I keep accidentally starving myself. Thank goodness for
Ritz crackers, right?
Interesting moment: the other day we went to the
library to get Hermana Johnson's Facebook cleaned out, and all the
sudden this big black lady across from us starts whispering to us. She
says that she wants to keep all of this on the DL, but that she needs a
plane ticket urgently to Washington DC, because guess who is going to be
President of the United States in 2016? You guessed it. She is. Anyway,
so she tells us that she really needs to get in contact with our pastor
because that's how she'll get to DC. Through him. Or something. So we
spent a long time trying to tell her that we don't have pastors, we have
bishops, and no, they are not travel agents, but she was pretty darn
insistent, so she finally demanded a number she could call and we gave
her the mission office number...I really hope Sister Neysetvolt never
reads this email, because she'll be the one dealing with that lady any
day now...#sorry
Almost without fail, drama always goes down in the
library. Someone always gets kicked out, or puts up a huge fuss because
their computer deleted everything, or something or other. Tempe
Community Library, man...don't mess with it.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am loving training. Please
pray for us to get a miracle! President Toone gave us all the challenge
of EVERY COMPANIONSHIP having a baptism this transfer, and I totally
feel like we can do it! We just need to work really hard and find the
people who need the gospel in their lives! This goal is not about
numbers, it is about FINDING THOSE LOST SHEEP who have been searching
for something more in their lives...something that they are missing! I
know that there are so many prepared people here in our little biking
area! We'll just have to brave the blistering sun to find them! (It. Is.
So. Hot.)
KEEP PRAYING AND READING AND ALSO EVERYONE READING
THIS EMAIL PLEASE GIVE A HUGE BEAR HUG TO MY SISTER IRELAND FOR ME WHO
JUST TURNED THIRTY YESTERDAY! They grow up so fast.
LOOOOVE, Hermana Thomas
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