Born In Three Rivers

Hello everybody!! I am now officially a real missionary!!  Contrary to popular belief, I am not in Sturgis Michigan.  Our ward is in Sturgis, but we are about a half hour away in a place called Three Rivers.  It is a fantastic area!! Any way here is how my week was

Monday, today we said good bye to the Elders in our district and that was way sad.  They were the best.  Also we handed out all our extra food to missionaries passing by because we didn't want to pack it.

Tuesday was kind of a blur.  It was weird having class with only half of us there.  We were all kind of antsy because we were ready to leave.  I also felt way sick and had to take a nap....OH NO!! But I think it was an inspired nap because after then I felt soo much better and now I am feeling nearly 100% Except I still have a cough.

Wednesday was CRAZY! We woke up at 3:00 to help a sister get to her buss.  Then we met at our buss at 4:30.  So 14 hours and 2 planes later, we landed in Michigan!!  I rode on the plane with a sister who had never been on a plane before and she was SO excited!! haha!  The Lansing airport is very small and we got to meet our mission president and his wife!! I like them a lot, they are both enthusiastic about missionary work!  Sister Jacobsen mentioned that she knows someone who worked with Molly at Sundance, so that was cool!  We had dinner at the mission home, had interviews with the President (I told him my story about "Say Yes! To M!ch!gan" and he laughed and wrote it down)  I was very tired so after that I went to bed.  

Thursday was also crazy!! We had a meeting at the stake center and after the meeting,  trainers lined up in a line and we lined up in a line and they had an envelope with our names in it and then they ran to us!! Then we had another meeting and then we drove out too our area of Three Rivers.  So, we went door knocking that night and some kid named K. followed us around on a bike the whole time.  I felt bad because his parents were not home and so I think he was lonely.  He was giving us lots of info about the neighborhood and his bike though so that was fun! My trainer is also awesome!  One of the teachers in the MTC told me to look out for her and now she's my trainer so that's cool!

Friday was my first full day out in the field!!  We door knocked again and we ran into K. again! He looked so excited to see us.  We gave him a pass-a-long card to give to his parents.  We also ate dinner at an investigators house and it was SO good.  They were vegetarian but the meal was fantastic!!  Then we stopped at a less actives house and they had a movie playing and I felt SO WEIRD because I realized I couldn't do that for a year and a half. 

So Saturdays are car fast days.   We do not use our cars and so we did A LOT of knocking and walking and door knocking is so funny.  There are some strange people here, I love it.  We were out knocking doors and this hippie dude stopped us and we were talking to him and he believed dinosaurs ate raw vegetables and pooped out humans...and he thought our beliefs were strange.  We also ate dinner with a member in a park and we got to go watch the woman's conference at a member's house.  It was SO GREAT!  Stuff like that is such a big deal as a missionary.  Also their daughter is going on a mission so it was fun to talk to her because I was just in that boat.  

Sundays are so fun.  We met the ward and they ward is great and very welcoming.  Lots of them have ties to Holladay suprisingly.  We had a linger longer after church.  We met a man we are teaching who is on parole and he is awesome!! We helped him download gospel library on his phone and I just thought that was so cool!!  We also visited a family that I LOVE last night! They have 5 girls and are so cute! The girls always make us feel so awesome when we come over.  They were talking about how there were rumors of earthquakes in Utah soon... SO PLEASE BE SAFE I LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Fun fact: Squirrels in Michigan are black.  And they are everywhere.  They are like super cool ninja squirrels.

MTC Pictures!

Week 2

  

HELLO FAMILY!! 

Well I'm really surprised because I'm actually a really sad  to leave the MTC! I just really love the people I'm around, but the field will be even better!! I am SO excited to get to Michigan.

On Monday my comp Sister Pettet and I danced in the rain and that was a joyous time.  It was fun! 

On Tuesday we had a devotional by Rosemary Wixom it was so great and at the end we all sung armies of Helaman, that was so cool to hear a room of a thousand missionaries singing that song! After the devotional we went back to the residency and got ice cream out of the vending machines.  We were laughing so hard about something, I don't remember what but we got in bed and Just couldn't stop laughing for about an hour in bed.  

Wednesday...Thanks for the cookies mom!! We had too many so we took them to the brand new missionaries next door to welcome them! It was so fun to see the new missionaries, it's crazy I've only been here a week.  Also at the end of the day, we had the Elders in the district give us blessings and that was such a cool experience because my blessing was just what I needed to hear.

So today we had a really cool lesson with our investigator, I felt like for the first time, I was guided by the spirit when teaching! It was so cool! Also we had a Book of Mormon read with my district and that was amazing.  The spirit is so strong when you just sit and read out loud.  Also they had THE BEST cheesecake this week, it was like smores or something...

The first part of Friday  was a little rough.  We had our in-field orientation and I just felt over whelmed, but class after was amazing and we watched a clip from the district about a family getting sealed and I felt the spirit so strong! That is why I am going on a mission, to bring that joy into peoples lives. 

Saturday was our last lesson with our investigator and that was sad!  I really liked her a lot, also it was our last lesson with our teacher so we took some pictures at the end of class,  I love my district.  Also we had a party with pink mustaches with all the sisters in our residency which was so fun!

Sunday... I love Sundays!   So I had to teach in relief society today which went a lot better than I thought it would!  I felt the spirit in the lesson so I was proud of myself.  Then in sacrament,  they call on random missionaries to speak right then and there so we all have to have talks prepared and guess what... Yep they called on me and I was not expecting it because I was teaching.  But it was a cool experience to just go by the spirit.  I've learned that a lot here... Go by the spirit!!  Also we had a devotional by Lloyd Newell, which if you don't know he does music and the spoken word and is the announcer for general conference.  That was SO good.  Then  we watched a devotional that Elder Bednar gave about how sometimes we might not realize that we are receiving spiritual promptings, but if we are living righteously, they most likely will be.  

Today we woke up at 3 to help our roommates get there stuff to the travel center and it was SSSOOO sad to say good bye to them! I love them!!  Also we went to the temple which is always great!!  Pray for me because I'm feeling a little under the weather. 

Anyway I'm leaving to Michigan Wednesday, so I might be calling then... I'm so excited I love being a missionary.

Packing it tight since 1996 #cheesecakemiracles

GREETINGS FAMILY AND FRIENDS!! So sad story... I can't figure out how to send pictures...Also my camera died, but once I figure that out I fo shizzle will send some.  

So my companions name is Sister Pettet.  She's from Idaho, loves Billy Joel, has a scar from a penguin, and just graduated high school.  She's great, we are already learning so much from each other.  She is very good with words, so we balance each other out!!  She's very nice and is helping me teach a lot  My district is so great.  We have 4 sister's going to Michigan and they are awesome we are with them all the time.  Two of us are from Idaho, and two of us are from Utah.  One of them named sister Mathis, went to Utah State so we could have met! I wish we would have because she's so funny. More stories to come with her.  The Elders are also great, they're all going to Canada.  One of them is from Scotland and has the  coolest voice!! Also his name is Elder Winkle so that's cool!

So Thursday we were learning how to teach.  It was challenging, I felt like I had my brain in a taffy puller but it was great!  The girls in our residency are so cute!! They are both going to North Carolina and we get along great!!  We also got these cool things we call bundgie badges....They clip on to our skirts and hold our ID cards we had fun with them...Maybe too much...

Friday I taught my first lesson and It was hard!  Its hard to figure out how to go by the spirit in a lesson.  Today at dinner they had cheesecake....Sister Mathis and I wanted Cheesecake sooo bad but they ran out when we got to it.  She was super bummed....but then we noticed the cheesecake had returned....so we sat there and stared at it longingly and some blessed elders said "You sisters want some?"  So we got some cheesecake.....and we had doughnuts with our resident hall later that night....I won't get fat I promise.... I had a spiritual experience with sister Willis role playing talking about prayer..... It was great.

Saturday.  So today sister Pettet and I had a bonding experience talking about celebrity crushes, she has good taste in boys so we bonded over that.   We also had a great lesson with a member named Milka!! She has such great faith she's a convert!!  Also everything is sooooo funny in the MTC.  Sister Mathis was being hilarious because she was role playing dropping chastity pamphlets and with her email hidden in them and giving them to elders....No worries she didn't do that to elders because that is flirting.... She just did it to a lot of sisters pretending they were elders.  Also I met Hannah's boyfriend today!! 

Sunday was SO great.  We had an awesome devotional about feeling the spirit and the scripture that helped me decide to go on a mission (DandC 6:23) or maybe 23 came up and I cried....Being a missionary is awesome.  Also I met Hannah's boyfriend today.  He seems great congrats on that Hannah, we got an awkward picture together I'll send it too you.  

Today is P day and we went to the temple and that was so awesome!! I was feeling a little overwhelmed and I thought about Christ will always give us his grace and we are not in this alone....The temple is the best!! 

Oh and weird thing... I'm busy a lot so I don't worry about weird things like being homesick or eating....or being tired!  I think it's divine help!!