There is an MTC missionary record board in the gym. It resets at the beginning of January every year. During my time there I broke the girl's pull-up record and push-up record. Sadly, you have to hold the record for a week without it being broken to end up on the wall. I left the MTC before a week had past, so I have no idea if either of them made it.
Last Monday I left the Missionary Training Center to fly to Kentucky. I left at 4 am and did not get to Kentucky until almost 6 pm. It was definitely a long day. To make it more entertaining, my MTC p-day was on Tuesdays, but it switched to Monday when I got to my mission. Because of the switch, I did not have a p-day last week.
On Monday night all the new missionaries were brought to the mission home, where the mission president interviewed all of the missionaries to decide where they would be the best fit. We had 14 new missionaries, but many of them are on reassignment until their visas go through. It took a really long time for the president to interview everyone and after interviews we had a testimony meeting. Because of all of this we did not leave the mission home until after 10pm. They put all the new missionaries in a hotel for the night and gave us another new missionary as a temporary companion. My temporary companion was Sister Cowles. She just got reassigned to Kentucky from the Bolivia mission while she waits for her visa to go through. We both crashed really quickly after getting the hotel.
On Tuesday morning we all went to the mission building. It is right next to the temple. We had about two hours of training about important things we needed to know, before finally getting told what area we were serving in and who our trainer was. When they were announcing all of the trainers for the new Sister missionaries it was really funny because all of the sisters were wearing clothing that in some way matched their trainer. Both my trainer and I were wearing pink because it was valentines day. After meeting our trainer we went outside to join all the missionaries that were loading and unloading items for transfers. Looking at some of the missionaries trying to get everything into the vehicle, my companion and I definitely had a very spacious drive home.
I am serving in the Newburgh 2nd ward in Indiana. So in the span of 48 hour, I got to visit three different time zones! Our boundaries are very big and it is funny to see how drastically different all the areas we cover are.
I have the absolute best trainer anyone could ask for! She is super kind and an insanely talented piano player. Her name is Sister Ginny Bastian. She is the oldest of eight kids and from Maryland. She has also only been out on her mission for three months and just got out of training herself. This week she has been teaching me how to crochet. It is really fun, but she thinks it is funny, because I have restarted seven times. I am slowly getting better. She said when she started learning she did not want to restart for any reason, whereas I restart any time I do not like exactly what it looks like.
The members in my area are very kind. There is a member who is basically the mission mom. She is always checking in on the missionaries and making sure that they have everything they need. My first night in Indiana we went out to dinner with her. She was telling me that she had always felt like a protective older sister to the missionaries, but just recently had decided that she might be more like the mom. I thought this was funny because my companion had been telling me about different people in the area and had said she was the mission mom.
Funny story from this week, my trainer and I were going to visit one of the less active members. She is parking and out of the blue says, "Look at that Hawk guy!" I heard "Look at that hot guy!" I was so confused because there was absolutely no one anywhere near the car and that was not something I ever expected to hear her say. It made a lot more sense when I found out she was talking about a bird.
It has been a wonderful week and I have learned so much. My mission is very focused on having a go to scripture in both the Bible and Book of Mormon for every principle we teach. By the end of this week I am supposed to have memorized at least the scripture references for seven of the principles. We have district meetings with the mission president this coming Thursday and are determined to live up to our name as Far West BEST district, so everyone is trying to memorize their references.
It surprised me how much easier it is to teach people than I thought it would be. It comes so naturally, because all I have to do is testify what I know to be true. I was really stressed about getting thrown into teaching right away, but all of our lessons have gone really well.
I think a good quote for the week by Kelend Mills is, "You can't go out and teach something—unless what you teach is you." I learned this week that it is so much easier to teach when you focus on what you know and the values that make you who you are.
1. All the new missionaries in Kentucky
2. My MTC district with one of our teachers
3. My MTC district with our other teacher
4. My companion (Ginny Bastiann) and I
5. Wonderful pen tower I built
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