On Monday, I finished packing and worked on getting everything done that I needed to. Part way through P-day the Lebanon sisters came to join us. After p-day we went street contacting. We got in our 30 testifying contacts that evening and therefore kept up our 5 day streak! We finished off the evening with a call with the zone leaders. They are both so amazing and it was good to talk about the zone and how we could help them.
On Tuesday we had the Lebanon sisters with us all day which unfortunately slowed us down a little. We started the morning by going to breakfast with the older Welthers. I love them. After breakfast, we came back together to accomplish the work. We were supposed to have a lesson with our friend David, but he never showed up. He ended up calling to reschedule to Wednesday. We then went door knocking with the Lebanon sisters. We met some cool people, but it was slightly exhausting. After that we made cookies to bring friends for a little bit and then went street contacting at the park. We had little success at the park so we went downtown. We then went back to the apartment so that Lebanon could head back to their area for a member meal. After that, we visited some friends and dropped off cookies. I had a moment where my life flashed before my eyes when a dog came charging at us from across the street. Thankfully the dog decided not to eat us and just to follow us around instead...
We had some really sweet contacts with people when we were out and about. We went to the Getz family and for the first time since I got to the area were able to meet Maddox, one of our new members. We had a very interesting conversation with his mother about forensics. We then ate dinner and slightly panicked together while waiting for transfer calls. We were supposed to have calls with multiple people beforehand, but they all ended up not answering. We finally had time to catch up on reporting instead. We then finished the night off with the transfer call. It was kind of weird because we were the only ones that knew president was pulling missionaries out of Lebanon before the call. Sister Walter is joining Sister Sharp in Bardstown. Sister Sharp and I then just spent most of the evening talking about thoughts and how to best help our friends continue to progress.
On Wednesday we decided to finish off our time together with utter chaos. We started the day off with personal study followed immediately by a lesson with our friend Joe and Sister Fulkerson. We talked about the organization of the church and Joe loved it. After Joe's lesson we had a zone wrap up call where every companionship shared miracles they had seen during the transfer. Thankfully every companionship beat the boss so no one was forced to drink the potion (although Elder Hansen did so willingly on the call). After that call we had a companion study and contacted people. After contacting people we ate lunch and went to help at the food pantry. The food pantry was really slow this week, so we ended up spending most of the time restocking shelves. After helping at the food pantry, we were supposed to have a lesson with our friend David. He once again never showed up...perhaps he simply needs more time with God at the moment. We had a few extra minutes, so we decided to walk to the church for Stephen's lesson. We did not consider the fact that it was 90+ degrees outside and we were both wearing black. Needless to say we were melting by the time we got there. We talked about the Plan of Salvation with Stephen and the Welthers. It was a super good lesson and Stephen really likes the Plan of Salvation. After his lesson we had a lesson with the Simpsons (but took a Walmart trip first to get seeds and dirt). With the Simpsons, we talked about faith and read about it being like a seed (so we then planted seeds as a way of remembering to nourish our faith). It was really hard to say goodbye to them because they are so sweet and I have come to love them so much. After their lesson we were going to call our new member Murphy (but he did not confirm until during our other lessons and we ended up running out of time). We then had a call with our district leader, followed by dinner at the Cochrans. I love the Cochrans. While we were at dinner we talked about everything from the Olympics, to the death penalty, to what was happening at transfers. The best quote from the Evening was Brayden talking about the death penalty, "I would want to go to sleep before they seduce me (meaning sedate)." We definitely had some laughs about that one. Right after dinner we finished the evening with a call with zone leadership. The E-town zone is definitely one of the best groups of missionaries in the mission and we had so much fun on that call. After that we called it a night. Cool fact is that Wednesday was our 7th day in a row of hitting 30 testifying contacts!
On Thursday we joked about what would happen if we simply never showed up to transfers. I love Sister Sharp so much and saying goodbye to her was definitely one of the hardest parts of the day. After transfers all the departing missionaries ate lunch together and went to the temple. I love the temple so much. There is just so much peace to be found there. After the temple, we had interviews with President McGinn and just hung out at the mission home playing games. After that we had a testimony meeting (at like 9pm because there were 17 departing missionaries) and went to the hotel for the night.
Friday morning we got up early and went to the airport. My first flight was delayed by 2 hours which made my layover (in Baltimore) less than an hour long. Thankfully I made my second flight and got home. Funny story from the day was that I knew my family was probably going to be slightly late (my mom was coming straight from work). Sure enough I got there and there was only one person waiting (not my family). The man waiting asked me if I was leaving on a mission. When I responded that I was coming home, he looked so awkward realizing there was no one there. Thankfully I got away to baggage claim, where I looked at my phone and my sister's message telling me they were running late. I then got my luggage and waited out 10 minutes before my family came sprinting through the airport. Kind of funny that I beat them there.
It is crazy to think that my almost 19-month mission flew by so quickly. There were definitely highs and lows, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is aware of all of his children and has a perfect plan for them.
Pictures:
- Bye to the Cochrans
- Bye to Missy and John
- Departing missionaries
- Bye to missionaries
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