Transfer 2, semana 6

June 14, 2023

Woohoo! I've reached the end of my training! Well, almost. Later in the week, my second transfer will end and I'll officially no longer be a greenie. This week was filled with a lot of things! Very different from other weeks. Elder Peter Johnson (of the Seventy) and his wife Stephanie Johnson came and did a mission tour this week.

We bought flowers for one of our friends

Wednesday morning I washed some of my blankets, including a soft blanket that has funnily enough become my security blanket and I felt like a little kid who couldn't do anything without it. Maybe I should talk to someone about that. Hmm. Later that night, we met this guy named Perfecto. He is the Most hyperactive person I have ever met. He talks super fast and says so much. We tried to teach him the Restoration, and in the span of a half hour, had officially taught him half a point. There are eight points to the Restoration that we have to talk about. Hermana Messick thinks he's great. And I'm sure I would too if I had any idea what he was talking about! My poor mangled-Spanish brain can't figure out what he says.

Thursday was Zone Conference! We had breakfast with the Jacobs in their hotel and saw both our mission president and Sister and Elder Johnson as they walked out of the hotel. Oops. So then we had to explain why we were at a hotel. After some yummy hotel-breakfast waffles, we went to Zone Conference. I was one of the lucky ones who got to interview with the Johnsons. President Herrod told me it was because I was from Alabama and the Johnsons lived there for a few years. But he also told Hermana Messick that it was because he hoped the interview would help me after my hard week last week. It was good to talk with them. They're very kind and it was nice to feel heard in my opinions and thoughts. Then we had Zone Conference and it was good but long. At lunch, we got a new gas card! Woohoo! And I got my money refunded from when I paid for gas by myself. When we walked in for lunch, Sister Herrod asked all the sisters to disperse and go sit with the elders rather than sitting at a table with all of the sisters. We think that this is the mission leaders trying to get us to interact more with each other (there is a rule in our mission about elders and sisters having limited interaction because several missionaries were "dating" each other on the mission, which is a huge no-no. But that means that often the sisters get ignored by the elders), but it didn't really work. Finally, we finished the conference and we still had to go out and work even though we were exhausted. But we survived.

Friday was going to be a normal day, except we found out last minute that Elder Johnson wanted Hermana Messick to go to the Mission Leadership Council with another sister, Sister Aiono, in the area. So we did some exchanges and off they went to the meeting. I stayed with Sister Aiono's companions, Sisters Hendricks and Reed. We were all a bit confused as to why Hermana Messick was asked to go to MLC, because she's not a Young Mission Leader and wouldn't normally go to this meeting. We never did figure out why. For dinner, the family that signed up to feed us just gave us money to buy food, so we went to Panda Express and scurried to eat it so we could make it to a lesson. Except we got it to go and they didn't give us forks or chopsticks. So we ate with our hands and used a lot of water to wash up.

Saturdays are always busy. We go around inviting absolutely everyone to church. We were lucky to have a member come out with us for about an hour, as we drove all over town inviting people. Then, Hermana Messick was asked to go with Sister Aiono to the neighboring Stake's Leadership Meeting so we exchanged again. I went with the other sisters as they invited people to church. We went to a neighborhood that had these absolutely humongous houses. They were so big that there was another house that seemed teensy compared to them, but if we had been in another neighborhood would have towered over those houses. Mind boggling. After the meeting, we switched back and met with Perfecto again. This time, he called me out on not speaking. I told Hermana Messick afterwards that I don't speak because I can't get a word in, I don't know what to say, And I have no idea what we're talking about with him. He's a funny guy.

Sunday! We didn't have anyone that we're teaching come to church this week which was sad. That night, we were talking with some of our new members and it started raining. And hailing. And Hermana Messick made me go out in it. I told her that nothing was so important that we couldn't wait five minutes for the hail to stop, but she still made me go. At the very least, I found out that my shoes are waterproof. Idaho isn't built for large amounts of rain, so the streets flooded and we had to be very careful while driving.

Monday we did exchanges again. This time they were planned and for the whole day. I went to the English Sisters' area and was reminded of how different English work is than Spanish work. It's mostly going around to members and seeing if they had any friends that they think might be interested in a message from us, or need any service. It was really nice to be able to come back to the work that was familiar to me!

A spiritual thought for this week: John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments." A simple verse but very important. When we follow God's Commandments, we show him that we love him, and he is able to bless us for our obedience.

Thanks for sticking with me! Sorry that I didn't get last week's email out until now!

Love you all!

Hermana Soh