The One With Oh My Gosh We Have Sisters!

January 2, 2017

Wow we have had one heck of a week with transfers and Pink Washing Blaine!

 Saying goodbye to Jazzy

Saying goodbye to Pat and Sister B 

Goodbye to Sister Cope

Monday and Tuesday consisted of a lot of packing and goodbye lessons. I don't know what it is but I swear my amount of clothes somehow multiplied over this transfer. I learned I have WAY too much stuff. My suitcases were so heavy, I hope Blaine is my last area so I don't have to do that all again. Plus I'm not sure if my suitcases could take it. I broke a zipper with packing for this last transfer hahaha. 

Reunion w/ Sister Card

Transfer day was fun. Got to see a bunch of my old companions! Sister Xiong was there and sister Killpack and SISTER CARD. She's banished to La Crosse right now so I didn't think I'd get to see her before I went home, but her companion was getting transferred and she got to come up! Ah, I've missed her, she's so great. Weird to think she's half way done with her mission cause when I got her she was a baby still in training. So now I am in Blaine with my new comp Sister Ching with both of us trying to figure out what the heck is going on hahaha. I think Sister Ching had a little bit of transfer shock because she just came from her favorite area where she knew everything and her favorite companion, to a new area where neither of us know anything and a completely new person as a companion. I think she's doing a lot better now though, we laugh and joke and I think this is gonna be a great transfer :) Oh! Also, Sister Ching is a Chinese speaking sister, so we get to do language study and I'm learning some Chinese! I can now introduce myself and tell people I'm a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! So fun.

Trying to get to Blaine w/ Sister Ching

So our first day in Blaine we managed to find our apartment from transfers without a GPS, and thankfully with it being an elders apartment previously, it was not nearly as bad as we were expecting. Sister Ching and I unpacked and then had to get creative with how we we would go out and work that evening because we had no area book, no GPS, no ward list, and it was too dark to tract. So we looked around the apartment and there were still some paper area books left here, so we looked through them and grabbed some of the people who looked promising. Of course all the info was outdated and all from around 2004 but hey at least we had a name and address. Then we went over to Taco Bell (the only free wifi we could find) and looked up on google maps how to get to each place and then back home. It was quite the adventure and was actually pretty fun. We felt like old school missionaries from back in the day before iPads.

Thursday, our first full day in Blaine, was crazy. We went and had Lunch w/ the Anoka and Andover sisters which was super fun and I got my bike which I had left in Anoka. Then Sister Ching and I had our weekly service project so we ran over there. Our whole district volunteers at a place called Feed My Starving Children. Basically what you do is assemble packets of food for kids without any. It was so fun because it was a competition to see who could go the fastest and pack the most boxes. I learned you should never tell a group of missionaries something is a competition because we hardly ever get a chance to be competitive so we take any chance we get hahaha. We were flying through all the steps and we totally won. Then Sister Ching and I went Tracting on Magnolia street. Almost everyone was very nice so that was a great welcome to the area, although not a lot of people were interested until we met Alicia. She stepped outside her house, even though it was really cold, and let us share the because of him video with her. We testified of Jesus Christ and his importance in our lives and she said we could come back and teach her and her daughter!! Miracles! 

 Exhaustion!

Also Sister Ching and I are SO EXHAUSTED. I know I probably say that I'm tired in just about every email but this is the real deal. I didn't know it was possible to be more tired than I already was but we found out this week that that is most definitely possible. I fell asleep while praying and Sister Ching fell asleep during studies.  We're both on the struggle bus going through downtown struggle city but we're slowly making our way toward normalville hahaha.

So here's some miracles for ya. We were trying to contact some of the investigators in our area book and we saw a part member family where the wife is a member and the husband wasn't. We stopped by and the wife Trina was home. She opened the door and went "IVE GOT GIRLS! COME IN"! She was so excited to have Sister missionaries. We had a wonderful lesson with her and now here comes the cool part. We had introduced ourselves and found out she was from Tacoma. She was super excited that I am from Seattle. As we were leaving she hugged me and said "I told my mom one day I'd have girls and one of them would be from home, and here you are". That was really cool. I felt like in a small way God has placed me here for Trina to reminder her that she's not forgotten and that he needs her. 

The other miracle happened on Saturday. We were stopping by some referrals that the elders hadn't ever contacted and we go up to the first one and this Hmong family opened the door. We told them why we were there and asked if Hali was there and she let us in! She's a 16 year old and had talked to some missionaries in St. Paul and asked to talk to some in her area. We all talked a bit and we taught the entire restoration and invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She is so cute and sincere we are so excited for her! It's funny the people we've met in Blaine are either not interested or really sincere which is nice.

Last but not least we had church on Sunday. It was the weirdest thing ever that neither of us knew where the chapel was or anyone who was in our ward, or where relief society or Sunday school met. Everyone was super nice. If I were to describe the Blaine ward it is basically comprised of a bunch of funky old grandparents. There are almost no young families and the ward is really small but that's okay. We'll get to know the members better that way and be able to work with them. 

Funny Moment of the Week:

The first counselor in the bishopric asked us to introduce ourselves during church. As soon as we stood up you could hear the word "sisters" whispered throughout the whole chapel. I just smiled it was pretty funny. The Blaine ward hasn't had sisters for 8 years so they're happy to have us haha.

Spiritual Thought of the Week:

"One see clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." - Dieter F. Utchdorf, Fourth Floor, Last Door, October 2016 General Conference. This is a quick list what's essential to me: Love, Faith, God, Jesus Christ, The Spirit, Trust, My Testimony, and Friendship. What's essential to you?

️Sister Richardson