Lancaster Greenie, Part 2

This week was a wonderful adventure. I am training is the area where I was trained! How crazy. I'm not sure what Sister Evans, my new companion, really thinks of the mission field, but I thought it was a pretty fun week. We went tracting her first day here, so she could get a feel for what it's like to go and talk to people. We had some guy chew us out for about 20 minutes about how the Bible was written to keep slaves subject to their masters, and so that was fun. Not really. But it was so ridiculous and we're also pretty sure he was high on weed, so we just laughed about it later. Later in the week we had some good experiences tracting where we got to teach some people who were really interested, so that was good. I think she already has a pretty good idea of the ups and downs of being a missionary. Sister Evans is from Spanish Fork Utah, she is the youngest of 3 girls, she has 2 dogs at home, and she really likes bikes (as in, motorcycles) so she's pretty much awesome!

We had a pretty crazy day on Wednesday. Some members of the ward took us out to have lunch, but it was taking forever and we were going to be late for our next appointment where we play bingo at the senior home, so we had them just drop us off there instead of taking us home to where our car was. But then after bingo, we had to get back to where our next appointment was, so we walked! Really far. I guess in other missions where missionaries don't have cars at all it would have been normal, but for us it was quite a change of pace. Our mission president has been telling us recently to use our car like a bus, which means to drive it to our area but then get out and walk to whatever particular street or house we are going to, that way we can talk to a lot of people along the way. But, since we passed several bus stops along the way, I guess you could say that we were just forgetting the car-as-a-bus thing completely, and using our feet as a bus instead.

On Wednesday there was also a worldwide missionary broadcast, where we got to hear from Elder Bednar and Elder Oaks and the other members of the church's missionary council. It was really good, and they also announced some important changes to our schedule. We still have to get up at 6:30, but we now have more time to get ready in the morning. And we can go to bed at 9:30 instead of 10:30 if we want to, so we get to more sleep! It is wonderful. So far I am really liking the way things are going.

On Sunday they had a combined 3rd hour Priesthood and Relief Society meeting that was all about member missionary work! And the Bishop asked us and the ward mission leader to do a little presentation at the beginning. It was so fun and went really well – we made the whole ward role-play with each other what they might say to share the gospel with other people! We thought it would be a good idea since so often people don't share the gospel because they just don't know what to say to people. But if there's one thing I've learned on my mission about talking to people it's that the more you do it, the easier it gets. So we made them practice and hopefully that will help them in the future to be able to feel more comfortable opening their mouth and sharing even a simple testimony with those around them. Sharing the gospel is so fun!

Have a great week everyone!

Sister Daelemans