This week has been kind of crazy! But a good crazy.
I left the MTC early in the morning and we drove to Salt Lake via bus. When checking my bags, I looked at the weight and one of my bags weighed 48 lbs and the other, 49! Phew! Just barely! One of my MTC Sisters, Sister Black, said her's weighed exactly 50! We are so thankful to the Lord for his small blessings.
The flight to Atlanta, Georgia lasted a little over three hours and when we landed, we met two Hermanas who were with Sister Allie Rigby at the Mexico MTC! How cool is that?!
When we arrived to the Nashville airport, we soon were greeted by President and Sister Anderson and their PA's. We drove to the mission home (Nashville is huge! We'd been driving from the airport for over 20 minutes on a freeway and we were still in Nashville!) At the mission home, we had a lovely homemade dinner and training for that evening. We stayed over at the mission home that night and in the morning, we drove to a stake center for more training and to meet our trainers!
My new companion is so awesome. We have a lot in common and a part of me suspects she's my American twin.
When President Anderson called on my name to announce who I'd train with and what area I would be sent to, he grinned and said that I'd have a challenge. My companion and I have been whitewashed into Bellvue, a section of Nashville that kind of feels like a town in itself. We didn't have the area book on our first day and so after much confusion, we finished the first day by tracting in the evening. It was dark. It was heavily raining. It was cold and really windy. My umbrella did that thing I only see happen in movies and it inverted/flipped because the wind got really strong. And we knocked on a lot of doors but no one wanted to listen or they weren't home. So, yeah. That was my experience of the first day and first time tracting. And it was actually kind of awesome!!
We thankfully had dinner with a family, the Larson's, which is good because we had no food in the apartment :) And afterward, we were able to meet with the Ward Mission Leader, who is so good at this calling! The Bellevue ward is amazing. They are so missionary focused. They recently issued a challenge to the ward, to take a Book of Mormon and put in the place that they are at most frequently. They do this for two reasons: one, to continually remind themselves of the obligation they have, as members, to share the gospel and two, so that someone can see it and a natural conversation about the Book of Mormon can be sparked. They are also having a musical testimony meeting, later in March, which would be a fun event to invite friends and non-members to.
On Wednesday, we were able to get a car to drive around in so for the rest of the week, Sister Peyton and I have just been really busy going around, meeting the potential and progressing investigators, and tracting.
In the South, everyone has a dog :) Doorbells? Nah. Dogs? Yeah!
Also, there aren't very many sidewalks and the roads aren't that bike friendly so I'm not sure how biking is going to work out here. Apparently the previous sisters walked a lot to go everywhere.
This week, we met Pauline! She is a black, 71-year-old grandma who stays over at her grandaughters, often. Pauline has such a beautiful, strong faith in Jesus Christ! She warmly invited us in and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon. We dropped by a few days later and she's been happily reading more of the Book of Mormon and even sharing it with her daughter! We're not sure if we'll be able to keep her as our progressing investigator though because she lives far away and only visits often. But hopefully we'll be able to continue seeing her in the future!
The people we tract into are really nice. Many tell us to keep warm and to be careful, especially when it's getting dark soon. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait until Daylight Savings comes. Then, it'll be lighter, later in the day, when we tract in the evenings.
Anyhow, this week has been pretty good. I finally feel like I'm adjusting to missionary life and Sister Peyton and I are getting a better grip on our area and we're excited to work miracles here.
Love y'all and take care!
--
Sister Ririe
Little tree she took with her to have a little part of home with her.
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