December and Pictures

12/9/13

Alright folks, I've got quite the update. 

Two weeks ago Monday, a few hours after emailing, we got a call from the Zone Leaders, which never happens. They told us, surprise, we were switching areas with the elders in the area below us. They had gotten into a wreck with their car (totaled it) and the husband of the member couple they were living with got a job that required them to be away a lot and since there always has to be a third person of your own sex when you're alone with someone of the opposite sex, they couldn't live there anymore. So we switched with them. Our new area is called Venus- when I first came out to Mansfield, I thought Venus was a nickname because it's so far out in the middle of nowhere. Nope, it's actually called Venus. It's a unique situation, too, because Venus covers the bottom half of two ward boundaries (the hope is to create a branch down there) so we go to two wards every sunday (5 hours of church) and two ward councils. Our area is way out in the boonies and 90% of the houses are trailer home. We live in the nicest double-wide I've ever seen. The people here are so genuine though! Sometimes they'll just open the door and invite you in without question. 

So last Monday, I went to a drive-through zoo! Yeah, a drive-through zoo! We petted and fed the animals out of our hands. There were a ton of antelopes and whatever but then we got to the good stuff- giraffes and zebras. The zebras were not shy about letting you know when they wanted to be fed again. They would gnaw on the car door handles and shove their heads in the car. :) The giraffe was the most gentle of all the animals we got to feed. :)

This weekend Texas got a huuuuge ice storm. Apparently this only happens like once in every 7-10 years. But it's literally JUST ICE. We walked out of the house the morning after and everything is crystallized and covered in what looks like a one-inch-thick layer of clear lacquer. When I kicked a plant or grass, it just shattered. We weren't allowed to drive our car (especially because Texas can't deal with stuff like this- no plows or salt on the roads) so we had to walk to be able to proselyte. We could only stay out for about two-hour intervals because the cold was so intense. And since the roads were solid ice, it was hard to walk. Sister Nelson and I invented a new shuffling/skating gait that was actually pretty efficient. We got up to jogging speeds with half the effort! 

We also got transfer calls this morning. Sister Nelson will be transferred out to Waco and my new companion, Sister Gentry, will be coming on Wednesday! 

12/16/13

Alright, friends, I am super stoked about these next six weeks. Wanna know why? NEW COMPANION! She's a thumbs up. Her name is Sister Gentry and she has been out for 10 months (double my experience), was a Sister Trainer Leader (equivalent to Zone Leaders in the chain of command) for the past three transfers, opened an area that had been closed since 2008, and in a past area, her assignment was to take a branch and make it into a ward. So basically she's perfect for Venus and we're gonna rock it out. Venus has so much potential. 

It's very convenient that we just switched places with the elders because we can call them if we have questions about a certain investigator or if we get lost or something, and vice versa. If Venus had a candle scent, it would be sulfur and cigarettes.

We were knocking around on a street (I don't know if a lot of these streets can actually be called streets. More like back roads.) her second night here and at the very last house, a man opens the door with a cigarette in his hand and says he's LDS. What! Yeah so he's inactive and his records had been lost. The elders before us had found two more of those kinds of people. Apparently Venus is the place where inactives go to get away from the church. Well surprise! We're here and we're gonna get you. ;)

Well, that's all, folks. More exciting stuff to come. Every day is an adventure. 

Peace out.

November 19th

You hear missionaries say all the time "It's hard having doors slammed in your face". Psh whatever, people don't actually do that. BUT THIS TIME IT DID! We go up to a door and a woman answers and I go:

"Hi ma'am! We're missionaries and we go around sharing messages about Jesus Christ--" (this usually gets people because Texas loves Jesus)

"Thanks." and she literally slammed the door. I think before my mission that would've hurt my feel-bads but there's something about being a missionary that makes rude people hilarious.

Sister Nelson and I were planning one night (we plan every minute of the next day the night before) and we both felt like we should go to this certain street. That next evening, we had taught THREE lessons and gotten THREE new investigators within about ten houses. The spirit is real, the church is true.

We were tracting a cul-de-sac one night when I saw this cute little black and white cat. He would be rolling on the ground, pretending like he wanted me to pet him, until I got to be about three feet away, then he would get up and sprint. The cycle happened several times. Sister Nelson finally caught him and gave him to me and the cat started throwing a fit. Whatever, cat. I held on for a minute then let him go. After that, he would just follow us everywhere. He sat on each driveway while we went up to the doors. I named him Bojangles.

Okay I feel like all my stories come from tracting. Anyway. We knock on a door and a man comes out and we're talking to him about how we have a living prophet. He goes "No. Prophets stopped with Jesus." And by the end of the conversation, he's like "Yeah! We need a prophet nowadays!" And we're going back to teach him soon. :)

One last tracting story! We knocked on the first house on the street and a man in his 50s answers. We're talking casually and after a little while, I introduce myself (that's usually how it goes- introductions in the middle or end) and when I put out my hand for him to shake it, he keeps his hand behind his back and says "Sorry, gotta be safe when people come to your door" and in that moment I realized he had a gun behind his back. HOLY COW. Yeah , so good thing we got on his good side. :) He later put it down and showed us his garden. He's a gun-carrying horticulturist... only in Texas.

This is Sister Checkett's bathroom. Texas represent!!

My Halloween packages!

                                                                                  A cute black cat

All the goodies I got for Halloween!

November 11th

My friend who I hired to update my blog for me is falling behind on the posts. So today there will be 2 posts, the first (this one) from November 11th, and the second from November 19th. Also, please note the change in my mailing address! Write me!

Something cool I learned recently! So, in 1 Nephi 13:40, it's Nephi having that vision. The verse describes the purpose of the Book of Mormon! The purposes are: 

1- To establish the truth of the Bible

2- Fill in the "plain and precious" things that were lost from the apostasy

3- To testify that Jesus is the Christ.

Cool right?!

A couple weeks ago we saw a street with a few brick mailboxes completely destroyed. Like, to smithereens. (a car had run them over. the story varies between a distracted driver and a diabetic who passed out) I suggested that we go to those houses and offer service to fix their mailboxes. Lo and behold, the first door we knock on is a woman named Ruth. She has fraternal twin one-year-old girls. Guess who lives four houses down? A woman in our ward who has fraternal twin one-year-old twin girls! What! So we tell them about each other and this week we brought Sister Checketts (the woman in our ward) to Ruth's house to help them get to know each other. We taught kind of the first lesson but I decided to forgo reciting the First Vision because, hello, there were four screaming one year olds there. It was quite the play date.

This week we also met with a real member referral! A REAL one! Usually our member referrals are "my neighbors are Baptist, go talk to them". This one was "my friend is interested in the Book of Mormon and she wants to meet with the missionaries". AHHH! So we did and she (her name is Beatrice) is great! She is totally going to read it, pray about it, and come to church. Those are the three signs of a truly progressing investigator.

Also this week we got to meet with someone who we never ever get to. His name is Matthew. He loves everything that we teach him, he just never has time to meet with us. 

And one last person- Tracy. She has a long story, but to make it short she's had a rough life. We were talking to her on her driveway for a while but she shooed us away before her husband got home because "he would be too happy to see me talking to missionaries". hahaha. 

Adios, amigos!

~ Sister Munro

Story Time!

Howdy y'all!

(They actually say that here. I still can't get over it.)

I think most of this update will be stories.

#1 We knocked on a door and a woman answered. 

"Hi ma'am!"

"..."

"How are you?"

"..." (looking terrified)

"Is everything okay?"

"..." (slowly shutting the door)

"Well here's a card... go on mormon.org..."

"..."

"Have a good day..."

"..."

"Bye."

and she shuts the door and I walked away from officially the most awkward door approach ever. hahahaha. 

#2 On the same street, we knocked on a door and it took a little while, but we heard someone fumbling with the lock. I think it took a full 45 seconds for the person to open the door. It was a little old (she'll be 90 in December) black woman who immediately said "come on in, ladies, I'm just working on a project". Okay! hahaha it's not very often that we get invited in immediately. We helped her put together a desk drawer that had broken. The desk belonged to her father (so probably a 150 year old desk!). She was the funniest 90 year old I've ever met and she loves us! After talking for a little while she goes "I wanna go to y'alls church! After I get my new teeth of course." She's getting dentures soon and wants to look good for church. :) So she'll probably come to church with us later in November or December. We taught her the first lesson (the restoration- aka the losing of the priesthood, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon) and because she's a bit hard of hearing, I had to yell the First Vision for her. That was interesting :)

#3 We're teaching an 8 year old (her parents are not members, but her step dad is) the fourth lesson (commandments) and we get to the last commandment, which is obeying the law of the land. We ask, "Khloe, what country do we live in?" She goes, "Texas." hahahahaha. Texas pride.

#4 I got TWO packages for Halloween. TWO! One was from my mom and one from my aunt Cheryl (thank you!!). The only problem was, my companion and I had resolved to eat healthy just a few days before. Guess what was in the packages? A stash of my favorite candies like you would not believe. So our diet will start later. :)

More stories next time! I always run out of computer time. :)

But one more thing. I'm starting a project where I take pictures with any animal that lets me catch it, which usually is cats. I have a total of 11 pictures now! 9 of them are cats, two are dogs. It's a lot of fun. :)

My first couple weeks in TEXAS!!!

Hello Texas!

So I land in the airport 20 minutes early and my mission president is nowhere in sight. I panicked just a little because I don't have a companion (I'm gonna be one of those weird RMs who can't be alone) and I'm in a new airport. So I just went ahead and picked up my luggage from the carousel and the next thing I know, I see a young elder and a senior missionary (that was a comforting sight after being in Nauvoo with 200 senior missionaries so for so long) are walking towards me. The older elder turned out to be the first or second counselor to the mission president (who is 45! I think I've mentioned that before) and the younger one had just been picked up fresh from the MTC and was deaf! We signed the whole way to the mission office- which was like 10 minutes.

I met my new companion, Sister Nelson- she's 19 as well and she came to Texas the day I went into the MTC, so we're only a few weeks apart in mission age.

I was assigned to the Mansfield 2nd ward area. You would not believe the size of the houses here. Sister Nelson says houses are cheaper than land so people build huge houses on little lots.

My first two or three days were out of the ordinary. But, then again, every time I do something new, it's out of the ordinary. IE- the temple was closed in the MTC, we arrived in Nauvoo in the middle of the summer, etc. I've heard the phrase "This isn't how it normally is" 80 bajillion times. :) Anyway so my first few days were full of meetings and conferences and whatnot. Finally we got to have a normal proselyting day. Going around knocking on doors is nerve-wracking! Except for the fact that everyone here loves Jesus. I mean everyone. Everyone loves Jesus and the Bible. It's part of the Bible belt and there are dozens of different mega-churches everywhere. You know what dozens of megachurches means? Dozens of pastors.

Sister Nelson and I were tracting and we ran into a pastor. When the words "I'm a pastor for ____ church" came out of his mouth, it was like... well, imagine on those Mario games when you run into a boss and the intimidating music starts playing? Pastors are the bosses of Texas. He started on the defensive but 45 minutes later we left his doorstep on good terms.

Have I mentioned that I love Texas?

So I'm in the Mansfield area and man oh man the problem is not finding people to teach, it's that people are over-busy all. the. time. Nobody ever has time to meet with us, and they have legitimate excuses too! There's a woman named Tamara who is super interested and said that God sent us to her, but she's a 7th grade english teacher AND coaches three sports AND is a mom. Another guy named Marcus is really interested as well (said he totally felt the spirit while reading the Book of Mormon and believes it's from God) but he's a business man and is building a hotel. People... Overscheduling is real.

Funny story for this week:

(knock on door, woman answers while looking down at her phone)

Sister Nelson: "Hi ma'am, we're missionaries for-"

Lady: (looks up) "Oh no. Yall them Jehovah Witnesses."

Me: "Nope, we're Mormons!"
Lady. "Oh NO. Nope. Not interested." (closes door)

Til next week, yall!

~ Ashley

(PS my first name is so foreign to me now)

I'm Famous!!

Look! I'm in a picture with Elder Oaks! :D

Here's the link to the article this picture was taken for:

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormon-apostle-illinois-law

Apples and horses and lipstick, OH MY!

This will be a picture post! :D

I took a carriage ride on one of my previous Preparation
days and I braided the horses' forelocks. They loved it.

Sister Etherington got some divalicious hot pink lipstick.
So naturally, this followed.

The biggest apple of my life.

Regular apple vs Big Bertha

When we don't have any tours, I make the senior
sisters take pictures of me in my pioneer dress.

Sister Searle and I after a long day of serving in the sites. 

The New Call!

In Carthage, after the Pageant ended, I was introduced to calling. We call people all over the world when their friends or family recommend them to get a CD of the pageant or if they want missionaries to talk to non-members, inactives, or less-actives. Do you know how awkward it is to call people up and tell them you want to talk about Jesus? It takes serious tact, which I lack. I don't know if I'm getting better at it or just becoming more immune to awkward situations.

We went tracting! (Tracting is just going up and down streets and knocking on peoples' doors, trying to talk to them. It's less awkward than the phone calls). My group, all six of us, went over to Macomb, about 35 minutes away from Nauvoo and worked with the elders covering that area. They told us that there are 'red zones' in that area because they have literally been ran out of there before. So, yeah, I avoided those places like the plague. We ended up giving away about 5 Book of Mormons and got a few new contacts for the elders.

Around the time we went tracting, I was very much concerned about where I would go on my outbound mission (we go outbound anywhere in the 48 states for 6 months in October, then come back to Nauvoo in April). I decided to follow the scripture, 'ask and ye shall receive' and I made a list of every single state we were able to go to and categorized them into Yes, No, and Neutral lists. Basically everything in the Yes was east of the Mississippi and everything west was No. In my neutral list was Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, Florida, Texas, Kansas, and West Virginia. All the sisters said if I prayed about where I wanted to go, I would be sent to Billings, Montana. :) But I "pressed forward with a perfect brightness of hope" (2 Nephi 31:20) and did it. I took out my list and told Heavenly Father exactly where I did and did not want to go, but "nevertheless, thy will be done" (Matthew 26:42). So I jumped into bed and got all snuggled, when I realized, you have to wait for revelation after prayer! So I got up and sat quietly, and the thought came to my mind- Texas. Sister Searle came in the room and I said, "Sister Searle, I think I'm going to Texas. Fort Worth." And so, life went on.

It was President's birthday not too long ago and we were all requested to give him a little something when we all met at his house. All us Carthage sisters decided to give him the 'fruits of our labor'- a laundry basket with all kinds of fruit in it. I got him a pineapple, someone else got a watermelon, a can of peaches, a papaya (which we found out later that he didn't like), and a box of Froot Loops.

THEN WAS MY FIRST REAL TRANSFER. We were all moved up to Nauvoo for the last transfer here. I was put with Sister Mills- she's a singer from from Cache Valley and we overlapped a semester at Utah State without ever seeing each other. We live in a house with 10 other sisters- meaning 12 total. There's another house with 7 sisters. The house we live in now used to have 19 sisters in it. Crazy.

So, at church, us sign language sisters sit in the front right-most row so we can all interpret sacrament meeting for each other to get some practice. We have time slots that we interpret for, then we switch off. I don't think a week goes by without one of the senior missionaries going, 'Oh! I've seen you up there doing the sign language thing!' (followed by a poor imitation of sign language). Well, this one Sunday, after sacrament meeting, all four of us ASL missionaries are standing, talking, and one of the senior elders comes up to us. 

Senior Elder to me: "Are you the newest sign language expert?"

Me: 'Well, Sister Allred and I are both newer. I've been in Carthage so you probably haven't seen me a lot."

Senior Elder: "I see. I know a little bit of sign. Enough to know what you guys are saying." Then he says to the other sisters: "You guys are doing really well!" and then to me: "You keep practicing, you'll get there." and he walks off.

It took every ounce of self-control all of us had not to laugh as he was walking away. Little does he know...

Oh! A cool calling experience: A man named Randy from the deep, redneck south of Georgia calls from mormon.org about getting a free Bible. We have a little conversation and I asked why he called. He told me that he "got home, took my knife and my gun and my pen and put it on the table, and I was taking off my shirt when this card fell out of my pocket with your all's number on it. I put it on the mirror for a few days, then told my buddy, 'I oughta call that number and get me a free Bible', so I did." This man mysteriously got a pass-along card in his shirt pocket! Weird. He ended up accepting a Book of Mormon and missionaries, as well.

Have you all ever heard of Honeycrisp apples? They apparently only come into season for a short time in the fall so they're pretty expensive ($5 per apple or $16 for a peck, where I was at- I didn't notice the price until after I had bought them) but they are literally the best apple I have ever had. Also, they are the size of my face. One apple is a whole meal. Phenomenal.

So life is progressing, moving on just dandy, up until about a week before we got our outbound calls. I was in President's office a couple days before, and he asked where I thought I was going. I rehearsed the story I told you earlier and he bends down to get a folder out of a drawer, sits it on his lap, and tells me to get out so he can see where I'm actually going. :) I could not TELL you the anxiety I had. Why? I don't know, I figure worrying will make things better? Go figure. The time finally comes for us all to meet at President's house for the big announcement of who goes where, starting backward alphabetically.

Sister Wood- West Virgina, Charleston

Sister Searle- West Virginia, Charleston (two people going to the same mission doesn't happen)

Sister Ross- Arkansas, Little Rock

Sister Richardson- Arkansas, Little Rock ASL (imagine our shock, two pairs going to the same places)

Sister Newell- Virginia, Richmond

Sister Munro- TEXAS, FORT WORTH!!! (Yeah, that happened.)

Sister Mills- Maryland, Baltimore (my companion is going where I'm from!!)

Sister Hughes- New Mexico, Farmington

Sister Holt- Michigan, Lansing

Sister Hansen- Massachusetts, Boston (She had said the only place she didn't want to go was Boston. She's a Yankees fan.)

Sister Hall- North Carolina, Raleigh

Sister Gines- Iowa, Des Moines
Sister Etherington- Iowa, Des Moines (THREE pairs)

Sister Allred- Idaho, Pocatello (she is a city girl through and through. I think she was a bit devastated to be sent to the country.)

I AM SO PSYCHED TO GO TO TEXAS. I got a short bio on my mission president and he is 45- I think that might be younger than my parents. (Mom, aren't you like, 30? ;)). I'll arrive there on October 8th, and I'll get my Texas address for you all then. Try to only send letters if it'll arrive here before October 8th! :) (Thank you all for your letters and emails, they are so thoughtful. I usually have more time to answer letters than emails, though.) Thankfully my Preparation days will be much more predictable from then on- Monday for six months!

The Second Month

Could my time here in Nauvoo have gotten any better? Yes. It could. And it did.

So my last post ended with me getting transferred out to Carthage. It's about a half hour outside of Nauvoo (a six hour horse ride for Joseph Smith back then). We lived in a house, divided into four apartments, within walking distance of the jail. The jail is original, never rebuilt or moved. We got to clean the outside stone walls for the first time in 100 years, so now it sparkles. I'm not going to tell you all about it because y'all need to come and see it. One tough thing about living 30 minutes from Nauvoo was we had to leave extra early for everything. Church here is at 8:00 am so we would have to leave the house by 6:50 to get there by 7:30 because the sisters have to be there a half hour early. I had to get up around 5:15two or three times a week.

One of my goals, coming on my mission, was to have a stronger testimony of Joseph Smith. When I told President that, he laughed and said 'You'll get that here, don't even worry about it'. He was right. (I am coming to learn that he is always right). There wasn't an exact day or turning point where I was like, 'Wow, Joseph Smith was a prophet'; it came so gradually that I didn't even notice. Well, that's kind of a lie. About a month into being there at Carthage, I was home studying. I read something about how we as missionaries should tell investigators how we, ourselves, came to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I realized I had never prayed about it, so I decided to do it right then and there. I went in my room and knelt, praying, kind of bawling the whole time while I was telling God why I had come on a mission and how I needed to know, without doubt, if this was true, because I could not and would not tell people lies. Then I asked the million-dollar question: "Was Joseph Smith a prophet?" And immediately- and I mean immediately- I stopped crying and I felt this peace and stillness in my heart. The thought came to my mind, 'You know it already'. So I was able to say, with complete surety, in all the remainder of my tours at Carthage and even up until now, that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.

Some other cool experiences happened at Carthage, too. One time, I was taking a middle-aged couple into the video room (there's an 18-minute video before the 20-25 minute tour of the jail) and I asked if they had anyone else coming with them. The woman said "Well, our sons are outside. See if you can talk to them. They're a bit lost." I knew she didn't mean physically lost. I went outside and talked to them, they were 15 and 17. They immediately asked if their mom had sent me to get them and, pfft, of course I lied and said "No! I just wanted to talk to you guys." They said that God punishes liars :) hahahaha. It took some convincing but they finally joined the tour with their parents. So we get up to the Martyrdom room, I play the tape, and the time comes for me to testify at the end. All I could think about during the tape was the Atonement and repentance. So I testified on that. I told them how the gospel had turned my life around and that no purer happiness could come from anything else. It was much more moving and eloquently stated than that- probably because it was the Spirit speaking, not me. The tour ends and I'm at the bottom of the stairs, holding the door open for everyone as they left. The dad stopped, tearfully looked me in the eyes, and said "Thank you for your testimony. That's exactly what my boys needed to hear. They have some things they need to change in their lives. Thank you." and left. Those kinds of moments are what make missionary work worth it. 

And it seems like most of my spiritual experiences happen with people who are already LDS. There was a family that came in one day- I think it was the grandparents, their two daughters, and the daughters' four kids (two and two, respectively). It was my turn to have a tour- the last tour of the day- so I walk up to greet them and, oh my goodness, this family was not going to be entertained. My jokes only resulted in a polite chuckle, MAYBE. I hurry and put them in the video room and go pray, asking for charity to love this family and to give them a good experience. We go through the tour, the kids are angels (they are between like 7 and 12 I guessed), and finally we get to the Martyrdom room (have you noticed a theme here with this room? Yeah). The tape plays, I testify, it's all fine and dandy and normal. I go to open the door when I realize that, because the tour is just one family, they're all members, and it's the last tour of the day, we have time to have a little testimony meeting in there which we can't normally do. So I close the door and tell them that, and I wait for a few minutes in (semi-awkward) silence. Then I thank them for coming and go to open the door when someone pipes up and gives a short and simple testimony. That opened the floodgates for everyone else. I sat back down and it became a full-blown testimony meeting. The next thing I know, everybody including all four kids are crying- I had never seen kids cry from the spirit like that before. We were there for quite a while before we had to leave. Outside, the grandma told me that all of them had been praying for the kids to have a spiritual experience on their Nauvoo trip. The next three days on Pageant grounds, the kids looked for and found me every time. :) It was so sweet. The last day of Pageant, they found me early and I was torn between wanting to talk to them and doing my missionary duties, so I invited them to be mini missionaries with me. We went up and talked with people, asked for referrals, all that jazz. A couple days ago, I got a letter from the 12 year old girl saying she's thinking about going on a mission and she wants to be "just like you because you are so nice and kind". MELT MY HEART WHY DON'T YOU. 

One more Martyrdom Room story. The tape we play, towards the end, describes the events that happened in there- who got shot and how, basically. So my companion, Sister Searle, and I, are in there and the tape is going and there's this little girl, probably about 5 years old, sitting on the bench front and center. She's the type that doesn't like holding still but knows she'll get in trouble if she doesn't. So the tape starts describing the shots and she starts acting it out. With every shot, she silently screams in pain. She's falling over from the blows. "Willard Richards looks out the window..." and she looks out a pretend window. Sister Searle and I are trying our hardest to not laugh. She gets bored with this and starts swinging her legs under the bench, when out of nowhere, the bench entirely flips over on top of her. Her mom rushes over and rights the bench, scooping up the sniffling little girl who is trying to keep her cries of surprise under control. The tape ends soon after this and a non-member, who has been a little sketchy the entire tour and witnesses all of this, immediately gets up, says "I gotta get outta here" speed-walks to the door, and evacuates the building. It was quite the memorable experience.

Well, that's all, folks. I'll have more time next week! Trust me, I'll have more stories to tell. ;)

The One Month Mark

Hola mi amigos! I am doing so great. Superb, in fact. Let me tell y'all what you've missed out on.

So I get to the MTC and meet my companions- yep, that's companions plural. I had two, Sister Allred and Sister Etherington. They were both originally called to Nauvoo, ASL, and both also got switched to English. We found out the mission president switched us because the MTC's track for ASL is 6 weeks (versus English which is 2 weeks), so had we done that we would've missed the pageant season and wouldn't be able to train sisters next year for pageant season. But, all is well, I was switched back to ASL when I got here. Anyway, back to the MTC. We had a full district of 12- 5 elders and 7 sisters. The other 9 of them (meaning not including us three Nauvoo sisters) were going to the Washington DC South mission. 

Apparently people have a rough time pronouncing my last name. They usually say it with a Spanish accent, like 'Moon-row' and sometimes they even roll the 'r'. Who taught you to read? Do I even look hispanic?

The food in the MTC was surprisingly good. The downside was, though, that we were on the earliest schedule so our meals were at 6:30, 11:00, and 4:00, respectively. So I was never hungry but if you don't eat at mealtimes, you don't eat ever so I packed it down... and on. I gained a Freshman Five at college and a New Missionary Five at the MTC. Thankfully both are mostly gone now. 

The MTC was a spiritual boot camp. There were times that I thought I wasn't cut out to be a missionary, and there were times that the spirit would teach and confirm things to me. One of the most memorable times that happened was when we were doing an exercise I thought was stupid. I asked my partner a question and she started talking about, I assume, Heavenly Father, because all of a sudden the spirit swooped in and confirmed to me like never before that Heavenly Father is indeed my Father and I am a daughter of God. That was cool. Also in the MTC- and in the field, I'm learning- we prayed a LOT. Let's count here. Pray when you wake up, pray before each meal, pray when you start class, pray when you end class, pray during roleplays, pray before studying, praying before teaching a lesson, and praying before bed, with and without your companion. One day, Sister Allred counted that we prayed 20 times. Yeah, 20 times.

We had Fourth of July in the MTC! That was fun. We had a patriotic devotional and then went outside to watch the fireworks over the Stadium of Fire. (We got to stay up a whole 30 minutes late!) I had left my notebook and camera under my seat in the devotional and when I went back not even five minutes later to get them, they were gone. I didn't worry because, I mean let's be real, the MTC is literally 100% Mormon. The next morning I was called to the front desk and there was my notebook and camera. I looked through my camera and there were 10 pictures of fireworks and the very last one was of the two elders who found, used, and returned my camera. Sister Allred recognized them a couple days later at breakfast so I got to go over and say thanks to them. She said that when I was walking back to our table, she read the lips of the elders and they said "Wow she was cute" "Yeah maybe we should return cameras more often". Ahahahaha oh, elders.

Saying goodbye to the district was sad. They left before we did and we had gotten close to all of them. We joined a district of 17 sisters for Visitor's Center training. I gained SO much respect for VC sisters in my last week of the MTC. (I used to hate going to Temple Square because of the sister missionaries.) We learned how to talk to, get to know, read their needs, and commit people in under 15 minutes, like in a real VC. We learned how to use online proselyting (which I was very much against to begin with)- it's hard. Then finally we got to make and receive calls from real people- that was nervewracking. The first call that Sister Etherington and I recieved was from a crazy black man in Florida who kept asking our height, weight, and "is you strawberry-blonde?". He was something.

Coming off the plane when we arrived was an awesome feeling. We landed in the St. Louis airport and our mission president and his wife were waiting there for us. We went to Golden Corral (I definitely thought that was a western thing) and of course I shoved my face full of non-MTC food. The whole time (between the airport and arriving to Nauvoo was probably 5 hours?), President was explaining the rules and the 'what-if's and all the technical stuff. We even had our personal institute class for a little bit in the car. Mission presidents are equal to members of the Quorum of the Seventy so that makes it kinda cool. 

When we arrived in Nauvoo, we drove past the temple (ogling at its beauty) and down to where the Country Fair (basically a field with music, dancing, and kids games are before the pageant starts) and Pageant (there's a play that goes on for about a month every year, it's about the story of the pioneers and Joseph Smith here in Nauvoo; we got there about a week into it) were taking place. We literally got out of the car, were assigned to a temporary companion, and put to work on the spot. Hello nervous indigestion. We ventured out into the country fair trying to find people to talk to. My temporary companion (Sister Ripplinger) and I talked to a few people before we found The One. He was tall, big beer belly, stained shirt, one crossed eye, holding a Rockstar, about 45 years old. We were making small talk and eventually found out that he was a less-active. He knew the church was true, he just didn't like being forced to go to church, so he stopped when he was 18. We started asking really good questions and he started teaching himself. He was saying things like 'My life would be a lot better if I went back to church and started praying again'. So we committed him to that and he seemed really sincere. I hope he actually did. I later found out that awesome experiences like that don't happen very often at all so it was one of those tender mercies that God gives to new missionaries.

The next day was transfer meeting and I met my trainer, Sister Kim. She's from Korea. We were sent out to the boonies. Aka Carthage. I LOVE it here though. Being in Carthage Jail and learning more about that place has increased my testimony of Joseph Smith exponentially. I've had some pretty cool experiences here, but that'll have to wait til next time because my email time is almost up and people have been chastising me for not updating my blog. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, YOU ANIMALS? 0:)

My Mission Timeline

August 17th, 2009 
I move from Maryland to Utah, land of the Mormons. 

August 2010
I get my patriarchal blessing and promise myself I will never, ever go on a mission. Ever.

2011 - 2012
My testimony grows and, slowly, the idea of going on a mission becomes a slight possibility.

August 2012
I start classes at The Best University (Utah State).

September 30th, 2012
I decide I want to go on a mission, real bad. No matter what, I'm going. Steer clear, boys, this lady is gonna be single for a while.

October 6th, 2012
President Monson announces the new age change for missionaries; 18 for elders and 19 for sisters. Yep, I'm going.

January 20th, 2013
I start my papers.

February 24th, 2013
I finish and submit my papers.

March 15th, 2013
I receive the coveted White Envelope.

March 18th, 2013
I open my call. Nauvoo, Illinois, Sign Language speaking!!! 

March 26th, 2013
I get an email from my Mission President's wife explaining the mission. I'll be in Nauvoo during the tourist season (April to October) and I'll be called to a totally new (stateside) mission for winter (October to April). I'll be in two visitor's centers (Nauvoo & Carthage) and all the historical homes and shops. Apparently I get to dress up in period clothing too. 

May 15th, 2013
I go through the beautiful DC temple for my endowment. 

June 9th, 2013
My farewell. I spent days stressing over what I would say, how I would say it, how I would interpret it into sign language, if I would take enough time... And come talk time, I was crying so much I couldn't read it. So I winged it. 

June 15th, 2013
My birthday! I am officially 19.

June 18th, 2013
I get a call from my Stake President telling me that my Mission President requested that I be changed to an English missionary; I was heartbroken. The consolation is that I'll only spend three weeks in the MTC (apparently it would've been seven weeks had I been an ASL missionary, even though it's my native language- go freakin figure) and it may just be a ploy by my Mission Prez to get me out in the field faster then change me back to ASL. Let's hope so.

June 24th, 2013
I start my mission blog and move out of my apartment in Logan. 


June 25th, 2013
I say goodbye to my friends and get set apart as a missionary.

June 26th, 2013
I enter the MTC!