(I love alliteration :) )
HOLALOHAHOWDY EVERYONE!!!
OH MY MERCIFUL HEAVENS TO BETSY I have to much to write about this week! I'll try to keep this email under novel-length, but no guarantees. So much has happened that it feels like a year has gone by since I left Choctaw, but in reality it's been less than a week. So I'll just do a play-by-play and if you get bored hopefully the pictures are entertaining enough.
MONDAY: Since Elder Hoddy was leaving Choctaw as well and he'd been there for 9 months as opposed to my 3, we let him decide what to do for P-Day. So we went to a member's house and played ping pong (you'll be happy to know that my hand-eye coordination has improved markedly over the course of my mission) and they fed us pizza. Then we went to the church as usual for a zone P-Day and I said goodbye to the awesome missionaries that I got to serve around, including Hna. Crockett, who goes home next week! Then we had dinner with some of our favorite members and said goodbye to Sis. Collett. That one was hard. We got really close to her in the past 3 months and didn't really want to part.
TUESDAY: More goodbyes. We had our "last supper" with Sis. Bigham and then we were going to see the Jones family, but after driving 30 minutes to the boonies we got there and he said that they were sick so they wouldn't be able to meet. So we drove 30 minutes to Braums and got ice cream before we had to go home for the night.
So I know those 2 days were kinda boring but this is where it starts getting good...
WEDNESDAY: TRANSFERS!!!! Now that I've been in the mission I know a lot more people so I was able to reconnect with a lot of missionaries that I hadn't seen in a while. I also said goodbye to Sister Lemke and Sister Loveland, my first two companions to "die". It was really sad, but I know we all need to move on with our lives eventually! Hna. Lemke sent me some pictures of her post-mish, and it was weird to see her without her nametag, but she was still wearing missionary clothes so it was less weird. I also met my new companion, Sister Adair, who is AMAZING. She's been out for about 16 months, so most likely I'll be her last companion. She's also training me on how to be an STL, so she's kind of my godmother or governess or something. Anyways, she's tons of fun and we're a lot alike. We even have the same first name! Except she spells hers wrong. So after transfers we packed up my stuff in this beauty:
That's right. We got to drive a truck! All the elders were jealous. Apparently Chevy did a huge recall on all the 2013 Cruzes (which is like 50% of the mission vehicles) so the Village people have had a bunch of rentals ever since the car got taken away in April. It was awesome though. We were pretty legit. We went straight from there to a meeting, then went home to unpack a bit and eat dinner, then went out to visit/find some people until bed!
THURSDAY: So the plan was to do some weekly planning/STL planning, have a meeting with the zone leaders, then go out and find some people until dinner. Well we didn't have enough time to plan and right after the meeting we got a call from the Chevy dealership telling us that our car was ready and that we had to come pick it up. So we then spent about 2 hours doing that, had to go straight to dinner, (which was vegan, plant-based spring rolls... pretty different from typical Okie cuisine) then as soon as we got home from dinner we reassessed our miles situation and discovered that we have almost no miles for the rest of the month. So we put the car keys away and went out on our bikes to visit Tina, who's returning to activity and is amazing. Sis. Adair said that when she was serving in OKC 3rd ward at the beginning of her mission she had met Tina, who was drinking a lot and generally making bad choices at that time. Now about a year later she's been sober for a while and is working towards returning to the temple. What a miracle!
FRIDAY: District meeting! After we went to lunch with the Spanish district which made me really happy. Then we had another meeting (nobody told me that missionary work was going to involve a lot of meetings, but it does!) and were finally able to plan almost everything! That evening we went out with a member, and of course all our appointments fell through, but we had a good time nonetheless.
SATURDAY: I think I heard someone say that it was the hottest day of the year so far. So what did we do? Go out biking of course!
It was gross, but because of that a lot of people took pity on us and gave us water. And I worked on my awesome tan lines, like my watch tan and my toe tan. Plus I think that if you show God you're willing to work hard despite your circumstances, He blesses you with miracles. That was definitely the case on Saturday. We knocked on this one lady's door, and at first she didn't even open the screen and was kind of looking us like we were the last people she wanted to see. Well Sis. Adair is a genius, and asked really quietly if we could pray with her. That got the screen open. She said that she knew LDS people and our beliefs were too different to even share a prayer. Sis. Adair didn't give up, though, and asked if she had any doubts or questions that we could help resolve. After reassuring her that she wasn't going to offend us, she opened up and shared with us some crazy and false ideas that she had about our doctrine (like if you're a woman your husband has to call you up to heaven. Haven't heard that one before!). We were able to tell her that they were false, and it was cool to see the Spirit softening her heart. The screen door, which had only been open a crack, was pushed open wider and wider until it was completely open. After we'd answered all her questions she said, "alright. let's pray". So we did then gave her an Articles of Faith card and left. No, she wasn't ready to be baptized, but we were able to plant a seed and hopefully when she meets a member or missionary she'll remember this experience.
SUNDAY: Church! Oh my goodness this ward is HUGE. It's probably a little bigger than BG2. It's definitely going to be fun trying to get to know everyone! After church we had studies and dinner and after that we went out on our bikes with some people to visit, but mostly we just talked to people. We met a super awesome couple that we're going to visit on Sunday, we prayed with someone else who said we could come back, and we committed a guy who was standing outside his house to watch theBible videos! It was super great.
All in all I'm loving city life. It's different from any of my other areas, but there are so many people and I truly feel that the field is white all ready to harvest in the Village! I'm looking forward to a transfer of miracles both with the area and with our sisters. It will be exhausting, but worth it :).
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!!!
Love,
Sister Holloway
PS: Here's a classy place in Harrah! No, we did not go there, just turned around in the parking lot :)
PPS: if you want my new apartment address please contact my lovely, nearly perfect mother :)
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