September 16, 2013 - 1st pday in the field Normandy Park Washington

I'm in the Field!!!! wow it has been a crazy... but wonderful week! I am sorry you don't get to hear about my last week at the MTC really. Too much to say about this week ha. But I will say that I finally found Kristin Trone and Tyson Wilson! So fun to see people from home :) Okay MTC blurb over lets start from last tuesday....

Tuesday- Such a long day! I got up at 2 AM and headed to the transportation office. We took a Bus, a train, and  metro, and an Airplane to get to Seattle. All of which is 2.5 hrs. from home. ha Ironic. But anyways I got to talk to Mom and Dad at the Airport which was great! So glad Amanda had Lennox!!! Yay for Amanda, Nick, and Khloe :)

Anyways flew to Seattle and was met there by our Mission President: President Choi (Chay). He and his wife seem way nice. We went to the mission home and... wait... we drove from the Airport and it was the scariest 45 min of my life. The elder driving drove a white bullet (get it? Bronze bullet, white bullet ;) ) and he kept slamming on the brakes and changing lanes way close to semi's. Dad I am sorry for ever saying anything about your driving ;) Anyways we got to the mission office and had some interviews. Sister Choi  is super nice and is leading our mission choir. Yup you heard right we had a mission choir! pretty cool. Anyways we got to meet our Comps after that. All the missionaries that were in the field already came filing in and it was hard to explain but I saw my comp and knew she was who I was going to be with. Afterwards we were talking and she had the same feeling! She is awesome!!! Her name is Sister Mullins. Well that was day one.

Wednesday- Forgot to mention I got my boot from mom! Thank you! Foot is slowly healing! Luckily it has been cold enough here I can wear my boot on one foot and my zip up boots on the other and not look too weird...sorta. Anyways.... Day one in the Field. Sis. Mullins and I had some down time and we decided to visit some Less-actives in our Ward. We found one in our area book named Marilyn Dunstan. So cool story we went to visit her and she kept saying things that didn't make sense about our bishop talking to her and such. It turns out our Bishop had decided to get to know her as well and went and saw her two hours before we did! The spirit knew she needed us on that day! so cool! So Sis. Mullins had a woman named Latrece on date (baptism) for the fifth of October before I came. Well on Wednesday I commited her nine year old son Jeremiah to baptism on the same date! He didn't say yes but he gave us a fist bump. We are taking that as a nine year old yes ha ha. I met our Bishop this day and he is super nice. I also met our Ward mission leader. Both great men and will be really easy to work with. So I found out Sis. Mullins cannot cook pizza ha ha she has tried three times and burned each one so I am the designated pizza cooker now ha ha. Everyone asked about my foot so I started telling them I tried to kick Sis. Mullins and failed ha ah (Her Idea)

Thurs- So Sis. Mullins is from Texas/utah (divorced family) and super amazing she is 20 and has been out since april. She is a great trainer and soooo strong in the Gospel. She has already been such a good example to me. She has us do this fun thing where right after we turn the lights off at night we say "choose a number between... and... " then what ever the number corresponds to in our head means we share a story on that family member. Its a fun way to get to know each other.  We went tracting on this day and accidentally parked on a person's grass a little bit and a man walked by and said "real christian of you parking on someones grass" ha ha oops. We had dinner with Latrece and Jeremiah tonight and that was great! Our mission pres. has this rule that we sing at every appointment. I was nervous at first because I don't like my singing voice, but I swear Heavenly Father is making me have a good voice for on my mission only. Sister Mullins and I sound great together! not to sound conceited but... we do and people have said it and asked us to sing in Sacrament meeting. Mission miracle I think so!

Friday- So we had a lesson with a sweet new convert named Linda Caffaro. She is a 75+ something sister with an interesting story. She was raised a messianic Jew. (believes in christ).. so she considers herself to be a messianic mormon jew now. Yup you heard right still a jew, now a mormon jew ;) we meet with her to discuss the Gospel princples book from church. That was fun we talked about the coming of Christ ;) Friday night we taught Latrece and Jeremiah about the word of wisdom. They are what we call golden investigators because they are seriously awesome and prepared and have no issues (other than coming to church!!! She practically runs her church so it's hard for her to leave) Anyways Jeremiah was sooooo cute when we said we don't drink, smoke, do drugs he kept saying "Wow, me either!" Ha he is nine so we hope he doesn't do those things ;)

Sat- This morning was rough. Sis. mullins and I both didn't feel good. Janice would be proud to know my oils are going to good use. Speaking of which (don't judge) I am out of peppermint already ;) anyways Sis. Mullins had a headache so I gave her some peppermint ha ha but she got it too close to her eyes so we had to wash it off because it was burning. Super funny I promise. At lunch we had a surprise we thought we were having lunch with the ward meal corrdinator (don't include: turns out members can still fix meals on weekdays but we can't eat in home without an inv. which prompts them to invite someone over) anyways turns out it wasn't our lunch coordinator. It was Sister Mullins Aunt and Uncle!!! They just showed up. She was shocked and wanted to leave actually ha it turns out her aunt called out bishop and gave her our number! ha so ya not a good surprise entirely but she was still happy. She is so good she got right back to work after and kept her focus. (please don't visit!) P.s. dad my mission song is the Time is Far spent Hymn 166 although Sister Mullins has aggreed to adopt "I come from the land of trees and rain" as our unofficial mission song.

Sun- So church was great I had to introduce myself of course. We got a less active woman named Gloria collins to church. She was so happy to be there. It was great. She also brought her grandbaby and said she will bring her more often since we have nursery :) After church we decided to nap instead of take our lunch hour. Such a good idea! No food but sleep ;) then we hit the roads.... and got stuck in a rainstorm ha ha. We tracted into a woman named robin and she let us in because of the rain and my boot, but she didn't want to talk religion ha. Turns out her Brother in law is the bishop of one of the surrounding wards buts she is luthern. So we sang a hymn instead. Then we went to elderly couple that are less active in our area due to health. Mom you would love their house. It was a summer cottage turned into a house with BEAUTIFUL wood work and a gorgeous front lawn! They had the greatest old time music playing and the strangest assortement of chairs ha ha... of course we tried each one out ;) So fun! Great way to end the night. We taught 19 lessons this week! Good for a transfers week apparently.

Mon.- So this morning is P-day we were supposed to go to ward choir and our car wouldn't start. Dad you would be proud that I lifted the hood and did all I could ha ha my comp. thought we were low on oil so I checked. Oil was fine, belts fine, ha but battery was dead and we were out of gas oops. So we got it jump started and filled the gas. It died again and we took it to les schawb and got it recharged. Sis. Mullins wanted to go to Jiffy lube (sorry for the cuss word ;) ) but I refused. Proud right? Now I am emailing you guys and then headed to write people by hand. I love you guys so much and I will talk to you more next week.

Weird things of Seattle:

Cat on a leash

Hippie vans everywhere

Jenn
Sister Franzen

Cupcakes from Corryn shared with Sister Nudd for her birthday in the MTC!  

Sister Nudd and Sister Franzen

pretending to be NEW Brittish sisters in the MTC!!!  Double Trouble!

MTC District at the Provo temple on Sept 4, 2013.

District sisters at 

the MTC map wall

Old Friends meet again

Sister Farnbach and Sister Franzen meet at the MTC

Sept 4, 2013; 1st p-day at the MTC; first letter home

Mom! and Dad! 
Hey! so Wednesday is my p-day here in the MTC! Things are going really well! 
The first couple of days were so rough! My companion and I had a hard time 
getting along at first but we aredoing so much better now! Her name is Sister Matheney 
and She is from Texas. She turned 21 yesterday and she and I are very similar. We are both
pretty energetic and stubborn people which leads for some fun situations.
Ha but I think this weekend was the final rough patch we had a few
companion inventories and now we seem to get along much better!

She and I were both called as Sister training leaders for our Zone this
last Sunday which is fun but also stressful! We are in charge of all the
new sisters in our zone that come in while we are here. Luckily it is a two
week job ha ha. But we get to welcome the newbies tonight! Kristen Trone
comes in today too! I was in the office and heard them putting info packets
together and I walked in right as they said :"Sister Trone" ha I was like "
I know her!!!!" So that was pretty cool!

Okay Sunday was amazing. The fast and testimony meeting was GREAT!!!! I
have never felt the spirit so strong in any meeting in my life. It was so
cool to be in a room where everyone truly wanted to be! We also got to
watch a talk given by Elder Holland called mission are forever. That is the
best talk I have ever heard in my life! I was so excited afterwards I
wanted to go into the field right then and there. Ha but I still have so
much to learn.

The learning curve here is insane!!! My day two we were teaching
investigators (fake ones but still!!!!) We have a TRC investigator that we
are teaching right now. It is kinda cool because they can be real or not
and we will never know! I have felt so inspired to keep teaching about the
Love of God these last few days and thankfully so has my companion so what
better lesson to teach then the restoration. It covers apostasy, atonement,
love of god, restoration, BOM! Everything!!! P.s. Bryce I taught the plan
of salvation and the cards worked great!!!! My teacher laughed at the
resurrection one and said it was creepy though.

So I fly out early on Tuesday! Crazy how fast time has flown. I don't know
how to fit it all in here. I will have to write you today as well to get it
all in!

One unfortunate thing.... my foot is messed up again. But it's my right
foot. I have a small boot thing they gave me for free to wear until I am in
the field and then I am supposed to have you send me my boot. :( I was so
hopeful these new shoes and inserts would work :( but at least my branch
pres. Is cool with me proselyting in a boot. I told him I taught dance in a
boot and he was like "Okay well then I think you would be okay to just wear
that in the field " ;) so I will.

So Sister Nudd is here and she is awesome! We get along great and joke
around so much! This morning we took our dork dots (dots you get when you
are a new missionary so people help you out) and put them back on our tags
so people would welcome us again today only... we used English accents ! It
was great! so many people believed us. but then we got in trouble so we
took them off ha ha. Oh that was fun! Told you I would use an English
accent though dad ;)

I got to go to the Provo temple this morning! So beautiful!!!! I love it! I
did get pics dad just for you ;) Today Sister Nudd and I are hanging out
and writing people and stuff so we are doing a little comp. Switch. (she
was having probs with her comp. who is an awesome Aussie ;) )

Oh bryce I got Lauren bean a nicaruagua shirt for $8.00 but I don't have
her address. I sent it home will you please give it to her? Thanks!

Oh okay so funny stories:
*one elder in my district ate 10 bananas in one sitting (Disgusted)
*Sister Nudd got her tongue stuck to a popsicle at lunch and ripped it (OW)
Oh p.s. dad the food would be great I am sure but because I have so many
allergies they asked me to get my food in  a special room for gluten free
people usually (They have shellfish out and about so they didn't want to
risk it) So I have a limited amount of food options :/ but it is still good
;)
*Oh during our fireside the computer glitched and everyone except me
noticed so they stopped singing but of course I didn't so I was the only
person left singing in the room awesome!
*Our teacher said we looked tired so she made us run a lap around the
building in skirts and sister Nudd carried me because of my foot ha ha.
Awesome Sister

Spiritual stories:
* One elder shared a story about how he had a dream about a family in
Seattle waiting for us! super awesome
*Fast and testimony meeting
*Teaching experiences are great and scary you finish them and go "what just
happened, I have no idea what we said ha ha"
* spontaneous singing happens everywhere!!!!
*This place is spiritual in general

Small what I wish I knew before the MTC list:
*The learning curve in the MTC is huge!!! you won't be the same person
after 2 hr.s here. You will never be able to prepare enough spiritually but
you have to try!!!! If you are prepping really prep! reading each day isn't
enough! STUDY hard each day!
*The sleep sched. will get you! you will be working 13 + hr days! start the
sched. early
*Get as many pairs of no show socks as you can
*Pack packs are not really allowed in any of the buildings at the MTC make
sure you have a smaller purse or bag to carry things
*2M is the best exercise room! They play church videos and you can use
headphones and listen while you work out!
*Obedience is KEY!!!!! be as obedient as possible. Obedience brings
blessings but exact obedience brings miracles.
*The MTC is hard!!!! you have to use your gym time to unwind or you will go
crazy!
*It goes by so quickly after Sunday! Take lots of pictures!!!
Well that is it for this week I love you guys sooooo much!