Home!

I am so sorry I have been so awful and not written. I keep thinking that I have all the time in the world now that I am home, but somehow time slips away from me and I get nothing done and I feel so overwhelmed by everything that I need to do to get my life organized again. Those planning and goal setting skills you learn on the mission are really important. I think I have been forgetting to use them. Wow, it feels really crazy to be home, really surreal. Sometimes it feels like I never left, which I really hate that feeling because I learned so much on my mission and had major life experiences, my life should be different now! I think things will get better when I get a job. I have been home for 11 days now and it’s been crazy busy.
So I wanted to tell you about our last week because it was so amazing. We had gotten a referral from the Florida mission for a guy named Mike. He had been taught twice and come to church and set with a date, but he was only there visiting, he had just moved to Marietta, which is where his wife and 4 kids are. We called him and set up an appointment, but when we went the address was an apartment complex and he hadn’t given us a number and we couldn’t get a hold of him. So we knocked on all the doors and narrowed it down to #9. We went back several times but no one was ever there. So on P-day, we were in the laundry mat, at a different time than we usually go there. I am kind of a chicken about the whole open your mouth thing, but I have been getting braver. But I opened a door for a lady and didn’t give her a card. I mentally was beating myself up about it as we were getting in the car and it came to me, “You need to go back in there and give her a card.” So I did. Turns out she was Mike’s wife!! She called him over and he said, “You were supposed to come over the other night.” I replied, “Who are you?” and then it hit me. They both said it was a sign. We went over that Saturday and had an amazing lesson with them and committed them to be baptized March 14th. They both said they had a lot to repent of and wanted to make changes for their kids. Mike knew a lot already and was so excited about it. He had really loved the family feeling at church. His 1st wife had died, when their twins were only a few weeks old, so he was so excited about being sealed forever.
On that same P-day, we had a few minutes left at night and so we went to the gas station to fill up and talk to people. I talked to a lady and given her a card. There were some guys next to us gathered around the open hood of a Camaro. That was a super intimidating situation for me, I know nothing about cars and they were about my same age, so I didn’t talk to them. Then when we were getting in the car, one guy looked over at me and smiled. “Okay God, I get the hint.” So I went and talked to them. One guy told me I had already given him a card several months ago, I didn’t remember so I told him it must have been some other missionaries, but he remembered me. And then it hit me, when I first got to Marietta Sister Hamaker and I had been doing a follow up and 2 guys had been outside working on their truck and I had given them a card. I asked him if he had gone to the website and he said no, but he should have because he was interested in religion and was very religious himself. He said we could come visit him. We went over and taught him and his wife on Super Bowl Sunday, it was a great lesson and he said it made so much sense to him. Wow! Opening your mouth really does work! I had 2 other situations that week where we opened our mouth and they said we could come visit. One girl we talked to at a gas station, said it was interesting we had come and talked to her because her and her friend had been going to different churches looking for the right one. God places people who are prepared in our paths. I know President was very inspired to encourage us to open our mouths because we saw amazing things come from it.
You probably already know all this, but because of the crazy weather, President called us Tuesday morning and said we needed to be ready to leave by 1 o’clock to come to Charleston to beat the storm. I hadn’t even started packing yet! So we hurried and got that done. God really helped us get ready quickly and I think it was because He wanted me to keep my hair appointment at noon, I thought I was going to cancel it but we got things done and I really really needed my haircut. Well I’m really glad we went, we had found this obscure little self owned salon that was a really good deal. Her name was Angie and I gave her a card about strengthening our families, she said she could really use that because she was recently divorced and her daughters were taking it really hard. She said that missionaries could come back and visit her. So then we got to Charleston, and the new missionaries had just arrived. We got to have dinner with them and participate in their testimony meeting. The next day, we went to their orientation meeting. The 2 new elders’ trainers were there to they went out with them. And President had me take the new sister, Sister Craft, out tracting. I had thought I was never going to go tracting again, but I got to experience that great thrill one more time! We did loan out a Book of Mormon. Then President sent Sister Craft to be with the sisters in Teays Valley so we could do our going home stuff. We made scrapbook pages, had dinner, talked, and had a testimony meeting. We were afraid our plane wouldn’t be flying out because there was a huge storm coming in. The Elders were all freaking out, but we made it out on time. The flight was uneventable. We meet several other Elders in the Atlanta and Salt Lake Airports.
My sister’s reception was the first day I was back and I got to see a lot of my friends and family. So Friday I wore a dress to that, Saturday we went snowboarding (yay! No dress), then Sunday back to the dress, then Monday we had family home evening and went bowling, Tuesday we went to the temple (I wanted to go Friday or Saturday but my family had other plans), Wednesday I reported to the high council, Thursday I went to Utah with my older sister and went to a Stake Women’s conference were a woman from South Africa spoke to us, she translated the Book of Mormon into that language where they click their tongue, she talked about how God made certain events happen in her life to prepare her to translate because she is one of the very few people who can read, speak, and write that language. I had to wear a dress to that too. I was a little annoyed having to wear dresses (and those blasted nylons) so much, but at least I get to wear high heels now. I painted my fingers bright blue to celebrate my freedom to wear what I want.
Being home has been good I guess. I love seeing my family and wearing jeans, but the rest of it has been an adjustment. I would explain it as being overwhelming. The first day I made a complete disaster of my room going through my clothes. I’ve been trying to organize the rest of my life, get housing at BYU, register for classes (I’m going back to BYU in April), find a job, find a car, etc. I’ve gotten some awesome snowboarding in (that’s one thing I’m glad feels like I never left, it all came back to me). I went down to Utah to look at housing at BYU and that Sunday I went to Elder’s Dix’s welcome home and saw Elder Pinder, Elder Horrocks, and Elder Webb. It was good. I am applying to be a census taker, it pays good and it will be a good in-between job before school.
When I first got home and I was driving I kept looking for someone to back me up. And whenever I am in a store with my family and I want to go look at something I keep wanting to tell them where I’m going and asking them to come with me, or trying to keep them within sight and sound. I’ve really missed having the Gospel be the whole focus of my life. I feel so apostate sometimes because I only spent a half hour studying my scriptures and I’m not serving people all the time, or thinking about missionary stuff. I feel like I’m doing something wrong, I guess that comes with adjustment. It has made me really appreciate that time in my life and having the Holy Ghost with me so strongly. I realize I need to do wholesome and uplifting things so I can have the Holy Ghost with me in real life too.
I am so grateful for the experience of going on a mission. What a wise and all-knowing God to send me to West Virginia. I needed to learn the lessons I did and meet the people I did. It’s changed my life and who I am. A mission is like a time out from life to get some extra training. Love and treasure your mission. Work hard!!!!