Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places: Week 26 - Inman/Boiling Springs

Happy New Year family and friends! I can't believe 2013 is gone and 2014 is here! My goodness. Time has just flown by!

So much has happened this week and I don't even know where to start! Well... I guess I can start with New Year's Eve! It was pretty much a party! Sister Gardner and I got to party it up with the I’s and M’s for the first part of the night and then we moved on to the K's house for the rest of the night for a big party they had for the ward! It was pretty awesome! The best part about New Year's? Definitely the package that my family sent to me. They literally sent me a party in a box! It was filled with noise makers, "Happy New Year" headbands and necklaces, Martinelli’s, cheese and crackers, and cans of silly string. Holy cow! We had way too much fun! Just check out the pictures if you don't believe me! Thank you so much for the package and the good memories that we have associated with it :)

This week we also went on exchanges! I went with Sister Jones and get this! She's from Sandy, Utah. When she said that I was like “NO WAY!” She went to Jordan High and knows all of the people I know from there. That was pretty crazy... But awesome! I loved it! I actually learned a lot from her! We taught a ton of lessons that day which was good because my goal for the exchange was to teach by the Spirit better. For all 4 of the lessons, I had to teach by the Spirit because going in to every single lesson, Sister Jones told me that they've taught them a lot of the basic lessons and she wasn't quite sure what their investigator needed to hear today. I was freaking out a little bit but I had to pay attention to the Spirit for those lessons. It was a good lesson that I learned!

We met our companions back up at ZTM the next day and it was a great meeting. It gave me a spiritual slap in the head. It helped me get back on track, not that I was super off track... I just needed that spiritual boost to help me be the best missionary I can be. It was a lot of stuff that I needed to hear for sure.

As for our investigators... Yeah. They're doing alright. We received this referral from the Spanish Elders for this guy, D who is super cool! He was very enthusiastic and everything about the gospel makes sense to him. We committed him to come to church along with the S’s and the M’s. Speaking of which, we finally got to see the S’s and Sister M this week. With both families, I felt like we got them back on track for teaching because we didn't see them for like 2 weeks. Well none of them came to church unfortunately. Better luck next week I guess!

On Saturday, we got transfer calls. And I'm leaving Boiling Springs. Oh my goodness. I can't believe it! I'm kind of excited to leave but I'm also very sad. I've put a lot of hard work into this area, especially since I opened it with my trainer and I love the people so much! I actually didn't want to tell anyone at church yesterday because I knew I'd just cry. But then Bishop Fore came up to me and was like "Is this a bad week?" I was like “... Yeah.” So I told the people who asked me if I was leaving but I was leaving it at that. Then at the end of church, everyone was coming up to me thanking me for serving in the Boiling Springs ward. That's when the water works began. Then even more people were coming up to me because they noticed I was crying. My goodness! It was so embarrassing. I don't like to cry in front of people and now that's like everyone's last impression of me. Hahah. I just love this area and the people so much. I'm very sad to be leaving. As of right now, I don't know where I'm going next. We don't know until we get to the transfer meeting so I'll find out on Wednesday! What I do know is that I'm not going to be training or a Sister Training Leader! I'm kind of happy for that! I just need a normal missionary experience. I really think it will benefit me as a missionary.

Well that's a pretty big cliff hanger to leave you on! Hahah. Also it's my 6 month mark this week! I'm already 1/3 of the way done with my mission! I can't believe it! This has gone by so fast! Anyway I love y'all! Have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen