We had a crazy time last p-day tying up loose ends and closing the
area. Hopefully all of our gators in Normandy will be ok... :( There
were a lot of missionaries that unexpectedly needed to go home, so
President needed to do a lot of last minute changes.
I have now spent a little more than half a week in Mandarin 2nd Ward!
It's kind of weird. The AP's called us the other day, and I started
freaking out inside when I saw that they were calling, but when Sister
C answered, turns out they just wanted to give us a
referral! A lady and her mom, practically asking to join. M and
her mom, D, are great! M's first question when she saw us
was about John Smith and his Golden Dinnerware. Once we got that all
clear, she told us that she really wants what her Mormon friends have
-a close relationship with God and with their families. I love good
examples! She came across some anti online after we left, bus she says
she still wants to see us tomorrow. Very good for one of the first
lessons teaching with Sister C! We're gonna have a good
transfer. Cool thing, right after we left that lesson, we go outside
and there's a double rainbow!!
My new companions name is Sister A C. She's from
Murray, Utah. She went to High School with David Archuleta. She is
very much into drama and was captain of the improv team at Murray
High, and did improv at Snow. She's very quirky and nerdy, and knows
what "Avatar: the Last Airbender" is!! NOBODY knew what it was in my
last area. Goodness.
It is so weird to be in the "heart" of the mission. We pass by the
mission office all the time! Apparently sometimes we'll help out there
and do filing. We call the Assistants all the time to ask directions.
Crazy. Cool plus about Mandarin Zone, Sister H is my Sister
Training Leader! She can help me with my dietary issues. Also, the 2nd
Counselor in the Bishopric and his wife are in the Law of Chastity
pamphlet.
You're probably wondering about the title of my email. I feel that it
describes this area very well. TONS of rich people, and TONS of them
seem to be affected by drugs. Maybe they don't personally do them, but
family aren't all making the right decisions. I haven't met many
people yet, so I might be wrong, but this has been my first
impression.
I need to worry less about if I'm being guided by the Spirit. The
first couple of days being with Sister C I was getting a
little troubled about how much time we were spending talking. We were
spending a LOT of time talking. Then yesterday something happened that
showed why that needed to happen. Because she was able to feel
comfortable with me so fast, she could tell be about some of the
concerns and troubles she's been feeling. Her only two companions so
far in the mission have been...interesting. We talked a lot about
that, and how she's doing fine. She's been feeling bad about some
things that have happened, and weirdly I've had similar experiences so
I could talk to her about them. The poor girl. She's a fantastic
missionary! She's really good with the phone and about calling people.
We were in a lesson with a less active man named Brother Thomas. He
was talking about the reasons he thinks the U.S. isn't protected by
the hand of God anymore. While he was talking about the Founding
Fathers, I was reminded of the vision of them in the St George Temple.
I flipped out my iPad and showed him the introduction video on
Temples, but for some reason I felt that I shouldn't talk about the
vision and how my train if thought got to he video. After the video, I
felt kind of awkward because I had no idea why I did that. Afterwards,
Sister Chamberlain told me that it was an amazing lesson! She told me
that he knows next to nothing about the church anymore and mentioning
the vision would probably just result in confusion and loss of control
in the lesson. She said that the last time they were there he was
asking a lot of questions about the temple, and that the video
probably answered several of them! He didn't once mention the temple
in our discussion with him until after I showed the video! Crazy! Hoy
Ghost is real y'all.
Anyway. Got to get going.
Love y'all!
~Sister Carlson
