The sisters in my district are the BEST! We all get along so well and laugh so much together. Most of this laughter comes from the fact that Sister Young (my companion with curly short hair) says the most FUNNY stuff. She grew up in Tucson Arizona and had a lot of wild stuff happen there. But she's so funny. We are all always together, always laughing, always rejoicing. Blessed.
We have some pretty great teachers. My favorite is our afternoon teacher, Brother Anderson. He is just like a seminary teacher, and will get up on a soap box to give speeches about random stuff. He really likes to emphasize when things are of hell or of the devil. The first time he did it was when he was talking about when people say to future missionaries "Oh, you probably won't baptize but you'll plant a lot of seeds." He suddenly just yelled "THOSE ARE LIES FROM THE DEVIL. LITERALLY FROM HELL." Then we had a long discussion about our Missionary Purpose. So there you go, if you ever say that to a future missionary, just know that Brother Anderson might be on your case. (We actually heard almost the same thing from a workshop teacher right before, except less dramatic and entertaining.) He has an entire scriptural list of things that are of the devil and hell. He is literally an awesome teacher though.
We teach "non members" through the TRC program three times a week. (Actually some of them are truly non members, but I've heard the majority are acting. Our TCR is a GOOD actor. Or maybe he's not acting. Will we ever know??) Our first meeting with him was pretty great, but yesterday we thought it was HORRIBLE. Basically when we got to the great apostasy (he is catholic) he started asking tons of questions and diving deep into catholic church history, the papal line, proper authority, etc. We probably should have expected that! My companions told me after the lesson that I saved them (I thank Mr. Smith's AP European History class and the talk "Why 1820" by Hyrum Smith for that), but we still all felt pretty flustered. Our teachers gave us some awesome feedback and help though, and when we got notes back from the TRC himself, he said he enjoyed our discussion and we had answered most of his questions! Score!!
Being here is honestly so overwhelming sometimes! So many rules to remember, things to do, lessons to teach, and concepts to grasp. But it is the best. It is such a spiritual place, full of amazing people. I've had so many answers to my prayers and cool experiences. I love being a missionary!
I haven't seen Sister Luke yet but I've been looking for her! The sisters in my district and I are on a manhunt for her. If I find her today I'll send a picture!
Sister Carlson
Found Sister Annie Luke. My good friend from Provo High.
She will be serving in the Portland Oregon Mission.
She will be serving in the Portland Oregon Mission.
Slack Saturday
