Why hello!!
So first of all, I'm very sorry that it has been so long since I have written. Trust me, this was not by choice. It has been TWO WEEKS since my last p-day. And let me tell you, I have never been so happy in my entire life to have a day where I can actually breathe. These last two weeks have been quite the whirlwind of everything. Let me start from the beginning...
Our flight to Ohio was pretty good. It was nice to talk to you all in the airport for a little bit. It's good to hear that everything is going so well for everyone! On that note, I LOVED getting letters from everyone! When I first got to the mission home, that's where I got the card from Mom (p.s. I LOVE the blog! It looks amazing! well done *Ü*) [note from mom: the card had a photo of this blog on the front] and the postcard from Eric. But yesterday I got letters from all three of my brothers! Let me tell you, EVERYONE was jealous! I mean it. I can't tell you how many people said "I just wish I could get a letter from ONE of my brothers!". Booyah. Who has the best family? I do.
Anyway, we got to the mission home, and truly, everyone was numb. I think that everyone at one point during the night thought to themselves "what the heck am I doing on a mission!?" It was pretty overwhelming. When we first met President and Sister Sorensen in the airport, I don't even know if I could describe my first impression, and after spending a night with them, I still don't know what to say about them. I guess the best way to describe them is one word: intense. That night they bombarded us with all kinds of information. For hours. 6 hours if you want to be technical. They didn't even let us head downstairs to get ready for bed until 11 PM! So much for being strictly obedient. Needless to say we didn't sleep much that night, since we didn't get to bed until midnight, and then had to be up and out of the house by 6:30...and 10 girls had to shower and get ready. sigh. It's okay. sleep is overrated anyway.
We took a tour of Kirtland that day, and we got to go to the Kirtland Temple with Karl Anderson, Kirtland scholar! It was really powerful. We also went with him into the N. K. Whitney store into the school of the prophets, where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared. We had the opportunity to kneel in the school of the prophets and there make a covenant with the Lord with what kind of missionary we promise to be. It was really powerful. We get to go in there and do the same thing when we go home and evaluate our mission.
We finally met our trainer at transfer conference around 11 am. So I guess it's time to tell you about my companion. Her name is Sis. Lee. She's from Louisiana, has been out 6 months, and has been in our area the entire time. She and I are very different, but we get along fine. Gotta learn to love everyone, right? :) We are serving in an area about 20 minutes from Kirtland. It's called Chardon. But our area is primarily Burton and Middlefield. We don't even live in our area, technically. We live in a member's garage in a real small apartment. So small in fact, half my bed is in the kitchen! But the boys would like that, since it makes breakfast in bed pretty simple :) Just kidding. I like it though.
Our area is pretty nice. Here's your fun fact for the day (if people have even read this far in the letter. Maybe I'll make it bold to be more exciting). Middlefield is the fourth largest Amish community in the world! hahahaha how awesome is that!?! We get the "buggy crossing" signs, the parking lots for buggys and horses at Walmart, the Amish restaurants, the Amish taxis, the Amish children, the Amish houses/barns, and my personal favorite is when you are driving behind a horse drawn buggy. hahaha. it's hilarious. I really admire them though. They are pretty amazing. It makes for a good story to say I serve in an Amish area :)
Because we live 20-25 minutes away from Kirtland, we go into sites on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays from 10 am until 8:30. (For the record, if anyone I know comes in one of those days, they can just ask at the front desk for me and I'll come down). The other days we are just in our area proselyting. I really like it. I LOVE working at sites! Making calls can be pretty intimidating, but I'm working through my fear, and I've already had some awesome awesome experiences.
And I absolutely LOVE Kirtland, and giving tours. I was truly thrown into the whole tour thing. My first day at sites, we had just put our stuff down when we were paged and said that we had a tour to give. I hadn't even gone through everything! Then we walked down the stairs to preset the movie, and it's a tour of 35 people! ::gulp:: But Sis. Lee and I said a prayer, and after the prayer I ended up giving half the tour, like a normal companionship. I did every other room, trying to remember all the information I had learned. Did I mention that tours can be around an hour!? That's a lot of time to make stuff up. But Sis. Lee was so impressed, and one of the guys in the tour asked me how long I had been out, and when I said it was my first tour, he was shocked and said he had guessed I had been here for at least half my mission! I was glad he said that.
I don't like feeling like a greenie. Sis. Lee says she doesn't think I even need a trainer, which is TOTALLY a lie, but I appreciate her saying that. But I really did just jump right into tours. Almost all the other greenies on their first tours just bore testimony, but the Lord knows that I wanted to get started right away, so I think he's magnified my memory, and that's been really helpful. It will be even more helpful since now I have a 200 page book all about Kirtland to basically memorize! Better get started on that one...
Anyway, this letter is starting to get REALLY long, so I better wrap up before the last person reading this falls asleep (hi mom!) haha. But I love you all, hope things continue to go great and I miss you!
Love,
Sister Maughan
Our flight to Ohio was pretty good. It was nice to talk to you all in the airport for a little bit. It's good to hear that everything is going so well for everyone! On that note, I LOVED getting letters from everyone! When I first got to the mission home, that's where I got the card from Mom (p.s. I LOVE the blog! It looks amazing! well done *Ü*) [note from mom: the card had a photo of this blog on the front] and the postcard from Eric. But yesterday I got letters from all three of my brothers! Let me tell you, EVERYONE was jealous! I mean it. I can't tell you how many people said "I just wish I could get a letter from ONE of my brothers!". Booyah. Who has the best family? I do.
Anyway, we got to the mission home, and truly, everyone was numb. I think that everyone at one point during the night thought to themselves "what the heck am I doing on a mission!?" It was pretty overwhelming. When we first met President and Sister Sorensen in the airport, I don't even know if I could describe my first impression, and after spending a night with them, I still don't know what to say about them. I guess the best way to describe them is one word: intense. That night they bombarded us with all kinds of information. For hours. 6 hours if you want to be technical. They didn't even let us head downstairs to get ready for bed until 11 PM! So much for being strictly obedient. Needless to say we didn't sleep much that night, since we didn't get to bed until midnight, and then had to be up and out of the house by 6:30...and 10 girls had to shower and get ready. sigh. It's okay. sleep is overrated anyway.
We took a tour of Kirtland that day, and we got to go to the Kirtland Temple with Karl Anderson, Kirtland scholar! It was really powerful. We also went with him into the N. K. Whitney store into the school of the prophets, where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared. We had the opportunity to kneel in the school of the prophets and there make a covenant with the Lord with what kind of missionary we promise to be. It was really powerful. We get to go in there and do the same thing when we go home and evaluate our mission.
We finally met our trainer at transfer conference around 11 am. So I guess it's time to tell you about my companion. Her name is Sis. Lee. She's from Louisiana, has been out 6 months, and has been in our area the entire time. She and I are very different, but we get along fine. Gotta learn to love everyone, right? :) We are serving in an area about 20 minutes from Kirtland. It's called Chardon. But our area is primarily Burton and Middlefield. We don't even live in our area, technically. We live in a member's garage in a real small apartment. So small in fact, half my bed is in the kitchen! But the boys would like that, since it makes breakfast in bed pretty simple :) Just kidding. I like it though.
Our area is pretty nice. Here's your fun fact for the day (if people have even read this far in the letter. Maybe I'll make it bold to be more exciting). Middlefield is the fourth largest Amish community in the world! hahahaha how awesome is that!?! We get the "buggy crossing" signs, the parking lots for buggys and horses at Walmart, the Amish restaurants, the Amish taxis, the Amish children, the Amish houses/barns, and my personal favorite is when you are driving behind a horse drawn buggy. hahaha. it's hilarious. I really admire them though. They are pretty amazing. It makes for a good story to say I serve in an Amish area :)
Because we live 20-25 minutes away from Kirtland, we go into sites on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays from 10 am until 8:30. (For the record, if anyone I know comes in one of those days, they can just ask at the front desk for me and I'll come down). The other days we are just in our area proselyting. I really like it. I LOVE working at sites! Making calls can be pretty intimidating, but I'm working through my fear, and I've already had some awesome awesome experiences.
And I absolutely LOVE Kirtland, and giving tours. I was truly thrown into the whole tour thing. My first day at sites, we had just put our stuff down when we were paged and said that we had a tour to give. I hadn't even gone through everything! Then we walked down the stairs to preset the movie, and it's a tour of 35 people! ::gulp:: But Sis. Lee and I said a prayer, and after the prayer I ended up giving half the tour, like a normal companionship. I did every other room, trying to remember all the information I had learned. Did I mention that tours can be around an hour!? That's a lot of time to make stuff up. But Sis. Lee was so impressed, and one of the guys in the tour asked me how long I had been out, and when I said it was my first tour, he was shocked and said he had guessed I had been here for at least half my mission! I was glad he said that.
I don't like feeling like a greenie. Sis. Lee says she doesn't think I even need a trainer, which is TOTALLY a lie, but I appreciate her saying that. But I really did just jump right into tours. Almost all the other greenies on their first tours just bore testimony, but the Lord knows that I wanted to get started right away, so I think he's magnified my memory, and that's been really helpful. It will be even more helpful since now I have a 200 page book all about Kirtland to basically memorize! Better get started on that one...
Anyway, this letter is starting to get REALLY long, so I better wrap up before the last person reading this falls asleep (hi mom!) haha. But I love you all, hope things continue to go great and I miss you!
Love,
Sister Maughan
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