This week was so incredible! We had a lot of neat opportunities and we felt the Spirit so strongly. I love love love being a missionary. I am so blessed to be here in the MBM!
Let me start with our trip to Trumbull, Connecticut. It's the farthest drive we have in the mission from our home. 2 1/2 hours. They asked us to come out to train their youth at a mutual on how to give tours and get them to participate in the Church Tour they have coming up. We packed up our entire set-up and took the drive out! Haha, we ran out of things to talk about, so Sister Couto is now teaching me Portuguese on the drives. With road trips like this, I'll be fluent before I come home. :D
It was an incredible experience! We set up everything we have, and then about 20 youth showed up for our training! The Elders in the area helped us out a ton, but we played a game to get them excited, then we took them on a tour. I was worried we wouldn't be enough fun for them, but they seemed to enjoy themselves. They really got thinking about their friends that could benefit from these videos, and they paid extra-close attention because they knew that they'd be giving the tours themselves in a couple of weeks! :) And at the end, we had a discussion to combat their fears of sharing the gospel and issued a challenge with the Elders. Boys vs. girls competition! Everyone got a stack of invitations. 1 point for every rejection, 2 points for every maybe, 3 points for every yes, and an additional 5 points if they actually show up for a tour! Winners get a special treat provided by the missionaries. They were so pumped! Nothing like a competition to motivate the youth!
We spent the night with the Trumbull/Trumbull SP Sisters. 6 of us in that little apartment! And we're planning on staying there for four days this coming week! It'll be fun! I love love meeting all of the missionaries in the mission. I make new, amazing friends wherever I go. These missionaries are all stellar, hardworking, fun, obedient missionaries. Anyway, we got stuck there for awhile in the morning because of another snow storm, but we finally made it home!
We had Zone Conference this week! It was amazing, as usual. I can't even begin to describe it. The entire mission presidency was able to make it. President Packard, whom I love so dearly, President Clayton Christensen, who is the single most brilliant business man in the world (so the studies say) and is very ill, and President Haight, who is filled with so much charity and who made a covenant with the Lord to share the gospel with someone every day for the rest of his life. The three most inspired men that I know personally. All of them spoke to my heart, answered questions I've been searching for answers to, and inspired me to consecrate myself more completely.
After Zone Conference, the Algers (replacement for the Vails) took us to the Cheesecake Factory! Um, I'm spoiled. They're the sweetest! I'm grateful that they work with us in the office now!
Saturday we took another drive. 1 1/2 hours to get to Ludlow, MA. Elder Terry serves there! Good to see an old friend again (I've been around in the mission AWHILE. . . ) and his companion is great, too! It was the first time they've ever had the PVC, and we came for a baptism. This sweet, 85 year old woman entered the baptism. Isn't that amazing? I love how people can be so open to the gospel even in their old age. It was a beautiful baptism, and there were quite a few non-members there--her family that came to support her. I hope the videos we shared touched them.
Yesterday was one of the sweetest days in my mission. :) Guess where I went? My favorite-est place ever. Central Falls, Rhode Island! We went to Central Falls to do a training for the Spanish Ward on how to make their chapel tour effective. So we went early so I could go to my favorite ward and see people! It was amazing. I gave so many hugs and got tackled by kids and nearly cried so many times! I love the Lorencos, the Whites, the Rhodericks, the Tanners, Sister Gaboriault, Lovely, everyone!!!! It completely made my day!
Our training went pretty well. It was a little rough, because the translation slowed everything down, but I think they're excited to invite their friends to a chapel tour. And after that, we scrambled over to Sister Shea's home! How I've missed her! She's my Rhode Island mom. She fed us a wonderful dinner and caught me up on Rhode Island life. And then she spoiled us with a bunch of little presents. :) She's so motherly and funny and wonderful, and I was so happy.
We stopped by one more home before we traveled back. Sister Barnwell and CC! And the rest of the family. :) The first two weren't able to make it to church today. CC's been really sick again. But I hammered on the door, and there were so many screams and hugs!!! :') We had a wonderful catch-up. It's amazing to me how the Spirit is there for reunions, too. Especially with people you've had spiritual experiences with. I reminded CC that I'm still holding out on President Haight's blessing, where she was promised she'd be healed within a year. I can't wait. They are so strong.
That's my crazy, amazing life! I am so grateful for your support and love! I gotta run, but remember that you're all in my prayers!
Oh, one more thing. I'm hitting my year mark this week. It's amazing. I've grown so much, changed so much, but I still have eons to go. I want you to all know that the gospel is true. My mission has changed not only my life, but me, in ways I can't even comprehend or try to explain to you.
I am so so so excited! :) The snow is melting, we have big plans, we have great ideas, and the Lord has a work for us to do!
We were able to sit down and have a great talk with President this week! :) That was the best. I think President Packard is the busiest man I've ever met. But he found the time to sit down with us and and map out all of our joint ideas and plans and priorities for the Portable Visitors' Center. It was exactly what we needed. I know have a full-to-bursting to-do list that I can't wait to tackle! We're dreaming big here! I'll report on what we're doing with our office time when we really get going in these next few weeks. We ran around like crazy this week though, so we really haven't had time to get started.
Tuesday was crazy! This is transfer week, and not only do we live close to the Packards, but we drive a Spaceship, so they needed our help. :) Thirteen new missionaries came flying in from the MTCs! Five of them were sisters. We were the lucky ones who got to cook their meals, welcome them into the mission, and then take them home with us for their first night in the MBM. It was so much fun! Five sisters in our tiny little apartment! Haha. We were supposed to have enough air mattresses, but two of them ended up having holes in them, so one sister took the couch and another took my bed. There wasn't much room, so. . . I took the closet. Hahaha! It was really neat to be in the mission home for the chaos of transfers. I love new missionaries. They are so humble and so excited and so nervous and full of energy! It makes everyone else so excited for the work of salvation, too! :)
Wednesday night was the big transfer meeting. We set up all of our displays for those who came with investigators or less-actives, and then we got to hear the testimonies of those missionaries going home. We lost thirty missionaries this transfer. Thirty. :( Breaks my heart. But not really. They're on to the next, beautiful phase of their life. It's bittersweet. Some more of my good mission friends went home. Sister Hyoung, Sister Neilson, Elder Fish, Elder Spencer the Vails. . . Strange sitting in transfer meeting without anticipating a new companion. . .
We had another adventurous weekend! First, we went back down to Providence for another church tour. It was less scary this time. The streets are still piled high with snow, but more along the sidewalks than anything else. We had a bunch of help setting up, everyone was so excited, and then I had the opportunity to hit the streets and do some personal contacting again!!! That is so fun!!!!! Especially in a busy city like Providence. Sister Batschi (amazing Sister recently transferred into Providence) is a stellar personal contact-er! :D She broke me out of my comfort zone really fast, and we talked to everyone, inviting them in for a tour of the building and refreshments. :) We met so many different people. Sweet old ladies, young rebels, lost teenagers, a deaf man I was able to sign to, a man at a soup kitchen, posh people who were "all-set", busy people who we think would really have been interested, and more! I love talking to people. Even getting rejected. It's when I feel the most like a missionary, taking advantage of every opportunity to share the gospel. :)
So that was fun! We spent the night with Sister Batschi and Sister Malolo Vaai. They live in an old factory. :D So fun. Then the next morning we took the drive back to Cape Cod!
Being on the Cape is the best. It's beautiful and touristy. The Cape Cod branch is so awesome. We set up all of our displays and prepped for the tour--and so many members came to help! So many! Usually getting the ward/leader support is the hardest part, and we rely on the missionaries to make the tours run. Which is not ideal at all. So it was amazing when everyone came, everyone was willing to help, and everyone was excited to share the gospel. The unfortunate part was that no one came. :D Haha, okay, it shouldn't be funny, but we were so ready for visitors, and no one showed up! There was even a recently returned missionary who knocked on a couple of doors for us. Sister Couto and I didn't want to leave Cape Cod with the Branch disappointed and feeling like they failed, so we came up with an idea. We asked the branch president if we could stay, leave the displays up through church on Sunday, and do a training/presentation about the Portable Visitors' Center to the branch to get them excited and to discuss how we could make the event more successful next time. He happily agreed--in fact, he handed over Branch Council to us for training. How neat is that??
It was an amazing day at church! This branch is brimming with potential! We presented toe PVC to Branch Council and discussed with them great ways to get lots of visitors for future events. They had so many ideas and were so excited! In fact, they pulled up our calendar and are going to book us a ton soon! We spent an hour just sitting down with the Primary President, and she is on fire with ideas! (One of the projects President wants us to work on is doing PVC events specifically for kids--fun videos and activities and stations and songs and such!) We're so excited to work with her! And then finally, the Relief Society President used our Restoration display to teach her entire Relief Society lesson, focusing on ways we can share the gospel. So I think it was a tender mercy that no one showed up the first time. It really motivated them, and now we have incredible things ahead of us!
Last thing to talk about: We had another Restoration fireside to attend! President Packard spoke again, this time in the Boston West stake, our home ward! Oh man. I wish everyone in the world had the opportunity to hear that. It's amazing. We had about 150 people show up, many of them visitors. They browsed all of the displays we set up and loved the program! Dallyn Bayles, who is in the Weston 2nd Ward and is a famous Broadway singer, was supposed to do the music, but ended up having to cancel. President found the greatest replacements. Elder Stones, a good friend of ours and one of President's assistants, sang Make Me Whole from the Lamb of God, and President Packard sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul with his daughter Natalie. It was amazing. They are sooooooo talented!
Wow, I wrote a lot this week! Sorry if I bored you with all of the details! Just know that I love this great work, and I'm excited to pour more of my heart and energy into it! My prayers are with you! I love you all!
It feels so good to have a lot to tell you! I've been getting a little bit sick of all the snow cancelling our events!
So just to start off with a random note, the Vails are leaving in a week!!!! :( Elder and Sister Vail are the awesome senior couple we work with in the office. They're the ones who have saved our lives many-a-time with navigation and rides and food. . . So we decided to do something for them. Sister Couto is a genius chef. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that. It's wonderful. So she made an amazing, authentic Brazilian dinner for the Vails, and we brought it over and ate with them as part of our goodbye. Picture attached.
Our project for the week was tedious to say the least. . . but also rather fun. :D Sister Couto added all of the Chinese subtitles in for 6 videos we use as part of the Portable Visitors' Center. I figured out how an app works and created a Chinese exhibit within the app with all of said translated videos uploaded and running. It's pretty complicated. Don't ask me how we figured all of this out. I'm just grateful the Lord knows how to manage the configurations of an app, because I certainly don't.
We got transfer texts this week!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it's already been 6 weeks since I started in on the PVC???? Aaaand I have news. :) My streak is officially broken. I don't have a new companion. After 11 months on my mission, I'm getting some consistency. Sister Couto and I are staying on the PVC together. :) :) :) :)
Okay, are you ready for the events of the weekend??? Because I have so many amazing stories! Friday we took a mini road-trip to prep for the big events on Saturday and set a bunch of things up. We were so ready to hit the road again on Saturday. We headed to Revere, MA for a baptism. OPPOSITION HIT. Satan did NOT want us to be there. Okay, so we were using ALL of our displays for the weekend, including our 2 back-up TVs and cords. Most of our displays were already in Cambridge, set up and ready to go. We only took what we needed to Revere. Or so we thought. Problem was, we brought the back-up TV to Revere, and the back-up TV box didn't have a lot of what we needed.
First of all, we forgot the adapter that connects the iPad to the TV. SNAP. iPad out. Sister Couto was genius though, and we just used the HDMI cord to connect our laptop to the TV and just played the videos from the laptop behind the scenes instead of with the interactive iPad stand. (Sorry, this might be complicated, but I don't know how to say it more simply. Lots of words.) Then, just when we were starting to breathe again, we realized we didn't have our Allen wrench. That, too, was in Cambridge with the rest of our stuff. And super critical, because we need the wrench to set up the heavy-duty stand that holds the TV up perfectly for the display. Haha. Yeah. We stripped a couple of screws trying to get them out with knives, keys, you name it. A pair of scissors and a bleeding hand later, the stand was set up. Then we realized we didn't have ANY of our extension cords. Eventually we connected three of our power strips so the cord would be long enough to reach the outlet. Talk about resourceful. . .
We were all ready to go, proud of how we made things work. The baptism was beautiful, the spirit was felt, we pressed play on the laptop behind the scenes while Julieth was getting changed. . . and the screen zoomed in way too far, so you couldn't read a single phrase in the fabulous Because of Him video. AHHHH! It was so sad!!! I was going crazy! :( It was really awkward, too, because it was so obviously wrong that everyone was only watching it to be polite. Sheesh! Oh well. . . the other videos didn't have words on the screen, so they were better, if still a little intimidating for size. And we never know who those videos might have touched. There was a non-member front and center, and there had to be SOME reason why we had such intense opposition.
When the baptism was over, we headed to the most anticipated event of the week: the Chinese New Year party! That's why we had worked so hard on the app this week. :) We have a small Chinese group in Cambridge, MA, but they worked hard and invited the whole Chinese community in New England to come to their party. It. Was. Fabulous. There had to be 200+ people there, tons of food and activities, a Chinese "line-dance" performance, and so many non-members. We were ready for such an incredible event with the entire Portable Visitors' Center set up through the building. It was so effective!!!!! People were wandering all over, watching the videos and flipping through the copies of the Book of Mormon and asking questions! The Chinese Elders (there are six of them total in the mission, and all of them were there that night) were so pumped and on fire! Elder Chen and Elder Anderson started taking people through on full-blown church tours, complete with every Chinese video we had and answering tons of questions and getting contact information and inviting them to church. One group had sixteen people, mostly non-members. It was amazing to witness. It makes everything we do so worth it. I almost started crying when they were testifying about the Temple and the Spirit was so strong. . . of course, I didn't understand any of it. It was all in Chinese. But these people were captivated. It was a break-through!!!!
We finished out the weekend strong with another couple of Portuguese baptisms in Brockton. I love seeing the PVC have such a positive impact on people. This is truly so inspired. I can't wait to see what this next transfer will bring!
Thank you for your love and support! Missing you, but LOVING the mission!!!!
I have survived long enough to greet you from the -20 degree weather with windchill here in happy New England! Yeah. It's been a winter to beat all winters. We've seemed to have a blizzard every other day! I've never seen anything like this. I thought the snow was deep the FIRST time. I'll definitely be sending more pictures!
My week was unpredictable and very scattered, due to all the storms. :) I'll give you some of the highlights!
We drove to Franklin to meet with Elder Hansen, the Senior missionary over Real Life Answers, the website. Not sure if I've mentioned that to you. Our mission also started a fabulous website! You should check it out! reallifeanswers.org. He gave us basic training on how we can help keep the site going in our free time. See those cool sliders at the top, advertising the different articles you could read? I did that part! :) It's kind of fun. Don't worry, I'm fixing the one where the words are directly over her face. :)
We took the trip out to Foxboro again to supervise more voice recordings for video translation! This time, though, it wasn't for Haitian Creole translation, it was for Portuguese translation! Sister Couto was so happy! The man we got for the job has this beautiful, rich voice. He did a wonderful job. Soon all of the Portuguese speakers who watch the PVC videos will hear it in their own language! More hearts will be touched!
Despite not having a legitimate ward, and therefore no dinner calendar, we were fed three times this week!!!! All of those times were so much fun! The Dowlings, my old friends from the Weston 2nd Ward, fed us one night. I love them! :) And it was neat to share a message again. Those planned opportunities come few and far inbetween for us now.
The one and only Kevin LaBarge took us and the Weston Sisters out to breakfast! :D Great crowd to be with. It's really neat to catch up with him, not to mention the food was delicious.
And ANOTHER night we were spoiled enough to go to that amazing Brazilian restaurant again with the Vails, the Assistants to the President, and the Weston 1st Elders. That place is to die for. And it's fun to explain why a bunch of clean-cut people of varied ages and genders all had name-tags, skirts and/or suits in the insane snow. The Brazilian waiter looked and us and said flatly that they have a policy that you can't speak of politics, religion, or soccer in the restaurant. Hahaha!!!
Okay, so we HAD some great plans for the weekend. Really. Church tours and baptisms and trainings and firesides. . . you name it! EVERYTHING CANCELLED. Due to "Neptune", the blizzard of the weekend. I told you about how we get "red-dotted" and can't use our cars. . . well, we got "purple-dotted". Sister Packard made it up, because that's the color our face would turn if we walked around in that cold. "Purple-dotted" means you can't leave the apartment. We were "purple-dotted" for a good 40 hours or so. Saturday night until this morning. Even now, we are strongly cautioned. We're all bundled up nice and cozy!!! But the snow came a-tumbling down, and honestly, I can't even imagine the cities. They have nowhere else to PUT this kind of snow.
So yesterday morning I compiled a to-do list and braced myself for a very un-Sabbath-like Sabbath. I was making my way through the list when we got a call from the Sheltons, a senior couple just down the block! We were given permission to walk down. We were joined by the Johnsons (yes, from our home ward!) and all of us had a nice little sacrament meeting together! It's amazing how you can feel the Spirit no matter what your circumstances. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can still say I haven't missed a day of church on my mission.
Well, while I was subjected to the confines of our small apartment I got a lot of little things done. Caught up in my journal and organized and whatnot. And this morning, we took some fantastic pictures about 10 feet away from our back door, in the deep, deep snow!!!! Unfortunately I couldn't get all the way down because the snow compacted beneath my boots, but you get the idea. If I was all the way down I'd be up to my armpits!
Enjoy the photos!!!! (I'll send a couple more in another email.) Love you all!!!!
It is 14 degrees outside with a steady onslaught of white, fluffy stuff from the sky. We are once again red-dotted. No car trips for awhile. We're so grateful that we were able to get a ride to the office to email!
I decided that snow is legitimately depressing. I mean, I'm great, life is great, missionary work is great, but shoveling and scraping and pushing snow and trying not to die while driving in it and getting blasted by icy particles every time you walk outdoors and having plans cancel on you because of incoming storms that add another couple of feet to your already knee-deep snow. . . not so great. Hehe. That's been a big chunk of my week.
We had to shop for food and survival stuff for most of Tuesday, due to the storm that hit Monday. At least we FINALLY got a push broom to clear the snow from the top of our Spaceship. I'll have to attach a picture of us clearing that beast.
Lets see, we did a lot of office work! :) I'm actually really excited. I worked really really hard on a email to all of the Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders in the mission. Crazy to think that I'm emailing each of them directly. I was introducing the Portable Visitors' Center more, telling them why it's such an incredible tool for them, and how they can best utilize us! English class just got real. :) I loved doing it. The email is sent to about half of the Bishops so far. . . I'm working my way through the list, personalizing it a little as I go, depending on how much they've worked with us in the past.
We went to Marlborough this weekend for a baptism. Guess who serves there? Sister Lima!!!!! It was awesome to see her and talk to her! I miss that Sister. :) I've been so blessed with my companions. The baptism was beautiful. It was this young man named Sean, covered in tattoos, glowing with happiness at the change that he'd experienced in his life and the covenant he was about to make. I love witnessing baptisms. :)
We switched out the English displays for our brand-new Portuguese ones (that takes a lot of effort. You have to manually pull out the fabric from each base and carefully slide in the new one. . .) for our event in Brockton on Sunday! That was my favorite part of this week! We were able to go to the highest concentration of Portuguese speakers, to the Brockton Portuguese Branch that became a ward yesterday! The Lord is truly hastening his work! Everyone was delighted, everyone loved the displays, there were a lot of visitors for the big event, and they even had a baptism right after the service! All of the Portuguese reminded me of my time in Central Falls. :) The missionaries are so excited to have us continue to come to Brockton for events and baptisms. That's exactly what we want! We see the difference the PVC makes at events!
We had a church tour scheduled for Boston that night, but it was a tender mercy that the President cancelled. Another snow storm was rolling in, and I was truly dreading braving the city and snow with the Spaceship. We headed home instead and hunkered down. The snow started coming, and it looks like it won't let up until Tuesday.
So that's my life! Lots of snow, great events. :) It's such a different role than what I had before. I love it, though. Making the adjustment. Trying to spread the gospel at a different angle. I'm so beyond blessed to be here.
I love you all! Thanks for everything, including the sweet notes I got in the Valentine's Day package! :D Enjoy Valentine's Day!!!
Hello from the white abyss of the Massachusetts Boston Mission!
Hahaha, I'm sure plenty of you have heard about the storms that have pummeled New England over this last week. What I'm not sure you understand is the magnitude of it. I really hope the pictures I send will do it justice.
We were red-dotted for a full 24-hours when "Juno" hit on Tuesday. (Red-dotted means that we're not allowed on the roads with a car. And a severe caution for even leaving the house.) Sister Couto and I spent the day at home, cleaning the house, doing our nails, and staring out of the windows. We're talking crazy snow. I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it! It was fun to watch, but we got restless. There was so much we could have done at the office with Internet, but we were just stuck in the house! Anyway, after a full night, day, and another night of a blizzard, we walked out into a completely new world.
. . . I can't explain this right. You'll just have to look at the pictures below.
Let's see. . . Weekdays are slower. We're working on getting the PVC booked in the middle of the week. But Elder and Sister Vail (from the office) took us to an amazing, authentic Brazilian restaurant. Sister Couto died and went to heaven.
Friday we drove down to Providence for a church tour! I really dislike driving a spaceship through the city, down narrow alleyways and one-way streets with cars parked on both sides, with piles of snow heaped up on every corner so you have to make even WIDER turns. . . trying to find a place to unload the Spaceship was nightmare. The church tour was fun, though! Providence gets a lot of foot-traffic. We spent the night with the Providence Sisters. It was good to see Sister Hyoung again!
Guess where I got to go on Saturday???? CENTRAL FALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My home away from home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so amazing! Jamique was getting baptized, so we brought two of our displays for the baptism. I was nearly in tears the entire time. I loved loved LOVED seeing everyone again. The Lourencos, the Frandsens, the Tanners, Alba. . . Even Elder Garrido came back for the baptism. In fact, he baptized Jamique. :) It was such a beautiful reunion. My heart was so full. He's the last one in his family to make this amazing choice. (He's related to CC and Lovely, if you remember them.)
Also, after the baptism, I was able to see Faith!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my closest friends from Central Falls. She's the greatest. We met up and caught up and took pictures! I am soooo spoiled to be a PVC sister. I get to see everyone again! :)
I couldn't spend a ton of time there, though, because we had another baptism to attend in Worcester! (Pronounced Wuh-ster. Unless you have a Boston accent. Then it's Wuh-stuh. Don't ask me. . . ) And after all of that, we went home again. Only to have another crazy day on Sunday.
Sunday was fun. I got to see Weston 1st ward again, then we headed back to Worcester for another baptism, set up the displays, and left them there to travel to Foxboro for a recording session! That's right! We have such diversity here in New England, and President wants these videos and displays accessible to everyone! So what do we do when church videos aren't in other languages? We translate them ourselves, of course! :) I like President's attitude. Right now Sister Couto and I are inserting Chinese subtitles into all of the videos. The PVC Sisters in the past have done audio-recordings in Spanish to put the translations into the videos we have.Yesterday we went to the Megquires', where they have a professional recording studio inside their house. The Haitian Creole Elders met us there, along with a Haitian member with a beautiful, rich voice! He was able to record the translation to a couple of our videos. It was so much fun! I loved this experience! We'll be finishing Haitian with him soon, and then we're bringing over a Portuguese speaker with a great voice for MORE translations!
We made it back just in time before storm #2 hit. It's still hitting. We're red-dotted again. This time, though, we braved the storm to walk over to the office. This is ridiculous, how much snow we have. We won't be able to see stop-signs soon, if it continues at this rate.
Anyway, that's my life! Great to hear from everyone!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for being so involved with what's happening over here. I love you all!
Oh, and another shout-out. Stephen is going on his mission on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think this weekend was the biggest adventure I've had on my entire mission. I could write a book about what happened. My journal is filling up so fast here. . .
I'm going to start at the beginning of my road trip. Road trip. Hard to believe that I actually had one out here in the mission, but there's no other way to describe it! Friday morning Sister Couto and I packed all our bags, jammed the Spaceship full of TVs and displays and cords and tools and poles and stands (that's a workout, let me tell you), then took off!
We actually had a quick stop and met up with Kevin and Katie LaBarge and the Weston Sisters for breakfast on the way out! That was so much fun!!!!!! It was so good to see them again and catch up on life! Not to mention the restaurant was delicious. . . :D Haha, andthen we were out of there. We took the 2 hour drive to New Haven, Connecticut. Wahoo! Sister Couto has this thing where she falls asleep the second we hit the freeway, no matter how hard she tries to stay awake. So usually on the road I'm on my own, singing to myself and whatnot. :) I don't know if we just didn't think things through, but we got to the chapel in New Haven, right next to Yale University, at 1:20. Their open house/church tour was scheduled for 2-6. We had 4 big displays, 3 small displays, and a Book of Mormon round table to set up artistically in a building we'd never set foot in before. Ha. That was soooooo silly of us. Even with the 10+ missionaries who showed up to help, there was no way. And then, of course, everything seemed to go wrong! Poles wouldn't stand up, Apple TVs weren't connecting, the ceiling was too low here, there weren't any outlets there. . . by the time we got everything up and running, it was nearly 3. After that, though, it was so successful!!!
We had a lot of foot traffic in the area (Yale University. . . of course) so despite the cold, we flung open the front doors and nearly all of the missionaries hit the streets, talking to people and inviting them in for a tour! It was amazing! Some members came, some came with friends, but mostly we got those students from the streets. Even many who didn't come inside for a full tour we had great discussions with. And we had eleven people come in and see it all the way through. Eleven. I know we can become more busy than that with more preparation, but think about it. What would a missionary give to have eleven full lessons with non-members in one day? Inside the chapel, nonetheless? That could easily be the best day in a missionary's two years. :)
We stayed later than we had originally intended because we felt bad for being so late. :P Most of the missionaries had to leave, so we took everything down and piled it all in the Spaceship with only two other sisters. Then we had to hit the road again. We were driving to Cape Cod. That's a 3 hour drive. Sheesh. The best part was that we left at 9, then half an hour into the drive we got a phone call from the frantic sisters, saying that we forgot our laptop, Sister Couto's precious camera, and her bag. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we drove back half-way to meet them and pick it up. Tender mercy we didn't make it all the way to Cape Cod before realizing our mistake. Still. I was so tired, and we made it to the Cape Cod Sister's apartment at 12:30 AM.
They were so kind. I felt so bad for waking them up, but we were out like a light. Good thing, too, because the next morning we had to wake up at 5:30. :P Up again, off to the next part of our weekend adventure! That's when we took the Spaceship onto a ferry. Hahaha! Crazy, right??? It was less scary than I thought. I drove that monster van onto a BOAT, and we just chilled until it reached Martha's Vineyard, a tiny island about 45 minutes away. :) We didn't have a chapel tour there, but we set up our Family History display right along with our Temple display for the island's big genealogy gathering, hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It was so neat! I was really impressed with how many people from the island showed up, wanting help with their Family History. They had experts and beginners there, lots of displays and pictures and old journals, and lots of computers being used. Our displays fit in ever so nicely, as an easy way to say, "Hey, this is why Mormons love Family History so much!"
We took the ferry back to Cape Cod and spent the night there again! So nice of them. :) The next day we went to their church, packed up, and took off once more! This time for Middletown, Rhode Island. Yeah, three different states in one weekend. Craaaazy. President Packard was doing a fireside on the Restoration there. "What the world knows because of Joseph Smith." He really managed to nail it. I love President! Anyway, we got there really early and set up the displays for anyone who wanted a tour before or after the fireside! Not many people did the tour, but lots of people just looked around and played with the videos. The Book of Mormon round table (with all 92 languages) was a hit, especially for the youth. :) By the time we packed everything up again and hit the road, it was 10:00, and we had another hour and a half drive home.
We made it!!!!!!!!!! As I said, CRAAAAZY weekend. So adventure-full! I really love being a PVC missionary. <3 I can't wait for more adventures! This weekend we get to travel back to Central Falls! I can see Jamique get baptized!!!!
Also, Heavenly Father is really looking out for us. We beat a storm that hit Massachusetts, then made it back before the real blizzard that's hitting us tonight. We're supposed to prepare for no power and to be red-dotted (no driving) for a couple of days. 3 feet of snow, here we go!!!!!!
Love all of you soo much! Good luck to all of my friends who are starting big new chapters in their lives (Stephen, Kori, Cassidy, Tallie. . . and others!)
Thanks for everything. I couldn't do this without you!!!!
