First Week In Oregon!

Week #7 

You know you're on a mission when you are called out of the congregation to come up and bear your testimony...in Spanish.

Lots of changes this week. The last couple of days in the MTC were crazy. Hermana Swapp left early Monday morning so I moved in with the other Hermanas in the Zone. I became a solo missionary which means I had no companion. I still always had to be with other missionaries though. I went everywhere with the Hermanas in the new district. Even to their classes. It was nice to be able to review the first few weeks of class. I also got some one on one time with my teachers because I was the last one to leave in my class. It was really helpful. We were able to go over things I was unsure about.

I was so tired the last couple days in the MTC. I couldn't really sleep. One of the days I was sitting out in the lobby of one of the buildings waiting for the other Hermanas to finish a lesson and I fell asleep. They found me with my head on a table, drooling... how embarrassing. The last day I was there we played sand volleyball. Super fun, but of course I fell over... and got kneed in the head. It's fine.

Packing was not so fun. I had to rearrange so many times so that my suitcases were both under 50lbs. I reweighed them so many times, just to double, triple and quadruple check that they were underweight. I only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. 

I had to be at the travel office at 3:30 a.m. and I was traveling with one other sister, Sister Drollinger. She was super excited because she had never been on a plane before. First we rode in a van (I fell asleep), then the train (I fell asleep), then the trax (I fell asleep), and then finally made it to the airport. BUT we went to the wrong terminal first so we had to figure it out. I purposefully only brought 2 suitcases and not a carry-on so I couldn't have any problems transporting my luggage and I wouldn't have to depend on anyone, but my companion didn't think about that so I ended up taking one of her suitcases as well (What would Jesus do?). We made it to the gate, called my family (wooh!), loaded the plane and took off (I fell asleep). The flight was about 2 hours long and when we got off I saw some missionaries and I was like "Hey look missionaries!" and then I realized they were looking for me...

President and Sister Samuelain are so amazing. So energetic and so funny. They took us to the temple (so so beautiful! No picture does it justice). We met up with our trainers and headed to the coast.

The mission scripture is D&C 6:34: "Therefore, fear not little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail." The symbol is of a huge rock off of the coast. We got to go out to it even though its not actually in our mission. We were the smallest transfer group ever so the group was small, but the spirit was so strong.

Okay, so it's super beautiful here, but these curvy roads are killing me. I'm car sick every time we get in the car. I had to tell the Mission President to pull over that first night.

We slept in the mission home the first night and went on a hike/walk in the morning (did I tell you how beautiful it is here?).

My trainer is Hermana Coca. She is from Salt Lake and has been out for a year. She was already fluent in Spanish when she got here so she is going to help me a lot out here. She's really fit and gets up an hour earlier than I do to exercise. I die with just the half hour we exercise together. She pushes me though which is awesome. The Branch is really small here. I was really surprised. On Saturday we had a Mother's day lunch and because the men were in charge, the food was 2 hours late! This is why we need mothers! To keep us on time! The members are amazing. They are really patient with me. I bore my testimony in Spanish yesterday and they could understand me which is cool. I pretty much just smile at them and give them lots of hugs.

The first investigator experience here for me was pretty cool. We got lost and had to pull over and ask for directions. We got talking to a man and he told us that he was confused because all of the churches had part of the truth, but none have all of Christ's teachings (sound like anyone we know?) We told him about Joseph Smith and that he was in the same position - and he was. He is so prepared for the Gospel. We got lost for a reason!

Running out of time, but I will write more next week. If you want my mailing address ask my parents for it.

I feel like Annie "I think I'm gonna like it here".

I love you all,

Hermana Dickson