Date
May 6, 2013
Area
State College
Companion
Katie Andresen
End of transfer 2!!
Hey everyone!!
It has been a really great week! I guess the first bit of news is that I'm training this transfer!!! We pretty much already knew that was coming, so I'm really excited and also scared out of my mind a little bit. There are 3 sets of missionaries in State College right now...and ALL of us will be training. Elder Howell is training, and he was in the MTC with me, so he's pretty young too. And then Sister Robinson has only been out 6 weeks!! So we are all super young missionaries and all training...It's gonna be quite an adventure! I still feel like I don't know much of anything, but I know the Lord will make up the difference if I do my best. Sister Plater, Sister Andresen and Elder Boyd are all being transferred which makes me wanna cry a little, because I love all three of them SO much....but I'm sure we'll have fun here with our new companions, too. We leave tonight to travel to Pittsburgh, and then tomorrow we'll have the training meeting, transfer meeting, and head back with our new companions....WILD!!
This week was a really great last week to have with Sister Andresen, though. We had some super neat experiences on the bus!! First...on Thursday night we were headed back on the bus after a HORRIBLE night of bus contacting (there was literally NO ONE on the bus). And then when we got off, the bus driver stopped us for a second and said "Hey you two, tomorrow is my last day, and I just wanted to let you guys know that you are two of the nicest people I have ever met. Thank you for always being so kind and grateful on the bus!" We were both caught super off guard, but it was just a little thing that completely changed our night! He was really shy, and I think it was really hard for him to give a compliment like that, but we were so grateful to know that little things like saying "Hi" and "Thank you" had made a difference to him and had hopefully planted a seed. We were both so happy and grateful for the experience!!
Then the next night we had another awesome experience on the bus! Same thing, we were headed back home at the end of the night and were stopped at a stop downtown for a few minutes. There were some little Mennonite kids (I think) handing out little sermon things, which was good for us, because it got a few people on the bus talking about religion and stuff. This guy right behind us asked us what church we went to and we told him a little bit about it. We asked him if he'd like to meet with us to learn more sometime, and he agreed, but said he'd be going home soon for the summer, which was disappointing a little bit. He kept talking to us about how he had just stopped drinking a week ago and was looking for things that could make him happier. As soon as he said that, I felt like I needed to ask him exactly when he was going home..and it's not until the end of May! That still doesn't give us much time, but that's plenty of time for us to meet with him before he leaves, so I was really excited about that!
On that same bus, the bus driver started talking to us about religion, too. He had asked us a few days ago what church we were from, so we gave him a Mormon.org card. That night, though, we got to tell him all about the restoration and got to explain about The Book of Mormon and actually tell him some things that we believe. He said he gets really caught up when he talks about religion, so he was a little nervous to bring it up but that he'd been itching to talk to us about it for days! It was really neat, and he was so nice to us! Nothing too huge has come from any of those experiences yet, but those are the kinds of things that keep us going!
This week should be interesting, because graduation was this weekend. It was literally a mass exodus to get outta town after all of the classes ended, so the amount of students here went from about 40,000 to 10,000, but hopefully we'll still be able to find some people to teach!! President told us we can work with families, too, so that'll be nice. The University Branch goes from about 65 people to 20 over the summer....so it's gonna be slim pickins, but I'm excited! If we keep working hard, we'll be able to find the people who are prepared.
Anyway, I'm super excited to get to SKYPE on SUNDAY!!!! Seriously, I'm so excited. So yeah! I have no idea how that's gonna work yet, all I know is that I have an hour...haha. I'll probably call you sometime on Sunday and figure it all out. It'll be great!! I love you all a ton!!!
Sister Ferrin
P.S. ALSO!!! We had dinner with a super cool family last night who was telling us all about the HIll Cumorah pageant....that seriously sounds like the coolest thing EVER!!! You should look into that. I want to be in it, like for real! It's going on my bucket list. :)