Hello!!!!!!!!!!!
HOLY COW I HAVE SO MUCH TO WRITE!! I hope I can explain to ya'll how CRAZY this week has been <3 <3 <3
First off- last Wednesday!!
It was tooooo good!! It's ALLL tooooo gooooood:) Soooo... we were staying with the Glenwood sisters and had plans to go back to Red Oak to have one of my FAVORITE members take us out to lunch before thanksgiving. We went to this little Mexican Place in town and we talked with her. She recently had her dad pass away and so she really just needed us to talk to and we just love her soooo much. I also ate frog legs... I did it.
Then we went and had a Thanksgiving dinner at our favorite families house! They are members & nonmembers and we love them ALLLL it's a crazy family, but it felt like home ;) They have lots of drama going on, haha but there were 18 of us all together in this super small house and we helped make dinner and played with the kiddos and just laughed our heads off! It was so fun:)
Then we drove back to stay with the Glenwood Sisters.
THANKSGIVING DAY!!!! We knew that it was this day that we would find out about transfers. President always calls our phones in the early morning to let us know who is training the new missionaries, but we were freaking out because out where we were staying, there was no service. If someone called us, it would just say "one new voicemail" and then we'd have to call them back. So we were in the middle of getting ready, stressing out, wondering what the day would bring, when us and the Glenwood sisters both got "one new voicemail" that popped up on our phones. We were like screaming.. haha we threw on some boots and hoodies and ran out the door with our make-up half done. Jumped in the car and drove down to the post office where we could get service. We listening to the voicemail and heard Presidents voice on the other end saying "Hey sisters, give me a call back" Eeeeeeeek We knew something big was happening at least 2/4 of us were going to be training.
Sister Carpenter called him back, then she said hello and looked at me and said "it's for you!" I talked to President and he gave me the knews that yes, I would be training one of the new missionaries, but I would ALSO be opening up a new area. WHAT?!?!
I said "okay!!..." I didn't really know what to say! HOLY COW.
So the rest of Thanksgiving day was full of text messages and calls saying goodbye to people. That morning we were able to serve at the Red Oak YMCA a Thanksgiving dinner to some people in town. It reminded me a lot of my Youth Council days <3. We had Thanksgiving dinner at one of our SWEET SWEET investigators houses and it was super hard to say goodbye to them :( They gave me a gift with a picture of them and a cute little hot chocolate mug <3 After I said goodbye to them, the rest of the night was filled with us driving around to say goodbye to all the people I love so much in that area! It was sooooo hard to say goodbye to the family we lived with... ahhhh so many tears :(
On the drive home, I had to be a part of a conference call with President and all the other missionaries that would also be training. He informed us that there were 31 new missionaries that had arrived this week- the biggest number of newbies this mission has ever seen and probably the biggest number it will ever seen. WE'RE GOING DOWN IN HISTORY!!!
We got advice on training and all of a sudden the stress started to sink in. I would be training AND opening a BRAND NEW AREA for sisters.... I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing and now I'm training! Haha :)
So I finished packing and got everything loaded into the cars, and Friday morning we drove to Omaha. Sister Carpenter would be staying in Red Oak and working with a sister that has been out for a while, and I would be training Sister Weber, and opening up an area in Lincoln, Nebraska called Mahoney.
TRANFER DAY!!! I walked into the mission office and who did I see?? ELDER DANO ADAMS!!! It was so great to see him!!! I love going to transfer point and seeing everybody again and it's awesome to have Elder Adams here in Nebraska now.
I looked around for the new missionaries and couldn't find Sister Weber anywhere! All the new ones lined up on the line and they each announced where they were from and who their trainers were.
SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! Holy Hannah I love her to pieces! She's this model of a blonde from Amarillo, Texas (so now I'm REALLY going to pick up the "ya'll";) ) She's so cute. She's actually 2 months older than me and it's crazy! We already have so much fun together and she's relieved that I don't really know what I'm doing either ;) haha
It was SUCH a hastle trying to get all of our stuff to our new area.... But we made it!! We live with more members. They are the Fergusons! They're so cute. She is this beautiful Asian woman and he is wayyyy cool too:) It's a SUPER nice place and so it's crazy jumping from Red Oak to here in Lincoln:)
Problems though... we're on a car share with some other sisters and we live way out in the middle of nowhere... AND we don't have a cell phone because they didn't get shipped to the mission office in time. So until Friday, we're without a car and phone... it's going to be an interesting week :)
We got all settled and started calling the bishop and the ward leaders to get things rolling. THEN Saturday morning we get a call from the zone leaders... "Uhh.... you guys are the Mahoney Sisters, and the members you live with are actually in the Yankee Hill ward." WE HAD CONTACTED ALL THE WRONG PEOPLE!!! how confusing is that?!? I called President and he was thrown off too because he thought that the members we were living with were in the Mahoney ward. Saturday morning for like 3 hours we were just calling SO many people trying to figure out what we were doing. President ended up calling back again saying "Hey, wild idea, how about we just make you Yankee Hill Sisters? We've been trying to get sisters in that ward anyways" So all of a suddent we had to switch district AND zone leaders and it's just been ALL sorts of confusing. BUT now we have it all figured out!
We went to our ward yesterday and they are the BEST!! It's a HUGE ward!!!!!!! HUGE. Like my ward growing up in Layton Utah, but even bigger! SOOOO many primary kids and probably 25-30 young men and 25-30 young women. It's sooo fun! Our building is the stake center and they filled it RIGHT up!! We got to go and introduce ourselves to the primary and RS and YW and I already love these people so much! It's a wealthier part of town, and they are SOOOOO missionary driven!!!! We had people like begging us to have them come out and work with us. It's the best:)
We went to the trail center again with a cute little family in our ward that recently got baptized. And the trail center is GORGEOUS!! They have decorated it all Christmas-ey and THE GINGERBREAD HOUSES ARE INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I took so many pictures... haha
Anyway, it's been such a great week I've barely had time to breath. I was soooooo stressed out at first, but sister Weber is the greatest and we truly have so much fun! I took her out tracking last night (cause we had no car;)) and she just about flipped. Haha she was so nervous. I was like "okay, it's your turn!" and then someone would start walking to the door and she would be like "sister checketts.. you do it!!" haha We'll get her over the fears:) She is soooo good at just instantly loving people, it's amazing. I am soooooo excited to work with this ward. I feel like this ward is like every missionaries dream ward!!
We have so much paperwork and stuff to get organized and stuff with starting the new area, but I am soooo looking forward to it.
It's amazing how much I have noticed the Lord with me this week. Calming me down and helping me to know exactly what I need to teach Sister Weber. At first I felt so scared because heck, I'M still new and I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing, but each day, as I teach her, I gain a stronger confidence in myself, and I recognize the Lord helping me as I help her. It's incredible and I feel so thankful and grateful that the Lord trusts me enough to put me in this position. Only with Him could I ever do this!!
Mission life is the best<3
I hope you all had JUST as crazy of a week ;)
Love you all!!
-Sister Checketts
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