 |
| Beautiful Morganton |
Dear Family,
So last week I may have mentioned that getting transferred
out of Winston-Salem was a HUGE surprise for me. And it was. This week was
pretty uneventful. Just kidding.
This week is way more crazy than last week!!!
Here's the play-by-play:
Tuesday morning: I leave Winston-Salem for the last time and
we drive down to Charlotte with Sister Kinlaw. On the way there she tells me
that her daughter is in the Morganton ward, and maybe I'll get transferred
there ;) Haha. So then we get to the transfer meeting super early because I was
singing a solo at the meeting. Then the meeting starts, I sang my solo (there
was probably 50 missionaries there) and I think it went really well!!
Heavenly Father has blessed me on my mission with not getting too nervous while
singing. So then President Craven begins "conducting transfers" where
he starts reading off all the names of the missionaries, and I am the first one
he reads off. So here I am, once again, at the front of the chapel waiting to
see who I am paired with, looking across at the group of people on the other
side of the chapel. Then President Craven says that I will be with Sister
Evangelista in Morganton! I think "yay! She looks so nice" then as I
am sitting down with her, President Craven says "and Morganton is also the
home of North Carolina's largest deaf school. Sister Adams will be assigned as
an American Sign Language missionary."
WHAT?! Haha. I wish I could have seen my own face. Assigned
as an ASL missionary?? Is this real??
Then I turn to Sister Evangelista and I whisper and ask her
what zone our area is in and her reply was "Umm.. I don't know! What's our
area name again? Morganton?", again I wish I could have seen my face,
because then I realized that Sister Evangelista had not previously been in the
area either. "We're OPENING AN AREA?!?!?!"
So, yes. Neither of us were here before because they had 2
sets of Elders in Morganton, and then they took a set out and put sisters in.
So we whitewashed the area.
Where do you even start when you whitewash an area?? Where
are we going to live? What are we going to sleep on? These are all questions
that you have never had to ask yourself before until now. Right after transfer
meeting finishes it's always super hectic because now 50 or more missionaries
are all going to and from cars and taking luggage and bikes out of one car and
putting it in another. So all the while all these Elders are coming up to us
telling us how they served in Morganton and they loved it so much and they
wondered if there would ever be sisters there again (there hasn't been sisters
for a few years) and telling us all these people to see. Sister Evangelista and
I had no idea where to put our luggage, so we just put it inside the office.
Then we are finally told by the Elders leaving the area that we are supposed to
take the car they drove up here. So we put all of our luggage in the car,
and then one of the Assistants tells us that we are staying the night in
Charlotte. So then we drive to a nearby area where a set of sisters were
staying and we proselyted with them for the rest of the night. All the while,
we still don't even know where we live! Haha. So we called the Elders and the
Ward Mission Leader (who is AMAZING!) and they said that we could come in the
morning anytime. Then the Elders ask if we had picked up the iPad. We had no
idea what they were talking about so they said we needed to pick up an iPad
from the office in the morning for Sister Ekins.
Good thing we went to the mission office the next morning!!
When we get there (Wednesday morning),
we are asked if we had our things in the van. What van??? Apparently we were
actually supposed to take this mission mini van down to Morganton! And they had
all these things (plates, silverware, vacuum) that they needed to send with us
too! Haha. We were just planning on driving to Morganton that morning, because
we weren't told what we should be doing! :)
So then finally the mini van gets loaded with 2 bikes, 4
suitcases, a vacuum, plates, etc. and we head to Morganton. GPS says it takes
only 1 1/2 hours. False.
We get stuck in a HUGE traffic jam for an hour. So it takes
us 3 hours to get there! We had to take a detour and while we were taking a
detour President Craven called and needed to talk to me about Lashaya and what
needs to happen with her so she can be baptized next Saturday!
Finally we arrive at our apartment complex and Bro. and Sis.
Pennington meet us there (ward mission leader and relief society president) and
they are just SO great. They have served 4 missions together. So we sit down
with the apartment manager lady and she shows us the apartment and hands us the
keys. We put all of our stuff in and we had no beds or any furniture :) So we
borrowed 2 extra beds from the Elders' apartment (we live in the same complex)
and borrowed a table and two chairs from the church (2 minutes away from our
apartment, yay!!)
Then we ran to Walmart to get some things we needed. Like a
shower curtain rod. And hand soap, trashbags etc. and to get a little bit of
food. Then we came back and went to the church for a mission correlation
meeting. Then we came home and tried to put some things away so we could
function in the morning!!
Cut to.... Thursday!
I go to take a shower, and there is nothing to pull on to
switch the water from running out of the tub to the shower head. I laughed so hard
and washed my hair under the bath faucet. We thought it was broken, because I
think the apartment we are in hasn't been lived in for a while. Turns out it's
just really old and you have to pull down on the part where the water comes out
of the faucet for it to switch to the shower head. Later we started the
dishwasher for the first time and soap and water started gushing out of
the bottom. Sister Evangelista is so calm and I just came down the stairs, and
there she was, mopping up the soap and water as it was coming out. She is so
cute. Oh! I forgot to talk about my new companion! She is from the Philippines!
She is SO SO great. She has been out for only 1 transfer less than me. I love
her!!
Ok, what else.....
 |
| The old NC school for the Deaf building that's still around. |
There are TONS of deaf people here. I have already met 5 or
6 I think? There used to be like 10 deaf members in the ward, but a lot of them
have moved or are less-active. We met with the strongest, active deaf members
and talked to them about the deaf community here. Their name is the Simmons and
they are so sweet! They said that they have deaf friends that the Simmons think
know that the church is true, but they have just been kind of shy and worried
about going to the church when people can't communicate with them. The ward is
super great though and there are 3 or 4 members that have learned ASL and
interpret every Sunday.
On Saturday it was car fast day, so we were on our bikes. We
went to visit a former investigator and while we were leaving, we saw this lady
out on her porch. We started talking with her and when we talked about her
having relationship with God she just got quiet and started crying. She feels
really alone and has had a lot of struggles. We shared a scripture with her and
invited her to church, and she said she would come!! We weren't sure who could
give her a ride so we asked the WML who we could ask and they said they would
just pick her up. So she came to church on Sunday!! It was kind of crazy having
it be our first Sunday and (Linda’s) first Sunday too.
Also on Sunday, we were in Gospel Principles class and a
member of the bishopric pulled us out of class and said that there was a
nonmember lady named Tammy who was at church and was sitting in the Clerk's
office right then and he wanted us to teach her the first lesson. Haha! So
that's what we did! She was really sweet, also going through a lot of hard
times.
Oh yes, also, when we left the sisters' apartment in
Charlotte, I left a bag of my personal items that had my toothbrush,
toothpaste, face wash, contact case, contact solution, brush, and other things.
Didn't realize I didn't have it until Wednesday night!! So hopefully when we go
back to Charlotte or someone from Charlotte comes to us we'll get it back. I
replaced the things I lost on Thursday morning. Eventually we have to go to
Charlotte to give the van back and take back a different car. And to get a
microwave.
Phew. Why am I so exhausted today??
Oh yes, I remember ;) a huge semi came to our apartment
today to drop off the beds and desks that the church ordered. So us and the
Elders and the WML had to assemble everything and carry it upstairs (we have
two levels in our apartment). Then we had to do tons of stuff today getting
things we didn't have in the apartment. And we had to find somewhere to get
quarters, because we have to use the apartment's Laundromat! I have been
sleeping so well every night this week!! :)
Anyway, enough about me. I hope everyone there is doing
well! I hope you had a great Father's day, Dad! I was sad my card couldn't get
to you in time, but it was temporarily lost. I was thinking about you though!!
:) I just love you all so much! I know that you are always praying for me
because I think I would not be surviving right now without them! :) Don't worry
about me with being in a new area. I haven't really even been stressed because
I know that this is going to take some time to get things going! :)
The ward is excited to have us! They are so nice. The ward
is SO much smaller than Winston-Salem. The boundaries are huge, but the
attendance is really small. It felt kind of weird! Our area covers several
cities, including one named Valdese, which is home to a lot of Waldensians. The
reason I even point that out is because a couple weeks ago when the new Ensign
came out, it had an article about the church and missionary work in Italy,
which talked about the Waldensians and how a large group of them joined the
church. I had thought about that story a lot, and then we were driving through
Valdese with Sis. Pennington the other day, she pointed out that a bunch of
Waldensians live here! So funny.
Well, I am sure there are things I didn't even include that
happened this week, but I hope that you feel connected! I knew that you would
be wondering how I was doing :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!
Sister Adams
No comments:
Post a Comment