This week is transfers and, of course, a lot has changed. Big news: I am training in Juncos! I met my new companion today. Her name is Sister Curl. She is from Texas and seems really nice. She graduated from BYU and has spent the last 3 years working as an events planner for the city of Freeport, Texas. Good news is she likes to run! I have really been lucking out in that area. I am pretty excited to train. It is funny to hear the questions she asks and the attitude she has about the mission. I try to remember my first few days in Puerto Rico. I was scared to death and very nervous, but determined and resolute at the same time. She seems rather opposite. She is not nervous at all and is very calm and easy going. It is going to be interesting to help her learn Spanish. I want her to have a very positive experience learning Spanish. I am so grateful for my friends in Chile who helped me to learn.
As always, the changes in the mission have been chaotic and last-minute. We got a call Tuesday saying that I and Hermana Aldana would need to be in the office That night at 7:30 to pick up my new companion and to bring a bag with two days worth of clothes? I assumed that we would be staying the night in the office as I did previously for the last conference. But unfortunately no one had really thought about where Sister Curl, Sister Aldana, and I we would stay the night. We got there at 7:30 I had a brief interview with President and then a very long training meeting. At 10:00 the meeting ended and we asked the AP's where we would be staying as it was decided all of the elders would be staying in the office. Wow. They had not thought of that. They couldn't send us to any of the nearby sister apartments because they were all full and would not send us back to Juncos to only make a long drive to return for another meeting in the morning. So after much discussion they decided to send us to the Punta Suela Apartment, which formerly belonged to elders and has been empty for the past six weeks. Can I say disgusting. We got there at 11:30 to realize that we had no sheets (we assumed we would use some from the office if we had stayed there), no pillows, no food, no nothing. We luckily had 2 air mattresses and a pump. It is not less gross to sleep on an air mattress with no sheets. There was no hot water for a shower and it was a cold night. I feel so bad for poor Hermana Curl. What a welcome to the mission! Dad would have been proud of me. I used a skirt of mine for a pillow and my towel as a blanket. The house is right next to the freeway, so it was a noisy night. I remember My first night in the mission seemed so long and endless. I cannot imagine how it was for Sister Curl.
Today we have been put with the sisters from Trujillo Alto to hang out until tonight, we will sleep in the office. Tomorrow we will be having a Sisters conference. I am actually really excited about this conference. Normally, I would be very skeptical and assume that this was just a disguised modesty talk, but on Sunday I had the privilege of talking to President and he kind of cleared me up on several things. I had been having several concerns with the mission, new rules, new ideas and frankly I was very upset. I called President and asked him if we could talk. Since his mother-in-law lives in our ward I had the pleasure of meeting with him at her house. We had a very long interview and I feel so much better. We were both very honest and direct and I finally feel like I understand why President is the way he is and does things the way he does. It was a relief. That is when he told me that I would be training and expressed to me some of the concerns he has been having with the Sisters. Personally I think it is just hard for sisters to be driven in such an elders world. Sisters are not all about numbers and competition. And it is hard not to be pushed into it by our leaders. It was a fantastic heart-to -heart and I feel so much more relieved.
I am excited and calm about training. My trainer, Sister Erekson, was practically perfect in every way and NEVER broke any rules. She was perfect. I know that I am not going to be perfect, but My past experience tells me that is perfectly OK!
I am getting kicked off early, ONCE AGAIN!
Mom, thank you so much for your email. It was a beautiful story. I know exactly which grey squirrel you are talking about!
PS. Pack whatever tops and jeans you can find. Bigger jeans may be better. Casual flats and please a pair of heels!
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