Happy day to all of you!!!!!
What a wonderful week it has been! Monday we packed packed packed and said 100 goodbyes. It was really quite heart breaking but that feels like 100 years ago now. Sister Palacios mended tons of my skirts and dresses because she is the nicest human in America. I hope yous can meet her someday :). We had dinner with the Leitz and they kept talking about dad and what a wonderful person they thought he was just from their brief encounter. Brother Leitz asked me if he was the stake president, I chuckled and told him that dad was the bishop (for one more week!) and he said that he could just tell that he was either the bishop or the stake president :) Dad, you must have a reallll shiny countenance. Linda cried a lot when we had to go say bye to her. I cried too because I don't like seeing people sad. But it's amazing how quickly the Lord can turn your love towards your new area when you are transferred :). I LOVE MY NEW AREA. I'm serving in the Pennypack ward in Philadelphia! It's in North Philly and right below Morrisville. It's the same ward but different area that Sister Bettilyon served in while I was in Morrisville so I've already got an in with the ward because everyone LOVED her. Perfect :).
On Tuesday Sister Casey and I made the trek to Broomall for transfer meeting. I was soooooo nervous to find out where I would be transferred too. I think doubling into an area is more stressful than training. (unless your golden is cray...mine's not but I'll get to her later :)) I was so so so excited when I got called to the middle of the gym with Pennypack in big letters on the screen! I'm finally in Philly and it is truly, truly an adventure. After the meeting the two elders that were just here came and found me and airdropped me some notes on the area, gave me the area phone and apt keys and then he pulled out a SEPTA pass. That's the bus system of Philadelphia. boooo. So I made my way to my good buddy, Elder Jones', office to inquire. 5 min later I had the keys to a brand new car!!!! WOOOHOO! Then we had trainers meeting and lunch. Just lovely. We got put into trios for the night, I was with Sister Twitchel and Sister Ririe! Some of my favorites. We loaded up my stuff in Sister Twitchells truck (she's serving in the north end of the mission where it snows all year round....I'm pretty sure it snows all year up there anyways...:)) and brought my stuff to pennypack. The apartment was...well....grubby but nothing that a little elbow grease and sister love wouldn't fix! After that the three of us headed to sister ririe's side of philly to teach an English class to some lovely African women. It was quite the experience. Did some other stop by's and hit up the wawa for dinner.
Then it was Wednesday! Golden Pick-up day!!! We went back to Broomall and headed into the gym to wait for all the little babies. They came in looking sooooo scared, I was talking to Elder Jones when they came and he told me to go greet them because they actually were as scared as they looked. I went and gave all the baby sisters a big hug and introduced myself. I think that helped a little bit. They all looked pretty nice so I was pretty hopeful that I'd get a good one. And a Good one did I get! Her name is Sister Cost. She's from Preston Idaho, a convert of two years this February and seriously the best best best. She has had a hard, I mean hard life but is so optimistic! She's so strong and has a huge testimony. She is the most prepared golden I have ever met. So basically training her will be the funnest thing. We're already the best of friends and have gotten some good work done!
Our first night here one of our investigators called us and somehow mentioned that there was YW at the church that night. So we got a hold of the YW president and asked if they needed any help. She said they would love for us to come! What a perfect opportunity! We got to meet all of the young women and they are all super solid and great. Then the Bishop showed up! We got talking to him and ended up getting to have a meeting with him later that night so he could give us a run down of the ward and give us assignments!!! What a set of miracles!!
Our first lesson was with a recent convert named Boymah. We brought the bishops wife with us and the lesson went really really well! We got to know him and committed him to go out teaching with the elders and prepare to go to the temple. We are going to start helping him prepare in our up coming lessons.
We taught a woman named Dusica (doo-si-ka), she is Sirbian. The lesson went so so well but she told us that her husband didn't like the idea of us meeting with her. So we've been praying that his heart will be softened (his name is Zoran Catovic if you want to join us).
Then when we were working on finding some of the Less Actives bishop sent us out to find, we came across a Jillian. She walked right up to the door and answered with a big smile, "sisters!" she exclaimed then spilled her whole story, then she asked us if we would teach her boyfriend sometime! She still has a testimony after all of this time and wants him to feel the happiness the gospel brings. Then she told us that her boyfriend's mother lived down the street and her husband had just passed away--so down the street we went to share a message with her. She wasn't home but we plan on trying again next week. Sister Cost is so cute, we'll be out working with no real success then we'll run into someone like Jillian and she's on cloud nine! She jumps and skips and gives me a big hug. It's adorable. She is the best golden ever.
Our area is filled, I mean seriously filled with Russians. We even have Russian to English dictionaries and other Russian books at our apartment. Our entire apt complex is Russians! So I decided to thumb through the how to learn Russian books the other day. It didn't take me long to decide that that language is bogus and that I will not learn it...probably ever. I even looked up Moliko for some context on what on earth their letters look and sound like...yeah it didn't help. But could you ask grandma and grandpa how to say hello?? What does dos-v-danya mean again?? none of my very little russain is coming in handy yet....haha.
The rest of the population of our area is made up of Africans (mostly Liberians, like Kollie!!! remember Kollie from west chester?) and 100 other people that I can't remember right now. Our ward has 3 sets of missionaries in it and it is just going to be wonderful. This area is seriously going to explode within the next 2 transfers!!!
I love you all dearly!!
signing off from the City of Brotherly Love,
Sister B
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