We have been called as the assistants to the assistants.
Yeah.
It's pretty legit. We're kind of a really big deal. People are coming to do a photo shoot and we're going to a have a whole segment written about us on LDS.org and a second missionary apartment in bora-bora with a private jet and unlimited free salads at cafe rio and it has just been such a blessing but also a huge responsibility to have this new assignment... I'm just asking that everyone pray for us because this is so huge.
Hahahahahahahahaha oh my gosh no I am just kidding. But seriously we have been joking about this all week. It started last Monday when we were trying to figure out the transfers, and the assistants - Elder Birrell and Elder Gates (we are like best friends) - Skype'd us to talk about logistics or something, and we were asking them to show us the transfer boards and he showed them to us super fast and we got really excited but we didn't actually see anything that was worthwhile... So that was disappointing.
Anyway. The joke started about us being their assistants somehow, and it has just escalated ever since. We know have like a good portion of the missionaries in the mission backing us up and saying that we are the assistants to the assistants and it is SO funny. President Johnson even called us the other day just to check up!
"I just wanted to know how the assistants to the assistants were doing."
Like he seriously had NO purpose for his phone call, just to laugh about us being the assistants to the assistants.
But... yeah. this probably won't even be funny to anyone but me. But it has seriously escalated from us joking about being in charge of transfers to saying that like we'll be speaking in General Conference and hahahaha the apartment in Bora-Bora was probably the highlight... we are always just joking and laughing about the glamorous life of assistants to the assistants. It has been so fun.
Fun fact, though! The assistants actually gave us an assignment to find people to do musical numbers for zone conferences.
So we're pretty excited.
Okay but for real this week has been amazing. Sister Canseco is our new companion and she has been the absolute most chill, amazing, easiest person to get along with in the entire world. I love her. She is from California and she's a native Spanish speaker.
There is a guy sitting next to me drinking fanta and reading a book and listening to smooth jazz and dancing and he is fantastic, I think I'm going to invite him to get baptized....
There is no way he's getting anything out of that book he's reading....
Back to business.
We have loved working in the walk area this past week. It is so fun. We're meeting some of the coolest people. We talked with each other as a tripanionship about how important it is to follow our promptings, and we're getting a lot better at recognizing and following our promptings and we have seen some really cool things come from it! We are being really blessed.
One of the miracles that happened this week... we had a prompting to go visit this less active sister who, the last time we went to visit her, she told us she wanted her name removed from the records of the church and everything, and we were so sad. But we volunteered to help her paint her house, and the members have just kept reaching out to her. And it was so amazing, she has changed so much! She wanted to download the gospel library onto her phone and she was willing to sit down and have a lesson with us and... honestly it was just the biggest miracle. She is so cool!! We're going to see hertomorrow morning and help her finish painting! The elders are going to start working with her.
OH YEAH! There's another thing! We have another set of elders here in Lancaster - that's 7 missionaries serving in this branch! That is a TON of missionaries!
AND FURTHERMORE, we now have 11 missionaries in our district and so we have a mega district! There is only one other district in the mission that has more missionaries than we have and they have two senior couples so if we're just talking like young, full-time missionaries we have the biggest district in the whole mission and it. is. a. party. every. dang. day.
I love this.
We were so mad stressed out that our district was going to get split and we were going to be really sad but we are all still together just +3 more!
It's fantastic!
District meeting was insane, we had to bring in one of the big tables from the gym cause we didn't fit around the table in the relief society room haha.
Anyway. Other than that... nothing really happened this week. Transfer meeting on Tuesday was really fun. President Johnson decided that he wanted transfer meeting to be done via skype but it ended up not working out very well because right as he decided to announce the transfer board, the video and sound cut out so we didn't even know what was happening and the Zone Leaders ended up having to announce them. But at least we got to hear the introduction. President talked about how an "inspired companionship" isn't always one that just clicks right away. Sometimes it's the ones that take a little more work. I really liked that.
Another thing that changed... after transfer meeting, we used to go work in someone else's area for the day, but they decided to stop doing that. So we just hung out at the chapel and waited for for 5 hours for people to show up from Pittsburgh. So that was... fun. I love spending time with missionaries.
We are going to be seeing the missionaries so many times this transfer! We have a member of the 70 coming to visit the mission so we'll have a big meeting for that, and then we have a zone conference, and then there are two missionary firesides! It's going to be way awesome!
Also, since our district is so big, we started doing pday eve sleepovers which has been legit. The sisters come to stay at our apartment and we watch like 17 miracles or ephraims rescue or the testaments and eat popcorn and then in the morning we make waffles and study the scriptures together. It's a blast. Then we all have pday together!
This is seriously the funnest time of my life. I love everything about this area - walking, riding the bus, going to subway cause we don't have any dinner appointments and having my companion spill her ice water all over me, this #MEGADISTRICT, our beautiful apartment, the incredible members of this branch...
I don't know. I have felt so close to the spirit lately. Yesterday in sacrament meeting I just felt such a strong love for the people that I have met on my mission, and the people that I have in my life. I have really started to understand the way Heavenly Father feels about us, and the love that he has for us... obviously it's just a small portion of the love that he has that he allows us to feel. I am so grateful for my Savior and how he comforts me and helps me to feel so loved and blessed.
I hope each of you feel the joy that the gospel brings and openly share it with others.
I love you! I would write more but my district is nagging me to go.
#BLANDIS is on exchange starting tonight.
#blandis is go
Love,
Hermana Bills
