BREAK THE RULES, NOT THE LAW

My companion is Sister Manson, and guess what?? SHES
TALLER THAN ME. Shes 6'2"! It's awesome!

 
 

 

Well, things have been nuts in the best way. On Wednesday all 14 of us flew out to our various destinations. Sister shenck and I stayed together and flew from St. Louis to Atlanta Georgia, then from Atlanta to Richmond Virginia. On our first flight I sat next a lady named Chris who was SO nice that she made my whole day! We talked the entire way, and were able to exchange emails! (so if you're reading this, Hi Chris!)

Once in Georgia Sister Schenck and I got lunch at Popeyes and it was soooo fun because the ladies working there all call you "baby girl" or "sweetie!" I've decided I need to spend some time in Atlanta in the future.

Then we flew to Virginia, got picked up by the mission president's wife, and headed to downtown Richmond. There we met the Sister Training Leaders for that area, and brought our bags to their apartment. We stayed with them for two days. That first night I went street contacting with Sister Wagstaff. Okay, street contacting is terrifying when you're a shy, awkward sister missionary from Nauvoo who only got three hours of sleep. Oh man. Basically what you do is walk around populated areas of town stopping random people to give them a Mormon.org card and ask if you can give them a five minute message about Christ. If they're busy, you try to get their number and set up a time. If they're interested and you're able to give them a five minute message, you also get their number and set up a follow up lesson. It's crazy, and was really hard for me at first. But the people in downtown richmond are SO incredibly nice that it made it so much easier. When they say no, they just say, "no thank you I'm not really interested." I haven't even been cussed out yet, it was a miracle. ALSO these people are incredibly stylish. Everyone on VCU campus is so attractive that it's almost strange. I felt like I was walking inside of a vogue magazine.



Another thing I noticed is that everyone on campus smokes cigarettes.
I would say a solid 8/10 of every person I saw had a cig in their hands. It was crazy—it seems that there is some kind of trend everywhere you go. Where I'm from it was e-cigs and weed. Here it's old fashion cigarettes. I guess wherever you go people are addicted to something that eases the pain. It's interesting to me that people are willing to admit that they need drugs, or alcohol or whatever to make it through their trials in life, but it's become almost shameful to admit that you need Jesus. It's artsy to smoke, it's artsy to be addicted to something, it's artsy to be weak. But it's not artsy or "cool" to need the atonement of Jesus Christ. The world is a crazy place.


ANYWAYS. we had two days of back to back lessons, and street contacting. Then Friday night we drove to our new areas. Sister shenck and I went on quite an adventure. We were following our mission president, but the car sounded strange. We couldn't figure out why, and we just continued driving. Soon we were on the highway and found out we could not accelerate past 30mph. Sister shenck was screaming "SISTER PUGMIRE WHAT DO WE DO" and I was just dying laughing. She honked a ton to try to get our mission presidents attention, but he was still haulin. So there we were, shenck screaming and me cracking up in the middle of a freeway going half the speed limit. We decided to take the closest exit, and call president. But of course our new phone had no contacts in it. We went to Starbucks to get wifi on our iPads, but we could not find his number ANYWHERE. After praying, the APs called us (president had called them) and we were able to get presidents number. We got the address of where we were headed, looked it up on google maps, took a screenshot, and got on the road. Guys, Virginia is confusing. After you get off an exit there are like 3 options on which way you can go....options that weren't mentioned on google maps. We got lost. It started pouring rain. It was hilarious.



Getting lost in VA

But we did finally arrive to our destination! There sister shenck and I split up, and were driven to our new areas. I am way up north in the Dale City ward!! My companion is Sister Manson, and guess what?? SHES TALLER THAN ME. Shes 6'2"! It's awesome!



I have yet to go tracking, but we've had pretty booked days! One of our investigators, Marie, is getting baptized this Saturday! She is amazing, and we get to visit her everyday. We also got a new investigator named Natalie at church yesterday! She came with a friend and wants to know more. We had a lesson last night and have another one tonight as well!! There are some other investigators that we have, but I haven't met them yet because they're out of town. I'm excited though! We also have a HUGE list of potential investigators in our area book, which is super exciting. I love being a missionary!

Yesterday I was able to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting, which wasn't quite as scary as I had anticipated. It's so excited to be in a home ward. I'm already obsessed with the children....ah they're sooo cute and I've missed kids so much!

Anyways, life is good. Crazy at times, but good.