Adventures of a Sister Missionary: Week 9 11.22.16

Hello Family and Friends,

So.... Sister Tu'ivailala will no longer be my trainer/comp.... she is being transfer on Wednesday to Palatka.... and I am getting a new trainer.... Sister Gibb...... mixed emotions of sadness and happiness...... but this will be Sister Gibb's last transfer before she goes home.... so she is ending mission training me.

This week has been slow...... All of our investigators canceled their lessons with us due to either illnesses or family emergencies. But we were able to knock around and find others to teach and set up return appointments for this upcoming week.

On Monday we had District Pday and just played Knock out at the church, I got second and third place. We all just talked and hung out. We had dinner with some members and they have the cutest most fluffy dog EVER!!! It is a mix of a Golden Retriever and Poodle... weird yes, but SUPER cute!!! It would put its front paws on my lap and I would just snuggle with him!! AHHHH!!!!

We then had interviews with President Lee. It was really good, He is truly inspired and such an amazing mission President!! We were able to get the Christmas pass along cards and role play.... I went up to Elder Barrott and Elder Coy and shared with them both the message. I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YALL TO GO TO MORMON.ORG AND WATCH THE VIDEO AND PRINT OUT THE CALENDAR AND ACT UPON IT!!!!!!!

As a district we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for 50% off wings. We had all three of our investigators cancel our lessons with them this week. Two were due to illness, but we were able to reschedule with them for next week sometime. Bummer, but good.

The next day I woke up with the worst Migraine of my life!! I have been getting little ones every now and then due to stress of the mission field, but have been able to manage them well. But this one was terrible, so we stayed in that morning and then later went to the new Wendy's with Sister Caton and Sister Harris. We then went to go try a Less-Active we had prayed to visit, and they weren't home so we knocked around to see if they still lived there and ask them who do you know questions and tried to share the Christmas Initiative, but we found little success.... Then right before we were going to leave to an appointment I saw a couple come out to pack their car... I immediately went over and offered to help, they said no, but we were able to talk with them about their Thanksgiving plans and then share the Christmas Initiative and part of the Restoration with them. We scheduled an appointment with them for next week.

We then went to our appointment with another Less-Active. After wards we went to a follow up appointment and it fell through so we went with Kira Santos, a member who came out with us for the follow up, to her parents the Carver's to help them prepare for the Thanksgiving feast we were having with them and the Chandler's the next day. Sister Tu'ivailala made fudge, and I made English Toffee, Snickerdoodles, and Double Decker Brownies.

The next day was Thanksgiving!!! We went and played in the Turkey bowl with all of our Elders in our district and a ton of people from our ward. Everyone was impressed that I not only could catch a football but that I could throw a football.... Wellp.... I was trained well, thank you pops!! I got tackled several times and got one interception and a touchdown from it. We then went home and got ready to go to Chandler Oaks for our Thanksgiving feast. We had such a great time!! Delicious food, Gorgeous Barn and Property, got to drive a golf cart and four wheeler. SO MUCH FUN!!!!

The next day we had a relaxed morning of Weekly Planning in our beds and doing predictions for the upcoming transfers... We thought we would be staying together.....

We then had to take care of some emergency items at the mission office. We went and helped Sister Patty Hunt and her non member husband Fred Hunt decorate and set up for Christmas. They then fed us delicious soup and shared some amazing stories from their life's. We then went to our apartment for Elder and Sister Fershutt to check and make sure everything was good and clean. Elder Fershutt and I though had to fix one of our rocking chairs. The base was broken so we had to pull the wooden beams back into place and then drill holes for the screws and then screw it all back together. Reminded me of Grandpa Petersen and Pops! They were at our apartment from 7:30-9:30 at night.

The next day was my 6 week conference training call...AWESOME!!! We took a ton of Christmas photos and today put them into a Christmas Card... Yall will get one soon!! We had two baptisms to attend, one for the YSA Sisters and we gave a spiritual thought. Her name is Catie and she is 28 years old and seriously the sweetest person ever. Right after there was another baptism for the Mandarin 2nd Sisters for a 10 year old girl named Dana. Such an amazing spirit there is at baptisms!!

We then went to Nicole's house, an 'other' investigator, who is a single mom of 5 and is seriously such a strong woman! Once 8pm here hit I went said a prayer for the Wong's and cried cause I wasn't able to be there... But I am sure it was a beautiful evening and that Emi was a Gorgeous Bride!!! SO EXCITING!!!!!!

We then watited for 9pm transfer call to happen and ate Oreos and PB while writing in our journals. Then it was our transfer call.... President Lee was naming off the companionships Zone by Zone... He got to JAX South Zone and read Sister Nay will be serving with Sister Tu'ivailala and Sister Rigby will be going home.... I died and cried..... Sister Tu'ivailala was shocked!!! He then went on and finally got to the new Mandarin Zone, my zone was split, and he then said Sister Foster will be second half trained by....pause.... (I was dying for him to say something.... he hadn't paused until now) Sister Gibb, Sister Tu'ivailala will be transferred out... I have no clue who she is, besides that she trained Sister Caton, so I was excited but saddened and kind of mad. That night I went to pray while Sister Tu'ivailala was in the shower. As soon as my knees hit the floor I felt an overwhelmed amount of peace and comfort almost like a hug that everything was going to be good. I felt that Emi and Micheal love me and that my new trainer will be great and what I need at this time in my mission. I love prayers!!

The next day was Sunday and Sister Tu'ivailala said bye to a lot of people and we had a great dinner with the Astorga Family and went home and Sister Tu'ivailala started to pack... then this morning we dropped off Sister Anderson's trainer Sister Webb at the mission office to go home.

I Love yall so much and miss yall!!

Send me your addresses so I can send out my Christmas card and letter to yall!!

Love,
Sister Foster

Mandarin District!! (Left to right... Elder: Christensen, Britch, Coy, Jheng, Botalla, Masino, Kidd, & Barrott.... Sister: Anderson, Webb, Harris, Caton, Tu'ivailala, & Foster)