All bundled up so we don't get frostbite :)
I've determined that white washing is just super awkward. All phases of missionary work feel like 10x more awkward because neither of you know what's going on! Usually when you get transferred your companion knows members and investigators and they have like an in with everyone...but now neither of us know anyone or what's going on and so we are just winging it haha! Always awkward but still super fun!
Our first night we got here around 7 and we were meeting with the Elders at 8 so they could tell us about the area. We decided to grab some dinner first and realozed they have a Freddys here!! I got to eat my fav black bean burger and knew it was a sign that I was going to love it here hahaWow this was a crazy week! Tuesday we loaded up the car and I dropped off Sister Spangler and picked up my new companion and we headed for Jacksonville! My new area is called Orange Park and I love it!! It's a small area but super densely populated. It's on the west side of Jacksonville and just crazy busy 24/7! My new companions name is Sister Esquerra and she's the sweetest thing. Fun fact we are both from New Mexico which is crazy haha! We are the only 2 sisters in the mission from NM and we ended up together! It's funny whenever someone asks where we are from and we both say NM they are always shocked. She's been out a little over a year and she loves all things missionary. We've been working really hard these past few days trying to get adjusted to the new area and it's been a blast!
Our first full day was supposed to be Zone Conference but there was a major winter storm that hit Florida and so they canceled it! It was crazy! All of the bridges in Jacksonville were going to be closed because of the weather and if you can't cross bridges you can't make it very far here haha! It drops below 30 degrees and the whole city shuts down...it was really really cold though! It was rainy and windy and just freezing. I'm so sorry for all of y'all out west dealing with weather way colder but living in Florida has made me a wimp and I've been freezing all week haha!
Floridians We've mostly been going around trying to meet members and figure out the area. We've met so many people in the last few days it's hard to keep everyone straight haha! This ward is huge and the members love missionaries and are super involved in the work so that's exciting! I think we are going to see a lot of miracles as we finish out the last few weeks of the transfer :) we finally had Zone Conference on Friday and then we just visited lots and lots of people the rest of the week.
I was so sad to hear this week about the passing of President Monson. I had felt prompted the last few weeks to go back and read his conference talks from the last several years. It was such a comfort to fall back on the recent counsel he has given and know that he was God's chosen Prophet. One of my favorite talks he gave was called Obedience Brings Blessings from April 2013. In the talk he said,
"There is no need for you or for me, in this enlightened age when the fulness of the gospel has been restored, to sail uncharted seas or to travel unmarked roads in search of truth. A loving Heavenly Father has plotted our course and provided an unfailing guide—even obedience. A knowledge of truth and the answers to our greatest questions come to us as we are obedient to the commandments of God."
I know the God loves each of us so much!! He doesn't want us to feel lost or alone in this life so he provided a plan for us. He gave us a lot of things to help guide us, like our family or the scriptures, but one of our most important guides will always be the Prophet. When we make the decision to live the gospel with our whole hearts and to be obedient to the commandments and direction given to us through the Prophet we will be blessed beyond measure.
I love y'all! Have a blessed week!! <33
xoxo
Sister Morrow
Here's my new address!! ✉
2121 Burwick Ave apt 1002
Orange Park FL 32073
Orange Park FL 32073
OP is the pace to be!
-Weekly Moss Moment-
It was hard to pick just one experience because this week was extra mossy...so I narrowed it down to 2 short ones :))
So when we got here we both decided we wanted to focus on working with part member families and families with overage unbaptized youth. We found a family that we wanted to try and so we knocked on the door and the dad answered and seemed to be busy but excited to see us so we asked if we could stop by a different day! He said Friday anytime after 5 would work for them. We had a dinner appointment at 5 that day so we came after thinking it would be okay but they were super salty because we were late and they thought we said we would be there AT 5 :/// it was one if those moments when I was like "ahhh I'm so sorry I'm so sorry ahhh" and they were just like -_- I wanted to cry. My brain has been total mush the past week and he probably did say 5 and we showed up almost 1.5 hrs late for our appointment. We (kinda) smoothed things over though and set another appointment for THIS Friday at 5pm. We will not be late haha
It was hard to pick just one experience because this week was extra mossy...so I narrowed it down to 2 short ones :))
So when we got here we both decided we wanted to focus on working with part member families and families with overage unbaptized youth. We found a family that we wanted to try and so we knocked on the door and the dad answered and seemed to be busy but excited to see us so we asked if we could stop by a different day! He said Friday anytime after 5 would work for them. We had a dinner appointment at 5 that day so we came after thinking it would be okay but they were super salty because we were late and they thought we said we would be there AT 5 :/// it was one if those moments when I was like "ahhh I'm so sorry I'm so sorry ahhh" and they were just like -_- I wanted to cry. My brain has been total mush the past week and he probably did say 5 and we showed up almost 1.5 hrs late for our appointment. We (kinda) smoothed things over though and set another appointment for THIS Friday at 5pm. We will not be late haha
We had District service this week for one of the Elders investigators. She had just ordered a bible online and so they didn't really know her and hadn't taught her very much but she asked if we could come help clean her house. So on Saturday we went with the Orange Park and Oakleaf elders and cleaned her house! It was literally a nightmare y'all. We walked in and she just showed us the kitchen and asked if we could help her sweep and put stuff away since she just had surgery. She went back to her room to sweep and we got to work. I went to start clearing the counter and I picked up an old coffee filter and literally 50 cockroaches scuttled out of it. I screamed and made one of the Elders throw it away. Upon further examination we found that the house was infested with cockroaches. It was impossible to clean anything without seeing like 1000 of them. They were even inside the clock on the stove. INSIDE THE GLASS. One of the Elders had the idea of vacuuming them all up so we spent the next hour hunting them down and vacuuming them up. I have never seen so many bugs in my whole life and I hope to never see that many ever again haha