December 29, 2011

My Dearest Family and Friends,

What a week! Sorry I wasn't able to write home until today. The library was closed for Boxing Day and the day after and TRANSFERS were on Wednesday. That's right! I'm no longer in Beaumont. ;( Which is SO sad! We got a call on the 26th from President Campbell; Sister Jones to stay in Beaumont and Me to go to the land of my inheritance AKA Innisfail (where Sister Jones was born/trained and the furthest Sister's area in the entire mission). I am now about 2 1/2 Hours away from the mission office and in a very very small town. There are no other missionaries around and we only have District mtg twice a transfer. Also, the saddest and probably hardest part is we only get mail when the Zone leaders go into the office which is about 2 or so times a transfer :( So, heads up- if you send me a letter and it takes a while to write back, that is why. (Please still write anyway!) Us in Beaumont and the Innisfail sisters were the only sisters that transferred this transfer. :( Crazy!!! I'm going to miss Sister Jones so much. We worked so well together and people would comment on how they could tell we were really friends and not just companions.

Sister White (from SLC) is now my Follow-up Trainer and Sister Kuroki (from Japan) is with Sister Jones. I'm really excited to work with Sister White. We've gone on splits before and she is so great! I've enjoyed my time so far here in Innisfail. We live at a member's house (Sister Stanford) She is a widow and travels all the time. It's a really nice place. I've already met some of the people in the ward and it's been fun to get to know lots of people. I'm excited to work really hard with Sister White. We are going to hit the ground running and work our little tails off. Currently Innisfail doesn't have any investigators but that is about to change. Pray for us to have success. :)

Christmas day was a pretty great one. We took a present to a woman that works at the gas station we always go to because she had to work on Christmas. Plus, we had a random lady from India show up to our Sacrament Meeting which was great. We talked with her and she said that she wanted to see how people in Canada celebrate Jesus on Christmas so she saw our chapel and came in.


Sister Jones and I met with her on Tuesday. That was an adventure. Her and her husband belong to the Seek religion. I don't know a whole lot about it, but there are some pretty interesting ideas. They think every religion is right so it was hard to teach them about the Restoration. The word they used to describe the bus waiting for them, someone stopping to give them a ride or their prayers being answered was "Magic" They were wonderful people and very sad to hear that I was moving the next day. They want to learn more but said they aren't converting. They invited Sister Jones to come back whenever she wants. The funniest part of the whole lesson was when we said the closing prayer. Sister Jones invited the head of the household to give the closing prayer. The wife said she wanted to as well. We asked if we could kneel and they agreed. We all knelt down, folded our arms, and closed our eyes. I waited for Him to start. The room was completely silent. I opened one eye and peeked out at the scene around me. Both the husband and wife were sitting as still as possible and Sister Jones just sat there were her eyes closed. Oh no. I thought to myself. We forgot to ask them to say a prayer out loud. It took all the control I had to keep from laughing. Here I was in some random person's house from India, kneeling on their floor while they are praying around me. I immediately began a silent prayer pleading that I wouldn't start laughing. Every so often I'd open one eye and look at those around me. Still praying. I swear this was the longest silent prayer ever!!! Finally after what was probably 6 minutes of complete silence they finished their prayers. My prayer was definitely answered ;) I made it through without laughing once.


Well, my time is short because it's not Pday. I love you all. I will write more next time.


Love,
Sister Leanna Thompson