- I MADE IT TO ARCADIA!
- We are pinkwashing (aka replacing the elders in the area) in Covina/San Dimas
- I put someone on date for baptism my very first day out.
- We're teaching her and getting her ready for that next step!
- My ward is 90% old people (literally a walker/wheelchair every other pew)
- I've met some real interesting people so far
It's been an eventful week. It's hard to believe I was at the MTC just a few days ago. The days here are so long but time moves so fast. Believe it or not, I was companionless for about two hours at the beginning of this week! The rest of my district was each getting on their respective planes.
When it was my turn, we took the Frontrunner and Trax to the airport. I might have been a little more experienced than my 16 other travel companions headed to Arcadia as well, so we went way slower than I'm used to.
We got off the plane in California and were greeted by the mission leaders quickly after, President and Sister Jones!
They were very kind and President Jones served his mission in Australia so he was excited to meet me and the other elder who got reassigned, who is coincidentally named, Elder Jones. They also left on their missions on the same day, just a few decades apart. Funny.
We have a big transfer day ordeal where each trainer is brought up and then their new companion is announced. For a high stress travel day and the complete switch of training center to field, I was overwhelmed.
When I was called up to serve with Sister Skyler Pennington, I was holding back tears over the anxiety of it all. I got to talking to my companion and felt a bit more at ease.
She has been out a little over a year and I'm her first official greenie. She is so sweet and thoughtful, originally from Oklahoma. Then I found out, I'd seen her twin sister (not identical) at the MTC! She spoke to us on our very first night and talked about her conversion story, and I remembered her talking about how her twin sister was baptized soon after her.
Sister Pennington
So she's basically famous in the MTC sphere. She's only been a member for about 2.5 years, and I am in awe of her desire to serve a mission so soon after. I'm glad she did because she is a great trainer and we have a lot of fun together.
We are assigned to a town called Covina, and like I said, are pinkwashing.
Our president essentially felt like we needed sisters here and so we transferred out the elders. And got their apartment. Unfortunately you could tell elders were living here before.
Side note: IT IS SO HOT HERE.
You probably could've guessed, but being more inland, it can be quite warm and so is our apartment. We're surviving and love when it's overcast.
We had several appointments set by the elders on my first day out. We met some new members, some old members, and some people who just started taking lessons!
One special person, Jessica, essentially asked to be baptized. We were shocked by how forward she was, but were SOOOO excited for her. Her faith is awesome and we've gotten to meet up with her several times this week. We made her baptismal plan yesterday, but have to pass her off to the YSA missionaries since she's in the age range. Regardless, we're so glad we could help her thus far and will hopefully get to see her be baptized in the future!
Our ward, while fairly active, is SO OLD. You might say, Sister Kline, you're being judgmental. No, I'm being accurate.
You look out on any given church activity, and you might think you walked into an old folks home. It's a sea of silver. However, old people are very kind and they're happy to have sisters serving in the ward now.
We had a relief society activity and while the demographic was 60+, the attendance was higher than anything I've ever seen. And they feed us well.
But I'm not kidding there is always a walker or wheelchair on every other pew at church.
As you would expect, we talk to so many people each day. And as you'd expect, you run into some oddballs. Well, as a welcome to the mission, I ran into all oddballs on my first day.
One lady showed me her family and dog ashes. And talked for almost 1.5 hours about anything but what we came over to talk about.
One family had their house decorated for Christmas year round. They put too much effort into it a few years ago and didn't want to take it down. Understandable.
And overall, we receive a LOT of unwarranted trauma dumping. We went over to help a lady in the ward fix her phone, and ended up finding out all her family lore and drama.
It keeps the days interesting for sure, and it's been awesome to see what we really do as missionaries.
Spiritual thought for the week: We've been inviting our members to make their prayers more meaningful. I learned in the MTC that that could mean listening for a little bit after praying, but it also might mean acting right after praying. God can't speak to us if a) we're not listening and b) we're not going to do anything about it.
I would encourage you all to make your prayers more meaningful, and to do so, pray to know what would deepen your connection with our Father in Heaven. For me, that's praying maybe 10 minutes before I go to bed instead of right before, so I can be more attentive and intentional with my words, not rushing it because I'm tired. When we realize how incredible it is that we have a direct line to heaven and actually use it, miracles happen. We learn how the Spirit speaks to us. And we learn just how much our Heavenly Father cares. So don't forget to pray!
I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you.
Best wishes!
Sister Kline