So first off, Mom it's ok
about the phone call. No big deal! But at the airport I met Beck Bennett from
SNL. That was wicked cool. Too bad I didn't have my camera or any pass-a-long
cards. Missionary FAIL! But be nice, I'm still learning. There was a huge group
of missionaries on our plane to Atlanta and then we branched out from there,
but we had a solid group of 10 going to West Virginia (there were 4 other
Elders in another District going with us). But we had 45 minutes to get from
one end of the airport to the ABSOLUTE far end for our connecting flight to
Charleston. We arrived 20 minutes later than scheduled and the airport was
packed. We RAN! But luckily it was a small enough plane and flight, that us 10 were
almost half of the passengers so they didn't leave with out us. (Atlanta
airport.....huge.)
Charleston is
wonderful.....like YES! Trees, trees, trees, and oh yeah, did I mention the
trees. Roads are tiny winding things that are surrounded by hills and trees.
You can't see more than 900 feet in any direction at any time. This is NOT an
exaggeration. And it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. We got to
the mission home and had dinner and met the assistants to the president and all
that good stuff. We had an awesome testimony meeting and then Sister Wonnacott
and I went out with the Sisters in Charleston to get a feel for the mission
field.
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Ya'll know me. I get
in a new situation and I sweat and get nervous and start to cry and then
hyperventilate. Then I'm frozen and just want to sit in my bedroom by myself
and cry. But...
Ok. I am a great
missionary. I'm more comfortable talking to people here than I've ever been.
I'm jumping head-on into everything without any nerves or apprehension. I'm not
homesick or sad. I am the happiest I have ever been. People here love me and
it's easy to talk to them about the gospel and slowly get them to change their
minds about letting us teach them. People are so willing to share so many of their stories and true worries with me. I don't know how or why, but it's awesome.
I was so absolutely
not supposed to be out here last August. I KNOW I would have struggled. But the
time I took to grow and be confident in my relationship with the Lord is the
only reason this is happening. The Lord knows everything. The Lord is
amazing.
SO! I am in Dublin,
Virginia with Sister Stone. Our area consists of 3 towns: Dublin, Pulaski, and
Draper (NOT Draper, UT). Sister Stone is a whole year old (as a missionary) and turning 21 next
month. She's from Syracuse, UT and an awesome trainer because she doesn't treat
me like a baby and we work really well together. She has only
been here 6 weeks so we're having fun exploring the area together and meeting
lots of new people. It's actually pretty sketchy here. A tornado came through 3
years ago and LOTS of people are still recovering from that. We try not to do
any tracting after 5 just because it's not safe. At all. We don't go door to
door but porch to porch. Because the people on the porch are out there to say
hi to people as they walk by. People inside are scary....... We've had times
where we're just walking around trying to talk to people and someone will come
out right up to us and say softly, but urgently, "Go home now. It is not
safe for you here." Needless to say, we do not waste any time getting home!
So if appointments fall through we'll try to talk to neighbors on the porch but
we mostly try to have appointments. Also, Sisters have only been in this area
for about 5 months now. I get far too much unwanted and terrifying
attention. Like from investigators who we really have to questions why they're
taking the lessons or coming to church. But it's really hard to judge why people want to meet with us. It's sad when it's
time to tell them we're not coming back. I don't like it.
But have I mentioned
how much I love it here! We get to meet some amazing people! Lots of Baptists.
Lots of churches everywhere. The nice thing is most people are genuinely trying
to do the right thing and follow God's will. So it's REALLY easy to know who
is actually interested in meeting with us. We have this one lady we taught for the
first time on Saturday. She has an AWESOME spirit. She is trying so hard to
follow God's will. And she is so open to the Spirit. We are so excited
to go back because I know she's actually reading the scriptures and praying.
AND I KNOW WHAT ANSWERS SHE'S GETTING (shhhhhhh don't tell anyone I'm
cheating)!
We love working with
the Elders. They're both brand new to this area and one is even brand new just
like me. ELDER BINGHAM! We are having so much fun working together. I get a lot of confidence and peace just being around him so I was
beyond excited when we found out we would be serving in the same area. This
area has been dead for a long time with missionary work. So the ward met us yesterday and they were extremely warm and welcoming. And Elder Lopez speaks Spanish
which is AMAZING help for us. We trade investigators depending on the situation
just to get stuff done. We get some leeway about staying in our areas just
because they just want us to get work done any way possible. This ward
responded to us really well yesterday, and we had an excommunicated member get
re-baptized after church (ridiculously powerful spirit) (everyone from the ward
was there), and a new Bishop got called who is rip-roaring and ready to go with
us. We're gonna do a LOT of good here. We can all feel it.
Best:
1. Everyone has stuff.
Lots of stuff. And I get to look at it. Can you say brooches? I've already been
given 2.
2. Everyone sweats and
doesn't try to hide it. So it's great for me and my sweaty self. (The humidity
really isn't that bad. It makes it feel cooler.)
3. We drive a brand
new car :)
Worst:
1. Spiders.
Everywhere. In our house. Why?
2. I don't get to
drive for 6 weeks.
I LOVE YOU ALL!
-Sister Packard
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