Stuff

So I have officially begun my fifth transfer here in Toms River. I've been here such a long time.

Last Monday was pretty crazy because I was helping Hermana Bloxham pack up and say goodbye to our members and investigators. She wasn't expecting to get transferred so she had a lot of people to say goodbye to that day.

Tuesday we had to get up really early to go to transfer conference in Morristown. Sister Bloxham got sent to Paterson, which is by far the sketchiest place that they send sisters to here, so she's in for quite the shock going from Toms River to there. My new companion is Hermana Bentley. She is from West Jordan, Utah and she's been on her mission for 7 months. She is number 7 of 9 kids, and her dad is in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! Also, I am now on my third redheaded companion!

Saturday was a rough day. We had 5 set appointments and 4 of them fell through. The only one that actually happened involved our investigator throwing a bunch of anti-Mormon literature at us. Soooo that was fun. Luckily we had the Roses (the awesome senior couple) with us. Elder Rose is a master of the scriptures and a former Stake President, so he was able to handle the situation very well and answer all of the questions in a way that left our investigator speechless and actually let him feel the Spirit despite his doubts. A couple hours later, after a long day of failed appointments, we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner. There was a lady sitting close to us who kept looking at us. Eventually she talked to us and told us that she isn't a member but her children are. She then gave us a Chick-fil-a gift card and thanked us for our service. It was definitely a tender mercy on a tough day.

The reason we didn't email yesterday was because we had an all-mission Pday activity in Morristown. We had to be there at 8:30am, which for us missionaries in the southern part of the mission would mean leaving before 6am to get there on time. Luckily,we got permission to drive up the night before and stay at the apartment of the sisters serving in Morristown. It's pretty rare for the entire mission to be together at the same time. We all hung out and played games at a park in the morning, and then we went to the chapel for lunch. They fed us CAFE RIO! Not from the actual restaurant because there aren't any on the East Coast. But it was imitation Cafe Rio recipes and everything was sooooo good. Oh my goodness I had forgotten how much I missed Cafe Rio. It totally made my day. After lunch each of the nine zones in the mission did a skit. They were all so funny! President Taggart's son Spencer and his family were in town so they did a skit with their cute little kids and it was great. Then Spencer spoke to us for a while and told some amazing stories from his mission in Guatemala. It was a great day! We didn't get home until 9pm because the drive was so long.

The mission also had a mission-wide apartment clearout. Most missionary apartments have stuff (clothes, shoes, books, etc) that was left there by previous missionaries. Our apartment had three huge trash bags full of clothes left by the missionaries that had lived here over the years. For the activity yesterday,each zone had to bring as much leftover junk as they could, and there was even a competition to see who could bring the most. Now that we all have cleared the junk out of our apartments, the senior couples are going to inspect every apartment in the next couple weeks and take notes on how clean they are. The zone that has the most overall points (from bringing a lot of junk plus having clean apartments) gets a special Pday activity with the Taggarts.

I know this is probably my last transfer in this area so I am working hard and I know Hermana Bentley and I are going to see miracles!

<3 Hermana Harris