Dajia hao!
I am officially in the Utah, Logan mission! I've been in the field for a grand total of 6 days, and I absolutely love it. I have a ton to tell about, HOWEVER, one of my MTC teachers, Brother Dodge, challenged me to email him about all the miracles I see in my first week, and since I don't want to write two emails, that's what everyone gets to read about this week! (yaayy!!) This email's going to be really long, so if you don't have much time, just look at the pictures at the bottom. If you want more info about what Newton, Utah's like, and our random adventures, you'll have to wait until next week. Anyway, on to the miracles!
1. My very first miracle happened the day we got to Logan. Our first day was mainly meeting the mission president and doing some training about how to not crash your car or trash your apartment. I guess they wanted to get us out doing missionary work right away though, so they set aside about an hour where they paired us up with a missionary in the area and sent us out to knock on doors. I was rather nervous, because I hadn't expected to get started that early and I was still getting used to the idea of saying prayers and teaching in English. I was paired with Sister Rex, and by the time we got to the street where we were going to be contacting, we only had about a half hour. We knocked on a couple of doors and met some very nice members of our church. Then, when we only had ten minutes left, Sister Rex suggested that we pray and ask which house we should visit. We did, and both felt like we should knock on a door a little ways up the street. We marched up to the door, and knocked... and there was no answer. We knocked again, still nothing. There was a large window next to the door, and we could see that the entire house seemed empty, and it looked like someone was renovating the floor. I was confused as to why we would both get a prompting to go to an empty house, but Sister Rex said that sometimes we don't learn the reason for getting a prompting. As we turned to walk away, we saw a woman pull up and get out of her car. We went over to talk to her, and we found out that she is from Taiwan! She wasn't super interested in our church, but we talked about God, and I was able to say a prayer with her in Mandarin. I guess God just needed us to stay nearby for a little longer so she could arrive, so He sent us to an empty house.
2. My second miracle is my companion. Her name is Sister Anderson, and she is amazing. She was called here English speaking, but 4 months in her assignment was switched to Mandarin so she could be a companion to a sister from Temple Square and serve in Logan's little Mandarin branch. She's only had the one Chinese companion, so all the other Mandarin study she's done has been on her own. Her Mandarin is seriously impressive for 5 months of independent study. Our mission president usually waits until he's met the new missionaries before he assigns them to a trainer, but the minute he heard I spoke Chinese, he decided that we'd be together. His wife, Sister Allred, told me the second I stepped off the bus. I'm really glad because this means I have a purpose in being here in the Logan mission. I already knew it wasn't just a random assignment, but this experience confirmed that for me.
Mandarin isn't the only reason Sister Anderson is a miracle. I feel like I was able to learn a ton from my companion in the MTC, Sister Fisher, because we were incredibly different people, so we learned a lot from the other person's approach to life (love you Sister Fisher!). That was perfect for the MTC, because we were all brand new there, and seeing the way others interacted with Heavenly Father and the gospel helped me grow and stretch. On the other hand, Sister Anderson and I are remarkably the same. We're both on the quiet side, and we're both studying English. Incidentally, our first names are both Sarah. We also have similar temperaments, and ways of building our testimony. I'm really grateful for this, because it means she knows how to push me and help me become a better missionary. She's incredibly thoughtful about looking for ways for me to stretch myself and get out of my comfort zone without feeling completely panicked. With her for a companion, I've barely been scared at all my first week in the field.
3. When all of us new missionaries were introduced to our trainers, I heard a name that I recognized. It turns out that Kennedy Schultz, a girl from my stake that I've grown up going to girls camp with, is in this mission! She's training another one of the girls I came out with.
4. The people in Newton are incredible. There's a term in the mission called whitewashing, which is when both missionaries are moved out of an area and two new missionaries are moved in. It's always a little crazy, because the new missionaries are basically starting from scratch with not much more than an area book to go on. Sister Anderson and I are 'pinkwashing', which is whitewashing plus switching from Elders to Sisters. It's a lot of fun, but also hectic. The area we cover has 9 wards, so we have a lot to learn. Thankfully, the bishops, ward mission leaders, relief society presidents, etc. have been absolutely wonderful about meeting with us and helping us get our bearings. They're all super friendly and welcoming.
5. In particular, the Newton 2nd ward Relief Society president, Sister Phelps, is a miracle in and of herself. We met her briefly at the church when we stopped in to see if we could help at a funeral, and she gave us a whole list of people who needed to be visited. A couple of days later, she accompanied us on a visit to a nonmember named Scott who the previous elders were teaching. Scott is an artist, and talking to him is a fun experience because his brain goes about a mile a minute and you never know where it will go next. Our visit ended up lasting a couple of hours, and included a field trip to a neighbor's house to harvest california poppy seeds for Scott to plant in his garden. At first I felt bad about taking up so much of Sister Phelps' time, but she was really cheerful about it, and was even the one to volunteer us for the poppy harvest. She's an incredible woman. When we met her, she had her hair in a ponytail, and was in old work clothes. She was driving an old car that rattled if the AC was on and she drove too slow. Listening to her stories, we learned that she's not fancy or elegant, but she works hard and does what needs to be done. She's incredible at reaching out and lifting up the lonely, sick, and lost. She's no nonsense, and always ready to serve. I hope that one day I can be as hard working and kind as she is.
6. This email's incredibly long, but I just want to tell about one more miracle. Last night we were in Trenton, one of the six tiny towns in our area. We had met with the bishop earlier in the day, so we had a long list of names to try and contact. We decided to park our car on main street and try to visit all of the people whose addresses were in reasonable walking distance. We picked three houses, and started walking. It was an incredible experience. The people we wanted to talk to were already outside enjoying the Sunday night at two of the three houses. At the other house, while we were talking to one man, his two inactive sons just happened to show up at separate times, so we were able to teach all three of them, and are planning on going back. Our final house was the coolest experience. A single dad lived there with his three kids and his roommate. He was raised in the church, but hasn't come in years. His young son was taking the lessons for a while, but bishop said his mom made him stop. When we walked up, the dad was on the porch, so we started talking to him. He's been through a rough couple of years including getting free of drugs, working crazy long hours, and custody battles over his kids, so he wasn't super interested in coming back to church now, but he said we could gladly teach his son, if that's what his son wanted. And, he now has full custody of his son, so we're pretty sure he can get baptized now. While we were talking to the dad, his roommate and another friend drove up. We had a really cool conversation about the gospel with the three of them. Sister Peterson gave me the 'look', so I pulled out my Book of Mormon so we could share a spiritual message with them. When I went to turn to the scripture I had already prepared, I suddenly couldn't remember where it was, even though I'd just shared it twice in the last hour. Instead, I flipped through the scriptures I have marked, and shared one about how if we look to Christ and endure to the end, we will be saved. The spirit was really strong, and they really listened as I shared that scripture along with my testimony. The crowning moment of the night was when the little boy came out and he asked us if we would teach him about baptism. They're a really special family, and I'm so excited to go back and teach them more about the gospel and the wonderful blessings that they can receive.
That's all the miracles I have time for. It's been a pretty great week.
Lots of love!
Sister Hull
Pics (i'm not sure what order)
All of the new sisters in the Utah Logan mission with our trainers
Sister Schultz and I (we're both wearing pink)
My lovely companion, Sister Anderson, and I in front of the sign next to the Newton Post Office
We found some goats while trying to contact an old lady in Newton
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