First P-Day in the "Field"

Hello everyone! It's been a crazy week since I last wrote! The flight was good; all the other missionaries slept but I couldn't. I talked to quite a few people so that was good. The president, his wife and the two assistants were waiting for us at the airport. It had been a long day; I'm sure we were a sorry sight! But we loaded up the luggage and headed to the mission home, which is quite a place. The sisters slept in upstairs rooms and the whole basement is beds for the elders. There are literally 18 beds down there! We had dinner with the president and his family, and shared some of our MTC experiences. We had a testimony meeting while the president interviewed us all individually. We had a good chat! He has a very impressive aura . . . I don't really know how to explain it. He speaks for the Lord!

President N. has a life-sized Yoda statue in his house. It's to illustrate his motto: "Do or do not. There is no try." I have learned quickly that I never say "I will try" to the President!

The next day I met my new companion, Sister L. We have two areas, L-ville and P-ville. Our first assignment was to deliver a Book of Mormon to a lady who had requested one from Church headquarters. She was surprised that we had delivered it in person (she had expected to receive it in the mail), but she was excited and invited us in. Her husband was also there. We taught them about the Restoration and gave them each a Book of Mormon; then I challenged them both to baptism and they said YES! I was pretty excited as you can imagine! They (A. & K.) invited us back for the next lesson and dinner on Saturday night. President N. shared this story in stake conference yesterday! How embarrassing! Sister L. says that he does that kind of thing all the time; we are in his ward so he knows our stories best.

We had to drop a couple of investigators who weren't keeping commitments. That was hard! Time is precious, especially when it's the Lord's time. And when there are people like A. & K. out there waiting for the truth, we need the time to go out and find them.

The dog story . . . we were on our way to dinner with the W. family on Sunday and had some extra time so we went tracting. My first time! No success at the doors and at the last one we got attacked by a big dog. I was turning as it bit me and was wearing tights, so my wound isn't too much to worry about. Although it does hurt, especially in the cold weather. But poor Sister L. got it pretty bad. After it bit me it ran at her, grabbed her heel and pulled her to the ground. I was in shock -- mostly at seeing my companion pulled to the ground by a dog -- but also because I never really believed this could happen. But it did! We went to the W.'s house; Brother W. gave us a blessing and Sister W. drove us to the Dublin Hospital. We went to the ER and stayed there the rest of the evening. We had to cancel and appointment which was sad, and we didn't get home until around 10:30. Sister W. stayed with us the whole time and was an angel!