February 18, 2014

This week has been the LONGEST WEEK OF MY LIFE.  I feel like I have been here forever.  So much has happened and so many changes have taken place since I have been here.  So I got here on Monday of last week and met Sister Session and Sister Bakly.  Sister Bakly is from Great Falls Montana and is serving a mini mission for a month before she puts in her mission papers.  She is awesome! hahah I love her.  She is so excited about the work and excited to teach everyone she sees. I love it.  I had a hard time settling in at first.  Sister Session wouldn't look at me or talk to me when I first met her.  Super intimidating and made me feel so out of place. But once I unpacked and got settled in, things got better.  She is a stellar missionary.  So good at what she does.  She grew up in New York but moved to SLC when she was 14.  She is this tiny little Philippine girl and has an incredible work ethic.  I am excited to be working with her here in Missoula.  We live in an AWESSSOMMME place.  We are living with members that are fairly wealthy and have a decently sized guest house with its own washer and dryer, heated tiles and our own fridge and everything. SO NICE.  I heard it is the nicest place in the mission.  But I am actually no longer there or with Sister Session and Bakly.  Haha let me give you a quick low down of what is going on in Missoula.  So the Missoula stake is about 129 baptisms away from splitting the stake into two AND building a temple.  So President has moved all of the missionaries from the outlying areas of Missoula like Ronan, St. Ignacious, Frenchtown and somewhere else I can't remember and are bringing them all into Missoula so that each ward here will have two sets of missionaries.  This is with hopes that we can double the lessons and double the work so that by the end of the year each ward can have up to 25 baptisms.  So I am still in the same ward with Sister Session and Sister Bakly but I am companions with Sister Baird. Who only happens to have been Sister Greenfield's trainer.  Haha she is awesome.  She was serving in the university ward here but President Mecham has changed all of the companionships and split up all of the leadership so we can cover more ground.  Each ward has split up the responsibilities differently but our ward has split it up according to Auxiliaries.  So Sister  Baird and I will cover all of Relief Society, Primary, and Young Women while Sister Session and Sister Bakly will cover all of Priesthood.  Meaning that we will be teaching all Less Active and investigator Relief Society, Primary and Young Women. Sadly when Sister Session got here there were no investigators and no less actives to work with, so we are starting at ground zero and it may take some time to get going, but I know that we will blow up Missoula.  I had just finished unpacking all of my stuff and getting situated when I had to pack it all up and move again.  I am now living with Sister Baird in a members home, the Poulsens.  They have 3 kids, all grown and gone and their youngest daughter is serving a mission in Mexico.  We are living in her room. Hahaha I actually love living with a member.  They are really chill and super caring and nice.  I feel at home there which is nice.  

Dad you asked what my calling as Sister Training Leader is.  Basically I go to a million meetings a week.  hahahaha It is insane how many meetings we go to.  But we are in a sense the zone leaders for the sisters.  We are who the Sisters turn to with any questions or concerns or any problems they may be having.  We also go on exchanges with the companionships and interview them to see how they are doing personally, as a companionship and just see how we can best help them in any way.  Sister Session and I cover the Missoula zone as well as the Stevensville zone where Sister Greenfield is! I actually went on exchanges this last week with some sisters in the Stevensville zone, Sister Silata and Sister Erbe.  It was so fun! I basically just tag along with them for a couple days and go to appointments with them and observe how they are doing, how they could improve and just lift them up to be the best missionaries they can be.  I came out with Sister Silata.  She is from Samoa and is learning English on her mission. I LOVE HER! She is such an amazing person.  She is so humble and caring about all the people in her area.  She has been there her whole mission and the people just love her. But that is part of why this week was so long, we have had so many meetings and then I had exchanges and then I got my new companion and had to repack and move again.  And the chaos doesn't end there.  We have Zone training tomorrow so Sister Session and I have to help set that all up and we are all speaking in church on Sunday. Busy, busy, busy.  It is hard to balance the responsibilities that I have now as a Sister Training Leader and carry out the work in my own area, but I know the Lord will look out for us and help us as we carry out our callings.  

As a Sister Training Leader I know all about the struggles of the zone, the missionaries and everything so there is a lot of responsibility and weight that comes along with this.  Sister Baird's last companion was having a really hard time which is part of the reason Sister Baird is now my companion.  She is awesome and is so much fun but needs a new vision of the mission. I just hope I can give that to her and help her love her mission again.  I am excited and ready to take on the challenge and work hard.  We are in yet another car share, so we will have to work with that somehow.  But I know Missoula is going to blow up.  It may take a few weeks to get into the hang of things and perfect the system but I know we can make the goal of 130 baptisms at the end of the year.  Missoula is one of the top baptizing zones in Montana so this is cake.  

Missoula is another college town and apparently full of hippies and meth heads.  Haha Missoula is not as pretty as Bozeman.  It is alot more grey, but it is warmer! That is a plus. 

Crazy Crazy week.  I can't really think of anything else that happened that I need to inform you of.  But this is good.  I know I am supposed to be here and that great things are going to happen here.  

Also I am growing less and less fond of dogs on my mission.....so many dogs everywhere.

Being a missionary rocks! I can't wait to tell you more about the work here.  Love you all so much!

Until next week!

Sister Missoula Moline

p.s. I GOT YOUR PACKAGEEEE!!! Thank you so much I loved it so much!!!!!! And I got a package from the ward! Hahaha Woot Woot! loved it

also here is my new address: 3711 Brandon Way, Missoula Mt 59803

peace and blessings!