Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Going home... My mission Home!

Judging the Chili
Trunk or Treat! Sisters Martinez and Murray



Well, I'm being transferred (which surprised me). And I have been called to serve as a Sister Training Leader (which surprised me even MORE.) Do you want to guess where I will serve? Arlington! (I would have fallen out of my chair by that point, but I was already sitting on the ground! Arlington is the first ward I served in! I'm going back to my homeland, "birthplace." Pete has been praying I will come back. I think he might cry. Haha, I think I might cry!)

Am I excited? Yes!
Am I super scared for the leadership responsibility? Yes!
Do I know this is where he Lord needs me? Absolutely!

Quick explanation of the calling of Sister Training Leader: Every Zone in our mission has a companionship of Sister Training Leaders. These sisters go on trade-offs with the sisters in their zone. They are to be a good example and to support and uplift the sisters they work with. I will also go on a trade off with the Sister Training Coordinators (sister versions of the Assistants). We go to Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) once a month like the Zone Leaders. We learn from the trainings given there and then we present those trainings to our respective Zones. I will be in the Jax East Zone! 

Monday evening we were at the Janson's home for dinner. Before we sat down to eat I checked the phone and saw that President Craig had called. I listened to the voice mail and he said he needed to talk to me. I stepped into the hallway to talk to him, but apparently I was so nervous I put the phone on speaker phone so everyone heard anyway, haha! I'm not sure what I said between President saying, "Hello Sister Murray" and "Bye, love you!" But somewhere in there I accepted the call to be a Sister Training Leader!

I was super nervous about the call and not knowing where I would be serving. So when I heard my name when President got to the Arlington Ward I about went into shock! Ok, not really, but I'm sure the expression on my face was priceless!  I started thinking about the area and the people I love so much. Let's just say I didn't sleep easily last night! 

This week we had a meeting with our new Ward mission leader, Brother Granto. He is going to be a great leader!

The Ward Trunk-or-Treat was super fun! There were a ton of people there, but between trying to judge the chili and handing out candy it was all kind of a blur! The judging wasn't as organized as it should have been. We were trying to number the chili as we took samples, but people kept bringing more chili and we were holding up the line so we just grabbed bowls of chili and took them to a table. We tasted the chili with the Elders and assigned awards. Sister Martinez and I came up with the awards and even had scriptures that went with each of them. Brother Granto had spray painted wooden spoons gold and everything. And then it was announced to move our cars for the trunk or treat so we ran outside to move our car, thinking the Elders would get the awards handed out... but apparently they never got handed out! After thinking of all the scriptures, making the spoons, and braving Elder germs to taste test the chili... and I tried Brother Granto's "judges only chili." He has this super spicy hot sauce called the Bomb. He always makes the Elders try a drop of it and 3 out of 4 throw up because it's so hot. So he put some of that into a chili. I gave into the peer pressure and ate one bean. My entire face went red, but I’m still alive! No awards. It will be better planned next year! Our trunk turned out great! It was so fun!

This week we also got a progressing investigator! Elders Baldwin and Tauoa's area is being closed so they passed off Ramona to us! We were all going to her lesson so we could explain that they were handing her off to us. So we show up and all the Elders are there talking to her so we walk over and they get up and leave! It was so awkward because they hadn't explained that we were going to teach her! But she is super sweet and she was really good about it.

We also had an extra trade-off with our Sister Training leaders this week. I went to the YSA area. It was a lot of fun! It was also really great for Sister Martinez. They figured out how to ride the bus to get around the area. We were going to try it again, but we haven't gotten to yet. So I guess I won't be doing that before I go.

It's going to be a good transfer! I'm excited for the miracles ahead! Thank you for all your support!

With love,
Sister Murray