What a great day. It almost felt like the weekend when I finished up at 4:30 and drove home in daylight and still feeling some energy. I like being done at 4:30 but I do wonder what more exciting things we could do if we were able to stay later. The young missionaries are in classes until 9:30 at night.
Today was Wednesday so the new missionaries were being dropped off. I kept looking out whenever I was in a hallway hoping to see the new missionaries. They have the process down pretty slick though because there was no disturbance at all during the day.
I was paired with a couple on Day 1, as my couple that I need to get to know. We were to question each other, eat together, spend time together and learn what struggles or questions they might have. My couple was Elder and Sister De Jong from Sandy, Utah who will be serving a mission in Charleston, West Virginia as Member Leader Support (MLS). We haven’t been told much about what we were going to be doing together and even when we questioned it felt like the questions just got swept away, but we were promised a great experience. At the end of yesterday we were told that the next day we would have about 10 minutes to prepare a 20 minute lesson for our partners. The lesson needed to include certain elements that we would be told about today. I stressed all night about this thinking how would I even know where to start. We were assured that this would be one of our favorite things about the week and that it would be a powerful, spiritual experience. They were right. The love I felt for these two after only meeting for a few minutes here and there was incredible as I carefully and prayerfully worked to bring them a message that might really help them. I was given a young sister teacher to be my companion for this activity and we met and put something together in ten minutes. I had never met this sister before the moment we began planning. I knew what I wanted to teach about but thought there would be no way I could put it all together and present for 20 minutes. I was so nervous. We didn’t even have time to write anything down or practice anything. We had points and divided up who would talk about each point. I was really worried that this was going to be a disaster, but I started out and feeling very nervous that I would not be able to remember the order we were going to talk and worried I couldn’t keep my notes straight but after a few sentences I lifted my eyes to the faces of Elder and Sister De Jong and quit worrying about what few notes I had scribbled on my paper. I was able to open my mouth and say things without any effort. The spirit touched me so strongly as we discussed things and I just tingled all the way through the experience. The 20 minutes flew by and before I knew it my turn was over and I got to enjoy a beautiful message from them as well. We have become fast friends and plan to keep in touch as we both head our separate ways.
Something really fun today was our Gospel Library App class. We learned how to tag scriptures, videos and pictures. The class was only 30 minutes long but I could have sat there for a few hours organizing and preparing topics.