First week of being senior...

Man let me tell you people being senior companion is stressful!! No it really isn't that bad. My new companion Sister Petersen doesn't care much about junior senior companion like me so we are splitting the work and doing it together. I am thankful for that because some missionaries used the time they are juniors to relax and not help. I am still doing a lot of the talking and planning right now, but it is understandable Sister Petersen doesn't know the area. We are working together a lot more since she is starting to recognize places and people. It will be no time when we get this place going. To start off the week Sister Blume and I just ignored that transfers were happened. She procrastinated so much on her packing. We started packing her stuff at 9:45 Tuesday night. We didn't finish for a very long time. Word of advice to you future missionaries reading this. When you get a transfer call go pack your bags as soon as you can. Don't wait! The worst part about packing was that I have been fighting a cold for awhile now and it is mostly just a cough now. The cough acts up a lot at night when it gets cold. I was coughing so much it took me forever to roll up the clothes in the closet. I am pretty sure I coughed up half a lung. It was so bad Sister Blume made me put Vick's on. I freaking hate Vick's!! It was the worst. I was up all night coughing even after that, but I didn't die so that's great. Best part about transfers is worrying about how you and your luggage is getting there. I offered to pulled two of the suitcases behind me on my bike to Sugarland, but for some reason Sister Blume didn't think that was a good idea. It is only an hour drive away in the car. Thankfully the missionaries around us gave us a ride. Sister Blume and Sister Jackson had so much stuff that we had to ask the Spanish Elders to take some of the bags. Good thing Elders don't have as much stuff! I wasn't looking forward to the ride with a 50 pound suitcase on my lap. It wasn't until we got to Sugarland that I started to feel super nervous and anxious. I didn't feel ready to leave my trainer and have to lead the area. I still think President Ashton is crazy for putting me in charge! Well transfer meeting started late because of some last minute changes. There was a missionary missing that didn't know he was getting transferred. I bet that phone call was awesome. Long story short Sister Blume left me and went to Herrman Park. She is going to an area with Sister Tausa. Sister Tausa came out with me and she said she isn't ready to lead either. She got a great companion so I am sure she will do great. My new companion is Sister Petersen. She has been out almost a year like Sister Blume so I was told not to worry she would help me out with everything. Sister Petersen is from Tremonton, UT and she is 21. She has burning red hair and has gotten lots of ginger comments already, but I don't think she minds. We got back late from Sugarland so it pushed back all of our appointments. We only had time for one because Sister Petersen come out of a car area. Riding right away after being in a car is a lot of work and is pretty tough. We made the best of it though. Thursday is usually weekly planning, but we spent the whole afternoon doing service instead. One of our members asked us to come over and help paint. We didn't think we would be over there all day, but it ended up that way. It is okay though because it helped strengthened our relationship with that member a lot. She also took us to lunch which is super nice! We also went to another member's home before dinner to help pick out some flowers. One of our investigator's grandmother passes away and she wanted us to help picking out the flowers. We didn't get any planning done so we had to do it on Friday. Friday and Saturday went pretty well we taught a few lessons, but we had a lot of riding to do and the wind was awful so it took us awhile to get to place to place. A few of our lessons lasted forever so we didn't have a lot this week. We did have a miracle lesson though! We have been trying to see a potential investigator for almost 9 weeks. She was a referral from the Spanish Elders. We tried and tried to see her, but she never answered her door. Then miracle we met her outside while she was waiting for her son's school bus to arrive. She set up an appointment with us, but didn't answer when we came. Saturday we stopped by just to see if something would happen. She was home and let us in! I was so happy we invited her to church and she said yes! Man I was so happy. It is things like this that make you have faith to keep trying people. Sunday was an exciting day. We didn't have a meeting in the morning so I didn't have to wake up early! Thank goodness no one likes waking up even earlier on fast Sundays. We were hoping to have 4 investigators at church. Only one showed up, but even that didn't work out so well. Our investigator was acting a little strange when I first talked to him I told him to go sit by our bags and we would be there after the prelude music. We are in the choir and we sang. He didn't sit by our stuff so I went to the back of the chapel where he was and told him to come with me. He got up to follow up then out of the blue started going up the other side of the chapel with his hands in the area basically preaching about Jesus Christ and his love. He got all the way to the front when the bishopric asked him to sit down. He didn't like that very much. I didn't know what to do but I went over there and got him to sit in the front row with me and Brother MacArthur. He said he didn't like that we didn't let him talk. Jesus was telling him what to say. We made it through the prayer and opening hymn. When we starting singing the sacrament hymn he got up and started walking out. I followed him and looked at Sister Petersen to follow. He went out in the foyer and started talking to the pictures of Jesus. He told me I had little faith and that I denied Jesus from talking by asking him to sit down. Brother Anderson and a few other brothers followed us out. He didn't want to talk and just stormed out. It was bizarre. He came back in through the back doors and we met him on the other side. He didn't want to talk to me. Brother Anderson tried talking with him outside. Meanwhile the sacrament is still going on and the other sisters were out there and saw everything happen. The Elders came out. The bishopric sent them out because they didn't want us out there in case our investigator tried to get violent. He left again and didn't come back. Brother Anderson told us to go back into sacrament and that he and some others would watch the doors in case he tried to come back. It was intense! I was kind of embarrassed, but things happen. We think he was on drugs which is sad because he was progressing so much. Many of the members came up to us after to ask if we were okay. We are fine we just feel dumb for having that happen. Sister Reeves made me feel a lot better about it. She said my leadership skills were amazing and it was great how I just took control of the situation. It is nice to see that the members understand and don't think much about it happening. President Ashton called us within an hour of church ending and asked if we were okay and gave us some instruction on what to do from here. We aren't giving up on our investigator though don't worry. News travels fast when the stake president's wife is in your ward. That is the excitement of the week. Hopefully next week we will teach more lessons and have new investigators to teach. I love you all and hope all is well. Pray for those that are sick. Pray for rain in Utah. Just pray for everything. I know of a lot of trials going on in the world right now. If you talk with the Lord he will help you through the tough times. I know that will all my heart. I love you all and be safe! Love, Sister Marie Taylor