January 29th... Leaving the MTC... and a WEEK out in the field!!!

Leaving the MTC was sad but also exciting!!  I learned so much there and will never forget what a blessed, wonderful time I had there... Miracles and many lessons learned...

First week out in the mission!  What a wild ride its been!  So, i get off the bus that brought all of us to the front runner, I'm helping unload bags (because there were some wimpy elders not helping haha), I turn my head and who is walking/running toward me?!  My Tuinei family!  What a tender mercy that was, seeing them was the best thing that could have happened to me before i had to leave to the field.  I was so happy, it had me smiling the whole way to the mission office.  

So we get to the mission office and they fed us breakfast, and we met a bunch of our leaders... Who by the way, are all amazing people and I love them!  The mission president and his wife are the sweetest people and i feel so blessed to be in their mission helping the work move forward.  Transfers were that same Tuesday that i got there.  We each had to go up to the mic and say where we were from and bare out testimonies.  When i said i was from Mesa a ton of people started yelling and whooping.  Like half of the people called to this mission are from Arizona... well maybe not half, but there were a lot.  :))

After all that I finally got to meet my companion... Dundundundunnnnn... They called out, "Sister Efnor your companion is....Sister Villoso!"  I stood up and looked for my new companion..then she stood up... She is half my height and from the Philippines!  

She is such a sweet sister, shes been out 11 months and i have learned so much from her.  It was so funny when they called hers and my name because then we went to each other, and hugged i had to bend down haha!  I think it's funny because shes my trainer "mom" and I'm her trainee "baby" and I'm way bigger than her hahaha.  

Anyway, we are living in the bottom of a members house, she is the sweetest lady ever and her name is Linda, so i just imagine that I'm living in Omas basement!  It makes it feel more like home :) I have absolutely been loving it here, there were a couple days that snowed but then it would warm up and melt away.  My first day was so nice, we went around to different member families.  They were all so nice and loving.  

Our senior missionaries for our area are brother and sister Vincent, they are so helpful and it literally feels like all these senior missionaries are my grandma and grandpa, it's weird, but i love it.. 

My first dinner was a salad, which was a blessing from above, ill tell ya that! my internal organs couldn't take any more of that mtc food hahaha.  Waking up every morning hasn't been hard, surprise, surprise... And going to bed at 10:30 is no problem for me either.  

The first night i got here i knocked out like a light! Our first couple of days were kind of slow in regards to getting referrals and actually finding new people to teach..but then we went to one members house and he gave us like 13 referrals all for less active or non members in the area. That was such a blessing, my companion and I were so happy we finally had new people to  see...

So the next day we started knocking on these peoples doors, one by one, ...all told us in their own "special" way to never (emphasis on the never) EVER come back..(insert door slamming in face) haha

The first couple of doors didn't phase me, and then when i realized that we weren't going to have any success that day.. that's when i started getting depressed/angry haha not very sister like of me... Anyway, that day was just awful and i didn't feel motivated at all...then i had my first Sunday here..i had to speak in Sacrament meeting on missionary work and i talked about service..i had them laughing pretty good and guess what?  I only used one piece of paper!  Just little bullet points, and my talk lasted over 10 MINUTES! I thought that was crazy because if you know me you know I'm very nervous and would write pages.  I messed up a couple times, but i had a lot of people come up and tell me that they loved it. Whether or not they were telling me that out of pity i didn't care because it made me feel good!  Then from sacrament we went to go check on an investigator we have been teaching.  We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and guess what?....We committed her to be baptized!  She said yes!  Right after we gave the lesson my companion asked her and asked her to kneel right then and there in this members home..and that's exactly what we did!  We knelt in prayer and she prayed to her Heavenly Father if she should get baptized and, with tears in her eyes she opened them, and said that her answer was YES!  I wanted to stand up and yell "HECK YES!", but i figured that would drive out the spirit... :))

When we got into our car my companion and I were yelling so loud!  Can you believe it? 

That was a blessing!!... In my first week we have already committed someone to be baptized!  I'm  so pumped right now!  The rest of our night all of our lessons went great! 

I was told by the area missionaries that this is the second toughest area besides Park City in our mission... Because if the people here aren't already members then they have already been hounded by missionaries so they wont give us the time of day...

It doesn't matter to me because i have been so blessed by the Lord, and I'm going to try and take this momentum from scheduling this new baptism and carry it on through my mission. 

I love it out here, everyday that i am here is another testament to me that the Lord knew exactly what he was doing when he sent me here. 

Side note, we woke up yesterday to three eggs smashed on the side of our car..who new Salt Lake had haterzz haha probably one of the referrals that we talked to that one day...lol 

As for my visitors center stuff, i don't think ill be doing anything with that until i get assigned to Park City where the family center is. I don't know my address off the top of my head but i sent you guys letters with my new address on it.  Its the mission office, because if you send it to the house I'm at, i could get transferred and then its a hassle to get the mail from where ever it got sent. 

Anyway, sorry there are so many spelling errors... 

I love it here guys, its the best place on the earth (and the best mission)!  Teaching people about he gospel and growing to love them is the best feeling in the world.  I love this gospel, and I love my family, and the knowledge that I can have mine FOREVER.

Thank you all for your prayers ( i need em!)

Love Sister Dodie (Efnor)

PS... Pictures coming, and snail mail sent!