Transfers and Growing Pains

March 17, 2014

So this week I finally got transferred. I am not in Sandy anymore, but I am now in Herriman. My new companion's name is Sister Gariby and she is from Galveston, Texas.

Sister Revolorio finished off Sandy in style by going to a church party and talking to some people.

I got my companion on Wednesday, and she is fresh from the MTC. Here we are on Sister Gariby's first day in the field. Pretend the picture isn't crazy blurry. These things happen.

That's our "bedroom" that we're standing in because right now we're living in someone's theatre room on some mattresses. Proof that missions are always an adventure, even when you serve in Utah. We're living with a couple other sisters and they got a hold of my camera. These are the sisters: Sister Araujo on the left and Sister Wall on the right. I left the MTC at the same time as both these sisters. Sister Wall and I were roommates in the MTC so it's fun to be living together again.

This is the first time I have gotten transferred on my mission, so I'm now in my second area. It's also the second time that I have whitewashed, which means that neither of us missionaries were in the area before and we're pretty much starting from ground zero. The only difference between last time and this time is that now I am the senior companion so I am expected to know what I am doing and I'm responsible, when last time this happened it was my first day being a missionary and no one expected me to know what I was doing. Pretty much it's like I started my mission over this week which is a tad stressful. 

But, that's how Heavenly Father helps us grow, by putting us in stressful, scary circumstances. When we were little and growing we had to go through painful growth spurts. And now we still get to go through painful growth spurts, it's just spiritual and emotional growth. I know that the Lord never expects from us anything that we cannot rise to, so I just have to have the faith to rise. Heavenly Father will always give us the strength to be exactly who He needs us to be, we just have to remember to turn to Him at all times and in all things. He expects us to come here and do hard things, but He doesn't expect us to do them alone. He will always be there for us. He never turns His back on us, we just have to remember not to turn our back on Him.

I love all of you and would love to hear how you're doing. 

Have a wonderful week!

Diana with Sister Revolorio on last day in Sandy. 

New Companion Sister Gariby on first day in Herriman.

Roommates: Sister Araujo on the left and Sister Wall on the right.

New Missionary Poster for the Stake.  Missionaries Can do it all!

The Gift of Being Awkward

So, I decided I'd start coming up with actual titles for these updates because keeping track of the weeks was just too much of a hassle.

This week I learned what an asset being awkward is to a missionary and to general success in life. This week my companion and I found ourselves in a few situations that could have been viewed as very uncomfortable, but we decided to just run with it and make the most of the situations, and they turned out to be pretty good. For example, the other day we were going to leave a note for this woman in one of our wards. She's someone who has helped us out a lot recently, so we wanted to just go leave her a thank-you note expressing our appreciation. While my companion was sticking the note to her car door, the Sister walked out of her house. So Sister Revolorio (my companion) dropped to the floor and this Sister didn't see her; she just saw me standing by myself on the sidewalk. She just looked at me and was like "Um, Sister Judd, where is your companion? Did you lose her and just decide to go off on your own?" At this point I had no choice but to admit that my companion was hiding from her, and then we laughed a bit about it and ended up having a pretty good conversation with this woman about her family and some things she was doing.

A question I have often pondered while serving in Utah is "what constitutes a salad?" This is something that I think about pretty often, and I've even talked and written about it before because it's just not something I ever had to think about before coming here. But the definition of a salad here is much different than what I am used to. Yesterday a couple was describing their favorite salad to us, and it is lime jell-o, with pineapple chunks, pecans, carrots, and grapes... That is not a salad, that isn't even jell-o anymore. My only hope is that they don't force us to eat it tomorrow. I don't think I can. But if the situation arises, I guess I will.

The weather here is a bit crazy as of late. So this is what it looked like when we left our apartment one day:

And this is what it looked like a couple hours later:

So to wrap up, what I have learned this week is that things (like the weather, and food, and people) aren't always what you expect, but they're what you get and so if you learn to love them, it makes life a lot easier and a lot happier. Second, when you're in an awkward situation, you have to just embrace it, laugh it off and do whatever you can. We're not put in situations on accident. There are no accidents. God has planned everything out perfectly so that we can grow and become exactly the person that He needs us to be. If we shrink behind the discomfort then we don't grow and don't take the opportunities to bring light into the lives of those around us.

I love you all! Have a wonder beginning of March!