1/7/14: Welcome to Janesville!

So many many many thoughts have run through my mind and I have so many stories from this week but most of it I shouldn't even talk about--so I won't--so just know this week has been epic :)

Last monday we ate lunch with a semi-recent convert, Maggie, and her bf since they're leaving town for a whole and we don't know when they'll be back, but we love them lots :)

I also made a fantastic job of tripping (no ice involved) and destroyed my knees. Our neighbor only had rubbing alcohol.

WHO BUYS RUBBING ALCOHOL WHEN YOU CAN BUY HYDROGEN PEROXIDE????? fools. That stuff hurts.

You know President gets told all about how you and your companion always beg your way out of doing role-plays every ZTM because whenever a meeting with him comes around, he asks you to do it out of everyone. Cause you can't say 'no' to the President. We spent half the week working on a training for MLC cause Sister Newton likes to have these things perfect cause they're nerve-racking. I don't blame her. Particularly when it's in front of all of the mission bigwigs.

Charity: my new years resolution. I am determined to figure out the secret to this Christlike attribute. Although, when looking out on the opportunities I have had on my mission, it becomes clear that someone thinks I have a lot of charity. I can tell something has changed to everyone else, even though I can't tell what. Personally I don't feel like I've grown into it that much. I'm working on it anyway.

There comes a time when all reactivated/baptized people must take their journey away from the missionaries. Although that time is sad because we don't get to see each other as much, it's great because we know we don't have to fear for them. They aren't leaning on us anymore and they're just as strong by themselves. This is happening with Angie and Quentin, among others. It makes me happy :)

Some members are just much too loving :) I am grateful for them.

Setting new mission goals was awesome at MLC. As mentioned previously, we hit our mission goal for baptisms exactly this year. It was 300. We've never gotten close before. We had a solid 299 baptisms planned, but everyone prayed for just one more, and some kid literally traveled here from Ohio--where he met the missionaries, took the discussions, and was interviewed for baptism--and got baptized in his proper ward in Neenah, then went back off to school in Ohio. That's what the Lord does for inspired goal-setting :)

We set 400 for this year as the goal!!
Why?
Cause we're crazy, and we believe in miracles :)

Our training went really well. At least, President was smiling at me from ear to ear the whole time. Although, looking at it with the hindsight I have just being ET'ed, I realize something a lot more than just this training is really good was going through his mind. Possibly. Long story.

We had an exchange and I went to Shawano. I like Shawano :) Sister Kern and I had a really good time there, visiting lots of people. I loved seeing how it's blooming. The past three transfers since the sisters got there it was absolutely dead. Things are finally happening!!!

It was really cold. We tracted for like an hour. It was funner than I thought it would be :)

Here's the play-by-play for Saturday:

We had breakfast to end our exchange at about 9:00. We went straight from the exchange point to helping a potential investigator move which we did from about 10:30 to 1:00. She hadn't packed at all. We bought the whole group Hardee's (which is the east-of-the-Mississippi version of Carl's Junior, just a name-change) for lunch, and had barely started eating when the phone rang cause President was calling. We took it outside. He told us that I was being emergency transferred to Janesville with Sister Boggus, and that Sister Ipson was coming to Green Bay. He told us a lot of other things too. We went back inside at the end of the phone call and my appetite was gone, which surprised me quite a bit. Besides that, the other elders that were helping us help Sandy move were teaching the crowd of movers the Restoration, and it was going really well. Geez. We jumped right in. It was AWESOME. Besides the mind-still-a-million-miles-away part.

Then we had to leave to have an appointment with Gabriella. We did all of the necessary stuff from about 2:00 to 5:00 but neither of our minds were there. We were stuck thinking about what was coming next. I was totally calm; as soon as President told me, I felt that it was right. It is still mind-boggling though.

We had investigator volleyball, which was where the elders found out about the ET. They made that just plain awkward.

I packed a lot between then and Monday and we told all our favorite people the sad news. We ate at the Mills--first time!--and at the Vanderheydens. Love them all soo much. We were busy from the moment we got the phone call until we went to bed Sunday night.

That was probably a really good thing because Monday morning whatever peace I had had before was totally gone. Completely. I felt sick; that horrible kind of sick when your about to perform a solo or something. not cool. We went to the ice skating rink I never got to go to before, and some other fun places Monday morning before we had to leave at 10:30 to get to Milwaukee at 1:00.

The car ride calmed me a lot. We mostly listened to music, and talked when we needed to. Sister Newton and I have a very good relationship:) We feel like sisters.

We got to the mission office and President Cutler interviewed us. I so wish I could go into more detail. He gave me a blessing:) Sister Ipson and Sister Boggus arrived a little later and Sister Ipson hula-hooped for us:):) We had homemade Cafe Rio for lunch with Sister Cutler. Then we swapped all our luggage and headed off to our areas.

Did I mention that the high Monday was -10 but with windchill it stayed at a pretty constant -45 all day. Schools were closed. Honestly, you can hardly tell the different between zero and negative anything--the only way you really know it's that cold is because although they don't initially feel that different, the frostbite hits your face in like two minutes. Skip the cold and go straight to pain. It's not very nice.

Sister Boggus and I had awesome conversation on the ride home and a wonderful dinner at the Tuckers. I think I love Janesville already. It pretty much feels like Green Bay. I unpacked and we just talked a ton. I wish I could properly explain all the things going through my mind and heart all that night. Too many things. It was a really good night.

We could use your prayers though :)

Sister Neal