8/19/13: Packerland!

People who live within 20 blocks of Lambeau field make a killing selling spots on their mowed lawns for people to park on during game days. You can cram like 4 cars onto a normal sized lawn. That's how crazy Green Bay is.

This week I got to go on two exchanges with the Manitowoc sisters. The first was in Green Bay, which was weird because 1) I don't know this area at all yet and I was in charge and driving for it, and 2) my companion actually expected to learn something from it...and she did! We both did!

The second one I went to Shawano which just got opened like a week ago, so neither of us had much of an idea what was going on there, either...yeah. But it was still extremely productive and we both grew so much! I LOVE EXCHANGES

Sister Erickson and I have been finding some cool ways to use reverse psychology on our sisters(and our investigators) so that we can help them focus on learning things without them knowing it...it's really fun when it works out >:)

This ward has some 200 less-active members in it, and we've been finding all kinds of success from working with them! It's awesome! We have so many families that we're working with and they all rock. It's pretty amazing to see :)

I got a little overwhelmed at the beginning of this week on monday realizing that I had 1) to do a training at DTM tomorrow 2) an exchange in an area I barely knew 3) while driving for the first time on my mission, then 4) another exchange on Saturday and still not sure who was going where, followed by 5) teaching Sunday school on Sunday, plus 6) we were trying to deal with a set of sisters that are not even slightly getting along, not to mention 7) regular missionary work. All crammed into a week. But as soon as Wednesday came i just kinda...forgot about it and it all worked out! It was super cool!

We did our service at Habitat for Humanity on Friday, and Sister Erickson wasn't feeling good and we ended up sleeping pretty much all day after service and lunch at about 3:00...it was much needed, and I think it helped a lot with the stress. Because we didn't get done any of the things we wanted to get done on Friday, though, it all got pushed to Saturdays exchange, and Sister Erickson and her companion for the day worked MIRACLES with it! God works in mysterious ways, it's true!

I got to hear Hmong people talk. I can't believe that's a language. I also got to see their festive clothes--super cool and colorful! It's awesome! And our ward got the Hmong elders back this week, and we had all kinds of things prepared for them to keep them busy :)

So I don't have a whole lot of eventful stuff from this week, but you should all know that Sister Erickson is FANTASTIC and I am learning more about the Packers every day...and about the area. I just hope I'll be ready for when Sister Erickson heads home :(

Funny story: On Saturday during the exchange in Shawano, we couldn't find ANYBODY home. It was ridiculous. Then I got back to Green Bay (about an hour and fifteen minutes away) and discovered that there had been a Packers game, the Big Ships festival, and the county fair going on...no wonder that guy watching sports didn't answer his door...[football watching gets obsessive around here]

But anyway, life as a missionary is great! I am struggling to help one of our sisters, but our exchange is this week and it was awesome to see our last few exchanges have their own sorts of miracles, even when we had no idea what we were doing! So I'm hoping that something miraculous will come out of this one!

Wish us luck!

Love,
Sister Neal

PS The halfway-point for our exchange with Shawano was Seymour. Home of Charlie, who made the first hamburger EVER! Super random...