Transfer day... Much to my great surprise, I'm now senior companion. AHH!! I'm still here in Bloomington and my companion is Sister Spindler who was in the MTC with me. So, we're both quite inexperienced and "driving blind" per se. I was looking forward to getting a follow-up trainer so that I could continue to learn how things are supposed to be done. I guess that's not what the Lord had in mind for me. I guess even in the mission it's true, "like mother, like daughter" - Sister Jenson didn't have a follow-up trainer either and went senior after 3 months. I miss her a lot, a lot more than I thought I would. After just a few days I've realized what a hard situation she was in with going senior so young and having to train me and Sister Haefele at the same time. I realize that I caused a lot of her stress and frustration. I've been overwhelmed a lot these past few days, and I think I can understand Sister Jenson a lot better now. I wish I could serve with her again so that I could do it right with the knowledge that I have now. But that isn't typically how life works unfortunately. But hopefully I can use what I've learned to bless the rest of my mission and others that I will serve with. I don't feel qualified to be senior companion because I don't know very much about being a missionary, but just in the last few days I've realized that I learn best by being thrown into a leadership role. I used Sister Jenson as a crutch and didn't learn as much as I could've from her. But now I have no one to lean on, so I have to step up. I've learned a lot this week, and I'm growing and stretching to fill the shoes Sister Jenson left for me to fill. The Lord knows me better than I know myself. I wanted a follow-up trainer, but the Lord knew that I would probably use her as a crutch also and not grow as quickly as he wants/needs me to.
As I said, I've been quite overwhelmed. I don't know what I'm doing all the time, and though Sister Spindler has been follow-up trained already, she's got a lot of growing room (as do I). She's very timid and has a hard time opening up and talking to people. I struggled with knowing how to help her when I was in a trio with her at the MTC, and I struggle now. Not too long ago, I was struggling with being able to open up to people and getting to know them. Sister Jenson helped me a lot with that and I'm still not very good at it, but now I have to do it. It's still hard for me, but I can see improvement. So, you'd think that since I had/have a hard time, I'd know how to best help Sister Spindler. WRONGO! I have no idea. She gets stressed and overwhelmed easily, and when she breaks down, I am totally at a loss for words. I know there's a reason why we're together, but I need a lot of help figuring out how I can best help her. I've been praying a lot for guidance to know what she needs. It's hard for me because I've never been much of a "team player" before, and I oftentimes keep to myself. It was easy to talk with Sister Jenson because we already knew each other and had common friends and places and things to talk about. It's been really hard for me to talk with Sister Spindler and really get to know her. And it's really hard whenever we are driving. Because of my lack of a license (because I lost my wallet), Sister Spindler has to drive. She hates driving and only got her license less than 2 years ago. She hasn't driven very much, and has never driven in snow (our 7 inches of snow had perfect timing - not!). It's hard for me to have patience. It's a good thing that the transfer focus is Chapter 6 in PMG - Christlike Attributes. I've been praying for love and understanding, and patience, (and also that my license will come soon!) I'm sure this will be a trying transfer for me, but I'm sure that we can both grow a lot if we go about it right. It's quite early to make a prophecy about next transfer, but I think we'll be staying together here.
Well, we had dinner at the John & Julie Searcy's house Thursday night. Turns out that Marsha Thompson (my neighbor) is her aunt. They had a friend visiting that used to live in Terre Haute - and she just happened to be Kori & Chase Ellis's landlord when they lived there. Crazy small world!
That night after visiting Brittany Luman to invite her to the stake dance, her psycho neighbor pretty much tried to steal our car from her upstairs window. She had to have been on drugs because she wasn't making any sense. It sure freaked us out though because it was dark and that's not the best neighborhood. Quite the welcome to Bloomington for Sister Spindler. :)
We went to Catholic mass with Bill and Aggie Adams on Saturday. I'd never been to mass before. It was interesting. All the recitation was weird, but the sermon was actually pretty good. they were really happy we went. We then invited them to our church Sunday morning. They had a prior commitment in the morning, but they said they could make it to the other ward's sacrament meeting. So they walked in at the last minute, all dressed up in a shirt and tie and dress. The talks were on prophets and dispensations and were pretty good. They said they enjoyed it and thanked us for inviting them. I was so happy they came! Bill said he had some questions so we set up an appointment with them for Monday, but then we got snowed in so we had to postpone it.
We got dumped on with 7 inches of snow. Needless to say, the cars were grounded. So we had to walk everywhere. Yuck. Luckily it was warmer than it had been the last few days. We had some success tracting in the morning. We got a new investigator from it. I'm not quite sure if she's all in her right mind, but I guess we'll find out when we go back next week. We left her with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and a Book of Mormon.
Wow, another novel. Sorry about that. This week has been hard for me. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I don't even want to go out, but I know why I'm here, and I know there's people I need to bless. I appreciate all your prayers on my behalf, and for missionary work around the world. Take care!
Sister Humpherys
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