Pouring down in Portadown
Sunday feb.4- We had fast and testimony and it was so amazing! Then we went to district meeting and our own testimony meeting for the people who didn't go up in sacrament meeting. Then i napped of course after church. Then we had a devotional after dinner and listened to Neil L. Andersons talk about how we can never let the flame go out on our missions which was cool. Then president Bunker gave a short devotional after. Then right before we were about to close the meeting President says, "i just want a couple of people to come up and bear there testimonies." and as he was saying this he was looking directly at me and i was like oh crap he's going to call my name. And he called up four people and i was one of them haha. but something that was really cool was before all the devotionals this elders grandpa died like the night before and they were really close so president invited him up to talk about his grandpa and say what he would say if he was at the funeral. it was really cool. then after the testimonies all of us at the mtc got up and sang, Joseph Smith's First Prayer and God Be With You Till We Meet Again to president and his wife and it was such a spiritual moment. And the second verse of Gbwytwma the german speakers sang it in german and it was awesome. man i loved the mtc. every night in the halls the sisters always sing a song to see if we could sing loud enough for the elders to hear (the elders and sisters hall is divided by a door) so we went up to the door and started singing loud and then the elders sang back and it was so amazing haha
Monday- was just a normal day. not too interesting. exercise time was really fun though because the whole mtc was there
Tuesday- i left the mtc that morning. It was very hard to say bye to everyone especially the foreign missionaries because we willl probably never see them again :( We had to get up so stinkin early to leave though haha at 4:20 we woke up. then the buses left at 5:45 and it was pitch black outside. since it was so dark outside when we were on the bus the only thing we could see outside was cars headlights. it reminded me of star wars when they go into light speed haha. Then i fell asleep on the bus and woke up and there was snow everywhere! it was so beautiful but so flippin cold. Then we got to the mission home and the house literally looks like you’re in the 1800s hahah it is cute. but when we got there they had this amazing dinner waiting for us. i was so excited because i was so hungry. when we sat down at the table we had to leave a chair open next to us so the trainers could come in and sit next to us. so the trainers came in and sat next to us and we all started to eat. but as i was trying to eat the trainers wanted to talk to me but i didn't want to talk, i wanted to eat! so i’m trying to talk to the trainers while stuffing this dinner in my mouth. it was just one big mess. haha But after dinner we had to sit in a trainee meeting for seriously 3 to 4 hours, it was sooo long and you had to pay attention cause if you didnt they would call on you haha then we got interviewed by president Donaldson. then we got paired up with our trainers and my trainers name is sis. Lough pronounced (low). she's super cool and we get along really well which i am so happy about! haha i was so nervous. she is from American Fork, Utah. Then we all went out street contacting or as they call it here GQing. that was interesting haha oh yeah and we found out also where we would be serving and i am serving in Northern Ireland in this little town called Portadown.
Wednesday- We woke up at 4:30 and got on bus after bus after bus, like three buses. then we got on a ferry for about three hours and i got super sick. so i went outside on the deck and it was so windy it was funny. i went inside and ate mac n cheese and felt way better. Mac n cheese can cure any illness, ill tell ya that. then after the ferry we got on another bus (the buses we rode on reminded me of the bus in harry potter that zooms through all the cars). then we got on a train and finally made it to portadown at around 4pm! haha it was a long traveling day but we went straight to work and went GQing and then we went chapping (door tracking) and i really liked it surprisingly.
Tuesday-Saturday- i dont really know how to explain all of this but basically our normal routine is wake up at 6:30 exercise. 7-8 get ready. 8-9 daily planning, 9-10 personal study. then we got out to GQ. so here in Portadown everyone is from Portugal and so we willl find someone to teach but we can barely talk to them so we have to give them to the elders because they speak Portuguese, so thats really frustrating. so me and sis. lough are trying to learn some Portuguese phrases so we can talk to them. didnt think i was gonna be speaking another langauge on my mission. haha Some guy tried to bash with me and would ask me questions and i would answer him and he would say, "well how?" to everything i would say. so i started asking him questions about his religion and he would asnwer them and i would respond the same way he would with, "well how?" and he didnt like that all too much haha. but it rains here all the time and it has snowed the past three days like crazy snow too. one night we were chapping and literally three inch snowflakes were falling! it was so beautiful though. All of our lessons cancelled on us this week except for one and i invited them to be baptized and they said no hahaha i was like no worries man, we will keep working with you haha. he believes in aliens and stuff and wants us to ask President Nelson about them because we were talking to him about prophets haha it was funny. one day it was raining so hard and me and Sis. Lough were talking to someone on the street and i looked at her and it looked like she was crying. but really it was just the rain taking her makeup off and her mascara was running down her face haha it was so funny. our town is so small that we walk up and down the same street when Gq all day and we Gq a lot because our appointments always bail. but there are only old people in the town, which i though i would like, but they are all super religious and dont like talking with us. so whenever we see a younger person like in there 20s, we track them down. hahah its so funny. but this one old guy was spitting on me when he was talking to me and i was dying i wanted to throw up and this other old guy raised his cane at me one time like he was going to hit me haha it was awesome. we say so many dang prayers, i literally have bruises on my knees from praying haha it's the best. Saturday morning was really rough and i was just so tired and sad because both our lessons cancelled that morning and so i was like we are going to work our butts off and find people to freakin teach and we did! and we had so much fun doing it hahaha We also teach english class wednesday and saturday nights and its so fun hahah
Sunday- Church was really hard becasue i didnt know anyone and almost everyone doesnt speak english. so we have transponders in church where you put the ear peace in your ear and Pedro in the back translates behind this curtain into the earpiece. (it reminds me of wizard of Oz where the wizard says, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain haha) but that night we went to pedros house for dinner and my comp was getting my hyped for it because he is an amazing chef. so we sit down at the table and he brings out muscles and clams. i about died and just had to scarf it down with orange fanta haha but it’s really great here.
Sister Neilson
