Week 4, 11/2/2020

My new Trainer (Mom), Sister Thomas

Hello everyone!! (Pretty soon I'm going to start saying ya'll so prepare yourselves for that) 

WOW this week has been absolutely insane. Definitely the longest week of my life...but in a good way ;) Its so weird to think that 1 week ago I was still at home in the basement MTC, looking back those were actually pretty good times. Anyway I made it to Florida!! And the coolest thing happened before I even boarded the plane to Florida: I met some of the Elders from my district in REAL life at the airport, and I also saw Sister Neria from the Elkridge 4th ward (I think that's the ward) but it was so fun to meet Elder Schofield and Elder Ryder in person after zooming with them everyday in October. Definitely a blessing in disguise since I was pretty scared out of my mind after saying goodbye to my family. 

After we landed in Florida we met the mission president and his wife: President and Sister Wood, and oooh my goodness they are so sweet!  They made all 26 of us new missionaries feel right at home. I also got to meet my MTC comp in person that night as well: Sister Allman! (I met A TON of new people this week) all the new elders and sisters are amazing as well. 

Finally meeting my MTC comp, Sis. Allman in person!

On Wednesday and Thursday I got assigned to a trio with Sister Thomas and Sister Martin while we waited for transfers on Friday. This is when I really got to see what being a missionary is all about.  Some rules that caught me off guard at first:

-You have to back each other out of the parking lot (I feel super dorky about this, BUT I will still do it)

-You pray over everything (don't know why I didn't see this one coming)

-you can't watch the Great British Baking Show 😢😢 (jk I was prepared for this, but it is still very sad)

Thumbs up for my temporary trio

On Friday I finally found out who my first companion would be and where my area is....and..... I'm serving in the Brunswick GEORGIA area with Sister Thomas!! I was super happy about this because I had already been with Sister Thomas for the past few days. But she is an awesome missionary and I'm so glad that we're companions (because I have a lot to learn haha). But wow Brunswick Georgia is gorgeous! Its on the coast, there are rivers running through the town, and its like a rain forest out here. I wish I had some good pics of the area but I'll send some next week! On Saturday and Sunday Sister Thomas and I got to do some real missionary work: we pulled lots of weeds, visited some members, taught some lessons, and I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting. 

Halloween was the best though! We got to spend it with this super cute southern family named the Messics. The elders in our area came as well and needless to say: it was the best Halloween ever. We even dressed up a little, went trick or treating with them, and got a ton of candy haha.  

Getting to know Brunswick...and sampling their candy!

The south is pretty great though, the food is amazing even though its smothered in butter or deep fried haha. Everyone has the cutest southern accent, they all say ya'll, and everyone looooves to talk!  If we didn't have a schedule to keep I'm sure we could stay at a few peoples houses and chat with them all day.  I've met so many amazing people this week and we have this lady we're teaching named Tina and I love her already ❤  After all the changes from this week I have definitely learned one thing: God loves all his children so much. Whenever I went into the home of a member or a nonmember I could feel of his love for them, and I feel like he has also helped me through this week a lot. It was a great week, but its definitely been hard to adjust to the rigorous missionary schedule and he's helped me feel very comforted as I've gone through all these crazy changes. 

Anyway I'm so so happy and excited to be here and I love and miss you all so much!  I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween! 

-Love, Sister Bonny:)

A little less homesick seeing Sis. Stevens

ALSO some of you may know this, but I grew up 2 blocks away and went to high school with  Emily Stevens and she's actually serving in the Florida Jacksonville mission! We've been emailing back and forth a ton, and I finally got to see her in person on Friday! It was so fun to see her and talk to her for a bit ❤ if any of you know her, you know that she's THE best and hopefully we'll be seeing more of each other!