Sunday, April 27, 2014

Expectations VS. Reality‏

Oh my goodness! Life! Being a missionary! My life of being a missionary! Where to begin this week? ...
 
Let me start by outlining the expectations I had for Foxboro. Personal and general experience has proven that when you first open an area, things are ... slow. And hard. Imagine coming into a totally new ward where neither you nor your companion know ANYONE, where there are no existing plans, and you don't know where anyone or anything is located. And then you have 12 hours everyday to fill with productive, work-hastening activities. AHHHHHHHHH! Needless to say, I was both excited and a little aprehensive about coming to Foxboro.
 
Now let me tell you about the reality of coming to Foxboro: Sister Badham and I have had 21 appointments in the past 3 days (not to mention church, district meeting, and an all day family history conference), and have barely even had time to breath - let alone worry about how we are going to fill our time! We haven't even had time to unpack yet! AND WE ARE SO HAPPY!
 
Q: How did this miracle occur?
A: Elder Tait.
 
Somehow the Lord in His infinite mercy has seen fit to bless us with the ultimate sister-helping Elder in the universe, who has basically taken it upon himself to schedule our lives for the next little bit until we get our feet underneath us. Elder Tait has been in Foxboro since August and knows EVERYTHING, which is good because 4 new missionaries got here this transfer! The Elders Cooney & Flory are in a trio with Elder Tait and then there's us. The 4 of us just follow after Elder Tait like baby ducklings following a mamma duck while he explains everything and introduces us to the people we need to know. We have been referred to as the Foxboro Fab Five, but I always refer to us as the "Foxy Five". (Sassy, huh?) AND HOLY MOLY IT'S SO GREAT!
 
This ward is amazing, they have already been SO supportive and there is so much goodness going on here. I feel like my brain can't even handle all the possibilities that Foxboro has already presented! All I know is that we are going to be BUSY. And a busy missionary is a happy missionary! And Sister Badham - man she's awesome! She's from Bountiful and wants to be a History teacher and is so sweet & funny and is such a powerful teacher and basically just rules. I am stoked that we get to be companions and we are already great friends! A weird phenomena has happened to us though - because we have been so busy and have had such little time to think, we haven't even had time to cover all the small-talk-stories that you usually have in the first few days with your companion. Details like family, friends, school, hobbies, and pre-mission life in general have yet to be discussed. We were laughing about it yesterday, because we feel like we know each other really well, but we don't know anything about each other! We decided that we know Sister Gledhill and Sister Badham, but we know nothing about Brooke and Marcy. It's probably because we have both been on our missions for a while (she's coming up on 8 months) and we're just so used to being missionaries! It's great. I'm sure we'll get there eventually!
 
Another expectation I had that didn't exactly pan out the way I planned was our apartment. I was expecting a new apartment with nothing in it, but instead we took over an apartment in an adjacent ward that a set of sister's just got shot-gunned out of. And boy, is it MESS-Y! We are only there until they find us an apartment in Foxboro, so it looks like I will be moving again soon. Maybe it's a good thing that we haven't had time to unpack ... but I'm sick of living out of my suitcase! Our plans for today include throwing 90% of the apartment's contents away, wish us luck! The office elders think we will only be here 2 or 3 weeks, but my current address is:
 
7 Independence Way
Apartment 101
Franklin, MA
02038
 
I am so excited to be here that I'm pratically bouncing in my chair!
Have an amazing week!
 
xoxo,
The Giddy Sister Gledhill

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