Stormin' Norman

Right after OKC, I found myself being taken to my next area: Norman--the home of the Sooners! I had the opportunity to work with people my own age in the Young Single Adults ward. We knocked on hundreds of doors, taught many lessons, and prayed with most everyone we came in contact with (Have you ever prayed with someone from China who has never ever prayed before and let alone didn't know who Christ was? Or what the Bible was? I have!). People always told me that the people in Oklahoma would not be receptive to our message (after all it is apart of the Bible Belt). I found Oklahoma to be very faith-based, but at the University of Oklahoma I found there to be much faith and yet less faith. It is a school well-known for its engineering programs and so we came across many who were scientific-minded, who didn't know how to feel the spirit, or who succumb to the peer pressure of their social cliques. I spent 17 weeks in this place. There were many laughs and many tears and, in the end, it left me a pure-crimson-blooded Sooner fan.

I got a new and really fun companionship

 I got indoctrinated pretty quickly in becoming a Sooner fan

 The football stadium is the center of the town,

just as football is at the center of their lives.

(My first day at church, one of the leaders got up and said:

"Here in Oklahoma we have two religions: God and football.

Right now, it's football"

Maybe not so much for the LDS culture, but football is life there)

 The symbol of OU is everwhere, even on this Sonic burger.

(Note: Sonic was invented in Oklahoma)

Life in Oklahoma is all about 3 things:

America

OU

and, of course, Braum's Ice Cream

(as this picture depicts)

The campus was the most beautiful campus I had ever seen!

This place really became home.

Here we are making Thanksgiving dinner.

Walking to District Meeting in the dead of winter

Some days were really tough.

Then we'd make it harder by having to choose which flavor ice cream to eat.

Thanks to the elders, though, they often made that choice for us.

The best thing about Norman, though, was the friendships that were made.

And the knowledge that every picture you take is going to be photo-bombed.

Norman taught me so much! It took me places mentally and spiritually that I had never imagined that I would go. It became home! We saw a lot of success and I truly learned what it meant to love others. We experienced fear, love, death, and life. It was truly "the best of times", even though some of it was "the worst of times" (to be talked about in a later post). I am so glad that I got to serve here! Also, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to return (so keep reading future posts!!!).

My Mission's First 24 Weeks

I'm back, ya'll. It's been 8 weeks since I came home. There have been tears and laughs all the way through these weeks. I served in the Oklahoma City Mission and I learned to love the people, the food, and the diversity. Best 18 months FOR my life. (I once learned that if your mission is the best 18/24 months of your life then what does that say for the rest of your life? But it is the best months FOR your life. It changes you. It prepares you for adulthood more than ever--at least that's what they tell me and that's what I'm about to find out) I spent 6 weeks of what I call "torture" in the Provo-MTC. I was overwhelmed and claustrophobic by the over-crowded, too structured, and enclosed environment. Don't get me wrong--it was worth the friendships made, the lessons learned, and the salads eaten. (I never cared too much for the food. I picked at all my food and refused to eat most of it. However, the salad bar was the best part and the all-you-can-drink chocolate milk had to be the best!)

The District

In the MTC, we basically sat down at desks for six weeks and learned Spanish and got drilled in how to teach the Gospel. I can't tell you much about what I learned in the MTC. To me, it was more about dropping the world at the front gates, learning the discipline of missionary work, and sucking in all things spiritual. I had the opportunity to be there for Easter and for General Conference. I just remember the feeling of happiness and of feeling like we were about to do something great.

Lunch Hour: We let loose a little and celebrated Easter

Elder Nelson and his look-a-like bunny

Sometimes sitting in a classroom all day gets to you.

So you do random things for fun during study time.

It seemed to take forever but eventually we all received our travel information. It was like Christmas! We couldn't wait to go out into the field and to our assignments of Mexico, New York, LA, and Oklahoma. The white prison-style bus could have come quicker. The plane could have gone faster. But eventually I made it to Oklahoma. We got shuttled around left and right, briefed, given new companions, and I found myself kicked out of Oklahoma and shuttled down to the very "darkest depths" of the mission: Wichita Falls, Texas. We found ourselves opening an area, trying to find people to teach, speaking Spanglish, and laced up with a couple of baptisms. 

#TexasPride

First sisters to serve in Texas in our mission!

After the fastest paced 6 weeks that I ever did have, I found myself shuttled back up to OKC to work in the Spanish Branch and the Moore tornado that had just happened. The weeks that I spent there were amazing! If I had a dollar for every taco I ate, I'd be rich! (Did you know that you can make a taco out of anything and everything? Or that when people say that something is spicy that it really isn't but when they tell you the it isn't spicy that you might as well have chewed a ghost pepper whole?) The people were nice! We worked the ghetto full of drug-dealers, creepy men asking for marriage, and some of the poorest people that I ever had the humble pleasure of meeting. We would knock on the doors and if they weren't interested then they would say so politely and often offer us water or a taco. 

Mormon Helping Hands: We Got This

 Zone P-Day: OKC Zoo

 Here we are being completely dignified

 4th of July with Mynor

Soaking wet after biking in the rain. 

#WaterPark4Missionaries

So that's it for now. My first 24 weeks in the mission: 6 weeks of MTC survival, 6 weeks of doing the Tour de France (world's longest bike race)--I mean Texas (on bikes it's pretty much the equivalent), and 12 weeks of Little Mexico/OKC. It couldn't have been a better start to the most special period of my life! Stay tuned for more briefing on the rest of my mission, mission stories, my current life events, and the discoveries that I come to make. 

Love life. Love Oklahoma.