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.
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