So hello family! Oh what crazy news I have to share.
We found out about transfers on Saturday and the following occurred: President asked, "Sister Bolliger, do you love the Lord?" I responded in the affirmative, of course, but a bit apprehensive of what the follow-up questions would be. "Sister Bolliger, are you ready to stretch?" he queried again. I replied that I loved stretching every morning for exercise. Haha. Then the bomb hit. "Sister Bolliger you will be step-training Sister Lemalu and taking over the Visalia 3rd ward as Senior Companion." Duh duh duhhhhh.
Step-training in the California Fresno mission just means that you continue to assist the newbies--continuing to train someone who has been out six weeks. So, Sister Lemalu has been out for one transfer, and I will continue helping her learn and grow and experience on the mission. Ahem. I have only been out one transfer longer than Sister Lemalu!!! Gah! I don't know how to fill out baptismal record forms. I don't know how to really teach the law of chastity. All things that are coming up in the next six weeks. Haha. There are several other English sisters that have been out for months to over a year...and for some reason poor Sister Lemalu is stuck with Sister Bolliger. I guess the Lord is keeping us clueless--and doing a great job of it. :)
There are some great fringe benefits of staying here in Visalia though. Sister Hernandez is training (as in straight from the MTC) and moving to the Spanish branch in the stake--which means we'll still be sharing the church building! And, turns out we'll be sharing more than that! There is an extra number of missionaries in the mission right now, which will be fixed in October when a number of missionaries return home. Because of that, the mission doesn't want to rent any more apartments for an issue that will eventually fix itself. Sooo...Sister Hernandez and her companion are going to be staying in the same apartment with Sister Lemalu and I!
President calls it an exercise in restraint for us and our "frivolity" but we are excited. And I feel blessed. This way I can find out information and gain strength from a resource that will be sharing living quarters with me! It will be weird though to have my old companion be companions with someone else though. :( Both of us are nervous, even though Sister Hernandez has trained three times before, and so I think we'll be gaining strength from each other!
Sister Lemalu is going to be so fun to be companions with though. She is from Samoa, so I will be greeting her with a hearty "Talofa," but she grew up in Australia and you know what that means--coolest accent ever!!! I think street contacting will be much more fun now. I might even turn up the texas accent a bit. What a dichotomy.
Speaking of frivolity, the other day while walking down an empty hallway at Church to go to Relief Society, Sister Hernandez, Sister To'a and I became engaged in a mini flicking battle. Haha. Then we heard, "Sisters" and turned around to see a man in a nametag. I was about to look around for his companion until I realized that it was President Gonzalez!!!! Ahhhh. Hahaha. He greeted us, and said it was amusing to see such "displays of frivolity." I guess he was glad to see us, albeit not being quietly dignified, getting along.
I am seriously going to miss the triple combination. I didn't know it was possible to have this much fun while working this hard--but it has been a true joy with these sisters! From the most intense game of slugbug you'll ever see to learning how to do Tahitian and Tongan dance, there has never been a dull moment. Even flies want to get in on the action which only provides for more fun in seeing Sister To'a show her Tongan strength by killing them with her bare hands.
I think that whenever you become comfortable then changes happen in the mission to keep you in a position of having to rely on the Lord. It was wonderful working with Sister Hernandez. We were on the same wavelength todos los dias, had the same sense of humor, and both were up to working hard. It was wonderful because we'd both be thinking about similar directions for our investigators and it was so wonderful to always be able to bounce ideas off each other and agree on most issues.
I received a letter yesterday from an investigator in Fresno! She wrote me and told me that she missed me and that she's getting baptized! Wahoo! I love her and am so happy for her decision!!
Things are still progressing here in Visalia 3rd! I still have some major growing up to do. Blast. The Lord has a lot of faith in me! Gah!
Love all of y'all!!! Stay cool!
Sister Bolliger
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