Sister Akayla Juliann Ferrara: First Full Week in the Field

Oh my word...I don't even know where to start!!! I can't believe it's already been a little over a week since I've been here! First few days were extremely overwhelming and I honestly was just feeling like I wanted to hide myself in my room all day every day, but then I realized that I am a missionary. I have work to do. The people here need me and I need them. I chose to do this and I know with ALL of my heart that this is what I'm supposed to be doing and I sure can't learn and progress if I just sit around. I have to get up off my bottom even though I'm feeling homesick and overwhelmed and get to work! Every day just gets easier and easier.

Since the day I got here I spent just about every single day here at the Trail Center! Thursday was the very first day we had time in our area which was a bit crazy, but it's what I needed my first week! The Lord knew that I needed a lot of time at the Trail Center to get comfortable with it and the sisters. It wasn't too busy at the Trail Center so some days I only gave one tour or so. I finally got the courage to take a tour all by myself! It was a really rough, but luckily they were LDS so it wasn't so bad. I was able to share a scripture and quote with them and it turned out fine. Thursday morning we had zone conference and it was so excellent! Kinda frightening because I didn't know any of the other sisters or elders besides the ones serving at the Trail Center, but the training was so amazing! It was focused around families...preparing for our future families and also helping to strengthen families in our areas. It was excellent!

Sister Mahlstede and I have experienced some amazing little miracles the past couple days...so we drove to our area and were unsure of who we should go see because one of our appointments fell through, so we parked somewhere and prayed and asked for guidance. I had a very strong feeling that we needed to contact Sister Otero a less active in our ward whom we've talked about a little bit. Wasn't sure why...but we tried calling her and no one answered. I was a little confused of course...so we prayed some more and waited patiently for Heavenly Father to give us some direction, and the SECOND we ended our prayer our phone rang and it was Sister Otero!!! Turns out she is recovering from surgery and she told us she was so grateful we called and we were able to set up a time to go visit her this afternoon! AMAZING! It's so incredible because the Lord really is aware of every single one of us. He heard our prayer and knew we needed guidance, and he also knew that Sister Otero was needing comfort and someone to talk to and visit her. Mind blowing...missionary work its so cool :)

Anyways...Friday we had weekly planning...a 3 hour long planning session. Holy cow...I didn't think it was possible to plan for such a long time period...but it is. Then we had some appointments and was able to meet a new investigator, Mary who only has about 3 teeth but she is such a sweetheart! Has a dog that was rubbing and licking us the entire time we were there which was pretty disgusting, but we were so grateful to meet her. We've been encouraged to invite people to be baptized during the first lesson, so I did because the Spirit prompted me to, but she rejected me :( For now ;) She's really very prepared so we're hoping to be able to open her mind and heart this coming week. A lot of the investigators that we teach are very old women because part of our area is an old folks apartment complex. They're all so sweet and love to talk! Haha there was a time this week where we visited a less active old lady and we were hoping to just stop by and share a little scripture with her because we had a dinner appointment in 15 minutes, and we ended up staying for like 45 minutes because she would not stop talking haha!

So I have to tell you about our incredible day yesterday!!!!

Church was amazing and I'm getting a lot more familiar with the people in the ward! I quizzed myself all throughout church to see how many names I could get! And then we went straight to the Trail Center! Guess who we saw!!! AHHHH!!!
First, one of the sisters from the district videos came in with her husband! SO COOL! I don't remember what her name is in the videos, but holy cow! She's so beautiful and I got to give her a tour! It was so neat! Obviously I felt so intimidated but the Lord gave me strength to feel at ease and know what to share with them. All the tours I give now are all by myself and each one gets better and better! It's really incredible because when you're in first chair and it's your turn to give a tour the people that come in are specifically meant for you. You are meant to give those people a tour. It's so amazing....this place has become so special to me already.

Ok anyways...then about an hour later the first counselor in the General Primary Presidency came in! OH. MY. GOSH. She is such a sweetheart and just made us all feel like she had known us all forever. She kept giving us a million hugs and telling us how grateful she was to us for our service. I guess her daughter lives here in Omaha, so she was just visiting them because her grandson just got the Aaronic priestood.

THEN....Glinda playing in Wicked from the Broadway Musical came in! It was such an amazing day! We were teasing and saying that we were waiting for the prophet to come in next! But anyways...I wish I had more time because there's so much more that I want to tell you, but I really have to go. I really love being a missionary. The humidity is definitely a killer, but I love being here in Nebraska. There's no place in the world that I'd rather be right now! I love you all so much and hope you're doing well!

Sister Ferrara :)