Sister Akayla Juliann Ferrara: Transfer Week :) 10/5/2015 My last transfer!

SO, I am just about the happiest little NOM missionary that you could ever be. It was transfer week, so let me tell ya how it went... :)

Monday we had the deep clean at the TC. So exciting. I love spending time with all my sisters so much more now that I'm not the TC leader. We have so much fun together and I feel like I can finally call them all my best friends because I don't have stewardship over them so they can't be mad at me for telling them what to do or anything haha ;)
Tuesday we had exchanges and I got to stay in Elmwood with Sister Trusty. Such a good day! We had lunch with Sister Berry and made about a million cookies with her and got to take a bunch home so that was fun. Saw Gary and Dusty and taught Dusty about missionary work and service, saw Karma Johnson and read 2 Nephi 4 with her. It was so good. She just always struggles so much and I felt like 2 Nephi would be the perfect chapter to read with her and she loved it! Then we saw Brother Powell. Oh, so happy :) Tried to teach him the Restoration...as much of it as we could get out before he started "teaching us" because he always says that he's the teacher who has to train us. Yeah, whatever....gotta love him! Then we had dinner and did yard work for Sister LaPier and I got to mow her lawn again. I'm becoming a pro ;)

Wednesday we had district meeting, then saw Sister Fofanah who is a semi-active member and we taught her the Restoration. Still haven't gotten any referrals from members BUT we've been getting referrals from other missionaries which have been so great! Anyways, then we just tried some people and worked on the area book for the rest of the night. That night we got a call from President Gardner who told us that Sister Strong was going to be transferred to Walnut Creek to be with Sister Hodges and that Sister Hyde was coming to Elmwood to be with me! I jumped up for joy and screamed...I think President thought I was a little crazy. Sister Hyde and I have been really good friends for months and we have been teasing and saying that she should come to Elmwood and guess what...we got our wish :) Dream come true! Sister Strong was really shocked and a bit nervous. She's been in Elmwood for 7 and a half months and it's her baby area so she cried quite a bit. It'll be so good for her though!

Thursday we deep cleaned the house in preparation for transfers. I love cleaning! It felt so good to get everything a little more organized and scrubbed. After that we just saw a bunch of people that Sister Strong wanted to say goodbye to. It was a great day!

Friday morning we went to transfer point and had to be there at 7:45. Woohoo! Every single companionship at the TC got changed so all 24 sisters were at transfer point. That's never happened before. It was nuts! Ok, so Sister Hyde is from Ogden Utah and has 2 older brothers and then a younger one. Only girl. We have had so much fun together already! After transfer point we got a couple things unpacked for her and then did some weekly planning to get her introduced to the area. Then we got to serve at Seven Oaks for about an hour before our TC shift that night.

Saturday...felt like waking up on Christmas morning! General Conference! We had birthday breakfast and then we were on shift that morning and luckily no one came in for tours so I was able to watch all of the session. It was so excellent and inspiring! So thankful to have a living prophet on the earth today. That night we stayed at the TC to watch the second session. We were all so excited to hear who the new apostles were to be. Then we had dinner with Gary and Dusty. Oh man, I told Sister Hyde that she was in for a treat ;) After that we saw Brother Powell because he called us and really wanted to meet the new sister so he could "break her in." Haha he's hilarious.

Sunday we watched the first session with the Skis and then had some lunch and went to the Pearsons who are a young coupe with 2 little kids and watched the second session and stayed for dinner. After that we had scheduled an appointment with our new investigator, Matt, from last week but he wouldn't answer our phone calls so we weren't sure if he was still planning on it so we went to the retirement home anyways and tried our referral from there and then Matt just happened to be right there on the same floor and asked if we were looking for him. He told us he was out of minutes so that's why he didn't answer our calls or texts. We had the BEST lesson ever with him and taught him the whole Restoration in a more detailed version. He is like the most normal man I have ever taught in this area. It was so cool. We met in the bird room (Remember that picture I sent a couple weeks ago with the bird?) and the birds were chirping like crazy but the Spirit was still so strong and when Sister Hyde started reciting the First Vision the birds immediately stopped chirping and you could tell that Matt could feel the Spirit. Such a powerful lesson. We gave him a Book of Mormon and tried setting him for baptism but he said he wasn't sure quite yet. Don't worry, we'll get him. He is so prepared. He has really bad depression so that's why he's in this facility so he could get his medications stabilized and everything. He's divorced and has a sweet girl named Hannah who's a senior. He was raised in the Catholic church but has recently decided that he wants to explore other religions. So cool! And that was my week :) Hope you all enjoyed conference also and that you will all think of something that the Holy Ghost prompted you to do that you can change and a way to become better. I love you all :)

Sister Ferrara