Toowoomba!

Well I moved everyone!

I'm in Toowoomba now, it's about 1.5-2hrs outside of Birsbane and it's up in the mountains. So it's much drier and cooler here than in brizzy, which is awesome because it was really starting to get hot down there. It's a bit like if Cedar city were part of the Vegas mission, I'd be in Cedar city. It's about that size as well. The whole dynamic here is way different. People here actually go to church and there is like a church on every corner. It feels like when I was serving in Michigan all over again. 

But last week was easily one of the strangest I've had yet on my mission:

Sunday night we went heart-attacking our ward members before transfer calls which is always good fun, then we got called and sister Tai and I were told we were leaving so then we celebrated our birthday's (we have the same birthday) and then started lining up who we needed to see to say goodbye on Monday and started the beginnings of packing. 

Monday we got up and after attempting to study, but not being able to concentrate at all we left the flat at like 9am and were out going from house to house and family to family so say goodbye, members investigators less active members and just everyone we had grown to love, we did that straight until 9pm and never stopped at all or went home or ate. It was labor day which was nice so everyone was home. It was one of the most tiring days of my life. Then when we got home we had to pack all of our things up so that took until about 1am. 

Tuesday morning I woke up at 430 and went with sister Russel to go pick up our bikes where we had accidentally left them in our ward mission leaders back yard and then we had to clean the car. Then I went home showered so fast, and Sister Walter and I went over to say goodbye to one last family before the kids left for school, that I love so much that wasn't home when we went Monday. Then we somehow managed to get all of Sister Tai and I's things into our car and drove to the south side to our transfer meeting where I found out I'd be training again. WOO! So I was companionless until my trainee got in later in the week but I was paired up with some sisters in Beenleigh. I also got reunited with sister Carter from my MTC district and BYUH for the first time since we got split up when our visas didn't come through. It was a sweet sweet reunion and we played BBALL all day haha So then I got put with two sisters for the night who were whitewashing/opening up a new area where two elders used to live. One of the sisters is also training and the other has a new companion that is sick and staying at the mission home at the moment. so none of us were each others actual companion but we were all together for the next little while, which just felt weird. And then it got weirder...so we found our way to their new flat, which used to be an elders flat except when we got in it became very apparent that the elders were still living there because their stuff was all over. So then we just felt suuuuuper weird even being in there and we left again. Apparently there was some sort of mix up and the elder's weren't aware that they were supposed to move out. So we called and get that sorted out and they hurried over and packed up their things and left as quick as possible, leaving us with a flat that had lots of random boy things still in it and was pretty disgusting. The elders had been sleeping on mattresses on the floor and just ewwww it was just ewww in there. So we were all really stressed out by that and left to buy cleaning supplies, as we were driving by the shops we found a mexican restauruant and ended up just stopping and eating because we hadn't eaten all day. POor Aussies attempt at Mexican food just doesn't cut it. So by the time we got back at night and did what we could to make it sleep able it was too late to do much else. 

So the next morning on Wednesday we woke up and cleaned the bathroom until it was decent enough to shower in and then got ready for our day and studied. then we changed clothes again and commenced cleaning the kitchen for the next 4 hours. Then the assistants called us and let us know that we could go pick up our new companions. So we went to the mission home and my new companion is sister Tempany from Melbourne. It's so nerve wracking getting a new companion, it's like getting picked for teams in school or something. Anyways the plan was for the assistants to drive us out here to Toowoomba that night but the meeting went too long and there were so  many things they had to sort out that by the time they were done it was too late for them to drive all the way out here and get back. So we spent the night in the mission home! It was so fun! We got to have dinner with president and sister Henderson and sister Massy (the sick companion from earlier) And sleep in nice beds and shower in nice showers and have a nice breakfast, it was just so great! 

So Thursday morning the assistants picked us up and drove us here to Toowoomba. Except we needed petrol and all the stations were all out so we had a bit of a panic where we thought we might be stuck and run out of gas, but we made it eventually. My new flat is awesome. I live with two other sisters sister Albert (Idaho) and Tauti (Aukland, NZ) Sister Labert has only been out 6 weeks and she is the only one who has served here so she's having to show all of us around and be in charge until we figure out what's going on and she is doing great at it. So we have been spending the rest of the week at  general conference and splitting our area up so that we know what's going on. It's been crazy. I can't wait until we have everything organized and we can go out and just be effective and start finding people to teach and working with people. We do have a few of the sister's investigators that are on our side of the split area and at least one that will be getting baptized here soon which is awesome. So good things here to come in Toowoomba and I'm happy to be here! Training is kind of hard, and I feel really inadequate most of the time to be doing it but that's ok, because I don't have to do it alone. 

Sorry this was such a novel but it was such an odd week I just had to share. 

Love you all!

Happy Columbus day! 

Sister RAsmussen