Chipmunk

I finally took notes this week on what I could email about -- and I don't have them with me. See, we got a car this morning (SUPER EXCITING) and we went to pick it up and then on the way back we stopped to spend time with some other missionaries. We left the car and hopped in another and now we are at a mall in Salem emailing at the mac store. It feels sooooooo good to be typing on the soft, black keys of a 17" MacBook Pro. And I have a mini tablet to the left and an ipad to the right. It feels horribly apostate. And oh, soo good!

So I will do the best I can at remembering what I wanted to tell you all about from this last week.

TRANSFERS

came. I'm staying in Revere! However, my dear companion Hermana Laudie is off to new and exciting adventures elsewhere. This past 6 weeks have been the best of my mission. We never had a quarrel and were never upset, and because of that the work BOOMED! We have more people to work with then we could even imagine having time for. So when we got the call yesterday that we are getting a car I was overjoyed. Instead of taking an hour and a half to get there on the bus, we can drive 15 minutes to East Boston to visit our friend Jessica. Instead of taking 2 buses, the T, and walking to our Bishop's house, we can get there in 20 minutes by car. This is a huge blessing.  There is only one bad thing about having a car. Ok, 2 bad things. 

1) My whole mission my excuse has been, "well, yeah, but if we had a car.... [we'd have time for 4 appts. tonight] [we could drop that off on the way] [we could fill out paperwork on the go and get it all done!]." So now that I finally have a car, I have no excuses. :p Looks like we are entering a beautiful stage of the mission. 

2) People here are crazy. More than that, the roads here are crazy. 

Needless to say I am giddy as a child sitting at the wheel again! It feels great. And in perfect timing with the cold coming in! THREE CHEERS for not having to walk around in the snow. 

TRAINING

aaaaagain. Round three of training here we come! My new companion and I will be co-training a new missionary. That's right, we'll be a trio! Hermana Brown is great and I'm excited to work with her! We came out to the mission on the same day and it'll be fun to be with an MTC friend. Another bonus; she's older than me so I won't feel like a grandma when my birthday rolls around. Unless the new missionary is 19... I'm excited to train again and hopefully I'm more prepared than I was the first two times! 

Today we were talking about skills we got from jobs before the mission and how they are helping us out now. Sister Laudie graded and edited papers, and now she will be editing blog posts and articles for the digital mission! I was an F&B manager at a 5 star resort.... super worldly stuff. I can.... deliver champagne to rich people and make a strawberry look like it's wearing a chocolate tuxedo. That all is realllly helpful here with the Lord's work. But then I realized how many times I've been trained at a new job. Since I was 14 I have been trained, promoted, and trained others over and over again. I have gone to countless briefings and planning meetings. I've come up with better was to organize, prioritize, mediate, correlate, and combine ideas to produce the best results. All of this business prep actually prepped me to be a missionary! This has all been amazingly helpful the last 6 weeks especially. We have found ways of working with the 4 other elders in the ward, with the bishop, and with the members that I wouldn't have been able to wrap my brain around had I not had the experiences in training before my mission. And now I get to dump this load of knowledge on a new missionary! I hope she survives. 

Haha, ok I will be nice, I promise. I am excited to have another "daughter" and I already love her. This will be a great transfer!

I know there is more.... I can't remember.

Oh! GENERAL CONFERENCE

was incredible. I hope that everyone was able to watch it. And if you weren't, go watch it right now! And if you're not mormon, and you're interested in knowing more about it, email me and I'll send you a clip. You'd be surprised at how often I think of all of you. I often find little quotes and scriptures and ideas that I want to share with one of you and the only thing holding me back is the time and resources to be able to tell you. 

OK it's time to leave the mall. And get back to work. I love you all and I'm going to figure out a way to make these emails more interesting. I can only imagine that you're all bored of hearing from me if I'm bored writing these emails :p

Here's some beautiful pictures.

love

Hermana Hileman