8/4: Follow Up and Exchanges

Hi Everyone!

This was another great week in Plano!

Last Tuesday (July 29), we went to Follow Up training, which was a meeting with the mission president with the other new missionaries and their trainers. It was fun to see all the other new missionaries that flew out when I did and hear about all of their experiences during their first month. When we came back to Plano from the meeting in Dallas, we went tracting and then had a teaching appointment with a 9 year old boy who wants to get baptized! His dad is becoming active in the church again and they are really doing great!

On Wednesday, we had two follow up appointments from tracting on Tuesday, but one of them wasn't home, but the the other appointment we had went well! She even let us come back on Thursday to pick up some quilts she wanted us to have because she was moving soon. Hopefully we can keep in touch.

On Friday morning, all the missionaries were asked to study a page of the Book of Mormon that they were given the night before by the zone leaders. We marked every thing we notice that had to do with the "We are One" theme of our mission. Now the mission president is going to collect them all and have the book rebound so that he has a copy of the Book of Mormon with each page marked up by a different missionary in the mission, which is pretty cool!

Later in the day, I went on my first exchange with the Sister Training leaders. Sister Ph came to Plano with my trainer Sister S for the day, and I went to Garland with Sister K. Sister K is really great, she had a lot of good advice on how to be more effective and she's super nice and happy too! In Garland, people are really open to hearing about our beliefs. In Plano, there are a lot of huge christian churches (many of them teach people about "Mormons", which are pretty negative views) so many people aren't interested in what we have to say, but there are a few who are, and those are the people we try to find!

On Sunday, we went to both of our wards like we normally do. I feel like I know most of the members here now, which is really nice. Before our wards start, at 9am and at 1pm, we stand by the front doors and welcome everyone as they come in. The highlight of my week was when I was standing there by the door and this little sweet girl saw me and her eyes lit up and she ran and gave me a hug. I am really growing to love the people here, Plano is a great place!

Some fun facts about Plano:

Speed bumps are called "Speed Cushions"

In most neighborhoods people's driveways are in the backyard and lead down an alley way. There are alleys like this everywhere.

I am really growing a lot as missionary. Having time set aside every morning to really study the scriptures is a great blessing. When I take time to dive into the scriptures, I really feel God's love for the people I interact with that day. I know that really taking the time to study the Book of Mormon will change you in a way that helps you face your challenges and improve your life!

Sincerely,

Sister Danica Greenall

Here is my Book of Mormon page!

This a picture from my first district meeting! Elder H (far left elder) and Elder H (far right) are home now (they only had two weeks left when I got here!), and Elder M (orange pants) is now the district leader. We also have spanish sisters in our district now!