And She's OFF !!

We had a wonderful 14-minute phone call with Abby this morning from the SLC Airport.  She was made the "Team Travel Leader", responsible for getting all 20 missionaries off the Mission Training Center (MTC) bus and onto the TRAX light rail to the airport, then getting them checked in.  Thankfully, she knows how to delegate.

She was a mix of emotions on the phone - excited & nervous, happy & anxious, and after a few minutes on the phone, admitted to being a little homesick (which is why missionaries aren't allowed to call home once they arrive in their missions - it's just too hard and it makes them more homesick).  But more importantly, she was upbeat and ready to get to work.

We received a very nice letter from President Sorensen, the Mission President over the Idaho Nampa Mission, along with a photo of Sister Aase with Pres. & Sister Sorensen.

I'll share a little from the letter we received:

"After arriving at the mission office and conducting a brief orientation of the mission, I had the opportunity of interviewing your daughter, in an effort, to become better acquainted with her and to feel of her spirit.  As a result of this interview, I felt impressed to assign your daughter, as a companion, to the most obedient, most skilled, and hardest working missionary in the mission.  You can be assured that this companion is one of our mission’s very best."

One of the things Abby has told us several times during her time at the Mission Training Center, was that she wanted to work hard - so it looks like she'll be doing just that!!

Sister Aase & Pres. & Sis Sorensen

Wait a second.... we are fish!

This week my district decided to be fish haha:) Sister Bentley got the cutest package with all fished themed things including seaweed, a fish protein bar, and fish stickers! We all decided to eat this nasty stuff together as a district for a “district bonding activity”. Needless to say, we sure became closer after seeing about half our district almost throw up... including me! Sooooo nasty haha. We then all wore fish stickers all day long and we are convinced that’s how we got our investigators to talk to us. My district is seriously just the best and we all get along just swimmingly ... hehe. 

So I've been asked to talk a little bit more about my companion and my roommates so here we go.  My companion is my dear sister Bentley. She is a hoot. She is such a hard worker like me and has so much knowledge of the scriptures. She is teaching me something new every day. Also, she used to work in a cheese factory.... like a legit cheese factory! Could I have asked for a better companion! I think not. 

The two lovely girls in the middle are Sister Bentley and my roommates. They are in our district and coming to Nampa with us. Sister Pace is from CA (Ventura area) and is my absolute soul mate. She is the only person I have met on this planet (besides my dear sister Maddie) that understands all my Disney references and can stump me in Disney 20 questions. Sister Temple is just as cute and missionary-like as her name sounds. She is from Texas. She is also just the sweetest person I have ever met and is always thinking of others. 

I was also asked to talk a little about how this whole TRC thing works. So basically, these people walk around with gold name tags and their job is to be an investigator. Some are members and some are actual investigators curious about the church. They don’t tell us and so most of the time we just assume they are legit. It’s really neat because we get to experience walking up to people and talking to them. Also, we get the experience of planning out our schedule to meet their needs and ours as well. It’s just a really cool experience. We got two new investigators this week Meleah and Ethan. Meleah absolutely loves us and tells us all the time that she is going to come and visit us in Nampa when she is driving back home. She is the sweetest person and has honestly taught me so much about life and being happy. Ethan haha is so funny. He just has the craziest questions, but we always try to answer and tell him that we are just little 20-year-old girls haha. He really appreciates how blunt and straight forward we are with him though, which is nice because usually Sister Bentley and I worry we are super mean when we are blunt with investigators. 

I love it here so much and I hope you know that the Gospel is true and it really has the power to change people’s lives. 

Thanks for the prayers, 

Sister Aase

Me & Sister Bentley

My Roommates - Sisters Pace, Bentley, Temple & Aase

Hello From the MTC

HI Friends and Family! 

I survived my first week here! YAY. I have loved it here. It is so hard and so worth it. My companion has watched me cry multiple times but she has also watched me laugh until I cant breathe. So weird how there can be such drastically different emotions in the same place huh? 

Anyway let me tell you a little bit about what's been going on. First off surprise, I get to have an iPad in the MTC! It's been a big blessing in reaching out to investigators and searching for videos during lessons. Also, I have no clue why they did this but, I was called to be the district technology adviser. Basically, I just get to make sure everyone is following the rules in terms of technology. It's pretty simple but it also gave me a bit of a confidence boost because if the Lord thinks I can handle another thing on my plate I must be doing okay as a missionary. 

So my companion, Sister Bentley, is just the best. To tell you a little bit about her personality let me share with you a story. Second day here I am already falling asleep in class #darnnarcolepsy . So I tell Sister Bentley that I am going to just stand up in the back of the room (literally like two feet behind her) and she says "nope WE will stand in the back". So for the rest of the meeting, Sister Bentley stood in the back of the classroom with me balancing her notes on her knee just so I wouldn't be lonely. SOOOO sweet. 

Okay I'll end with one funny story. So here we were 9:30 at night and we get a pounding on the door. We open it and they say Sister Aase they are looking for you at the front desk. Sister Bentley and I look at our SDLs and then at each other and then at our outfits... pajamas. The SDLs insisted that we just leave immediately because the people on the phone at the front desk sounded concern. So here we go, both in pajamas, walking through campus to get to the front desk (on the other side of campus). We get there and I'm like shaking because I think I'm in trouble and I'm cold and embarrassed because we ran into like 20 different Elders... I digress. We get to the front desk and before even saying a word they hand me a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I look at them really confused and then they look at me really confused (probably because of the pajamas) and then they say "you're Sister Aase right?". So I take the doughnuts and start walking back. Then I read the note on the top of the box... from Clayn Smith... ???  It sounds familiar, but where do I know a Clayn Smith from . . . but thanks for the doughnuts!. The sisters and I have been joking about it all week saying all the different people he could be. So funny. I wish I could send a picture but unfortunately, I can't figure out how it works on this computer. 

I love all of you guys and I'm so grateful you will be on this journey with me and be able to see how my testimony grows each week- because I know it will. If I could tell all of you one thing I learned this week, it would be that God is real, and loves each and every one of us so much. He sent His Son down for us and through the Atonement we can be with Him and His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ again. 

Thank you for the support,

Sister Aase

My MTC companion, Sister Bentley

I Made It !!!

HIIIIIII!!!!!! I'm here at the MTC and the first thing they wanted us to do was email our family (aren't they thoughtful). So it's been super great so far ... two huge tender mercies already ... you ready

1) The sister who helped me with my bags was one of my first friends I ever made at BYU!

2) The car that came right in front of me and Maddie was the car that EMMA NYMON was in (she is the one going to Korea). 

My companion is Sister Bently. She is super duper cute and from Wisconsin. She was very happy to hear that I lived in MN. Anyway, don't have a lot of time -  my next P-day will be next Thursday on the 19th. Email me though and I will try my best to respond to all of you.  

LOVVVVVVVEEEEEE YOUUUUUU !!!!!!!

Sister Aase 

Mission Call to Serve in the Idaho Nampa Mission