"YOMO" week 3

"you only missionary once" - sister kitchen.

hello from the heart of TAMPA!

Let's just do a round of facts shall we... this mission is very different than most...

my companion: SISTER KITCHEN. She's 6'1". From Fruit Heights, Utah. Wants to be a baker. Loves sweets and pretzels. Like Taylor Swift. Hates milk. Loves Tillamook Cheese. And she goes home in 6 weeks:( It kind of breaks my heart. But we get along great. It's fabulous. People are always shocked by our heights. It's a great conversation starter.

But since she leaves in 6 weeks... I'll either have another trainer for the last 6 weeks, or she's just going to have to train me in 6. President didn't really tell us. We're planning for the worst :) 

Also Sister Kitchen and Sister Chadwick (another sister that lives with us) are Sister Training Leaders. So twice a week for this whole transfer Sister Sutton (who just came this last week too) are going to be together. HA! We're scared but it'll be great. We're stepping far out of our comfort zone. 

area: we are serving in South Tampa and its gorgeous. We run less than 5 feet from Tampa Bay each morning and it's BEAUTIFUL. Supposedly this is the area everyone wants to be in. Our apartment is super nice. Our ward is about half military. MacDill Air Force Base is in our ward boundaries so we have lots of military families. The ward has about 150 people in it and there are 6 MISSIONARIES serving in this ward. Yeah. Still can't wrap my head around that one. At one point there was 11. It's insane. There is a set of Elders and then another set of Sisters that we live with-- Sister Chadwick and Sister Sutton. It's a party. 

Molly: she's the big mormon minivan we share with the sisters. Sister Kitchen and I were going to a park in downtown on Friday and we tried pulling into a parking garage. Sister Kitchen tried to squeeze into a spot, and we hit a car. It was an eventful afternoon. 

So President Cusick likes to keep us on our toes... Here's the rules for the Florida Tampa Mission that are different than the missionary handbook:

1. Workouts start AT 6 each morning. We wake up around 5:45. We have to do 40 min of cardio and then the rest is whatever we want it to be. Exercise is serious business here.

2. NO member dinners unless its a part member or an investigator is there. 

3. NO naps. We have 30 minutes for meals instead of an hour.

4. We wear our nametags on the right instead of the left.

5. Everything starts 5 minutes before it's actually suppose to. Being on time is critical.

6. No tracting. Street contacting for the win.

I think that's about all of them. I'm still learning! :)

Other randomness for mom: one ipad per companionship. No facebook. We just use it for the area book and planning purposes. I love it. I'm so grateful that we both don't have our own, it works out really well. 

Fun story of the week: there are members of our ward that live in a yacht club on Tampa Bay on their yacht. Yeah. Let that one soak in for a second. I still don't fully understand. But anyways- we ran around the docks for a half hour the other night trying to find their boat, we couldn't. But we're going back tonight because they have a friend they want us to teach... it just so happens that's we're going right at sunset... I'm just a little excited.

Things are going really great. Its a wonderful area and Sister Kitchen is teaching me lots. We just don't have very many people to teach. We walk and talk as we are searching for the people the Lord has prepared. And praying that the ward will start giving us more referrals... if you know anyone in South Tampa- let me know!! But really....

I love you all!

Love

Sister Mal

my address is: 502 S Fremont Ave #816 Tampa, FL 33606

my FIRST night in the field-- this is dan. The sisters met him at Book of Mormon the musical last week as they were passing out pass along cards. We sang him happy birthday and took him cupcakes that Sister Kitchen made.