October 7, 2013 North Minneapolis, Minnesota

HEYYYYY! well im finally out of Mexico and im into Minnesota! woohoo! before i start i want to say that im sorry for my grammar and my lack of capitalizing my i's, but this is missionary life, you dont have time to do things like capitalizing and grammar. 

so my flights all went well,we got up at 2am, drove to the airport and we said goodbye to the last of our districts, and got on the plane. there were 7 of us left when we made it to the houston airport, which by the way is the biggest airport ever! we were able to call our familys really quick before we boarded the plane to minnesota, even though we only had fifteen or so minutes to talk to them it was good :) christmas is in two months so its not to far away to talk to them again. im just greatful i got to talk to them!!!

okay, so you know, flying on a plane while you have a cold is quite an experience. you feel like your head is going to concave from all the pressure changes. it was fun. i really enjoyed that experience. 

well we finally made it to minnesota!!! woohoo! we went to the mission home and we met all our new sista missionaries, and our new companions. My new companion is hermana peterson. and im sorry i didnt bring my camera today so no pictures this time :( sorry, next time though. i really havent been able to get a ton of pictures though since last time. but! hermana peterson is great! 

I got my new bike, which i havent been able to ride yet because its been raining, but im sure ill have plenty of opportunities later! we might even go riding today! ill let you know how biking goes in a skirt (: 

my apartment is nice!  we live with two other english speaking sisters who are alot of fun. we live below a cool photographer named george. ive only met him once but all the hermanas have gotten to know him well, so im hoping i will too (: ill get pictures of the apartment so you can see it so i dont have to describe it. i think that would be more interesting anyways.

so the first night i got home we went out to some apartments to knock doors. our mission president calls it 10x10 when we tract, 10 doors one way 10 doors the other way. i think thats what it means anyway haha. but that was a cool experience. i really didnt know what to expect, but hermana peterson seemed to know what she was doing so i followed. we just knocked on doors and whoever answered we told them that we were missionaries from the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and we asked if we could just pray with them. 

well ive only been here for 5 days so far but we've already taught a ton of people and ive learned a lot. i started out not understanding anything anyone said, to understanding about 20 percent of what they say haha and being able to reply in the best spanish that i can muster. its pretty awesome. i would say ive improved to speaking like a 3 year old at this point. thats a step up. haha but no they say that by three weeks here my spanish will have improved alot, and faith is a big thing here on a mission, so im going to exersize faith and believe what they tell me. i really think so though, especially being able to practice every day with my spanish i know that it will grow alot. 

so the other day i got to see a little bit of minneapolis, my mission is in north minneapolis so its on the outskirts of minneapolis city. we went into Minneapolis to bring one of our investigators who is in a womans shelter at the moment, give her some medicine, and to have the elders give her a blessing because she is sick. we couldnt find the shelter for two hours and when we did find it, we lost contact with her. so we were only able to drop off the medicine and leave her a note. we were bummed that we didnt get to talk with her and that i didnt get to meet her. but we did talk to some people on the street and i got to see what the city looks like which was cool. i really love it here, this place has a good feeling about it. the buildings all really have alot of character. their government building looks like hogwarts. 

me and my comp went to panera bread to do our weekly planning and i got to hear the first of the minnesota accent. its pretty cool. i want that accent.

okay being here, ive learned how much i really love this work. like a lot. i understand how people say that this is one of the hardest things you'll do. time is a totally different meaning here, you go to bed totally exhausted, and all you could wish for at some times of the day is a nap because you are trying as hard as you can to stay awake haha. but everything is worth it, everything hard you do is because its making you a better person, its making you a better missionary, its blessing you, and its blessing others with so much that you cant even really complain about how hard a mission is because of all the good that comes from it. ive learned how to love people ive only met once and i can only understand a couple of things they say, but i love them.  and i feel like being a missionary gives you this superpower to feel love unconditionally for these people. i feel like being a missionary you have a lot of superpowers to see things that you didnt see before. its the power of God. I GOT THE POWAAA!

but really though everyones got the power in one way or another to see what i see everyday, and to feel what i feel everyday, because its just loving others and doing service and just following the example of Jesus Christ. I cant really explain how i feel other than its the best feeling ever and the only way to know is to do. ive learned that "missionary" is an action word. its not a person.. well it is a person, but everyone is a missionary. everyone has that missionary quality within them. and that quality is to act, to do, to be an example of Jesus Christ, to represent him in everything that we do, and in that, its the best thing ever, and i feel like no matter what happens, ill still be happy, no matter how tired ,or sick, or i miss my family, my friends, my time, whatever it is it doesn't matter. it doesn't, because all that matters is that i've got the gospel, and i'm changing lives, and i'm changing my life. and i coulnd't be happier.

hey. so all you out there, be a missionary. i know my good friend Thomas S. Monson just spoke at general conference on how we need to all be missionaries. it totally makes sense. just do it. be a missionary, invite people, teach people, love people. just do it. (: love you all! 

          until next time, love herm. Ficklin