My First Week as a Missionary

Ya... my first week as a missionary has been... exhausting!  My companion is pretty cool.  He actually goes home in 12 weeks, so I get the honor of "killing" him or he'll just leave when he's done training me. 
During the last transfer, my companion baptized everybody he was teaching.  So we get to go tracting, which isn't so bad.  We do get a lot of referrals from members, which is nice.  So far, we have like 6 or 7 investigators committed to baptism this month, so it is pretty exciting. 
It hasn't been that cold yet.  We've only had snow once so far.  However, let me start from the beginning.


On Tuesday, the 25th, I left the MTC at 5am (which was ridiculous because our train didn't leave until 6:30am).  When we left the MTC, I was surprised to be made the travel leader, which pretty much means that I took the lead role on the bus and that was it.  So it really wasn't that cool.
When we got to Ogden, all we did was receive some training from the mission workers about cars, the apartment, bikes, etc.  In the evening, we went to the mission presidents house for a quick testimony meeting, then we went to bed.
On Wednesday, we received training from our mission president.  He asked us to memorize the Utah Ogden Mission beliefs and the Bible dictionary definition of Christ.  It's pretty long, if you haven't read it yet!
Later that morning, the mission had this big thing for new missionaries meeting their trainers.  At first when you walk in, everybody goes berserk, so I thought it was pretty dumb, but I got into it, so it was pretty cool, actually.  So they had all the new missionaries go up one by one to say who you are, where you're from, and who you want to baptize.  So when I went up, I said I wanted to baptize Jennifer Aniston and then take her to the temple.  After I said that, of course everybody kinda freaked out!  But when one of the AP's walked by to introduce me to my trainer, he said to me that they picked the perfect trainer for me, which is weird, because we haven't talked about Jennifer Aniston since we've been together!
My companion took me to meet most of the ward leaders in our stake, well, because my area covers a whole stake which has 8 wards.  Overall, the mission is probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done.  It's crazy!  I didn't think it was going to be this difficult!


On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving and my birthday, so it was weird not being around my family for the first time.  We ate at 2:00pm, but then didn't do a whole lot after that because it was a holiday and people get mad at people coming over.  Since we didn't have anything planned, we decided to go to a sauna at a members house.  They sang Happy Birthday to me and that actually got to me a bit!  It was just weird that is wasn't my family.


On Sunday, we went to almost all the wards and I had to give a talk.  I had a couple hours to prepare, and 3 confirmations at the same time.  So for about an hour, it was pretty hectic!  My talks only lasted about 5 minutes, but it was pretty good.
Other than that, not a whole lot has happened.  But my testimony has grown in Priesthood blessings.  I had the honor of giving out two.  I can't explain it, but the Lord helped those people so fast and so much!


Anyways... over and out!


Elder Briar Adona
Utah Ogden Mission
4380 S. Orchard Ave
South Ogden, UT  84403