Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Elkins, West Virginia: A Wave from Jesus, Sister Missionaries Sang as they Walked and Walked and Walked and Walked, and a Certified Driver without a Vehicle

Hello family and friends!

I apologize if ya'll were bewildered on not receiving my weekly update on Monday. We were planning on coming to email on that day; however, our vehicle was in the shop so we were unable to email until today.

About a month or so ago Sister Moea'i accidentally decided to hug a mailbox with the front of our truck, and because of this incident we needed to take our truck into the shop last week. The only thing they needed to do was paint over a couple of small scratches; however, it ended up taking them five days to get our truck back to us. So... we walked.

I was rather apprehensive to walk everywhere for a few days, especially since we had a few meetings about 35 minutes away and an hour (driving-wise) and we needed our truck on the 15th for vehicle inspections and specialized training in Charleston. Although I was apprehensive, it ended up being a marvelous experience.

We were able to receive rides to our meetings in Buckhannon and Clarksburg by wonderful members throughout the week. After our first meeting in Buckhannon we were dropped off at one end of Elkins and were walking to meet someone else who was going to have a lesson with us and then drive us home. As we were walking along the road we waved at every vehicle that passed us. Quite a few waved back, but one car turned around and called us over. A woman sat in the driver's seat and asked why we had waved at her. Before we could come up with a good reason she asked if Jesus had told us to wave at her. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, we both quickly said yes. It turned out that her sister had been a member before she had died of cancer, and since then this woman has wanted to connect with the church again since they were so supportive of her family after her sister's passing. It was definitely a testament to me that people are watching what we do, and we need to forever be lights on the hill as Christ invites us to be.

It also rained quite a bit this week, so we enjoyed the wonders of walking through the rain. Luckily, the rain was never too cold or coming down too hard until we were inside somewhere. On one of our rainy day travels we ran into a man named Richard (though Sister Moea'i calls him Safari man Richard due to the clothes he was wearing). He showed us the best route to walk along the road in order to avoid poison ivy and dangerous turns where drivers wouldn't be able to see us. We also discovered that he worked at an alpaca farm that we pass quite a bit. He told us we could come over any time and he'd introduce us to the 53 alpacas on the farm. Lots of fun comes from walking in the rain and meeting Safari men.

In other news, I have been certified as a mission driver, so I can now drive mission vehicles. I became certified while we were still walking, so I was still unable to drive. We received our truck back late on Monday night, so my first stretch of driving was driving to specialized training in Charleston at 4 a.m. While in Charleston, they installed a monitor into our truck (this is being done throughout the mission). It monitors our speed, whether the driver is wearing a seat belt or not, and aggressive driving. It is meant to decrease the amount of accidents in the mission and increase safety. Sister Moea'i and I are looking forward to continuing our amazing driving practices with "Tiwi" in the car with us.

I hope that you all are having amazing weeks! Don't expect another email from me until Wednesday of next week because it will be transfer week. I love you all! Keep it classy.

Love,

Sister Thyme Nash :)


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