Hola hola!
Whelp, I made it to St. Paul! It's been the craziest, most hectic week of my mission by far. My farewell party in Rochester that the ward held for me went really well. About 50-60 people came, which I think is more than who came to my actual farewell when I left for my mission hahaha. But it was really sweet of them to all come. Tuesday and Wednesday were packed with just random stuff that I needed to get done before I left. I had procrastinated packing until 10:00 Wednesday night, so I was up until 1:30 AM packing Thursday morning... I have SO MUCH STUFF. I really don't know how I've collected this junk.
Early Thursday morning all of us missionaries that were getting transferred left early to drive up to Bloomington. I was off of about 4 hours of sleep, so I was exhausted. I was in the car with Sister Knapp while she was driving, and as we were going 70 mph, all of a sudden we looked back and her bike completely FLEW OFF the car and slid to the side of the road. It was so bad! We ran down the road and got it and luckily only her fender came off. Not sure how that was the only thing. But since it was so blizzardy that morning, a semi truck drove right past me and completely blew me over so I fell hahaha. Crazy morning.
My new companion is Hermana Powell! She is from St. George, Utah and she's been out for about 8 months. She's really fun and has lots of energy, so it's gonna be real fun with her. Since we are the STL's over 2 zones, it's been really confusing trying to figure everything out. The other problem is that we actually do have a car now, but we barely have any miles to use for the month. Sooooo the mission bought us each bus passes, so we have been using the bus everyday. It's really crazy! There's some interesting people here in St. Paul, it's a whole different world than Rochester lol. I'm really trying to take it one day at a time and just stay positive through the freezing cold temperatures. Wednesday is a high of -13 but with wind chill they are expecting it to be about -45 so that will be exciting. If it gets -40 or below with wind chill we are not allowed to go outside, so no worries ;) It snowed quite a bit last night and is expecting to snow more today so President Barney just told everyone that they have to stay inside until this afternoon.
Spanish work is also so much different than English haha. I'm literally having a culture shock, it's crazy. In my ward here, there are 500 people listed in our ward records. And only about 50 come regularly. 50! If any of you previous missionaries could give me any advice of how to work with all of these less-actives, I would greatly appreciate it. The Bishop asked me yesterday in sacrament to go up and share my testimony and introduce myself, and looking over the congregation I just felt so overwhelmed at the work that needs to be done in this area. There hasn't been a convert baptism here in over a year, and no one has been coming to church, so I'm seriously so stoked to just get in here and get some stuff done! I know it will be hard work, but I love the members here already and I just want to work my hardest and make an impact in this ward. It's gonna take time for sure, but I just pray that I can do it!
Our apartment is way nice. Nicest one I've lived in. We have a sweet clubhouse with a really nice gym as well, so now I can burn off all these tacos that I'm eating again (woohoo!). I'll put the video in Google Photos.
Been a crazy long week, but I'm stoked for this next week. Tonight I'm taking the train (by myself!) to the University of Minnesota campus to meet up with the sisters there for an exchange tomorrow. Should be an adventure.
Love you all! Have a safe week. Good luck with work and school.
Con amor,
Hermana Nissinen
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