Australia week 1

So, A lot has happened in the week and a half it's been since I wrote last. I'm no longer in the Bronx, but my visa came and I am writing from Australia. Funny story...

So I had been working with some investigators and such, and was having a fair bit of success. The people in the Bronx were amazing, and I loved them. My companion and trainer, Elder Fuller had been steadily increasing the amount of work, we had been slowly but surely increasing the numbers for the area, and we were starting to see some real growth in our investigators. Then, as I was out getting lunch after the district meeting on Monday, I was at the Checkers off Fordham near the church, and I got a call from Sister Dennison who worked in the mission office. She informed me that my visa had arrived and that I needed to get my things ready because my flight left at 6 PMthat afternoon. This call was received around 2 PM. Due to the international nature of the flight, I needed to be at the airport by 4 with an hour long drive from the Bronx to JFK. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise that I had a little less than an hour to prepare my things and get ready to go to Australia. After getting the call, I waited for my food to come, ran over to a cee and cee department store, bought a suitcase, ran back to the church to pick up my backpack and say good bye to the rest of our zone, and ran home with 30 minutes to pack...

At the time that all of this was going on, I literally could not feel anything. It was a whole range of emotions. I was excited to get to go to Australia, but incredibly sad and upset to be leaving the wonderful ward and people that I was serving. Especially without the opportunity or time for proper goodbyes or even any goodbyes at all. Nevertheless, I made it to the airport on time, made my flight, and began my 28 hour journey to the Land Down Under. The flight was mostly uneventful. Long. The plane was late getting to Sydney and I had to catch a later flight to Melbourne, but all was well. I made it unharmed, unless you count exhaustion... I was so very tired.

I found out that the preferred method of finding here is street contacting and talking to new people. Given the fact that I have an extreme and uncontrollable fear of new people, it is a challenge, and has been a challenge, and I'm expecting it to continue to be a challenge for a long time...

So this week has been filled with mixed emotion. My excitement that I had at the MTC to come to Australia has been replaced by a feeling of unfinished business in the Kingsbridge 2nd ward in the Bronx. But I'm trusting that God knows what he's doing, and that I am where I am because that's where I'm supposed to be.