First week in Ohio - Chardon

Hi everyone,

Ohhhh boy. Ohio is beautiful. There are trees EVERYWHERE. I love it. Also, we're in AMISH country. That's right. When we're in our area, Chardon, we sometimes pass horse-and-buggies driving down the other side of the street. Pretty awesome. 

How it works here is that we split our weeks between sites and our area. We're at sites 3-4 days a week and in our area 3-4 days a week. When we're at sites, we give tours when needed, make calls at the referral center, and chat on mormon.org. It's great. I gave part of the tour my first day here (thanks, MTC and Sister Black's class!) and it was so good. There is sooo much here, but it's contained in a smaller area than I'd imagined. The Whitney Store is probably my favorite. The room where the School of the Prophets was held is tiny, but you can really feel the power of the spirit there. I love it. 

We live in older homes on the same property as the VC and sites. We have a Harry Potter bathroom in a cupboard under the stairs. No joke. It's ridiculously awesome. Sorry i don't have pictures of anything yet but I haven't had time! I will try to take some before next week. My companion/trainer/mom's name is Sister Ellsworth, and she's from Idaho. Her parents are serving as mission president/wife in Mesa AZ right now, and she studied at BYU before coming here. Both awesome things. She is great. I am learning so much from her. 

I got here Tuesday evening with 7 other elders (they joined our travel group on the second flight...not sure why we got split up in the beginning. Weird.) and we went straight to the mission home. President Vellinga and his wife are so wonderful. We had dinner and interviews and they took some pictures with all of us--hopefully they sent you one. 

On Wednesday, we got to tour the Kirtland temple (!!) and the sites at Kirtland with a man named Carl Anderson (sound familiar? Yep, the famous one. He is great). He is "Mr. Kirtland" and knows pretty much everything. It was a wonderful tour. Then we went to transfer meeting and got started on the work!

My poor feet hurt pretty much all the time...but oh well. I am trying to get some other inserts that will hopefully provide some more padding for them. It's tough because we are on our feet so much either walking around or standing up for most of the day. But hopefully I'll get used to it.

I have already learned so much here. I thought the MTC was a firehose...but comparatively it was like a dripping sink faucet. Ha. I love it though. There are so many things that I'm learning or traits/habits that I'm beginning to acquire that I know will not only help further this work but will help me in my future life when I get home. It's great. 

I'm really trying to step out of my comfort zone and immerse myself in the work. It's tough sometimes to not be homesick, especially when i'm facing an uncomfortable or difficult task--like tracting. Talking to complete strangers still makes me squeamish inside. Ha. So it's really easy in those times to think of the comfortable things I could be doing at home--but I have to remember that salvation isn't easy and that these people need what we're sharing. I'm trying to keep myself really busy so that I don't have time to be homesick or time to hesitate. *shrug*

I still wish that we had all day to study! There is so much that I'm learning but I wish I had more time. One thing we've decided to do is pick a Christlike attribute (PMG ch 6) each week and make it one of our study themes/focuses for the week. I am really excited about this. I have a ton to study as it is, so it's never that I'm without something to study...but having a specific focus helps me to get more out of my study time. This week we're studying humility. If anyone wants to join in and send me your thoughts/insights/etc, you're more than welcome to. I need all the ideas I can get! Smiley face.

It is already pretty cold here--for me at least haha. I'm already wearing the layers and coats that I brought...so if you could send my winter box soonest that would be so wonderful. Speaking of sending things, I'll always have the following address unless i'm out full pross:

Sister Lyndsay Wygant (use both first and last name always)

7800 Kirtland Chardon Road

Kirtland, Ohio 44094

You can send both letters and packages to that address. If you've already sent things to the mission office they will forward it to me, no worries...but it just takes longer. So send everything to this new address until I go out full proselyting--which won't happen for awhile. There are only 3 full pros sister right now--the rest of us (27 i think) split our time between an area and the VC. It's pretty great.

We did get to watch the Brigham City temple dedication and the RS broadcast. Both were sooo wonderful. I loved them so much. It is so wonderful to be a member of this church and have so many inspired men and women to lead, guide, and uplift us. In just the week that I've been here I've met so many people who don't have that in their lives. They don't know that they are children of God and their family/other relationships are not the kind that we enjoy. I am so much more grateful now for the upbringing I had, for the loving environment and relationships that I had with family and others, and the opportunities that I had growing up. The stories that some of these people tell just amaze me sometimes. Why would anyone mistreat or disrespect someone who is family or a loved one? It has always baffled me. We don't own each other. We have families and friends and relationships so that we can love and support and encourage each other. I'm grateful that I know that, and that I know that those family relationships are eternal. I dunno. Sometimes part of me just wants to high tail it back to Provo where everyone is nice and knows who they are. Ha. But that's why I'm here--to teach these people what more they can have and become. 

The RS broadcast was also wonderful. It was honestly just what I needed. This adjustment has been harder than I'd anticipated and although it's great here, I was overwhelmed in the first week. I needed to see familiar faces and hear familiar words--and songs. :) The choir conductor...how do I know her? I know/think her last name is Wadsworth, and I want to say that she helped with the youth program that i did at the conference center that one time. But do i/you/we know her besides that?

Speaking of familiar faces and words, I am excited beyond belief for conference this next week. I loved it before but I can't wait for it now. So excited. Hopefully we will be able to bring some of our investigators to watch it with us. I just want to tell the whole world to come and watch because I know it will be so wonderful and uplifting. Ha. Seriously though. Don't take Conference for granted! Write down questions, take notes, and look for answers or promptings that are specifically meant for you. It is such a blessing to have a prophet and counselors to speak to us in God's behalf--there are so many people who don't even know about or have that opportunity. Drink it in :)

Well I'm almost out of time. I love you all so much. I hope everything is well at home and that you are keeping Purrcy satisfied/well staffed :) Please tell everyone hello for me and thank you for their thoughts and prayers. I certainly need them and can certainly feel them. 

Love,

Sister Wygant