I just love ol' Arkansas...

Where I'm at: Arkansas is so crazy cool. The weather has been pretty kind and the food is all delicious. I'm not sure I knew this before, but you can grow fruit just in a whim during the summer. It's so lovely. One interesting thing is that because it is so humid and hot outside, all air conditioning is super high. So you go into a place and it feels great for the first 5 minutes, but then it gets so cold that you need to put on your cardigan. That was certainty unexpected. 

Funny: We went to an investigators house and tried to see if he was home. After a few minutes we moved on, but i couldn't help noticing that he had a generic store-bought DVD with the label "Divergent" written on in black sharpie. So, apparently, Arkadelphia has a big DVD section in the Black Market. We probably should teach him to live the law of the land. 

Spiritual: The day after i arrived in Arkansas, i got to meet for an interview with President Wakolo and it was really encouraging. I got to tell him about my goal to acquire some specific traits that i really admired in my return missionary friends and he told me that my goal is actually really on track with what the mission focus is and that i have come to the right mission. It seems awesome. We focus on becoming more Christlike through obedience, attitude, gospel knowledge, and work ethics. I believe in the power of all of those things and i love that i get to learn to balance all four of those pillars in my studies. 

 These good things are just getting started :)

CTR and RTC, 

Sister Emma Black

P.S. We ended up getting the car from the elders and they used up all the miles. Very nice of them. So, we have been having a bike week. I ended up catching a bug in my eye at one point and I told my companion. She was genuinely concerned for me so she told me "Don't swallow the fireflies!" as we biked home in the dark that night. If you were wondering, I did not swallow any fireflies. I would consider that a complete success. 

The drawl here is so awesome. I really really want to pick it up. I will go and i will do 😉 there are also so many black people. It's crazy. Most people already believe in Jesus Christ so we always carry a copy of the Book of Mormon and a copy of the Bible. Also everyone has pets. Cats are great as long as they don't touch me. 

I have totally missed you. But not really, I mostly have been having a really good time. I mean, that came out wrong. I'm really happy.

I'm Here, I'm Okay, and I'm Excited

We had a lovely plane ride today and arrived at Arkansas at about 4:30. The Wakalo's are so nice and we are staying in their home tonight. 

My trainer is Sister Decker and we are going to be serving in the Arkadelphia, AR area. I started writing you a letter today, but I will get you my apartment address as soon as possible. 

I'm sure happy about things, I look forward for this adventure! 

Love you! 

Sister Black 

We were able to have a fun conversation with Emma from the airport. She enjoyed her MTC experience, even though it was hard, and was excited about this next step. She also liked that her classroom had yellow walls and yellow chairs. Little blessings for Emma. 

I also found that her companion's birthday is June 22nd and her mom sent them a box of fun things for them to celebrate with and that a new family that came to church on Sunday for them to teach so there are a lot of reasons for Emma to be excited.

We got these today from the mission.

My Brain= So Much New Knowledge

Funny: While teaching our new progressing investigator "Curtis", also played by Brother Ouzts, Sister Haslam and Sister Wilcox were asked a really funny question. with a really sneaky grin, Curtis asked them how they were enjoying the MTC and then asked them what they thought of their teachers. Sister Haslam couldn't even look at him when he asked that and it was so funny to see our teacher get his revenge from last week's incident. You could tell he planned it out ahead of time too.

Spiritual: The talk we watched on Sunday night was called "Open your Mouth" by Elder Holland, It covered so much about missionary work and how converting the missionary is the real goal of the Preach My Gospel generation. I have a goal this week to look up 10 scriptures of when people in the scriptures opened their mouths and powerful things happened. I really wish these talks were available outside of the MTC. 

Where I am at: I just finished my second week at the MTC and i already have my flight plans for June 20th. I got a chance to do the MTC choir and I ended up being on the big screen during the actual performance for like 3 entire measures. Yep. I'm pretty famous. The choir was pretty fun, it's very large and we like the stories the director tells. This week we are singing 'Be still my soul'. The food at the MTC is varied and delicious. They even had chicken tetrazzini last week.

I like your letters and I especially like when they come on Friday/ Saturday nights ;)

CTR!

Sister Black

All Hail the Sistrict!

Hi family!

I emailed you a list of advice to give Jonah for his MTC adventure that I wrote in my journal. I have one more thing to add, he should bring enough laundry detergent to last his whole stay, otherwise you buy them at the bookstore.

I am actually in an all-sister district and we have 4 districts in our zone currently. One district left on Monday, but we get 2 new districts on Wednesday. All of us are English speaking and mostly headed to the US. No Elders are heading to Little Rock. 

I can read emails on my tablet at any point, but I can only write letters of any kind on p-day.

Where I am at: I have two teachers that teach my district, Sister Esplin and Brother Ouzts and they deal with a lot of adventures regarding us. My companion, Sister Chapple, and I got our first progressing investigator last Friday and since then we have already taught 4 lessons. Lots of practice is good for me. Sister Chapple and I share a room with 2 other pairs of sisters in our district and we all like going to bed early or even on time. It is awesome. All of the sisters in my district are really healthy and happy so we have been eating/ exercising well. 

Spiritual: When we learned how to teach the Restoration lesson in one minute, I was a little wordy. We were instructed that in that time constraint, you pretty much just bear your testimony and then when I tried it it went so much better! I was able to speak simply, but powerfully.

Funny: Two sisters in my district, Sister Haslam and Sister Wilcox, were teaching "Blake" our pretend investigator who was actually just played by our teacher Brother Ouzts and Sister Haslam decided to ask the first question of the lesson. Sister Wilcox just expected that she would ask how the invitations went, but instead Sister Haslam asked how "Blake" knew Brother Ouzts. And then she burst out laughing. Amazingly, "Blake" was able to stay in character, but he was floundering for a while. We thought it was so funny because Brother Ouzts kept answering questions that we had about Blake before we knew they were the same person. The wording he had used was that he knew Blake really well. We couldn't stop laughing after we heard that story. Brother Ouzts keeps telling us that we have been the first to ask a lot of questions. 

I have come to the MTC at the best time ever. We got to have a class room in one of the old buildings, but on Monday we got to move to the new buildings and the artwork is so pretty. All of the murals are original and amazing. Also, the weather is nice enough that we can study outside without being burned. All of the people who arrived last Wednesday have gone to at least one year of college so everybody knows how to work hard and deal with stress. 

 Some of those were taken from the roof of the new building, it's super cool

Emma also ran into a dear sister from our ward and they were kind enough to send us a picture. We were so glad to get it!

And she's in...

We had a great drop off at the mtc with Emma. The sister missionaries were darling and they swept her in, took our picture, and gave us time to give her hugs before she left. It was fabulous.

 We seriously were astounded at how non rushing the sisters were. Go sisters!

 Doesn't she look happy?

We received a teeny, tiny letter from Emma shortly upon arrival.

My companion is Sister Abbey Chapple, but I haven't actually met her yet. 

My preparation day will be on Tuesday. I get to send emails from a computer so I should be able to type fast enough to get enough information out. 

I feel like I  have been dropped into a land of 1000 smiles. Like, literally everybody smiles. All of the time. I can totally get into that. I feel mostly excited. Things are good. 

I also got a new full size PMG (Preach My Gospel) just because I wanted one. 

You are great. Have a great week and I will talk to you next week.

Sister Black

On our way home we saw a car literally on fire on University Parkway. We took it as a sign that the world is ready to be flooded with the gospel.