So, hey there! A week and a half has come and gone. Tomorrow is transfer meeting. I know everyone is waiting on bated breath to know if I'm going or staying, but you can rest easy knowing that I am staying for one more transfer in Lynn. Yay!! I'm probably way too scared to leave. I really have just made myself at home here. When we did exchanges a couple weeks ago, I was impressed with my ability to navigate the streets of Lynn and Salem without the assistance of my GPS. (No applause necessary, please).
The sad part about transfers is that my dear companion Sister Hildenbrand, who I have basically spent my entire mission with, is LEAVING ME!! Not trying to be dramatic or anything. She's actually just going a little bit south of us to Revere which was my first area - where I was trained by Sister Hales. I think she'll really enjoy it there. I miss the members there and I know that they'll take good care of her.
So, you would think that that just leaves Sister Rivera and I as a normal, two-person companionship...but you're wrong! We're going to be in a trio again :) Sister Figuredo, who was serving in Boston for the last 8 or 9 months, is going to join us. She's actually Sister Rivera's trainer so I think we'll all make fast friends. It will be great for my Spanish because now I'll be serving with two native-Spanish speakers. Sister Figuredo is from Paraguay (she actually speaks Portuguese too because her Father is from Brazil but she grew up in Paraguay). She also speaks excellent English because she spent the last 5 years in Utah. So, it will be great fun.
The big to-do this week has been meeting the new president - President Daniel Packard and his wife Sister Allison Packard. Their family is AMAZING! We are so excited to get to work with them. We got to meet them on Thursday morning (right after a late night of watching fireworks...we were a little tired, but it was totally worth it! More later if I have time). Basically, they had a power point with some pictures and they went through and told stories about their family, and bore their testimonies and we just had a really good time getting to know who these people really are. They have 4 children, and the youngest 3 will be in the mission home during their whole 3 years here in Boston. The oldest, Brent (19) is in the MTC getting ready to go to Chile. Angela is a year younger I think and will be staying with her parents - she has a lot of health issues and is actually super excited for this experience because this really is going to be her shot at going on a mission. Then Natalie is a Sophomore in High School - she's an amazing piano player, very social and excited, talented at lots of things, and has a really strong testimony. Michael, who's about 12 years old, has some really fun attitude! He loves to break dance and play basketball. His nickname on his team was Minja - Midget Ninja :) It was astounding to me that he had such an incredible testimony at his age - he also knows how to work the crowd, that's for sure.
All in all, their family is excited to get some work done and we're excited to get to know them more as the transfers go rolling on.
We did get to go to Boston a week ago to see the World-Famous Boston Fireworks show over the Charles river. It was FANTASTIC!! We got there around 7:00 and there were SO many people there! We decided to watch it from the Cambridge side (it's a little safer). We still got to see a screen of the Boston Pops (from afar) playing their show with Jennifer Hudson as their guest performer. We had a jolly good time - it even started raining about 5 minutes into the show, but we were all super stoked to be there that it didn't matter.
Other than that, it's just been same old same old. Sister Hildenbrand has been trying to say goodbye to everyone so we've been visiting lots of members. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to leave...let's not think about that.
So, back home, I know that Grandpa Fran isn't doing very well. I just want you all to know that I love you and that I'm praying for you. It's hard to be so far away when I would love to be there close to all of my family, but I know that everything happens for a reason and that all will be well. I can see that Heavenly Father is blessing our lives in so many ways.
I love you all! Peace out!
-Sister Palmer
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