Holton Here I Come

Our new apartment in Holton

Transfers were hard. Said goodbye to the Ward Mission Leader and family. They were really sweet and gave me a bag of Hershey Hugs. I felt so loved by them it was hard to go so soon. But I know it's a part of being on a mission. 

So I'm serving in Holton, Kansas. It's 30 minutes north of Topeka (where the church building is). There are a couple recent converts in Holton, but there aren't really any solid members. So that's been interesting. We stay in Topeka over the weekend with members then go back to Holton Tuesday after District Meeting. It's hard to get to know the members, but hey it's only been a few days. Holton is a cute little town with a few people who have lived there forever. I don't really know the town that well yet, I was only there for half the week. 

Sister Miller is my companion. We've been listening to a lot of Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Mo-Tab) and we've almost died a few times in the car.  (Just bad driving. I'm not the driver--ha, ha--no worries.)

Funny story of the week:

We didn't bring any food with us to Topeka--relying on members to feed us dinner. Saturday we got a dinner at 6 and didn't eat anything after that. Sunday was fast Sunday and we proceeded to fast. No one signed up to feed us and we finally got someone to have us over she invited us to dinner at 6. I'm used to breaking my fast around 4 or something. I started to get a headache around 4 and by 5 I was nauseous, and dizzy, and light headed, and had a bad headache. We were with members and they asked if I was okay. I told them I wasn't and they gave me lemonade and butter and jelly covered bread. Which didn't help actually and they told me how I might have diabetes and proceeded to explain things and somehow ended up explaining childbirth. Which surprisingly didn't help with any of my symptoms especially the nausea. We left and cancelled dinner because I wasn't feeling well. Went back to the members home we were staying with and they nursed me back to health through fruits and protein. Moral of the story: Sister Mortensen is a wimpy faster. haha 

Another week, we were out talking with people and we saw a lady sitting on her porch so we talked with her. She was pretty rude and said that she went to Utah once and they were the rudest people ever and we really weren't making any progress. She said that the only religion that's true was the Jewish one because Jesus was a Jew. So I asked her if she was Jewish and she said no. We thanked her for her time and wished her a good day and all that but I don't know why she bothered me so much. I've met meaner people but it bothered me that she believed something was right and true and wasn't apart of it. If you believe the Jewish religion to be the correct one-if you believe there IS a correct one-why not pursue it? Why not join yourself with that belief and join quickly? She just didn't make sense to me. 

On the flip side we were walking with some hot chocolate that a nice old man bought for us :] and saw a man sitting on his porch smoking. we stopped to chat and found that he just got out of jail and that his wife left him and he was basically stranded in Holton. We gave him a Book of Mormon and suggested he read Helaman 5:12 He seemed grateful for it and appeared to continue reading as we walked away. Hopefully we can see him again. 

​We contacted a referral and their 4 horses surrounded us. (this is not a picture of them surrounding us) We were pretty terrified because they were getting all up in our business and separated us and the owner didn't know we were there so no one was there to tell us if they were nice horses or not. Turns out they just wanted food. Horses are much bigger up close 

​We stay with members over the weekends and this weekend the members have chickens. So I asked if I could help gather eggs. That was fun and now I want chickens. I think that would be a good idea for food storage. not that you would store chickens but it goes along with being self sufficient. 

Fun fact about Holton: The whole town has the same trash day. It's a fun little town.