Well How's North Carolina?
Monday, July 16, 2012 9:34 AM
ps. Sorry for no pictures. I forgot my camera at
home :(
next time ;)
Alright Family,
Here's the big email where I try to fit everything that's
happened in the last two weeks (which has a been a ton) into 1 email.
Good luck ;) So where to start, ok. The airport. We had
to get up at 2:45 am on Monday to get ready to fly out. We had to be at
the curb at 4:00 and then drive to SLC where our flight left at 7 something.
I really wanted to be brave in the airport and talk to people. :)
In SLC airport, we talked to several people who were mostly Mormon. Go
figure. A couple couples (haha) were heading up to Palmyra to work in the
pageant and stuff like that, and I told them that Rochester is where a lot of
my mother's family live. Good stuff. So the flight went well to Detroit . All on time
and everything, then our flight out of Detroit got delayed like an hour and a half.
However, the flight attendant lady on the flight to Raleigh was super fantastic. She, over
the speaker, thanked us missionaries for all we do, (not Mormon by the way) and
she was really nice. At the end, I gave her a pass along card with a
message written on the inside that I wrote specifically for her. She
loves her family a lot so that's what I kind of worked with. Amazing
early on experience. :) Anyways, so we got to Raleigh etc. got to the
mission home etc ate etc.... The mission president is really nice and amazing.
He and the Mrs. are both really amazing. So skipping ahead. I
got assigned to the wonderful city of Morehead
City on the coast of North Carolina . I was super excited to
go to the coast for my first area. It's really nice here, all be it a
little humid ;) I sweat like a pig no matter what I do, but if I run, I
sweat like 25 pigs. I can barely take my undershirt off afterwards.
My companion's name is Elder Jensen. He claims Logan ,
UT as home, but he grew up in Cailfornia and
has lived in Idaho and Arizona after that. He's a little
older, 23, but he's amazing. I can't believe how blessed I am to have a
trainer such as him. It's amazing. I prayed that I would receive a
good trainer, but I knew from the spirit that regardless of what trainer I got,
he would be the one for me. Well, Elder Jensen and I get along
phenomenally well. We are both really hard workers and exact obedience is
really important to him as well. I know, could things have gone better, I
submit that they could not. He's 8 months out and this is his second time
training, but he says all the time that he doesn't feel like he's training
which is a compliment that I really appreciate. Studying is going well,
and I love every aspect of the mission. Elder Jensen is plain incredible
though. He is hard working and wants to help me and let me grow. He
doesn't try to keep me under his thumb because I'm new and he knows more.
He appreciates when I take the lead and when I show the desire to grow
and learn. All and all...know that the Lord has blessed me greatly.
So we live with members in a gigantic house. I sleep in a queen
size bed, and just to highlight my companion again, he gave me the queen size
bed because he said that it would probably be the only time in the entire
mission that I would have the opportunity of sleeping in one. Plain nice
and considerate. I love that guy :) So, the work is starting to
pick up. We've already seen a ton of miracles. A less active family
that we are working with showed up to church on Sunday. It was miracle,
nuff said. And they stayed for the entire block. Oh yeah :) And also
we've made some contact with less active individuals and some unbaptized
individuals. Anyways, Elder Jensen's companion before me was an elder who
was going home the transfer I got here and he was, to put it nicely, ready
to go home. Elder Jensen commented on how the entire ward’s countenance
towards the elders has changed and we received some referrals and possible
referrals yesterday. Yes, I'm being fed, mom, don't worry about it.
:) Things are just going well overall. This Sunday one of our
investigators is getting baptized and then her brother is getting baptized a
couple of weeks later. AMAZING FAMILY!!!! I love them so much. It's
amazing how God blesses us with charity and Christlike love if we are willing
to put in the effort and seek it. The mother of the two kids is a
returning less active, and this was just the right time in their lives for the
gospel to begin blessing their family again. The mom recently or is
currently working on a divorce, and the dad was really anti Mormon so that was
why it didn't work before. One thing of many that I love about out here
that's different than the MTC is sincerity. These people are sincere in
everything from their faith to their concerns. It just allows the spirit
to work so strongly through us with them. I love it. We've had some
really good lessons. We've also had some interesting experiences ;)
So this ward is tiny, activity wise. They only have a
35 % activity rate, but those 35% are amazing. They all work so
diligently with fellowshipping investigators and less actives alike, and they
are super nice. Definitely a solid group, minus the part where 65% of
their ward is inactive. I don't know for sure, but I feel like that is
particularly high. In Elders Quorum yesterday. They had 11 elders, a
couple of visitors, and us. That's it. The number of young men at
home is larger than their elders quorum ;) Crazy. Oh, side note.
When I take a shower, it sometimes feels like (smells like) I'm taking a
shower in a mini geyser, if you are catching my drift ;) yeah, I'll deal.
So this guy in our ward is the uncle to Rocky Mortensen's wife.
Pretty crazy, eh. It's pretty crazy that anyone here in Morehead City
has a connection to someone in Grand
Junction . Also, something from the MTC.
Dad, did you ever know a Mr. Pacheco (Puh-Check-o) of Grand Junction possibly spelled wrong.
If so, I happened to run into his son in the MTC, not a missionary, a
little older. Again crazy connections, but he knows the Kelly’s well and
grew up with their sons until they moved. Crazy stuff happening all over
the place.
Umm....
Well, I don't know much else to say even though I know there
is a lot I could say. We have a car every other week, but we still bike
mostly because it saves miles, and we need those miles so we can go visit the
outer areas towards the end of the month since some of the areas on the
outskirts would be a beast of a bike ride and an all day event. My bike
came all safe and sound, and they even put it together for me. I'm
teaching my companion how to play the piano. Before I came, my companion
had prayed about wanting to learn how to play the piano and then when I played the
hymn for our "meet the companion" meeting, he kind of just looked up
in amazement. :) haha. But, it's fun. Since it's so hot on our
bikes, we were told to schedule in a break to cool off in the afternoon, so we
go to the church and play the piano. Oh yeah. It's the best.
I love planning. I love goals. I love everything. I am
so glad that I have donated 2 years of my life to the ever so important work of
the Lord. And family, I don't think I realized until I got out here just
how important and necessary our work as members is in the missionary efforts.
We should never be ashamed to share the gospel and we should always be
looking for opportunities to help fellowship those that the full
time missionaries are working with. Without the ward's effort,
the work missionaries do does not really work. The mission is definitely
changing me for the better and I've only been out here for about 6 days.
Crazy. I'm almost 1 month out. Hard to believe.
Well, I love you all so much. I couldn't have asked
for a better family. When I think about you, I just can't express my
gratitude and love for all that you've done (especially you, parents) and all
that you are. Keep being amazing!!!
Love your favorite current missionary,
Elder Patty
No comments:
Post a Comment