It's been two weeks since I've last written.
Blegh. Things are going swimmingly! We left the MTC at 3:30 am (said goodbye to Elders Proctor, Steed, and
Kozub who are going to Alberquerque, New Mexico) and flew out at around six. We
had a layover in Atlanta, Georgia and then landed in Louisville, Kentucky in
the late afternoon. Sleeping on planes is not the most comfortable thing
in the world. Our President and his wife were there to greet us and they
are so nice. President Brough is absolutely hilarious and a great man. Sister
Brough constantly has to tell us if her husband is lying about some stories he
tells us. We stayed at the Mission Home for a night before the Transfer Meeting
in the morning. The best part was eating real food. Not MTC food! No, it was
not fried chicken. I haven't had any fried chicken, yet.
The Transfer Meeting was scary and exciting.
The mission has over 200 missionaries and most of us were gathered in the
church building next to the Mission Office. The sad part was saying goodbye to
Sister Cox, Griffiths, and Lloyd. I miss my adopted brothers too. Sister Cox is now serving in Indiana! Woo! I
forgot where Sister Lloyd went, but Sister Griffiths is in my Zone and I get to
see her every now and then. :)
I'm serving in the Westwind mission. I'm in
Omaha county and our apartment is in Crestwood. I can't give the address
because we're moving on Saturday into a member's home. We kind of live in the ghetto part of town
so it's a good thing. Someone even tried to break into the apartment the day
before I got there.
It feels just like Washington without the
rain. It's overcast all the time and very chilly. Replace all the evergreens
with other trees and there's Kentucky.
We live in the rich part. If anyone does have
an accent it is very slight. The houses are massive in Goshen and what we would
consider really well off is the lower middle class.
It's only in Western
and Southern Kentucky that the accent is thick and people don't have teeth.
My new companion is Sister Ward and she is awesome! President Brough (rhymes with' rough') definitely picked out the right one for me. She's outgoing and has the energy of a living pixie stick. She's super nice to me and calls me her baby. So, she's my mission mom (sorry Mommy). I'm learning a lot from her and we're becoming really good friends. We're even going to the same school. She even wanted to major in Deaf Studies and ASL! Coincidence?
We live right above C who is a recent convert.
She is really sweet and gave me a bracelet and a Washington cross-stitch
pattern. So far I've met a few of the recent converts. The Scott family
(they're awesome) and Anne and Blake (super nice, strong, and cool). Our
investigator's are Donna, the Kumar family (they're Hindu!), and many others
that I have not met.
We tracted into the awesome big black man
named R. He's a baptist, but he actually had been reading the Book of Mormon
since the last missionaries in the area visited him. It was a little miracle
because his wife had passed away and he was one page away from where Alma talks
about the Spirit World. Coincidence? I think not! We do this thing called a
Prayer Approach in which we ask people if we could pray together. It really
works because it invites the Spirit and more people are willing to do this than
listen to us. I said the prayer with R and he really liked what I said. We
tried to run into him on Saturday again, but he was probably at the Baptist church Saturday meeting. The Baptist church is larger than the
Louisville temple. We call it the Great and Spacious.
The thing about Kentucky is that everyone
knows Jesus. Everyone has a dog. Everyone and their dog has already been saved
by Jesus. The biggest struggle for me is having the door close because they
already have their own religion. One man kind of told us that we didn't know
the right Jesus because we believe in the Godhead. Sister Ward says I'll
eventually become numb to it after a while. She's been out a year this Wednesday. It kind of sucks because a lot of people
think that they are perfectly happy where they are. They've already been saved.
Not many people will accept that there is a way for them to be much, much
happier. Most of the time our encounters with people are discussion about how
our religions are similar or we clear up some false things they've heard about
the Church. The Spirit flows in and out of those conversations.
I'm confident that if we keep trying and
working hard, Heavenly Father will lead us to those who are ready to receive
the gospel.
Like the other day! We were looking for past
investigator's in our area and we tracted into L. She is a really sweet twenty
year-old who is attended some classes at college and is looking for a job. She
hasn't seen missionaries since 2013. After talking to her for a while we found
that she is looking for some purpose and direction in life. She's been picking
up the Bible, but only attends church with her parents every now and then. She
wanted to learn more about God' plan and the Church. She agreed to meet with us
for a Church tour and a short lesson on Wednesday! Pray that she actually shows up!
I got to meet the ward (Crestwood 2nd) at the
Christmas party. Sister ward and I decide to match that day. They are a really
big ward. In fact they remind me of Sunrise Ward in Puyallup. They're really
nice and friendly. I like them a lot.
The Bishop's name is Bishop Bednar. He is the
friendliest and nicest person on this planet. His only facial expression is
happiness. Oh, and his dad is Elder Bednar. Which is awesome!
I got to give a talk on Sunday about building the kingdom of God. It was kind
of a last minute preparation, but the Spirit took over which was awesome.
A quarter of the ward is Hispanic so the
Hermanas (Hermana Wilkinson and Hermana Jensen) translate during the meeting.
It's pretty cool and the Hermanas are awesome. They're really nice and they eat
at our place for lunch sometimes.
The Elders in our ward are Elder Black and
Elder Geary (he just recently left the Navy for his mission and he really looks
like a military man). They're really nice. We went Living Christmas card
caroling with them last night and we'll be going again tonight.
The sleep schedule was difficult at first.
Going to bed at 10:30 and waking up at 6:30 is
a struggle, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.
More news to come! I love you all! Keep us in
your prayers!
Love,
Raye
Raye
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