Week #45

November 26, 2012

Hey my dearest darlingest family!!! 

Thanks for all of the wonderful emails this week!!! It was so fun to hear from everyone. Sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. :) I had a pretty good one too! We went over to a member's house for dinner (the Knox family). They're an elderly couple that actually served their mission on Temple Square in the church History Library, so it was fun to talk about Temple Square. :) 

We have eaten at a member's house almost every night this week. So fun!!! I love getting to know the people in the ward. (the average weight gain in this mission is 30 lbs.... HAHAHA!! So funny!! I've already noticed that my companions eat more dessert and food than I do. I think I'll do just fine preventing weight gain. :)) President Godwin is my mission president down here. He's such a nice man!! Much more stern than President Gillette, but you can tell that he loves missionary work. I really like him and his wife a lot. And guess what? I'm the first ever Temple Square missionary to serve my outbound in this mission. Do you know what that means???! I need to be a good example of Temple Square and our work ethic.... Kind of intimidating!! But I'm excited to show them my love for the Lord and His work, and to show them how REAL missionary work is done. :) Ha-ha just kidding. But one thing I have noticed here is that I don't work as hard as I did on Temple Square. I'm really not trying to be boastful at all... but Temple Square missionaries know what it means to work! We've been trained so well how to sacrifice everything for the Lord, no matter the price. I think this mission is pretty good, but wow... my mission is definitely a slight step above the rest. It's really helped me appreciate and Love my mission in SLC! Heavenly Father has blessed me sooo, so much. 

We have a car down here which is really nice! My area is Ontario, CA. It is a little bit ghetto, not gonna lie... ha-ha, but our apartments are really nice. They've spoiled us!! And holy cow... The members DEFINITELY spoil us sisters, ha-ha!! I didn't realize how easy sister missionaries get it outside of T2! Usually members try to run away from us, ha ha ha, but here they just LOVE you so much and will seriously do anything for us Sisters. I feel pampered!! The mission bought me a brand new bed and all of the dishes, hand towels, table and bookshelf, etc., for our new apartment. I'm in a trio and the other sisters had to move to accommodate for me by moving to a new apartment, so they literally gave us EVERYTHING new in the apartment. WAY nicer than T2 apartments, ha! It has been pretty fun. My companions are Sister Callister and Sister Brinkerhoff. They are really, really nice sweet sisters. I like them a lot!! I'll have to include a pic next week because I forgot my camera cord today.  

The ward we are working in is SO small. SO many inactive members!! It is so sad to see how many people lose their testimonies of this wonderful church and simply stop coming. A lot of the missionary work down here has been to reactivate those that have stopped coming. We're working with a few different families to try to get them coming more. I don't want to sound boastful at all.... but Temple Square has seriously trained me so well how to talk to members!! These sisters are good but not nearly in the same caliber as Temple Square sisters in that way. Outbound has already seriously opened my eyes on how blessed I truly am. 

My first few days here were kind of tough. I had a hard time adjusting for a bit there... but I feel much better about being here and have been able to consider the many blessings the Lord has given to me! We have some really good investigators that we'll be working with right now. Frank and Ana, a couple from the Navy that are really wonderful, but definitely have some concerns and questions. Xochitl (so-she), originally from Mexico. The sweetest lady you'll ever meet, but very Catholic... she has received an answer about Joseph Smith but hasn't accepted the answer yet, so we're trying to help her see that the BOM really is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. We also have a few other investigators that we're working with that I haven't been able to teach quite yet that seem really great. One guy Cory who has a bad stutter but is seriously the sweetest black boy you'll ever meet is really interested in learning more about the Church. His brother that we're working with is a less-active member who's been coming back to church, so hopefully Cory will just hop in the car one of these days... :) We'll teach Cory this Thursday. 

One thing that has been sooo fun is teaching people in person rather than the phone!! What a concept, eh??!! Ha. Its been really great, I've enjoyed it a lot. I think it'll help me get a lot better at reading people's body language, since the only thing I have (half the time) is their voices over the phone. Tracting (sp?) is fun, ha-ha!! I feel like a salesman sometimes though... we had one nasty anti that we talked with for a second who thought we believed that Joseph Smith was "God on earth". It was funny. WE all laughed about it afterwards. :) But the door before that we met Carlos who seems interested and really kind. We'll go back and teach him tomorrow I think. 

I miss my investigators from T2 a lot... it was SO hard for me to let them go. I have grown to love them so much. But I know that Heavenly Father has placed me in this area at this time for a reason!! The sisters have taught me a lot already, and they said that they've learned a lot from me too. I think this will be a really good experience for me to be here. Please pray for me to have a genuine love for the members down here.

I love you all SOOO much. I wish so bad that you could come visit me down here, but I don't think that would be such a good idea. I really want to work hard down here and concentrate well! :) You know I love you but I think that it would be best!! I'm gonna see if I can get permission from my mission Pres to go to Melissa's house on a monday during p-day to get my hair done sometime. :) ha-ha! We'll see. 

Love you all!!! Until next week!! 

Sister Nat 

PS. Elders are little children. Seriously, ha-ha!! So funny to be around them all. I met our zone on Friday (they had a zone fast for baptisms) and I explained to them that I was a T2 missionary. Their reactions about me being from SAcramento were hilarious, ha-ha. Everyone says, "Well you're not far from home!" I just smile and laugh. We're playing volleyball with them today. Should be fun!