Hello everyone!!
So. I'm in North
Carolina!! I am in Wilmington! It is the
very southern part of the mission near the beach! Hopefully we will make it there one p-day. It is so darn green here you wouldn't believe!
And it is humid. So humid. Haha it is difficult to describe
just how humid. My hair is lovin'
it.
So Monday at the MTC we
woke up bright and early at 1:30 am. Yes 1:30 am. I still had to finish packing and let me tell
you it was a struggle. Poor Sister
Smedley. Me trying to pulll my three 50
lb. bags across the MTC was quite the sight. I wish we could film cause I'm sure it would
cause quite the laughs. They fell over like 46543 times. Well we finally made it, loaded are stuff and
headed to the airport. Thankfully it was
all smooth sailing. The flights were all on time and we made our connection
from Atlanta. On my flight to Raleigh, I
spoke with the woman next to me for most of the flight. Her name was Holly. She was really really nice
and I gave her a pass along card! (missionary win!)
We stayed the first night
in Raleigh in the mission home. There were 2 English speaking Sister
companionship's and 2 Spanish speaking sisters who came from the Mexico MTC.
And then a whole bunch of elders of course. I think there were 22 in total? The Mission President and his wife are SO
great. Sister James and I were wearing
the same shoes! haha. Tuesday we went to
the transfer meeting, met our companions and were assigned our area. (goodbye
sister smedley :( ) My new companion/trainer is Sister West! She is from Idaho
and is 24! But she doesn't seem like it haha.. She is interesting. But she is a
good teacher. She speaks verrrry softly
and almost mumbles everything so I am constantly saying "What?"
She is very kind and patient. Just
very different than me.
OK moving on! So most of
Tuesday was spent driving to Wilmington because it is two-and-a-half hours
away. Wednesday we had a District
Meeting. Then we went to a place called
cook out for lunch! SO good. They have
40 different kinds of shakes. Peanut Butter Banana anyone? We did not have any appointments Wednesday, but
we go and volunteer at the Assisted living home once a week so we went and
painted old ladies nails haha it was fun! Thursday we finally had an appointment!! It was with a woman named Cari. It was my first lesson to a real life
investigator! It went really well. She is very interested and open. She went through a divorce last year and it
has been hard for her. We did invite her
to be baptized and she said she would pray about it! She likes the book of Mormon but hasn't seemed
to make the connection between the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, then this
church is true. But I am excited to work
with her! The spirit was felt very
strong in our lesson.
Friday was a different
story... we had an appointment with a woman named Jennifer. I don't want to get into too many details
cause I don't want to scare mom, but it was rather frightening. The house was quite the sight. She has 4 daughters who spent the time
basically beating each other up while she screamed at them. There was just a lot of screaming in general. They also have a huge dog and three puppies. Basically I just wanted to go and take a
shower after being there if you know what I mean. She has been seeing the missionaries for over
a year and has not made any progress. I
have NO idea how to help her cause it was impossible to even have a lesson. Pray that we can find a better way to teach
her and her family.
OH! We also get a car
every other week! So we've had the car
this week, but we didn't have it Friday cause the other sisters needed it. So Friday was my first biking day and it was
quite the experience. I don't really
recommend biking in a skirt, with a bag strapped around you, at 3 pm in North
Carolina. It is not a fun experience.
We spent a good deal of
our time this week visiting less actives or members. It has been so great meeting and getting to
know people! I have really found a love
for it. I love being in their homes and
getting glimpse into their lives. Everyone
is so kind and friendly here! On our
bike ride every single person waved to me. EVERY ONE. The members are so nice and feed us all the
time and give us rides! If there are any
missionaries in your ward, help them out! It is so appreciated. There are a LOT of less actives here. The ward is very very small. So hopefully we can get some more people back
into church! It is just a little
overwhelming at the amount of work that needs to be done here. Apparently the Lord has a lot of faith in me,
much more than I have in myself.
We have a very small
amount of investigators so I am praying and hoping that this week I can be more
bold and truly talk to everyone I can. I
came to bring people unto Christ and that includes baptism. Sister West has only had 1 baptism and she's
been here 9 months... Yeah I'm just not going to let that happen. I think we can work much harder to find those
souls searching for truth. It is
difficult because I have to let go of control and let her take the lead, but
hopefully I can still play a role.
Missionary work is much
different than the MTC makes you think it is. But I know that I am still doing the Lord's
work as I serve members and less actives. This week has definitely been an adjustment,
but I need to be more patient. I've got
a lot of relying on the Lord and His timing to do.
I love ya'll! (It's
happening fast guys, I already start to mimic the accent when I'm talking to
people haha)
OH! and there is a Trader
Joe's here that we are going to today!!!
Love, Sister
Dearden
Address: 4187 Hearthside
Dr., Apt. 204 Wilmington, NC 28412
No comments:
Post a Comment