Hey!
Just had my first week in the field. It's been going well! My first
full day was awesome. We tracted all day and were able to find some new
investigators - people were really receptive that day. The weather here
is amazing, it feels like summer! But not too hot. It's perfect.
The next day was kind of a downer because no one really wanted to
listen. Mostly everyone is really nice here though, so even when they
reject the message it's okay. At the end of the day I thought a lot
about my purpose. Normally if I have a hard day at school I can say,
well at least it still helped me progress towards my degree. But over
here, the end means nothing. It's all about inviting people to come unto
Christ. I understand that if I do my best and they still don't accept
it, it's not in vain. But if I don't do everything I possibly can, it's
nothing but wasted time. I'm doing my best to work hard and get
acquainted with the area so I can know what needs to be done. It's fun
and hard and great!
On Thursday we got to go help the bishop's family in their yard. We
mostly picked lemons. I've never seen a lemon tree before, so that was
cool. It smells so good! They're all over the place here, same with
orange trees. They have a little 3 year old son and he started climbing
up a ladder by the lemon tree and his mom told him to be careful and she
doesn't want him climbing up a ladder, and then he was like, "But I
have to help the hermanas!" Haha it was so cute.
The bishop is only 27 years old! Can you believe it? There were
people his age in my single's ward. But he is such a good bishop. He's
one of the few returned missionaries in the ward so he's really working
to implement things he's learned in the mission here in the ward. They
really need it, cause there's just not a whole lot of programs in place
right now. We're working on at least getting home teaching and visiting
teaching going, so all the missionaries are going to go on splits with
the members to teach them how to do it.
I really love the people here. The ward is awesome. I had my first
Sunday yesterday and it was crazy! Sunday's are not a day of rest when
you're a missionary. But we got through it and I learned a lot. The
bishop's dad is super nice and he came on a lesson with us. We were so
glad to have him, because the poor guy we were teaching was not well in
his mind, and there was just a bad spirit there, and we were a little
scared. But he didn't do anything because we had Hermano Quezada with
us. So we were really grateful for that. We also got to teach a recent
convert that night and he was so funny! It was a great way to end the
night on a happy note full of the spirit.
I'm learning a lot about faith as a missionary. I feel like I've
already been having some pretty intense trials of faith out here in the
field. But I know that if I trust in God he will take care of us.
Sorry this letter is super unorganized - we have such a short time
to write so I'm just saying everything that pops into my head.
I've been studying Ch. 9 of preach my gospel, which is all about
finding people to teach. There's some great ideas in there! I told my
companion that I'd like to start holding an English class for members,
investigators, etc. Some members have already said they'd really like
help learning English. I think it will be a great way to help them and
also find more people to teach. We're also just trying to figure out
more of what people's needs are so we can figure out how we can serve
them. It gets me so pumped! Knocking doors is great but I feel like
there's other effective ways of finding people too - so I'm excited to
try some of them out.
The pictures I'm sending you are so you can see the contrast of
where I just came from to where I am now. I am so happy to be in sunny
California!
I love you guys! Thank you for your support! Sorry I'm so short on time!
Amanda
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