You may think that I forgot the "I" on accident in the title, but it wasn't just a typo. More than not, the people who live here refer to the state as "Missour" and a lot of the missionaries refer to it at "misery". When my companion says it with her accent it sounds like misery too, which in some definitions of the word could be true, but I love it here!!
After waking up at 3:30 in the morning to check in at the travel office they bused all 27 people in our travel group to the front runner. We loaded 27 people, and around 70 pieces of luggage into the train and road off to the airport. We were quite a sight to see if I do say so myself; 27 giddy missionaries excited to be in the real world again running on only a couple hours of sleep does make for an interesting bunch, but we made it safe and sound and landed in Missouri!
Our mission president and his wife met us at the airport and took us to the Kansas City temple, then to Liberty Jail. We were able to see the amazing exhibit they have and the spirit was incredible and I am so blessed to be able to serve in centers where the sprit is so strong all the time. We spent the rest of the night at the mission home getting a lot of information and then meeting with the president. My mission president and his wife are incredible! I know already that I will be able to learn so much from them.
The next morning we got our new companions and trainers! My companion is Hermana Cuevas and she is from Mexico, that's why she has an accent! She has been here for about 8 months and her English is fantastic. So we usually spend every other day, one on Spanish one on English, so we can both study our foreign languages. Another opportunity I get because my companion is foreign is I get to drive for our companionship...for all of my friends at home who know how bad my sense of direction is, you'll probably get a good laugh thinking about me trying to drive in Missouri... I almost never know which direction I'm driving because there aren't any mountains, and even with our GPS I still manage to take wrong turns at least twice every time we go somewhere. But I know though God, weak things can be made strong, so I pray that he will help me to understand directions better!
After I met my companion we picked up my luggage, and she says, "are you excited to work in the Visitors Center?" And I was like "Yeah of course I am!" And she starts laughing, "That's good then, cause we're going up there right now and you're teaching!" WHAT? SO the first day on presentations I bore my testimony and smiled because I knew none of the history.
Usually, if you come in the winter when there aren't as many people coming though, you'll teach with your companion for 2 weeks before you take presentations on your own. In the summer when we have tons of visitors, you have no other choice but to learn fast. The other new sisters and I learned as fast as we could and have already been giving presentations by ourselves! It's a good thing this is the Lord's work and he helps us, because there is no way that I would be able to do this without a ton of divine help!
The schedules for our days depends on the day, but for 4 days a week we spend 6 hours in the Visitors Center, 4 hours studying and then whatever time we have left in our area. Then we have one full proselyting day that we don't work in the visitors center. I LOVE working in the Visitors Center. We get to talk to so many people every day and help them to feel the spirit and come closer to Christ. I love being able to take the stories from history and apply them to the lives of the people I teach. I Iove teaching families the most because I love working with the little kids and learning from them.
We don't have much time in our area's right now due to the fact that new missionaries have an extra hour of study every day, but we work hard with the time that we have! We don't have any investigators right now, but we know that there are people being prepared to hear the gospel somewhere in our area, we just need to find them! If we are obedient and work hard, the Lord will help us to find the people He has prepared.
Just a couple random things about Missouri before I sign out for the week:
1. People don't wear clothes in the summer, it's totally normal to see old men, or anyone for that matter, driving around wearing the least amount of clothing possible.
2. The lightning bugs, or fireflies, are so fun!! I hate all bugs always, but I like the lightning bugs when they're far away cause they're so pretty!
3. The storms here are wicked cool! My first night here there was a massive thunder storm. No one could sleep because when the lightning would flash, it would light up the whole room. Some houses are still without power, and the 70 to 80 mile an hour winds blew down massive trees, but everyone was safe so it was pretty cool!!
4. There are a surprising amount of Spanish speakers here. Victory for me so I can speak! A little less than half my ward are Spanish speakers so I'm so excited to learn more Spanish!
I love the mission so far and I'm so excited to be here! Sorry this letter was longer than I planned...But I hope all is well for everyone at home!
All is well, and God is good.
Love Hermana Baggett
 |
| Hermana Cuevas and I. (She is from Mexico) |
 |
| Right across the street from the VC is the temple for the Community of Christ or Reformed LDS Church. It's a pretty cool building but a lot of people get us confused with them and we are very different! HAHA...keeps it interesting! |
 |
| Sister Jones and I sporting our mission t-shirts. |
No comments:
Post a Comment