September 8, 2013

"But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant."

Matthew 23:11

Well I was going to send a lot of pictures, but I don't know what is wrong with my disc... it won't go into the computer. Anyways, the flight to Ohio was great. It was awesome calling home and talking with everyone. Sorry it was so early. Just think, I am 3 hours ahead of you, and when I called I was 2 hours ahead of you. Thanks for picking up though! 

We got to Ohio in one piece, and when we got off the plane we saw President and Sis. Nilsen. They are a fantastic couple and super sweet! President Nilsen carried one of my bags, so I didn't have to put up with that for too long. We all got into vans and then headed to the mission home. There we ate dinner, met with everyone, had a talk with the president and his wife, we had a brief 1 minute testimony given by everyone, and while that was going on, we were being interviewed by the president. I truly believe that mine was the longest interview. One because he goes, "Is there anything you can't do?!" I just responded "I'll take that as a compliment." Then we got on with our conversation. We talked about a lot of things and then it led into horses and guns and things that I don't think we're supposed to be talked about in an interview, but I think we are going to get along just fine. We ended up staying the night at the stake president's house, and let me tell you, going from sleeping on the MTC beds to this bed was like a night and day difference! This bed was like the memory foam ones... Ya, I will definitely invest in that when I get the chance! 

The next morning we went to the church. There we got assigned our companions and where we would be serving. I am in the New Albany area, and I got 'doubled-in' which means that there are 2 sets of missionaries in one area. God truly blessed me because Elder Peterson and I are serving in the same ward. To make things more better, 3 other elders are in my same zone, so I didn't have to say bye just yet. But since we are new and my companion hasn't served in this area, we had to start from the bottom of the ground. We didn't have anybody to teach, nor did we have any investigators to pick up, so the first day out we got straight to work. I did get food on the first day... not enough but thank goodness we are going grocery shopping right after this! 

We have 5 potential investigators. Most of them we are meeting with this week to see if they are more serious about learning about this gospel. We taught one lady last night about the restoration and have another appointment this Tuesday with her. She knows a lot about the gospel, but we will see how everything goes. 

So something new that happened: since we are serving the same area as the Elders we had to split the area just so that we would be more efficient when it comes to proselyting. So on Saturday we all sat down and decided which area we were going to be taking. We sisters took more of the RICH community... now let me explain rich - serious like white fencing around every property, and the houses are mansions. And the mansions are castles, and the castles are like kingdoms. It's outrageous! I will say that the rich people aren't very receptive to learning about religion, but that's going to change! The Elders took the ghetto. And when I say ghetto I mean I saw a drug deal DURING THE DAY my second day out. So I decided that we were only going to be talking to the single sisters in that area during the dayish/morning. (You're welcome, dad!). 

Since we are serving with the Elders, we actually had a rare opportunity to have both sets of missionaries teach one family. The reason we sisters came is because they are on date to get baptized, we wanted them to feel the spirit that is present at a baptism, and we were going to take them to one. So we took the family this last Saturday to a baptism, and the mom felt the spirit so much that she began to cry and moved her baptism date up to next Saturday! I am so excited for her! The family is awesome, and they are so special and dear to me. The daughter is 19 and pregnant, and I think the gospel has helped her for the better! :) 

Well my companion isn't super organized, so we have a trade off... I am going to help her organize and she is going to attempt to teach me the piano... I told her that she is going to have to start super simple, so we'll see how that goes! Other then that, there isn't much to say... we are working super hard to get this area up and running. We went through the ward list, and there are more inactive members than there are active soooo there is a lot of work to be done and different things to do. I honestly wish we could start earlier than this and that I didn't have to train until 11 am because I want to get out there and talk to people. I will say that this work is difficult. I have had doors slammed in my face, been yelled at once, and then have had people only talk through the door because they didn't want to "open the door for missionaries". Its quite an  interesting crowd but I know that the Lord has people here for me to talk to, and I can't wait to teach those that are in need of the gospel. Thank you for everything! 

-- Sister Gale