I'm in Texas! My area is Clearlake. It's the suburbs of Houston and a nice area. NASA is nearby. There seems to be a different church on every corner. It's a new experience for me not living in a Mormon community. All I want is to be honked at and hear people yelling "Sister Missionaries!!" The people are super nice and love talking about Jesus, politics, history, NASA, farming, oil or whatever. Everyone seems to have dogs in their homes. I mean everyone! I love it and hate it. Some are stinky, but most of them are pretty loveable.
When I arrived at the mission, I was able to see Sister Kunzler from Cedar City, Utah. Oh can I just tell you how great it was to see a familiar face. She just glows because she is so happy and such an amazing missionary. I have heard nothing but good things about her. So be sure to let Bro. Kunzler know that!!
I am in a Trio companionship with Sister Thompson, who has been here for about 3 months or so, and Sister Hawkes, who's on her second transfer. So we are all kind of new, but they are great missionaries. A rule that I am getting use to, is that we cannot be out of sight or sound from each other...even in our apartment. So a little adjustment for me, but it's all about having a good attitude!
One thing about our area is it's reputation for being a hard area for the missionaries. They use to send missionaries here to die! But--6 months ago there was a sister that went home this week that really made a difference. And yes I took her place and yes everyone misses her and loves her. Big shoes to fill right? But the missionary work is really starting to come along. We want to work with most of the less actives. There are tons of them! I love the people here. I'm really falling in love with my ward. Bishop Brower is amazing. He has a goal to get 55 baptisms by the end of the year. And so far they have 23 members going back to church. So we are dedicated and want to achieve that. I love this challenge. I really want to work hard and make a difference here and help the community grow together.
We live right next to a school so I actually got the sisters to go out and run around it. So there's hope!! I'm not going to get huge! I am not on a bike right now because we live so far from where our area actually is. But there was one day where we had to take our bikes out so I was so happy!
We do get fed a lot by the members and the food is great! They know how to BBQ!!
I'm adjusting to the millions of mosquitos. Can I just say, I really hate them. We don't get along. They are always at every door step waiting to suck our blood and now our legs are just covered with bites. Sister Thompson counted 32 bites on one leg if that gives you a clue. My legs look ugly because I scratch them so much. We even coat ourselves in repellent without much success!
My 3rd week here, the President called our cell phone and said; "I have some bad news, put me on speaker!" So that is never good. So he told us a sister in the mission was going home because she was sick. "So Sister Hawkes, you are being transferred tomorrow." So the next day, we drove her to the mission office 45 minutes away and now it's just me and Sister Thompson! It was so sad. I liked having a trio, but I felt like I wasn't growing as fast and I was relying on them too much. So now that it's just the two of us, I feel like I'm pushing myself and just more at ease. So it's kind of a bitter sweet thing.
I had a great birthday and appreciate all the fun birthday wishes and gifts! Sister Karen Brown, from the ward made us dinner and made me a birthday cake. She is so loving and takes good care of the sister missionaries.
We are having some success with our "cottage meetings" which involve members inviting non-members to do some sort of activity, FHE etc. with them. A recent convert who was baptized about four weeks ago had been reading the D&C and had some questions about Joseph Smith, and so we decided to get together and have a "movie night" and watch the Joseph Smith movie. We made pizza and she invited people from the singles ward over and had her neighbor who is not a member to attend as well. It was a great night! We gave a brief summary of the first part of the restoration and then let the movie go from there. I just felt the spirit so strong and was so excited to watch it with an investigator. It was just amazing. We had to be home by 9:30 and they wanted to stay and watch more Mormon messages. So we were super happy about the night! Sister Thompson and I have continued to teach this investigator and she has been coming to church and wants to be baptized. We have another investigator who has shown an interest and wants to be baptized as well. We have some work to do with her but are very hopeful
I have learned a great deal about unity in a companionship and grateful for Sister Thompson and the relationship and bond we had developed. I really feel companionship unity is one of the keys to be successful, because when we have unity we are also united with the spirit in our lessons. I will be the first to admit I do not teach as well as I would like to, but I know if we are worthy the spirit will make up for it. Sister Thompson is such a good teacher! We have figured out what we can learn and how we can really help each other and I just love her.
I have made it to week 6 of my first area. I can't believe how fast it has gone by. I am just falling in love with my area! I really do love my mission and am getting adjusted to my ward, area, companion and district. It has been successful and we've done a lot. It's hard work, but we do grow through hard things to make us better. I love this gospel. I'm so happy and know we are blessed as a family with the gospel as the central focus of our lives. Being out of Utah in a state where we are definitely the minority really makes me grateful that we live where we do. I love my little Mormon bubble, but I'm so happy to share my happiness and knowledge with everyone here. God wants all his children back home, and I just ask--"What holds us back from sharing that with everyone else so they can have what we have?" I'm so grateful to have it in my life. We are truly blessed!!!
My district went to Clearlake and went crab fishing. It was a blast! We got string and chicken, tied it together and we were able to catch some. Enjoy my district p-day and birthday celebration!!
Love my district!
