August 26, 2013

August 26, 2013

I am taking an excerpt from my mission president letter because I don't have much time to email you today.

Okay, first:
My trainer's name is sister Jones, she's from Alaska and she is basically amazing. We are super unified and often quote Disney to each other, among other things. She goes home in December and this is her fourth area.
2nd: Katie, there's a couple in our ward who own the most delicious bakery I have ever eaten at. If you come with me if I ever get a chance to visit, I will let you go there.
3d: Carrie, if your friends live in Natchez, Vidalia, Ferriday, Jonesville, or Ridgecrest, then yes we can eat there. If not, no. out of our area.
4th: It's been a crazy week.
5th: Could I maybe convince you to put a care package together for my four-person district? If not, no big deal. if so, :) There's me, Sister Jones, Elder Adkins and Elder Ryan.
6th: Could you look up the cost of a gel bike seat cover? We're all dying here.
7th: Bike is here, not using it right now (borrowing one from a member) because we are doing 14-20 miles a day. Needs some repair, then I will use it.
8th: Yeah, if you wanted to mail my shirts you could. If it's a hassle, don't worry about it.

9th: Weird things you learn on your mission part 2:
The Mississippi casino law is that the casino has to be seaworthy and docked so that it could leave port at a 10-minute notice.
Also how to repair a bike chain/

Now from my letter to President:
It's really interesting that the first letter in my inbox today was the one you sent on attitude, because I really gained a testimony of how attitude can change things in a week this week.
2 weeks ago was really rough for me--I hadn't had to deal with homesickness until that Friday, when one of my best friends got married. Add to that just really learning how to accept rejection made for a big wake-up call of what I had gotten myself into. There were a few times when I had tried to follow the Spirit (I still have a lot of work to do there) and really just ended up fumbling around in the dark and being "confounded by men." I was frustrated with myself and not really cutting myself any slack in doing things right. I think I expected more from myself than was reasonably possible at this point in my mission, since I have only been out for a month. But I see all of these shining examples around me--Sister Jones, Elders Adkins and Ryan, who are just so solid in their teachings, their doctrines, and their testimonies. Then I go and read the letters I get here and a small thought wormed its way into my mind of "how on earth could you ever live up to these people?"
I had to have a really long talk with Heavenly Father last Sunday night before I went to bed, just asking for help and for comfort. I started the Book of Mormon over again this week, since we issued a challenge to the entire ward to read the Book of Mormon again by the end of the year. So I was in 1 Nephi 1:8, and it says in Lehi's vision that there were "angels in the attitude of praising their God." I'm fairly certain that had nothing to do with anything I was experiencing, but the word "attitude" hit me with a ton of bricks. It was my ATTITUDE that needed changing. If I would accept my faults and rely on the Lord, with faith and not with fear, I would be enough for the Lord to work with. So I tried it this week. We worked a lot on finding this week, and every time we got a door closed in our face, somehow I managed not to get discouraged. And it was an AMAZING week. We made huge progress with some of the less-active members we've been seeing, we found a new investigator and got several referrals that I wasn't expecting to get. The Lord strengthened me and I really felt like I was better able to listen to the Spirit in the lessons we were teaching. I'm not saying it would be like this every week, and I don't expect it to. But that attitude adjustment was what I needed to keep moving and not get discouraged.

Love you love you love you!
Love you!

When you pray for humility, the Lord answers prayers.

Well, I won't pretend this was an easy week.

I did get the box on Thursday, and I haven't gotten your letter yet mom, but it may be here today. I haven't checked, since the mail hadn't come when we left for the library. Pooch and my shoes were a nice reminder of home, and the letters were very much appreciated. Tell Linda that Hattiesburg isn't in the mission anymore, but West Bank is. Also tell her I agree, this is the best mission on earth, but unfortunately it doesn't mean everything is going to go swell.

Every week, or sometimes for multiple weeks, we are supposed to work on one of the Christlike attributes in Preach My Gospel. I have been working on humility for a while, and this last week we decided to work on it as a companionship. Needless to say, it was a very humbling week. Opening an area is difficult. One of our recent converts (she was baptized in February) is going through a really hard time right now, and our two investigators are making very little progress. One of them has a really big smoking problem that we are trying to help her overcome, but she doesn't want to give it up yet. The other we are trying to help understand the Book of Mormon, but she has difficulty reading and a three-year old son who is constantly distracting her so we are really struggling to get her to read. We got in contact with some of the Less-Active members of the ward, and are teaching there, but none of them are ready to come back to church yet. The list of Prospective investigators left behind by the elders who were here two transfers ago is very long, and we're slowly but surely working through that list but haven't had any success there. It's just been frustrating to see people who you love so much not make the changes you know they need to make to be even happier than they already are.

I'm not going to relate the rest of the difficulties this week, but we did do a lot of service. Specialized training was in Alexandria this week, where the entire Zone got together and we uncovered a cemetery. And by uncovered, I literally mean that. It was a jungle. There were about 30 or so of us, and we worked for 7 or 8 hours to get as much done as possible. Which leads me to my new list:

 strange things you learn on your mission:

How to use a machete

What a femur looks like halfway decayed

What Gava tastes like (note: don't drink it)

How to repair a lawn mower

What poison ivy looks like

What someone who got into poison ivy looks like (it wasn't me)

I will also have you know, I thought I would get out of sanding things and mowing lawns on my mission. I was incorrect. I have mowed more grass this week than I did all year.

Anyways, it was a really fun project, but really hard and super sweaty. I don't think I have sweat that much since I was catching in full gear in the Arizona summer. It's kind of gross.

I got the pictures of Krystal, and I was thinking about her on Saturday. Also if she ends up reading this, I was thinking of Lindsay Parkin on Friday and wish her the best as well.

Um, I didn't leave the dress home on purpose, but I don't think I need anything right now, unless you want to give me a Wal-Mart gift card for food. Kidding, we're fine. Love you much, good luck Katie and Dad in Bulgaria, and Nana and Rachelle and Mom with the house! Good luck Cody (Carrie are you going back too?) in school since I think it starts next week right?. Good luck puppies on staying cool :)

Love you, love you, love you,

Cass

So much to talk about!!

First email from Louisiana:  I have literally no idea where to start. Life is crazy and there's no time to even think, let alone think enough to compose a decent letter! So into lists we go! 1. Happy HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARRIE :) Hope today's fantastic. 2. My area is huge! I am in a little town called Videlia. My companion is Sister Jones--seriously she belongs in our family. I couldn't ask for a better companion or friend (well. Tiff would probably tie.) she honestly feels like a combination of our family and Tiffiny, just funny and sings and speaks fluent Disney and is a super powerful missionary. She's amazing. Anyways. Aside from us there are two elders, Elder Ryan and Elder Adkins. And that's it. Between the four of us (we kind of share, same ward etc. Like I said, huge area) we have Videlia, Jonesville, Ferriday, and Ridgecrest LA, and Natchez Mississippi. Natchez is about half our area, plus the church is in Natchez, so we get to cross the Mississippi river at least twice a day. Our house is less than 2 miles away from the state line (which is over the river). The elders are amazing--Elder Adkins is the district leader, and he's from Riverton and has been out 6 months. He will go home when I do. He's kind of got that mad scientist look, except well-groomed and really good with kids. Elder Ryan, seriously reminds me of Jack in pretty much everything. The way he talks, the way he laughs, the way he looks--seriously everything. He plays football and does track/field as well. 3. The ward is TINY, but it's technically still a ward. There are about 40 people in church on sunday but about 75% of the ward is inactive. Mom, you were right, I am a pianist--I'm down in primary. We are also helping out in primary while one of the teachers is gone. Its an older ward, so about 10 kids or so, though one more is on the way--the bishop's wife is also the primary president and she finds out today if she is having a boy or a girl. We think it's a girl. 4. We have one investigator with a baptismal date (oh yeah, I forgot to say we opened an area, so it's been a bit of a slow week because we have had to meet everyone. We were double transferred in) one who has committed to baptism but doesn't have a date, and a ton of less-active families to go visit. It's a lot of work and as of right now we don't actually have hot water in our house (it's adorable but we still have some work to do) so we're making friends with the members. There's a family here who literally are modern-day Amuleks--they're beyond amazing. They have us over for dinner every sunday (both the elders and sisters) and help us with anything we need at all. They're also the only really missionary-minded family in the ward, so we need to work on that. but that's what we're here for! I love it, it's hard and it's a LOT of work, but I knew that coming in. The bugs are very persistent, but we're learning. Ummm...Oh! Can you send me the pulled pork recepie, Mama? The first pday in September I offered to do café rio. My address is-- 1208 Plum St Videlia, LA 71373 I'm not 100% sure about that zip code, so you may want to look at it :) Love you! Miss you! Have fun at family night. Please send me Krystal's invite. Tell everyone hello for me!