These weeks have flown by! I feel like I don't have anything new to write about. That's why I need good questions when you send me emails and letters so that I can respond to those. Luckily I do keep a list in my planner of things that I think of during the week that I want to write about.
First of all, even though I love my mission and my mission call and my area and everything, that doesn't stop Arizona from being one of the ugliest places I've been! There is literally no grass, except for in parks and at the temple. Everyone's yards are made of rocks. And even worse, guess what I saw yesterday - rocks painted green! There were even some "yards" where all the rocks were glued down and painted green. There are some areas of Mesa where I feel like I'm in the middle of Mexico, and there are others (the ones with the astrorock yards) that make me feel like I'm back in the 50s. But I still love it. I am already used to the heat, and it really isn't near as hot as I thought it would be, but maybe that's because it isn't humid. In fact, some of the natives were complaining about how humid it had been last week, and I didn't even feel it. But there have been thunderstorms 5 times since I've gotten here. I tell all our members that I must have brought them from Georgia with me when they comment on how it hasn't rained in a long time.
I have another small world story for you all. The former VC directors came in last week to visit and see some of the changes that have been made and they too lived in DC and was in the stake under Grandpa Ladd, and therefore knew the Ladds and the Coltons. His name is Elder Peterson, and I didn't get his first name.
I don't feel like I have very many stories this week. Everything that was happening last week is still happening. We are still waiting to see if the Mestre's can get married and Eliseo is still in the hospital and we haven't been able to get a hold of Mirna to ask how he is doing. One of our investigators, an 11 year old, decided that I look like Bella from Twilight which of course is her favorite movie, so I am her new favorite person. Now if only she would understand that she needs to go to church more... Speaking of favorites, we have a member from El Salvador and when we went to go visit her on Friday I told her how I used to live in Honduras and that papusas were my very favorite Hispanic food so when we went over for lunch yesterday she made us some. Yep, still my very favorite Hispanic food. But just goes to show again and again how kind all of the members are. I feel like I've found my niche in the branch now, so I'm glad that happened quickly. Hna. Mestre was saying on Sunday that she had gotten in touch with the sister that had just left over the internet and told her that even though she missed them a lot they didn't miss her nearly as much because they had a new sister missionary in the branch. I thought that was really nice. I am Hna. Blades' first gringa companion, which is good for both of us, because she speaks the language really well which helps me, and when we are in lessons if I don't understand something she has to answer, when previously she had had natives that always understood so she could take a back seat on some of the harder questions, so we are both learning from each other.
We had our first zone conference yesterday which was amazing! Pres. Bassett knows the scriptures so well and finds some of the most obsure stories that seem like they were written purely so that he could use them to teach certain points. Our mission is really accelerating the work, which is great but means that we have to keep working even harder. Elders Bednar, Perry, and Ballard have all come and told us things to do specific to the mission. Elder Ballard said we need to be teaching 20 lessons a week, and I think Elder Perry was the one that said we need to be talking to at least 140 people "by the way." That is the hardest one for most of the missionaries, because it is really hard to just go up and talk to random people. And in a car it is even harder, because whenever we see someone we stop the car, get out, and go talk to them. But it is amazing that if you are obedient in talking to everyone you see then the Lord will place a lot of people in your path. The English speakers are the hardest. Some of them are so mean! I don't see the need for being rude even if you don't want to listen. We had a really condescending one the other day, calling us kids and saying we just didn't understand the world today. It is really hard for me to keep my mouth closed and be polite rather than explaining that I probably had a higher education than he did and had a far better understanding of the world, even though I was a "kid". But I did, because we don't want to lower ourselves to their level, but bring them up to ours. Hna. Blades was getting really frustrated too, because he told us he belonged to a church but siad that he didn't go that often, because he put more important things first, like work. She kindly shared that Jesus taught to put the kingdom of God first but that's when he got into the "you kids just don't understand." I thought (but kept in my head) "you must not have ever learned anything those few times you made it to church. We get a lot like that, but even that one had some good things. The day before we were talking to some high school kids down the street and one of them had made the comment "they must be paying you a lot to do this." We explained that we weren't paid but that we and our families had to pay for us to do this. He was impressed by that. Well the next day when we were talking to the other man it was raining and the high schooler drove by and said "what are you girls doing out here, it's raining!" We just told him "so what, we work in the rain too." He was really impressed by that and thought it was "awesome" so I hope at least some seeds were planted there. We love talking to nice people, at least it helps us get out of the car faster the next time we see someone and pull over, whereas after the meaner ones it is really a struggle to want to talk to more people.
So here is probably my most exciting and most terrifying story for the week. The other night in the VC some elders from the Tempe mission were there and talking to some of us right after they finished a lesson. They came up and said "we were told to ask here if there was a sister who spoke Arabic." There were four of us in the front and all of them looked at me and said she does. I had to back pedal for them and say "I studied it but can't really speak it any more." After asking why they told us that there was a Syrian man in their mission who has read the Book of Mormon 4 times already, knows it is true, and wants to be baptized. However, once you are past the age of eight you can't be baptized without being taught the lessons by the missionaries. And this man doesn't speak very good English so they need someone who can speak Arabic. I gave them all of the Arabic materials we have (Elder Burke asked my to be in charge of organizing our language materials, because there is a ton! So I knew where it was and what it was) and I told the elders that if they needed me to teach him then to call the VC and the Lord would have to help me relearn enough Arabic to teach him. They haven't called us back yet, but I've started using all the Arabic materials we have to try and relearn it. I really wish I had kept it up. I honestly never thought that I would need to speak Arabic on my mission, Russian maybe, but not Arabic, and yet the day comes and it is the language that I can't teach in that the Lord might need me in. (Side note for mom, can you find my Arabic books and send them to me so I can relearn more. I don't know where they are, and if they aren't at home then they are at grandma's, and I don't know which box, because again, not expecting to use it for 18 months. Also, if there is an Arabic Preach My Gospel could you find out and send it to me?) So that was my humbling experience for the week. If I really do end up helping them to teach this man then that will be even more humbling because it will have to be all the Lord. Luckily the church has so many great materials. 3 of the 5 lessons are printed in pamphlets for investigators so I could teach him out of those, and Preach My Gospel has all the references I would need for scriptures in the other lessons, so it would be a lesson completely out of the scriptures.
On the topic of languages here is the list of all the languages that we have the Book of Mormon in. It would be great if Erin or Ky or Jake or Mom could look them up and email me back with where each of them are spoken (I think it would be a fun project for Piggy). We have other materials such as the Family Proclamation and the Living Christ in other languages too.
Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Aymara, Bengali, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chinese, Croation, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Efik, English, Estonian, Fante, Fijian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Ilkano, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kekchi, Kiribati, Korean, Laotian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Maori, Marshallese, Maya, Mongolian, Navajo, Neomelanesian, Niuean, Norwegian, Palauan, Papiamento, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Rarotongan, Romanian, Samoan, Russian, Shona, Sinhala, Slovenian, Swahili, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tongan, Tswana, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yapese, Zulu.
Not hard to see why it is my favorite exhibit, right?
I'll finish up by telling you about another exhibit that we have. Our temporary exhibit right now is about the history of MoTab. There is a place where you can conduct the choir, except the baton breaks all the time from misuse and the songs are soooo slow. There is a listening station to listen to some of their recordings, interactive kiosks about their history, a collection of MoTab dresses and former conductor's batons. And then there is the beloved Music and the Spoken Word episode from the 60s. It is on a loop and just plays over and over and over. Many of the sisters have it memorized. (Take time, for your children... Mother.... where is mother? Are the questions asked when they come home...) That is unanimously the VC sisters' least favorite exhibit, especially because it is hard to teach from. It isn't a bad exhibit, actually quite interesting, but only on the first time through, and we are there a lot. But in only a few more weeks it will be gone, the room will be used as a theater for a few weeks, and then the nativities from around the world will be up for Christmas!
De Mesa con amor,
Hermana Ladd
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
I'm in MESA!!!
Wow, can you say longest week of my life?! Tuesday was the longest day of my life, followed closely by Thursday. But I love it! I don't even know where to start. first of all, I'm sure many people are wondering about the weather. Yes, it is hot, but surprisingly 115° isn't near as hot as I was imagining it. I've only been here a week and I'm already used to the sweat and the sun. I think I have gotten more tan in a week than in my entire life, even though I wear sunscreen everyday.
So, as I've found in my journal writing this week, It is better to just recount a few big things, rather than a step by step account with no details so that's what I'm going to do. On Tuesday morning we arrived in Mesa and met our Mission President and his wife and the two elders that are his assistants at the airport. we loaded up our stuff and went straight to the Visitor's Center. There were 19 of us that came in this transfer (a transfer is a six week period and missionaries come in and leave on the first day of the transfer). At the Visitor's Center (which I'll tell more about later) we all sat in the room with the Christus statue of Christ and Pres. Bassett talked to us about how we (with our companions) are the only ones in our area that have the ability to bring salvation to the people of our area by bringing them to Christ (no pressure right?!). Then we all drove up to the Mission home in Scottsdale where we had interviews with Pres. Bassett, had a little orientation, and then got our areas and companions!
My companion's name is Sis. Blades, and I have to tell you a quick small world story about her. We figured this out when we were driving home Tuesday night. So Sis. Blades went to BYU Idaho and had a roommate up there who transferred down to BYU and moved into the Arabic house! Then she was my roommate for one semester. And the even funnier part is that Sis. Blades came down and lived at my apartment over Thanksgiving that semester and we even went out to dinner together! Crazy, huh?! And now she is my trainer. Anyway, our area is Ensenada Park, in the Superstition zone. We live with some English members of our Stake.
We work in a little Spanish branch with about 40 members, but I love it. Because we are in such a small branch we know all the members and they always fellowship the investigators that come to church. No one gets lost in that branch. Yesterday in church Relief Society and Priesthood were combined because it was the fifth Sunday of the month. The RS President, Hermana Parra, got up during announcements and said "the Mestres, the Ayalas and Hna. Vichez weren't at church today, who is going to visit them?" I was so impressed that it didn't take us as the missionaries to point out the people that were missing. The Mestres are some of our investigators, but you wouldn't know it because they are some of the most active members of the branch. They are going to get baptized as soon as they can get married. As a side note, just a little something about the family situations here - they are crazy! I have a hard time keeping track of them. Hno. Mestre was married to someone in Mexico before coming here, so before he and Hna. Mestre can get married he has to get divorced, and the way they work out divorces in Mexico is that they narrow down an area where his wife might be, put ads everywhere, and then wait a certain amount of time. If noone responds to the ads then he is divorced. We were supposed to find out last week the results, but the lawyer hasn't called yet. So we are just praying and waiting. I would say that the majority of hispanic couples around here are not married to whoever they are living with, even if they have been together for a long time and have children and everything. The hardest thing for me in the branch is showing them I love them. Sis. Blades and her last companion whitewashed the branch 5 and a half months ago, meaning they came into the branch when there hadn't been missionaries for almost 3 years. So the branch really thinks of Sis. Blades and her last companion as "their" missionaries and now that the other sister has gone home to Colombia, they really miss her. It is one of the most common topics of conversation, so I am really trying to show the members and the investigators that even though I am new I am going to work just as hard and love them just as much, but it is still a little intimidating.
So that is a little bit about our branch, now on to the Visitors' Center. First of all, our area is the farthest away of the areas Visitors' Center sisters work in, almost 30 minutes away. The rest of the sisters are much closer, in the areas directly surrounding the temple. I love the Visitors' Center! There are 3 senior couples that work there, the Burkes (the directors), the Rowes, and the Ogdens. They are all so nice, it is like having 3 more sets of grandparents. Speaking of grandparents, the first thing that Elder Burke said to me when I met him was "are you related to Don Ladd?" It turns out that Elder Burke was the bishop of the Washington DC ward when Grandpa was stake president. And since he was in that stake he of course knows the Coltons too. He wrote a book about the history of the Washington DC ward, and I think I remember him saying something about Grandpa Ladd being the bishop of that ward before he was. And he said that he interviewed Uncle Sterling for the book. So there are some more small world experiences! His first name is Lee, and he wasn't ever married when he lived in DC. He married Sis. Burke only about 5 years ago.
I don't even know where to start with the VC. We work in shifts, which are usually 6 hours a day, except when other sisters have p-day or on Sundays. And once in a while we will have a "full field" day, which means we don't work in the VC at all that day (hence Thursday, my first full field day, was the second longest day of my life). We only have about 2 or 3 full field days a transfer. There are 8 companionships that work in the VC and we are split into groups of 4, so for this first 6 weeks I will mostly be working with the same 3 companionships. Our shift changes everyday, so we don't always work in the evening or morning, etc. I like that because it keeps things changing. Also, we talk to more people in the afternoons and evenings, so they try to give all the companionships at least 3 nights a week in their area. Our p-day will also change every week, but is almost always on a Monday or Tuesday. I can't remember what day it is next week... More about what we do at the VC: We have different posts every hour. Some days there is hardly anyone there, and some days (like last Saturday) we have more than a thousand people come through. They said that during the Christmas season we have thousands of people go through just in the evenings. There are lots of presentations and aspects of the VC and to space it out, I'll only talk about a few each email. We will start of with my favorite exhibit, the Book of Mormon table. We have a table with the Book of Mormon in 83 languages (easy to see why it is my favorite, right?) And really, there are languages I have never heard of, which is saying a lot since we learn about even crazy dying languages in Linguistics. I will have to send a list of the languages some time so that my family can do some research and tell me where all of them are spoken. There is a sister from Brazil at the VC at the same time as we are, so between her and the Portuguese Book of Mormon maybe I can pick up some Portuguese while I'm out. All of the sisters are a lot of fun to be with, and being at the VC sometimes it is like I have 6 trainers instead of one. We are actually going to lunch with another companionship right after this, another trainer and a sister that came in with me.
Wow, time flies, I have already been typing for 50 minutes. We only have an hour to write, because we are at the library and there is a line of people waiting for computers. Some important info for communication with me: Just keep using the mission office as my address - 6265 N 82nd St. Scottsdale, AZ 85250. They can forward the mail and always know where we are living. Also, they bring mail down to the VC twice a week so we get it there. If you send any packages, again use the mission office address, and try to send them by USPS if you can. FedEX, etc. can't be forwarded, they have to wait until someone is coming to our area, so while I'm in the VC that is fine, but when I am outbound (or full field, or full pros, or whatever you what to call it) then it might take a while. Oh! one more experience and then I'm out.
We are teaching a woman named Mirna, and she was actually the first lesson I taught. We asked her if she had been praying and she said yes, but that she wasn't sure if she was getting an answer, because she didn't feel any different when she prayed. Then at 3:30 Saturday morning we got a call from her saying that her "husband" had been in a car accident and was in intensive care. We prayed with her on the phone, then as a companionship, then individually (we do a lot of praying on missions...) When we woke up again on Saturday we got permission from our President to go to the hospital (it is in Phoenix, and either on the edge of our mission or across the street out of it). We had to work in the VC in the morning, but we called the Branch Pres and he took two other brothers and went and gave Aliseo a blessing. Then we went about 2:30. We still aren't quite sure what happened, but something in the car exploded (we don't know if he was in it or in front of it looking under the hood) and his body was burned from the waist up. When we got to the hospital he was sleeping but when he woke up he seemed like his spirit was still strong. By the time we had gotten there he was able to drink by himself, and they had taken all tubes out of his throat and nose. His 2 year old son called while we were there and he tried really hard to be able to talk to him. Also, Mirna had brought her Book of Mormon to read to him (he hadn't really been interested before). She asked for us to show her a part she could read to him later, but he wanted her to read it right then, so we read a chapter with them and then left them with a prayer. She called us on Sunday to tell us that he can now eat by himself. Then we ran into her yesterday and she said they had taken off all but one of his bandages and that his task for yesterday was to walk. And this is all in just 4 days! It really is a miracle. we are hoping that this will help her progress more. She has already exercised faith when she called us and asked us to pray and reading the Book of Mormon with him. He had to have surgery (today I think) on his hand for skin graft, and so the doctors say that he will be in the hospital another 4 months for therapy, but we are praying that at least he will be able to be transfered to a hospital closer, especially because Mirna is thinking of moving out there during those 4 months and that is way out of our area. If she does move then we will just pray that the missionaries out there will be able to keep teaching her and continue helping her progress. I love seeing the Lord's hand in this work!
De MESA con amor!
Hermana Ladd
So, as I've found in my journal writing this week, It is better to just recount a few big things, rather than a step by step account with no details so that's what I'm going to do. On Tuesday morning we arrived in Mesa and met our Mission President and his wife and the two elders that are his assistants at the airport. we loaded up our stuff and went straight to the Visitor's Center. There were 19 of us that came in this transfer (a transfer is a six week period and missionaries come in and leave on the first day of the transfer). At the Visitor's Center (which I'll tell more about later) we all sat in the room with the Christus statue of Christ and Pres. Bassett talked to us about how we (with our companions) are the only ones in our area that have the ability to bring salvation to the people of our area by bringing them to Christ (no pressure right?!). Then we all drove up to the Mission home in Scottsdale where we had interviews with Pres. Bassett, had a little orientation, and then got our areas and companions!
My companion's name is Sis. Blades, and I have to tell you a quick small world story about her. We figured this out when we were driving home Tuesday night. So Sis. Blades went to BYU Idaho and had a roommate up there who transferred down to BYU and moved into the Arabic house! Then she was my roommate for one semester. And the even funnier part is that Sis. Blades came down and lived at my apartment over Thanksgiving that semester and we even went out to dinner together! Crazy, huh?! And now she is my trainer. Anyway, our area is Ensenada Park, in the Superstition zone. We live with some English members of our Stake.
We work in a little Spanish branch with about 40 members, but I love it. Because we are in such a small branch we know all the members and they always fellowship the investigators that come to church. No one gets lost in that branch. Yesterday in church Relief Society and Priesthood were combined because it was the fifth Sunday of the month. The RS President, Hermana Parra, got up during announcements and said "the Mestres, the Ayalas and Hna. Vichez weren't at church today, who is going to visit them?" I was so impressed that it didn't take us as the missionaries to point out the people that were missing. The Mestres are some of our investigators, but you wouldn't know it because they are some of the most active members of the branch. They are going to get baptized as soon as they can get married. As a side note, just a little something about the family situations here - they are crazy! I have a hard time keeping track of them. Hno. Mestre was married to someone in Mexico before coming here, so before he and Hna. Mestre can get married he has to get divorced, and the way they work out divorces in Mexico is that they narrow down an area where his wife might be, put ads everywhere, and then wait a certain amount of time. If noone responds to the ads then he is divorced. We were supposed to find out last week the results, but the lawyer hasn't called yet. So we are just praying and waiting. I would say that the majority of hispanic couples around here are not married to whoever they are living with, even if they have been together for a long time and have children and everything. The hardest thing for me in the branch is showing them I love them. Sis. Blades and her last companion whitewashed the branch 5 and a half months ago, meaning they came into the branch when there hadn't been missionaries for almost 3 years. So the branch really thinks of Sis. Blades and her last companion as "their" missionaries and now that the other sister has gone home to Colombia, they really miss her. It is one of the most common topics of conversation, so I am really trying to show the members and the investigators that even though I am new I am going to work just as hard and love them just as much, but it is still a little intimidating.
So that is a little bit about our branch, now on to the Visitors' Center. First of all, our area is the farthest away of the areas Visitors' Center sisters work in, almost 30 minutes away. The rest of the sisters are much closer, in the areas directly surrounding the temple. I love the Visitors' Center! There are 3 senior couples that work there, the Burkes (the directors), the Rowes, and the Ogdens. They are all so nice, it is like having 3 more sets of grandparents. Speaking of grandparents, the first thing that Elder Burke said to me when I met him was "are you related to Don Ladd?" It turns out that Elder Burke was the bishop of the Washington DC ward when Grandpa was stake president. And since he was in that stake he of course knows the Coltons too. He wrote a book about the history of the Washington DC ward, and I think I remember him saying something about Grandpa Ladd being the bishop of that ward before he was. And he said that he interviewed Uncle Sterling for the book. So there are some more small world experiences! His first name is Lee, and he wasn't ever married when he lived in DC. He married Sis. Burke only about 5 years ago.
I don't even know where to start with the VC. We work in shifts, which are usually 6 hours a day, except when other sisters have p-day or on Sundays. And once in a while we will have a "full field" day, which means we don't work in the VC at all that day (hence Thursday, my first full field day, was the second longest day of my life). We only have about 2 or 3 full field days a transfer. There are 8 companionships that work in the VC and we are split into groups of 4, so for this first 6 weeks I will mostly be working with the same 3 companionships. Our shift changes everyday, so we don't always work in the evening or morning, etc. I like that because it keeps things changing. Also, we talk to more people in the afternoons and evenings, so they try to give all the companionships at least 3 nights a week in their area. Our p-day will also change every week, but is almost always on a Monday or Tuesday. I can't remember what day it is next week... More about what we do at the VC: We have different posts every hour. Some days there is hardly anyone there, and some days (like last Saturday) we have more than a thousand people come through. They said that during the Christmas season we have thousands of people go through just in the evenings. There are lots of presentations and aspects of the VC and to space it out, I'll only talk about a few each email. We will start of with my favorite exhibit, the Book of Mormon table. We have a table with the Book of Mormon in 83 languages (easy to see why it is my favorite, right?) And really, there are languages I have never heard of, which is saying a lot since we learn about even crazy dying languages in Linguistics. I will have to send a list of the languages some time so that my family can do some research and tell me where all of them are spoken. There is a sister from Brazil at the VC at the same time as we are, so between her and the Portuguese Book of Mormon maybe I can pick up some Portuguese while I'm out. All of the sisters are a lot of fun to be with, and being at the VC sometimes it is like I have 6 trainers instead of one. We are actually going to lunch with another companionship right after this, another trainer and a sister that came in with me.
Wow, time flies, I have already been typing for 50 minutes. We only have an hour to write, because we are at the library and there is a line of people waiting for computers. Some important info for communication with me: Just keep using the mission office as my address - 6265 N 82nd St. Scottsdale, AZ 85250. They can forward the mail and always know where we are living. Also, they bring mail down to the VC twice a week so we get it there. If you send any packages, again use the mission office address, and try to send them by USPS if you can. FedEX, etc. can't be forwarded, they have to wait until someone is coming to our area, so while I'm in the VC that is fine, but when I am outbound (or full field, or full pros, or whatever you what to call it) then it might take a while. Oh! one more experience and then I'm out.
We are teaching a woman named Mirna, and she was actually the first lesson I taught. We asked her if she had been praying and she said yes, but that she wasn't sure if she was getting an answer, because she didn't feel any different when she prayed. Then at 3:30 Saturday morning we got a call from her saying that her "husband" had been in a car accident and was in intensive care. We prayed with her on the phone, then as a companionship, then individually (we do a lot of praying on missions...) When we woke up again on Saturday we got permission from our President to go to the hospital (it is in Phoenix, and either on the edge of our mission or across the street out of it). We had to work in the VC in the morning, but we called the Branch Pres and he took two other brothers and went and gave Aliseo a blessing. Then we went about 2:30. We still aren't quite sure what happened, but something in the car exploded (we don't know if he was in it or in front of it looking under the hood) and his body was burned from the waist up. When we got to the hospital he was sleeping but when he woke up he seemed like his spirit was still strong. By the time we had gotten there he was able to drink by himself, and they had taken all tubes out of his throat and nose. His 2 year old son called while we were there and he tried really hard to be able to talk to him. Also, Mirna had brought her Book of Mormon to read to him (he hadn't really been interested before). She asked for us to show her a part she could read to him later, but he wanted her to read it right then, so we read a chapter with them and then left them with a prayer. She called us on Sunday to tell us that he can now eat by himself. Then we ran into her yesterday and she said they had taken off all but one of his bandages and that his task for yesterday was to walk. And this is all in just 4 days! It really is a miracle. we are hoping that this will help her progress more. She has already exercised faith when she called us and asked us to pray and reading the Book of Mormon with him. He had to have surgery (today I think) on his hand for skin graft, and so the doctors say that he will be in the hospital another 4 months for therapy, but we are praying that at least he will be able to be transfered to a hospital closer, especially because Mirna is thinking of moving out there during those 4 months and that is way out of our area. If she does move then we will just pray that the missionaries out there will be able to keep teaching her and continue helping her progress. I love seeing the Lord's hand in this work!
De MESA con amor!
Hermana Ladd
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
MESA and 110° weather, here comes Brynn!
Update from Brynn's mom - we got to talk this morning as she was at the airport in SLC waiting for her flight to Mesa. She was soooo looking forward to the 110° expected later this week. She got to see her sister, Kylie, before going through security. Her Dad was flying home from UT today, so he got to go with her to the gate and stay with her until she left.
There were a ton of missionaries going to Phoenix with her - at least 12 of whom were going to her mission. There are 18 sister missionaries in her mission, but not all are called as Visitor Center missionaries. And of the VC sisters, it is split between English and Spanish speaking. Anyway, you can e-mail her at brynn.e.ladd.AMM@myldsmail.net, or send her letters at the office address on the side bar.
I'll post again as soon as I get an e-mail from Mesa!
There were a ton of missionaries going to Phoenix with her - at least 12 of whom were going to her mission. There are 18 sister missionaries in her mission, but not all are called as Visitor Center missionaries. And of the VC sisters, it is split between English and Spanish speaking. Anyway, you can e-mail her at brynn.e.ladd.AMM@myldsmail.net, or send her letters at the office address on the side bar.
I'll post again as soon as I get an e-mail from Mesa!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Love you all!!
I don't have much time today. Well it seems like it is like that every week, and 10 minutes of my email time has already passed with reading emails. So I will focus on how crazy this week has been!
Visitors' Center (VC) training started on Wednesday. There are 5 of us in the district, all going to Mesa on Tuesday. 2 are English speaking and 3 of us are Spanish. We all get along so well, I am really looking forward to meeting all the sisters in Mesa. Besides my comp the other Spanish sister is from Washington, but her parents are Mexican. The 2 English sisters are from Alpine, Utah and Acworth, GA. It is fun having another Georgian, and one of our teachers is from Marietta, so that makes up half of us!
The VC training is really intense. Wednesday was like another first day at the MTC. We had some hardcore Referral Center training. We found out that we spend about 6 hours a day at the VC and 2 of those hours are spent on the phone calling potential referrals that we have gotten. That was news to all of us. Whoever said that a Visitors' Center is not a real mission and is really easy needs to go through the training we have. Regular missionaries really get to know their investigators one on one and can sit down with them to find out their concerns. We have about 5 minutes to find out the concerns for groups of up to 30 people sometimes. We have to get to know them, find out their background, their questions, and then make a "lesson" plan right then, based on what we learn. It is kind of intimidating, but at the same time exhilarating. The sister who trained us in the phone program said that the Lord requires a great amount of faith from His VC sisters, because most of the time we won't ever see the fruits of our labors. We see these people in the VC for about 30 minutes, and then they go home. If they were in tune with the Spirit, they will give us their information, and then we will send other missionaries to go teach them. We have to trust the Lord and other missionaries enough to leave these people in their hands. I know that this is one of the big reasons I must have been called to serve in a VC. Having the trust to do that has been a struggle I have had while here and the person that the Lord wants me to be is someone with great faith, hope and humility, so he has given me this call to be able to develop those attributes. I am so thankful for that.
I am so excited for Tuesday! I have already packed up half my clothes, because we have hardly any time on Monday to pack and the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication is on Sunday when we would normal pack. Last night we had our first VC TRC. We set up a VC with pictures in a room in the MTC and took people on tours. Oh! Sorry, this is going to be a scattered email... We have so many resources as a VC sister! There is a room next to our class room that has some electronic kiosks about the temples and families, etc that they have in VCs. There is a big screen TV where we can watch some of the exhibits that VCs have, like the Christus. We even have a huge cardboard Christus cutout. I will take pictures and send them home.
Anyways, tomorrow is Temple Square day! I can't wait. We are going to be put with a companion there and will follow her schedule from 4-8 in the afternoon. Oh, and tonight, we go around the MTC collecting real referrals from the missionaries here. We then call these people tomorrow morning and invite them to be taught by the missionaries! We are already starting real missionary work! There is so much more to talk about and learn about, I'm sure we will learn more our first day in the field than we have in 9 weeks. I will have to try and write a longer email then and tell all about it!
I love you all and am sorry if my emails are scattered! Speaking of scattered, the little miracle from God today was that we found a Russian vocab, phrase and grammar book in one of the give-away boxes, so now I have a Russian PMG and the MTC language book that goes with it. But don't worry, Spanish is of course my focus, I am just grateful for the gospel oriented opportunity to keep up my Russian.
De Provo con amor,
Hermana Ladd
Visitors' Center (VC) training started on Wednesday. There are 5 of us in the district, all going to Mesa on Tuesday. 2 are English speaking and 3 of us are Spanish. We all get along so well, I am really looking forward to meeting all the sisters in Mesa. Besides my comp the other Spanish sister is from Washington, but her parents are Mexican. The 2 English sisters are from Alpine, Utah and Acworth, GA. It is fun having another Georgian, and one of our teachers is from Marietta, so that makes up half of us!
The VC training is really intense. Wednesday was like another first day at the MTC. We had some hardcore Referral Center training. We found out that we spend about 6 hours a day at the VC and 2 of those hours are spent on the phone calling potential referrals that we have gotten. That was news to all of us. Whoever said that a Visitors' Center is not a real mission and is really easy needs to go through the training we have. Regular missionaries really get to know their investigators one on one and can sit down with them to find out their concerns. We have about 5 minutes to find out the concerns for groups of up to 30 people sometimes. We have to get to know them, find out their background, their questions, and then make a "lesson" plan right then, based on what we learn. It is kind of intimidating, but at the same time exhilarating. The sister who trained us in the phone program said that the Lord requires a great amount of faith from His VC sisters, because most of the time we won't ever see the fruits of our labors. We see these people in the VC for about 30 minutes, and then they go home. If they were in tune with the Spirit, they will give us their information, and then we will send other missionaries to go teach them. We have to trust the Lord and other missionaries enough to leave these people in their hands. I know that this is one of the big reasons I must have been called to serve in a VC. Having the trust to do that has been a struggle I have had while here and the person that the Lord wants me to be is someone with great faith, hope and humility, so he has given me this call to be able to develop those attributes. I am so thankful for that.
I am so excited for Tuesday! I have already packed up half my clothes, because we have hardly any time on Monday to pack and the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication is on Sunday when we would normal pack. Last night we had our first VC TRC. We set up a VC with pictures in a room in the MTC and took people on tours. Oh! Sorry, this is going to be a scattered email... We have so many resources as a VC sister! There is a room next to our class room that has some electronic kiosks about the temples and families, etc that they have in VCs. There is a big screen TV where we can watch some of the exhibits that VCs have, like the Christus. We even have a huge cardboard Christus cutout. I will take pictures and send them home.
Anyways, tomorrow is Temple Square day! I can't wait. We are going to be put with a companion there and will follow her schedule from 4-8 in the afternoon. Oh, and tonight, we go around the MTC collecting real referrals from the missionaries here. We then call these people tomorrow morning and invite them to be taught by the missionaries! We are already starting real missionary work! There is so much more to talk about and learn about, I'm sure we will learn more our first day in the field than we have in 9 weeks. I will have to try and write a longer email then and tell all about it!
I love you all and am sorry if my emails are scattered! Speaking of scattered, the little miracle from God today was that we found a Russian vocab, phrase and grammar book in one of the give-away boxes, so now I have a Russian PMG and the MTC language book that goes with it. But don't worry, Spanish is of course my focus, I am just grateful for the gospel oriented opportunity to keep up my Russian.
De Provo con amor,
Hermana Ladd
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Hola (again)
Two more weeks from yesterday! And I know that they are going to go by really fast, because in a week our elders will have left and we will start our Visitors' Center training. That consists of lots of class, lots of tour memorizing, and a secret VC room with pictures where we practice giving tours. It is going to be a ton of fun. Oh, and plus the afternoon up in Salt Lake! I think that we have met all of the sister's going to the Mesa Visitors' Center with us. There is Hna. Cochran and I, Hna. Guzman, who is from Washington but her parents are Mexican so she already speaks Spanish, Sis. Fonbuena, who is from Cedar Hills Utah, and Sis. Collier, who is from the Cartersville stake in Atlanta (I think that is her name, so if anyone knows any Colliers in the Cartersville stake). We get our flight plans tomorrow so we will know exactly when we leave, but the estimated date is the 25th.
A lot of fun stuff happened this last week. First of all, I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. Every week we are given a topic for a talk and then they call on 2 missionaries to speak at the beginning of Sacrament meeting. All in Spanish of course (but that really isn't a problem since I got my first Spanish talk out of the way before I left). Anyway, the week I spoke it was on the Great Apostasy. I wrote about half of the talk and then decided that if I was called on I would just testify for the rest. As soon as I decided not to finish writing my talk I knew for the rest of the morning that I would be called on. At least it was no suprise when they did call on me. It went really well and I am starting to get to the point where I don't have to write everything that I say down, and can improvise in Spanish, which is going to be a super important skill in about 2 weeks!
The other cool thing that happened last week is that we did Spanish calls in the Referral Center for the first time. It was awesome! I was terrified, but I think I talked to more people in Spanish in 1.5 hours than in all my weeks of calling English speakers. And 2 of the people that I spoke with accepted a visit from the missionaries with a Book of Mormon! Most of the people were extremely patient with my Spanish. It is so much harder to understand on the phone than it is in person. But all accept one were really kind. Our teachers tell us that that really is characteristic of almost all hispanics. I can't wait to teach them! One thing that I have learned in the Referral Center is how hard it is to have your personal testimony rejected. It is definitely a faith-trying experience. But I have learned that in missionary work (which is the Lord's work 100%) as long as the missionaries are obedient and share their testimony, than if it is rejected it is only because of the agency of the other person. Still, everytime it happens, it is really difficult, because as a missionary I learn more and more everyday how vital this message is to the world and it makes me sad when they don't want to accept it. I think that this will be something that is especially difficult my whole mission, not taking every rejection and every insult personally.
However, on a much brighter side, the Lord provides so much help and support for us. While I was in the temple today and every Wednesday, I am always reminded of how many prayers there are for the missionaries. Everyday multiple times a day in every temple people are praying for us. All of the General Authorities pray for us, everyday. Mission presidents, everyday. Families, everyday. Friends, everyday. As a missionary I pray for all the other missionaries, everyday. And even when we are in the TRC, teaching volunteers, they always pray for us as well. There are more prayers for missionaries around the world (and I'm sure in heaven too) everyday than could possibly be counted. Everytime I hear someone pray for the missionaries I remember that I am included in that and it gives me so much comfort. Every prayer is appreciated, and more important, every prayer is needed. So the point is thank you all so much for your prayers. I know what it means now when people say "we can feel your prayers for us" because I certainly can. And just know that I am praying for all of you too!
De Provo con amor,
Hermana Ladd
A lot of fun stuff happened this last week. First of all, I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. Every week we are given a topic for a talk and then they call on 2 missionaries to speak at the beginning of Sacrament meeting. All in Spanish of course (but that really isn't a problem since I got my first Spanish talk out of the way before I left). Anyway, the week I spoke it was on the Great Apostasy. I wrote about half of the talk and then decided that if I was called on I would just testify for the rest. As soon as I decided not to finish writing my talk I knew for the rest of the morning that I would be called on. At least it was no suprise when they did call on me. It went really well and I am starting to get to the point where I don't have to write everything that I say down, and can improvise in Spanish, which is going to be a super important skill in about 2 weeks!
The other cool thing that happened last week is that we did Spanish calls in the Referral Center for the first time. It was awesome! I was terrified, but I think I talked to more people in Spanish in 1.5 hours than in all my weeks of calling English speakers. And 2 of the people that I spoke with accepted a visit from the missionaries with a Book of Mormon! Most of the people were extremely patient with my Spanish. It is so much harder to understand on the phone than it is in person. But all accept one were really kind. Our teachers tell us that that really is characteristic of almost all hispanics. I can't wait to teach them! One thing that I have learned in the Referral Center is how hard it is to have your personal testimony rejected. It is definitely a faith-trying experience. But I have learned that in missionary work (which is the Lord's work 100%) as long as the missionaries are obedient and share their testimony, than if it is rejected it is only because of the agency of the other person. Still, everytime it happens, it is really difficult, because as a missionary I learn more and more everyday how vital this message is to the world and it makes me sad when they don't want to accept it. I think that this will be something that is especially difficult my whole mission, not taking every rejection and every insult personally.
However, on a much brighter side, the Lord provides so much help and support for us. While I was in the temple today and every Wednesday, I am always reminded of how many prayers there are for the missionaries. Everyday multiple times a day in every temple people are praying for us. All of the General Authorities pray for us, everyday. Mission presidents, everyday. Families, everyday. Friends, everyday. As a missionary I pray for all the other missionaries, everyday. And even when we are in the TRC, teaching volunteers, they always pray for us as well. There are more prayers for missionaries around the world (and I'm sure in heaven too) everyday than could possibly be counted. Everytime I hear someone pray for the missionaries I remember that I am included in that and it gives me so much comfort. Every prayer is appreciated, and more important, every prayer is needed. So the point is thank you all so much for your prayers. I know what it means now when people say "we can feel your prayers for us" because I certainly can. And just know that I am praying for all of you too!
De Provo con amor,
Hermana Ladd
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Hola!
Hola! Como estan?
We are still going strong here at the MTC, starting our 8th week today. Like I said last week we got new roommates who will probably be leaving before us. They are really nice, so it is fine, even though our room is so much more crowded. Also, our elders are going to be getting their travel plans tomorrow or Friday; they leave in less than 2 weeks! But Hermana Cochran and I have decided to stop talking about time so that we will focus better. We only know what time it is currently, the date, and what time we need to be at the next activity. I've also noticed that I've starting writing and talking in 'we' a lot, even when it is something that only applies to me. I even write in my journal in 'we'.
Before Hna. Cochran even got her call she had a trip planned down to Mesa to visit some family, so when they actually went on the trip she already knew she was going to be serving at the Visitor's Center. She went and visited and they gave her a few papers about different types of tours they give for different age groups. We looked over them for companion study this morning before the temple, and I can't wait to go down and start my 'real mission'! Except we have to do a lot of singing... we sing 'I Love to See the Temple' to the young women, 'Called to Serve' to the young men, 'I am a Child of God' to the Primary kids, and 'Families can be Together Forever' to Family night tours... and I'm sure much much more...
Yesterday in the TRC we taught a native again. He is from Central America but I can't remember which country. The natives have a hard time pretending to be investigators, so when we ask them questions we would ask investigators they usually turn it around and teach us a lesson! But it was a good experience. Napoleon (that is his name) has a really cool story, that elders in our district who first taught him told us a few weeks ago. He was an orphan growing up in Central America, and didn't have any shoes. To entertain himself he picked up tree branches and would drum on things and taught himself how to drum that way. Then, when the band Santana (Jacob you will like this...) was touring his country they came across him and picked him up as their drummer! When he started earning money one of the first things he did was by shoes and if I am correct I think that to this day he still owns over 300 pairs of shoes! He married one of the bands groupies and they ran into the missionaries while they were touring and he got baptized! And now he is this cute old man who has been volunteering at the MTC for over 6 years. I can't wait to here all the unique stories of the people I will meet in Mesa!
This week, I found something that I thought was cool in the scriptures. To preface it, there is a chapter in Preach my Gospel entitled Christlike Attributes. While most of Preach my Gospel is how to teach others, this chapter is very personal. In the introduction to the chapter it says "Some chapters in Preach My Gospel focus on what you need to do as a missionary - how to study, how to teach, how to manage time wisely. Just as vital as what you do, however, is who you are." So this chapter is all about 9 attributes that Christ had that we should strive to develop: Faith, Hope, Charity and Love, Virtue, Knowledge, Patience, Humility, Diligence, and Obedience. The thing that I found cool was that I was reading in 3rd Nephi chapter 12, where Christ is teaching the Nephites. I wasn't even thinking about the Christlike attributes but then I read verse 8: "And blessed are all the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The attribute of virtue popped in my head and I felt inspired to go back through the chapter and look for the other attributes. I found at least 5 of the nine, as well as some verses that apply to multiple attributes. I thought that that was cool. It is in the Nephite version of the Sermon on the Mount and as Christ is teaching His Gospel and how we can return to heaven (verses 1-2) He names these attributes and characteristics that we all need to develop. I challenge you to read 3 Nephi 12, and maybe even all of chapters 11-18, and try to find some of these attributes. Let me know what you find!
De Provo Con Amor,
Hermana Ladd
We are still going strong here at the MTC, starting our 8th week today. Like I said last week we got new roommates who will probably be leaving before us. They are really nice, so it is fine, even though our room is so much more crowded. Also, our elders are going to be getting their travel plans tomorrow or Friday; they leave in less than 2 weeks! But Hermana Cochran and I have decided to stop talking about time so that we will focus better. We only know what time it is currently, the date, and what time we need to be at the next activity. I've also noticed that I've starting writing and talking in 'we' a lot, even when it is something that only applies to me. I even write in my journal in 'we'.
Before Hna. Cochran even got her call she had a trip planned down to Mesa to visit some family, so when they actually went on the trip she already knew she was going to be serving at the Visitor's Center. She went and visited and they gave her a few papers about different types of tours they give for different age groups. We looked over them for companion study this morning before the temple, and I can't wait to go down and start my 'real mission'! Except we have to do a lot of singing... we sing 'I Love to See the Temple' to the young women, 'Called to Serve' to the young men, 'I am a Child of God' to the Primary kids, and 'Families can be Together Forever' to Family night tours... and I'm sure much much more...
Yesterday in the TRC we taught a native again. He is from Central America but I can't remember which country. The natives have a hard time pretending to be investigators, so when we ask them questions we would ask investigators they usually turn it around and teach us a lesson! But it was a good experience. Napoleon (that is his name) has a really cool story, that elders in our district who first taught him told us a few weeks ago. He was an orphan growing up in Central America, and didn't have any shoes. To entertain himself he picked up tree branches and would drum on things and taught himself how to drum that way. Then, when the band Santana (Jacob you will like this...) was touring his country they came across him and picked him up as their drummer! When he started earning money one of the first things he did was by shoes and if I am correct I think that to this day he still owns over 300 pairs of shoes! He married one of the bands groupies and they ran into the missionaries while they were touring and he got baptized! And now he is this cute old man who has been volunteering at the MTC for over 6 years. I can't wait to here all the unique stories of the people I will meet in Mesa!
This week, I found something that I thought was cool in the scriptures. To preface it, there is a chapter in Preach my Gospel entitled Christlike Attributes. While most of Preach my Gospel is how to teach others, this chapter is very personal. In the introduction to the chapter it says "Some chapters in Preach My Gospel focus on what you need to do as a missionary - how to study, how to teach, how to manage time wisely. Just as vital as what you do, however, is who you are." So this chapter is all about 9 attributes that Christ had that we should strive to develop: Faith, Hope, Charity and Love, Virtue, Knowledge, Patience, Humility, Diligence, and Obedience. The thing that I found cool was that I was reading in 3rd Nephi chapter 12, where Christ is teaching the Nephites. I wasn't even thinking about the Christlike attributes but then I read verse 8: "And blessed are all the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The attribute of virtue popped in my head and I felt inspired to go back through the chapter and look for the other attributes. I found at least 5 of the nine, as well as some verses that apply to multiple attributes. I thought that that was cool. It is in the Nephite version of the Sermon on the Mount and as Christ is teaching His Gospel and how we can return to heaven (verses 1-2) He names these attributes and characteristics that we all need to develop. I challenge you to read 3 Nephi 12, and maybe even all of chapters 11-18, and try to find some of these attributes. Let me know what you find!
De Provo Con Amor,
Hermana Ladd
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