What a week it has been! I am officially in my first area and it is going very well! Redruth is the area that I am in. It is located near the bottom left tip of England and it is a very small yet quaint town. I really enjoy it. Redruth is our area because it has the chapel located there. However, our area is pretty big. We have St. Ives, Camborne, Hayles, Truro, Tregony, Portreath, Perranporth, etc. as part of our area to teach in. They are all different towns and differ quite a lot but it's fun to be able to see the different places. As for the week, Wednesday is when I left the MTC and entered into the field. Only 5 of us, 3 Elders and 2 Sisters, came into the London South Mission. The missionaries there to greet us and President Millar and Sister Millar were very nice. We found out our areas and companions. My companion is Sister Schmidt from Germany. She has been out 15 months and Redruth is her last area. She trains me for 12 weeks so we know for sure that Redruth is our area for at least 3 months. After I found out my area and new companion, we got in a car with some other missionaries and had to travel for 5 or so hours to Redruth. We got to our flat pretty late at night and went straight to bed. The next day, we went shopping for food and organized some things together but got picked up at 1:30 again to go to Poole, then to London. We were to travel because the next day which was Friday, Jeffery R. Holland was coming to talk to us missionaries. So Wednesday was our first day to the flat, and the next day we had to travel back again for 5-6 hours or so to London. We stayed overnight thursday night at the London Temple accommodations and then left for Central London to get to the Hyde Park Chapel to see Jeffery R. Holland. It was quite a lot of traveling but it was worth it. Jeffery R. Holland was amazing! He talked about how we needed to embrace our missions and talked about the importance of loving it. The one sad thing though was that the bus arrived late friday morning to pick us up to go to the Hyde Park Chapel and so we missed the part where Jeffery R. Holland shook hands with all the other missionaries. I guess we got blessed though because we still got to hear his talk. Well after a lot of traveling, we made it back and really settled in this time to our flat. Saturday is when we started street contacting, finding, etc. for my first time. It's really not at all bad. I seem to do ok with talkign to people and approaching them. What's crazy about this area, Redruth, is that it is being re-opened. What I mean by this is that Redruth didn't have any missionaries for sometime till we got there so we basically started from scratch. We had organize our flat, get progress records, pamplets, pass-along cards, etc. and start to figure out the less actives and recent converts. We did meet the ward for Redruth and that was fun. There is a total of 35 or so members and the chapel is quite small. We had all three meetings in the same room. The members are so kind to us though and you could see the joy radiating from them as they came up to us. We actually have a dinner appointment with some of them this entire week. I don't think we will starve anytime soon ;) I am kind of surprised that there aren't more chapels for such a big ward boundary like this but then again, I have to remember that I'm not in Utah anymore. Everything has been good though. I've already seen the power of missionary work and how it can help people. One really cool thing that happened, for Sister Schmidt and I, took place yesterday. We were street contacting and met this one guy but the guy didn't seem too interested. We gave him a pass-along card anyways and then continued to search for more people to share the Gospel with. Hours later, he texted us and told us that he visited our website and thanked us for being on the streets. He has apparently started to lose some of his hearing and it has made him sad and so he wants to find happiness. We have a teaching appointment with him this week and it'll be my very first. I'm excited though and I know that the Lord truly does prepare the hearts of the children to receive the truth. He provides many tender mercies if we are faithful. 1 Nephi 1:20. This week has been very eventful and busy but good. It has taken some time for me to adjust to the new area and It has been a tiny bit difficult being away from home but I've really learned to turn to the atonement and prayer and it's helped a lot. I hope to continue to get more used to being out here and I have faith it will get easier with time. I have learned so much about this gospel and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity of being out on a mission. I love you all! Hope everything is going good for you! Oh also! I got my flat address and if you want to send letters, I suggest you send it to the flat or else I won't get it for sometime. They give us letters from the mission home only at zone conferences which happens every 3 months. I will warn you when you should stop mailing me at that address when the time comes for me to move. For now though, you're safe to send it to my area:
Flat A
58 West End
Redruth
TR 15 2SQ Cornwall
United Kingdom
With Love,
Sister Burtis
No comments:
Post a Comment