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Companion: Sis. Paskett
5500 copper Dr. Apt. 201 Erie, PA 16509
THE BABY IS HERE???? AHHHHH!!! THE BEST NEWS EVER!!!! SHE IS SO CUTE!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! WISH I WAS THERE!!
Hello!!
Hello!!
How are you all doing? Happy Birthday to Dad! Hope you had a great day!
So you better find a comfortable chair to sit in, maybe get a cup of hot chocolate and some good toast, put some nice warm socks on because, knowing me, I'm sure this will be obnoxiously long. If you make it to the end, congratulations you may win something!
Tuesday: We had this awesome lesson with a man named Mike! Also, quick funny thing, we also found a man named Jeff that we are gonna go back and try to teach later! Oh our family. Anyway, the lesson was so COOL! The highlight of my week. So we got there, this was his 2nd lesson, and he told us he was almost done reading 1 Nephi! He zoomed through that! And he was asking us questions about Lehi's dream and told us what he was thinking stuff meant and he was totally right! It was awesome. So we taught him the plan of salvation and he was totally focused, and actually listening to what we had to say (this hardly ever happens, the PA ramble takes a hold of everyone here and they just talk until they are blue in the face and we hardly get to teach 2 points of the lesson. We are working on that) anyway, he asked really good questions and when we asked him some, he really pondered before he answered and then gave a perfect answer. The spirit was so strong during the entire lesson. I had never felt it that strongly in a lesson before that. It was so cool. And then at the end, he asked us if his Catholic baptism counted!! So we talked about how our church has the priesthood authority and stuff and he was like "okay that makes sense". Sister Paskett and I were so mad at ourselves after, that we didn't formally invite him to be baptized!! I was thinking we should during the entire lesson but I thought it would be weird coming from me since he just met me. But next time, we are definitely inviting him!! He is just the coolest dude, he is so prepared!! So please pray for Mike!
Wednesday: We had District Council, in a town called Meadville, which is about a 50 minute drive for us! But it was a good meeting, the other missionaries, a companionship of elders, and a trio of sisters, are all super nice and good people. On Wednesday we also drove out to a different part of our area that I hadn't been to yet! Our area is HUGE, I'll send y'all a picture of our boundaries, it is crazy. We mostly stay in Erie and don't drive more than a half hour outside of Erie typically but there are areas that are farther! And we just cover one wards' boundaries! And there aren't even that many people that come to church. Anyway, our area goes into New York!! So we went there to meet with a super nice less active woman and her son. Getting to go to NY was good and it was a beautiful drive! Also that night we went to a mutual activity at the church where they had us and the elders from the other ward come and we each talked about how we decided to serve a mission and then had a Q&A with the youth and it was awesome! They had some great questions and it was really fun to get to answer them!
Thursday: We visited with this sweet old lady in an assisted living center. We shared with her a talk from last conference by Brian Ashton (read that one again, it is so good!) And she was just so happy! She loves meeting with us and talking about the gospel, especially since she can't come to church anymore. We also did some service for a woman who has some mental health problems. She had (literally all) her dishes in the sink and needed them all washed and put away and she was sick and just didn't feel she could do them. So we did that for her and cleaned her kitchen up for her. Doing service is one of my favorite parts about being a missionary! I feel so good helping people and I just love to serve them! We also taught our Facebook live Book of Mormon class. We do that at 8:30 our time, I think y'all can watch it? Idk how it works. But yeah that was good, we talked about King Lamoni's father.
Friday: I have been out on my mission 1 month today! The time has flown by so fast! It was a slow day, we had weekly planning in the afternoon which takes 3 hours, so we don't do much on Fridays until the evenings. We visited with a less active man that night, he was really nice, seems like he still has a testimony, just has a hard time making it out to church. But he was open and willing to have us come back and meet with him again.
Saturday: We visited another woman in an assisted living center and helped her bake cookies for a fundraiser. (She lives in a super nice center, it sticks out like a sore thumb in Erie haha) but that was really nice and she was happy to have us there. Also, the kitchen we were in was like a big common area for residents so they had a tv on, playing good Hallmark movies and oh man, that was the biggest trial of the week, trying to not watch that hahaha! We visited with another less active family, they have had a lot of hard trials in their lives but their belief, at least the Moms' belief in Christ is still strong which is cool.
Some of Erie is old and run down and sketchy but we are safe! Don't worry, we are safe! Literally everyone smokes here. Every one. We come home every night and we smell so strongly of smoke!! It's pretty bad. Also, many people are super poor here, I've been told multiple times that most of the people here live off of social security. The houses are all old. It's really humbling. One more interesting thing is that there are hardly any street lights!! It is SO dark driving at night and we are surrounded by trees too; it's weird how there are like none.
The bishop here is super nice, I like him a lot. The people are nice here. We actually got fed 3 times this week which is unusual, being fed even once a week is great! So that was good. The ward is tiny. We all fit in the chapel, the gym isn't even opened. We have invited a bunch of inactives to our Halloween party coming up.
Oh yeah funny story, at District Council, this old man who used to serve here 40 years ago came in and was talking with us and when he was about to leave he pulled out this 100 dollar bill, said "I'm paying for lunch!" Threw it on the table and basically ran out the door. We all stared in shock for a second, then tried to go give it back to him, but it was too late, he left! hahaha! So the elders took it for their lunch, then they will give the change to us sisters on Wednesday for our lunch. So funny!
I love this gospel, I love being a missionary! Doing this has brought me so much joy! Even when it is really cold outside and I'm standing out there and walking around in a skirt, I am still happy! It is awesome!! You are all awesome, thanks for all the support!!
Congratulations for making it to the end! You win an imaginary gold star!! You rock!!
I love you all!! Thank you for the emails, I love hearing about you and your lives! I can read emails every day during meal times at the apartment which is cool. And I can respond to emails anytime today until 6pm my time.
Being a missionary is awesome! I have been blessed to have a really positive attitude since becoming a missionary. I've always been a positive person but that has heightened since I have been here and I am thankful for that. It is so cool to see how the gospel really blesses lives! It is awesome! I am happy to be here! :)
I love you all!!!
Love, Sister Bates
PS. I will try to take more pictures that I can send to you next week. Just went to Wal-Mart. We are running out of miles for the month so we are trying to conserve them. We won't be going back to New York until November that's for sure. But yeah, things are good, I am happy! Sister Paskett and I are good friends and we have fun together! She's also a good cook so I have been eating well too! Life is good! Hope all is well at home!
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| Sister Paskett and I |
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| Me in New York! |
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