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| Meeting my Trainer, Sister Paskett! |
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| Sister Paskett and I right before my first experience tracting! |
Area: Erie, PA
Companion: Sister Paskett
Address: 5500 copper Dr apt 201 Erie, PA 16509
Thanks for all the emails saying you saw me in conference! It was SO AWESOME and the coolest experience!! So thankful that I got to participate!!
This has been the craziest week!!! I am in Erie, Pennsylvania now! (yes like Lake Erie) and it is so pretty here!! It is really cold, but beautiful! I have yet to go see Lake Erie, we have never actually made it over there yet, but when I do, I will be sure to take a plethora of pictures! It is freezing cold here lol I am going to die once it starts snowing haha but I am so happy! Being a missionary is hard work and long days but still full of so much joy!
So, the flight to PA was great and uneventful. That was literally the longest day though haha I woke up at 2:45 AM and did not go to bed until 10:30 PM! It was a crazy day, I napped a wee bit on the plane but was still way tired. Anyway, we had a great dinner at a church building, had some good meetings, and then slept at the mission home. For some reason I was not expecting the mission home to actually be a house? But yeah it was super nice and so fun to have 30 new missionaries all staying there! The elders slept in the basement and the 1st floor and then we slept on the 2nd floor. Everyone was all piled in on a couple beds but mainly air mattresses and sleeping bags! Not the best nights sleep but quite fun!
The next day we went back to the church, had some more good meetings, got some good lunch, and then got assigned to our trainers! I was the last one assigned of the sister missionaries haha but my trainer is Sister Paskett! She is awesome!! She has been out only 3 months, is from Highland, UT, and is super nice! We get along really well. She is a great teacher and is always so kind and positive and uplifting! I have learned a lot from her!! Since we had so many missionaries come in, a lot of the trainers are those that just finished being trained! So we are figuring some things out together haha but she is awesome, I have learned a lot from her already.
It was a 2.5 hour drive from Pittsburgh to Erie and we went straight to a dinner appointment! A woman named Kathleen who got baptized in the Spring. She's been having some struggles with the word of wisdom and stuff but she is awesome. I felt so much of God's love for her already, it was a really cool experience for me.
Every Thursday apparently, we teach a Book of Mormon class over Facebook live on a ward page so that was fun! We talked about Alma 32 and faith.
Our apartment is really nice, nicer than I expected! 2 bedroom, 2 bath, lots of space. We use the other bedroom as a study room which has been good. We are in a nice complex in the nice part of town.
Friday we tried to have some lessons but they both fell through. We had a weekly planning session for a couple hours that afternoon which was good, set some good goals. We also chose Ether 12:27 as our companionship scripture for the transfer. That night we had dinner with the McGoons which is a great member family with a 7 year old daughter. We talked with her about baptism and stuff and she is excited!
Later we visited a less active convert, Bro Truesdale. He was really nice, seems to believe and have faith, he just has a hard time coming to church because of health and other stuff. We stood outside in the cold for like 45 minutes haha since there wasn't another woman with us. But it was alright, the spirit kept me warm!
Saturday we did a lot of finding! We spent about 3 hours spread throughout the day just knocking on doors. We met an awesome man named Jeff (lol) who was just walking his dog and when we talked with him he was super interested and enthusiastic about us coming to tell him more! We gave him a Book of Mormon and are going to visit him later this week. We also meet a few more interested people so that was cool! The people here are really nice, even if they aren't interested, they will still talk with you and everyone is super talkative here! I have learned a lot about random people's lives hahaha
We also had a lesson with a woman named Diana that night. She lays in bed all day in her pjs and has health issues so she can't walk that much without being totally exhausted. It was so sad to hear about her struggles in life. She was really nice to us. She is atheist and has some strong opinions and would frequently tell us she doesn't believe in something we said. She is hard to teach. But she wants to learn and believe more. So we will see
Oh man this is a long email I'm so sorry I do not judge you at all if you have given up reading by now because I'm pretty close to giving up writing now hahaha.
Okay I'll talk about one last person, Stevie. She is a single mom, has a rough job and life, and has had drug problem for many years. But since the sisters started teaching her, her life has become so much better! She no longer does drugs, she is noticing blessings in her life, her 2 year old daughter is behaving better, things are just better and happier. She was telling us last night about how much of a difference she has seen in her life and it was such a testimony to me of how much the gospel really blesses our lives. By living it, blessings will be poured out upon us! I think I've kind of taken this for granted growing up but since I have come here and seen how big of a difference and impact it has on people's lives, it is really cool! She is on date for baptism for November 3rd. I hope things keep going well for her. She seems really excited about it!
Here is my thought for the week: my favorite talk from General Conference was Elder Anderson's, called "Wounded" if you haven't read it, do it! You can find all of the General Conference talks on lds.org.
"At a time of enormous suffering, the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith, “All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” How can painful wounds be for our good? In the crucible of earthly trials, patiently move forward, and the Savior’s healing power will bring you light, understanding, peace, and hope."
I have totally seen this in my life! When going through hard times, what has kept me going and kept my chin up has been the Savior. My faith in Him and His power has brought me so much peace and comfort in my life. I know that the Savior perfectly understands each and everyone of us. He has felt everything we ever have and ever will feel. And He knows exactly how to help us. All we have to do is reach out to Him. His arm of mercy is extended towards us, we just have to grab it and hold on.
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!! Being a missionary is hard. It is some long days. But I am so thankful to be here! I have experienced so much joy as a missionary. I don't know why I am here at this time but I know God has a purpose and a plan for me. I am thankful to be here and be a missionary!!
I love you all, you are the best! You are all awesome, thanks for all the support!! Congrats to Laura on Estelle!! She looks so darling and I am so happy for you 💕 keep the emails coming! 😊
Love, Sister Bates
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| These parking signs are all over town, and every street is different hahaha |
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