1. First of all, my area is huge! It takes over an hour to drive from top to bottom or side to side! And we cover just 1 ward and the church isn't even in my area! People travel far to get to church, it is amazing. We often go to a town called Corry which is 50 mins away from our apartment. And our area goes into New York! So, we use a lot of miles... we often pack dinner and eat it in the car to save on miles going back to our apartment. It's a good time though! I've been in this area since early October and there are still a couple town's I have not been in yet that are in our area... we stay mostly in Erie, there's just so many people and so much happening here! But we are teaching a couple people that live farther away.
2. When we are tracting, we have to knock on people's doors with a nice little rhythm and not very furiously, or else people think we are the police.
3. We see the police all the time. Either we see them drive past us, or we hear their sirens. We've seen people get arrested! We once saw 8 cop cars drive past us real slow with their flashlights out, that was fun! And we once saw cops run into the house of a referral person we were trying to go teach. When we stopped by there a few days later, the woman said he was in jail. Too bad.
4. When we knock on strangers doors, they often will yell out, "Who is it??" In a scary sounding voice. We then reply, "It's the sister missionaries!" In a nice sounding voice. They usually take a bit to open the door, confused as to who we are and often will say, "Who??" They then open the door, and stand there looking tough for a second, then they see these 2 girls in skirts with big smiles on our faces and then they are really nice to us. It makes me laugh everytime.
5. Sometimes when we knock, they will yell, "Come in!" So we will walk in and then they will look at us confused and we realize they must have been waiting for someone else to come over... this is awkward...
6. People here are generally really nice when knocking doors! I've only had a few doors slammed in my face and most of those were when I was on exchanges in a different area! People are typically polite at the door.
7. People from Pennsylvania are TALKERS!! We once tried to teach this woman we knocked into, but we were over there for an hour trying to talk but she just talked the whole time. It is apparently called the Pennsylvania Ramble! And they will talk to anybody! Doesn't matter if we've been teaching them for months or if we just knocked on their door, they will talk your ear off and tell you very personal facts about their lives you did not need to know lol!
8. People go crazy for decorating for holidays! People had lots of lights and blow up things and lots of other decorations out for Halloween and I thought that was crazy but boy, Christmas! Just drive down our street and see these houses here, they go crazy, they've got so many decorations outside their homes! And everyone decorates, too!
9. Literally everybody smokes here. I think my clothes will forever smell like cigarette smoke! Teenagers, mothers, old grandparents! Also, many people are missing teeth... hmm I wonder if those could be connected...
10. Never mention the snow. They will then spend 10 minutes telling you all about the CRAZY snowstorm they had last Christmas, telling you the same facts that the last person did. I admit, it was a ton of snow.... they got, like 120 inches.... But everyone tells us about it.
11. It is freezing. Lake Erie, you're beautiful but boy do you make it freezing here! Although these people must be used to this cold because I still see people walking around in shorts when I'm all bundled up in multiple layers... as long as it's not windy, I can handle it haha
12. Amish people! There aren't many amish people in Erie, but last week we went out to dinner in Corry and there was a big table next to us, full of Amish people! It is so cool to see! And I saw a Horse and Buggy on the road the other day!
13. There are many poor people. People live off of food stamps. A ton of people do not have cars, which makes it hard to get people to church haha
14. Everything here is old! We are in the east, so all these houses and buildings are old and beautiful!!
I love serving with Sister Paskett in Erie, PA! It is a great time! I love the people, I love the work, I love the area, and I love the Lord! Being a missionary is the greatest!!
Have a FANTASTIC week!!
Love,
Sister Bates ❤
No comments:
Post a Comment