21 May 2013

Semana 18

May 20, 2013
 
FAMILIA...
 
Just got transfer news and guess who is staying in Hopkinsville, KY and will be training a visa waiter? Super humbled and feeling really priveleged to be able to stay here. There is a lot of work to be done here. Not just for Spanish, but also for English retention. I'm super excited to stay, but also apprehensive and nervous, especially to take over Spanish here. I'm praying my trainee into the area and I think she will be grately needed here. Sorry this one is going to be so short! Love you all, you are amazing! I need lots of prayers here to take over Spanish and train a new missionary!
 
Love you, good luck with end of school year and start of summer!
 
Hermana Kristy Rich

13 May 2013

Week 17 Hoptown Kentucy

May 13, 2013
 
Familia!
 
Estoy bien agradecida que yo pude hablar con ustedes ayer. Muchas gracias por su bondad y amor a mi. Era muy bien para ver que ustedes estan seguras and felices!
 
It was really awesome to be able to talk to y'all yesterday! Really good to know that you are all doing well and that you are all safe and sound. Sorry I rambled on last night, but I was really happy to see all of you... although I will admit, "No No" was probably the best looking one!
 
So I remember that I told you about how on Saturday me and my companion soft committed someone to baptism. Man, it felt so good! Hermana McNab and I (now that we are FINALLY moved into Hopkinsville) are really excited to be able to hold on to some of our investigators that we have here in Hopkinsville. Those couple of weeks in Oak Grove were very testing because we felt so purposeless down there because of so many reasons... but we did find a couple of investigators even though they were all English. The other day we were planning on how we would pass them off to the English sisters in Oak Grove and we were pretty bummed to pass them off- even though they weren't all progressing investigators, we had some really good finding experiences with them. Including this guy named James! We "accidentally" found him when we looked at the ward list for Oak Grove and decided to check someone out on the list who was marked less active. We got to the door and it turned out that the guy no longer lived there anymore, BUT we got to meet this guy named James. We left him a mormon.org card with our number and a Book of Mormon to read. He had told us that he had just moved into the area and was actually looking for a church. He had tried a couple of the churches around town and he just wasn't really feeling any of them. He was really friendly and we had a really good contact with him. He said we could come back if he was home. That was about a week ago, but we haven't been back to see him because we wanted to give him a couple of days before trying again.
 
But yesterday, HE TEXTED US. I can't even tell you how many hundreds of people we give our number out to in random contacts, whether they are on Book of Mormons or they are on mormon.org cards. It was awesome, he texted us and thanked us for the material we gave him last week. Hermana McNab and I were elated! While I was video chatting with y'all yesterday she had a really good texting conversation where 1) we have a return appointment with him 2) we discovered that he went to the mormon.org website and really enjoyed it! 3) has questions for us! We were super excited! We told him to feel free to ask his questions until we can see him again on Wednesday. To be honest, we got a little worried that some of the questions were going to be over controversial issues about the church's stance on things... you know you can imagine what some of those things would be. BUT the first question he texted us was "My main question is, how does one join the church? I've never known where to start or how the process works." ARE YOU SERIOUS?! We were super excited! That is definitely a question we can answer as missionaries. :)
 
SUCH A MIRACLE. It is just like I told y'all yesterday. During this transfer I have experienced my highest highs and lowest lows as a missionary! BUT, the lows make my highs so worth it. I feel like we are being tried everyday to be proved how faithful we will be in response to the miracles that Heavenly Father continues to have in store for us.... There are some really good things that can happen here in Hopkinsville. The Lord just needs faithful, obedient missionaries who are willing to do all they can to reap those blessings. Hermana McNab and I adjusted our weekly goals this week and we have the faith to try and set FIVE baptismal dates. Woo, that would be a perfect way to end a transfer! Next week I will be finding out about transfers, so that might be a little nerve racking if I get moved again and we only had one week in our unfurnished apartment... but I'm so excited for all of the wonderful things we have been able to experience here. Highest highs and lowest lows... I read today in Alma 26 and I feel like Ammon boasting in the strength of the Lord as a missionary. Super exciting.
 
I'll keep my head up this week and pray to be apart of the many miracles Heavenly Father has in store for his children in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Those couple of weeks living in Oak Grove were pretty rough at times, but we had to grow a lot and if anything, we found James through living in there. The catch to the story is the English sisters probably wouldn't have found James because they already had marked on their list that the ward member no longer lived at that address anymore! I guess we were supposed to stumble upon him because of our ignorance and I'm so glad we got to see him!
 
Les quiero mucho!
 
Hermana Rica

06 May 2013

Week 16 "Getting Lucky in Kentucky"

Hey Family!
 
I hope this email finds you all happy and well. I am so grateful for y'all in my life. The mission has taught me a lot of things, especially in my last three weeks here in Oak Grove. I think it has been the hardest three weeks of the mission, but I have definitely learned the most duing this time.
 
SO we STILL HAVENT GOTTEN OUR APARTMENT IN HOPTOWN. That means that even if we get into this apartment by the end of this week, I will have spent one week in Manchester, over half of my time in Oak Grove and maybe a week and a half in my actual area? haha. Crazy transfer....
 
I have loved living with the English sisters in Oak Grove though, even though Hermana McNab and I are still on the floor living out of our suitcases. I have learned a lot from them and I know that there were lessons I think we were all supposed to learn from each other.
 
This last week I was able to go on splits with Sister Escobar. She is in my Zone and grew up speaking Spanish, but was called English speaking on her mission. It was her first time doing splits in Spanish and it was my first time doing splits at all. "Hermana Escobar" as I like to call her, is an AMAZING missionary though. I learned so much from her in the day and a half we were together than I think we could have imagined. Together we found quite a few new investigators in Hopkinsville and she taught me a lot about how you can be a very obedient missionary and still have a lot of fun. She is almost to her last transfer as a missionary and I can tell that she has had so much fun on her mission, but she has also been a successful missionary because she is so obedient. I loved doing splits with her and I think it was exactly what I needed. She taught me a lot about being bold and confident in our message with people. I have already started to put to practice what she has taught me and I am excited to see how I can grow even more.
 
The other day Hermana McNab and I were driving up to Hoptown from Oak Grove and the drive was beautiful! I will always have a special place for Manchester, but that drive started to convince me that Kentucky is a pretty spectacular place too. I can't remember if I told you this, but my first day when we got to KY we met the Bishop in our ward and he told us that "we were on the right side of the state line. There is Zion... and then Tennessee." It was funny. I really love TN a lot, but I get the feeling I might be in KY for a couple of transfers to build up the Spanish group here in Hoptown, so we'll see how I feel in a couple of more weeks.
 
The work has been split between Hopkinsville and Oak Grove. This last week we got 9 new investigators, taught 18 other lessons and taught a total of 28 lessons! It was a miracle. Most of that was because we were doing out work in Hopkinsville where there is quite a bit of less active and potentials to check out on the Spanish list. It was amazing though! I don't think me and Hermana Smith ever had numbers like that when we were in Manchester. It felt sure good to see the numbers to reflect our hard work this last week. The mission teaches you in our lowest lows, and your highest highs. Roller coaster of emotions everyday!
 
Hopefully Hermana McNab and I will be getting into our aparments this next week! But who knows, we might still have more lessons to learn from the English sisters we are living with. I'm not sure how I will call you next week because I don't know if we will be in Hoptown or in Oak Grove... I know if I am at a members house we can probably try a gmail chat if one of the members has one? It might be cool to see Nolan on chat and to see how big he has been getting.
 
I remember that last transfer I did a couple of funny things I had seen around TN email, so here are a few things I have experienced since I've been in KY:
 
- Never in my life have I seen so many ghetto cars. There are these 70 looking cars with giant tires all around here in Oak Grove. Hermana McNab and I were tracting the other day and this ghetto car blasting music passed us FOUR TIMES within one mile. It was really entertaining
-Never in my life have I seen horse and buggie signs on a freeway, then actually see horse and buggies crossing the freeway..
-Never in my life have I seen so many cop cars as I do in Oak Grove, KY. and never in my life have I had them come up to us and talk to us about not being out too late preaching
-Not nearly as many people say y'all out here in KY, at least out here where I am. It is sad... but I'm trying to hold on to my Southern accent :)
-As I hate to admit it, all Walmarts are still considered equal, whether you are in Utah, TN or KY
 
Well, I will continue to grow my list about the funny things I see out here in the Bluegrass state. Love you all. Can't wait to talk to you soon next week!
 
Con Amor,
 
Hermana Rich