Mission Log: 07 January 2013

Here's my new address:

10 Commercial Ave Apt. ULC
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

So, send me mail... :) 

Hello all. I hope each of you are breaking in the new year in exciting ways. I started my new year by being transferred to a new area with a new companion. What fun, right? It has been an exciting week getting to know the area and trying to remember how to speak Spanish (the my previous area we mostly worked in English). I am always amazing by how diverse New Jersey is. It's not a very big state but the whole world is crammed into this little place. Everywhere I go is vastly different then the place I had just been. New Brunswick is a little bit suburbia, but it's fun. The people are really nice and just the right about of Jersey crazy. I knocked on a door the other day and the woman who answered says "Giiiirl, what are you doing out there with no clothes on?" I told her that I was wearing lots of clothes. I had on at least 4 layers. But she wasn't having it. "No girl, no, you is out there practically naked, gonna freeze to death, what's the matter with you." I had to laugh and she appreciated a good smile. She told me to go sit in my car with the heat on and not come out, and I went ahead knocking more doors.

Then I knocked another door and a man answered wearing nothing but his underwear...He immediately recognized who we were and was so embarrassed that he slammed the door right in our faces and started yelling "Sorry! So Sorry! Wait! SORRY!" he went and got dressed and we had a nice little lesson in his home. People make me laugh.

I like learning about new cultures and appreciating different people. In that way New Jersey works really well for me. Everyone I meet has a different life story. In Subway the other day our sandwich extraordinaire was from Egypt. He was such a sweet man. The second he started helping us he said "You are very happy girls!" So we told him a little bit more about who were are and that we share a message about Jesus Christ, and then his face lit up. "I LOVE Jesus Christ." He told us all about how much he loves Christ and that his life completely changed when he found him. We gave him a card with a picture of Christ on it and he just hugged the card and kept telling us about how happy he was that he met us. Such simple encounters, but they are full to the brim with happiness.

How about a different tangent now?

President Harold B. Lee has a quote that I like a lot. He says, "Missionary work is but home teaching to those who are not now members of the Church, and home teaching is nothing more or less than missionary work to Church members." When we report on the progress of our recent converts and less active members we are almost always begging that they have home and visiting teachers assigned to them, and that they actually receive these monthly messages. I know that I haven't always been the best about my visiting teaching, but I hope to change that when I go home. It is so crucial. There are lonely hearts that desire company. There are dampened spirits that need lifting. The calling to serve as a home or visiting teacher is a sacred trust given to us that allows us to bless the lives of our brothers and sisters. Love is the why of the gospel, and home and visiting teaching is just another way to show and develop greater love. Do yours this week!