Hey everyone!
Hello from the heroine capitol of the world, Butler PA. Hahaha. I don't
know where to start!
The flight alone from MX-GA-PA was pretty stressful. I definitely realized
pretty fast that I'm not in Utah anymore! But I made it in one piece. For some
reason I seem to end up alone for all of my traveling, hahah. I gave the guy
next to me on the plane a Book of Mormon. I wasn't going to honestly but we
started talking and his phone had Steeler's written on it, so I took it as a
sign haha. When I arrived unfortunately none of the other missionaries had made
it due to delayed flights. So again, alone, I hung out with President Johnson
and his wife all night- VIP treatment. Sister Johnson and I went on a hike the
next morning. Perks of having the former REI CEO as your mission president. So
this is why I was called here. Jk.
Pittsburgh is unreal. The view as you come out of the Pitt Tunnel is
awesome, video included. So pretty, day or night. There is not a flat spot here.
Hills on hills on hills. So green and pretty. I love the rainy and snowy days,
though it's warming up.
Butler is just outside of the city. We live in downtown Butler, basically
in the ghetto. It was just opened up to sisters again, it had been an elders
only area for a while for safety, so that's good.
There are sooo many churches here. I thought Utah had it bad. There's one
LDS church. I think they've started running out of names for their churches,
there's literally at least three or four on every block.
I met my trainer, Hermana Davis! She's so great, we're going to be awesome
together.
Wednesday was my first dinner appointment! We ate at the Bonetti's. Outside
downtown is anything but city. Everyone lives in the woods. Brother Bonnetti has
a thick accent and a long thick black beard and hair. He was burping and
cracking jokes all through dinner, haha. They even brought out the homemade
pickles for the occasion. Sister Bonnetti drives a school bus. The members here
are so awesome, we have dinner appointments every night, they buy us groceries
and call us all the time to see how we're doing.
I got to meet lots of the people I'll be working with. You learn really
fast the second you walk in the door people are willing to tell you anything and
everything, we hear some crazy stuff. These are not your average people.
So the mission is nothing I expected it to be. Our focus is almost all on
reactivating members. We are almost discouraged from tracting. I'm already
figuring out how much harder reactivation is than non members. There is also a
lot of service involved.
I will not be using any spanish for now. Any spanish speaking people we
meet are passed on to some elders.
It is not what I expected, but I see so much room for improvement with the
system here, so much potential to get things moving again here. It seems to be
at a standstill of sorts.
Let me tell you about some of the people we're currently working with.
There quite a few excommunicated members we visit. Sis. W (Not using names) is a
recovering drug addict, who's 21 year old daughter is in prison. We're trying to
arrange lessons with her at the moment. She's awesome.
Sis. Y- my heart goes out to her. Her husband is deployed and she's at home
with her 8 month old and 4 year old. I can't even imagine her situation.
D is our new investigator. He is amazing. For months I have prayed that
the people here would be prepared, and he is. He is a recovering alcoholic. He
actually attended church with us this week. He had so many great things to say.
He told us This about how he felt the Holy Ghost.
"I felt it. It went deep. Like the worst grief you've ever felt, only the
exact opposite. Is that why your eyes radiate all the time? Yeah, I want that. I
only wish I had found this sooner."
So blooper of the week.... oh my gosh. We knocked on this guys door,
a non member referral, and he invited us in. If you have ever wondered if
'hoarders' are real, they are. He told us to sit, so Sister Davis and I cleared
off a small chair and sat together. Also, it smelled way good in there. We began
to teach and as sister davis was talking, I looked down and there was a
cockroach crawling up her thigh towards me. I panicked and smacked it off.
Everyone stopped and looked at me wondering why I had just smacked my companion.
They hadn't seen it. Not wanting to embarrass the guy, I just said 'sorry' and
continued the lesson. I realized they were everywhere. The walls, floors,
everywhere. I don't know what half of them were. I looked down ant there were
three or four by my feet. As I desperately tried to teach, I could feel them
crawling up my legs. There was some bag that kept rustling in the corner, who
knows what was in it. A rat maybe.
We set our next appointment to be in the park.
It's a strange thing being a missionary.I feel like I'm walking around with
the cure to cancer. What every person here needs to be happy.
So who am I to walk past a single person?
I feel so overwhelmed as we drive from appointment to appointment, of all
the people and houses I pass. Who am I to pass them up? I feel a lot of weight
on my shoulders, to be responsible for the entire area, just us two
missionaries. We have a very large area to cover, almost all our appointments
take 30-40 minutes to drive. We are so busy with appointments we don't have time
for anything else. It's good that we're busy.
Being in this 'loud' city with such a 'quiet' message is somewhat
intimidating, but I'm ready for it. Here's to the next year and a half!
Adios, Hermana Sears
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