Kaitlyn's Email 11/10/2010

Haha okay wow a lot can happen in a week I don't even know where to start!


Let's see sooo I'm not really sure why I got sent to this area first! It is the hardest area with the most challenges, my companion keeps saying Pres. H must have known I was going to be good because he knows all the challenges in this area.

Where to begin...Okay so our Branch that covers all of Pinetop and Showlow. We cover the whole area and are the only Spanish speaking missionaries in the area so we drive about 70 miles a day.

Sunday is a whole other story... I've grown to love our little Branch though, they are amazing. Everyone lives in different places but they have more faith than anyone I have ever met. They are AMAZING missionaries too they give us ALL their friends to go and teach - it's awesome. I love the culture. Just about everyone is from Chihuhua, Mexico. They are amazing people..even the non-members. Everyone invites us in when we show up at the door and they don't even know who we are. They tell us to come in it's crazy how loving they are. The only problem is a lot of our investigators just think we are nice people and I'm not sure they understand that we are trying to baptize them. They are in no rush to get baptized. A few of our investigators have been investigating for 10 years. Hermano R comes with us everyday. He will drop whatever he is doing to go with us to appointments, which is awesome because he talks most of the time and everyone loves him. He is so personable and outgoing and I'm glad he talks because um... my Spanish sucks and I never talk. People talk SOOO fast and it's this kind of mumbled and I catch every 5th word if i am lucky...frustrating... All the members are so loving though and trying to help me learn. Plus there is a lot of slang...I only know gospel words...that would have been helpful to know a few other words...but it is coming slowly everyday little bit more and more.


Right before this last transfer there had only been Elders in this area for the last 10 years, we are the first Spanish sisters. Well the companion before me was. They were about to dissolve the Branch, but a few weeks ago they called a new Branch President who is white and went on a Spanish speaking mission. He has helped a ton but we still have soo much work to do. Half the day we are teaching existing members church basics and the other half the day we are finding investigators. I said like 5 prayers on Sunday. It is improving a lot. This branch just needs A LOT of love. A lot. They trust us and love us which is good.

Hermano R is the best, he has organized the whole month so we have dinner made for us every night! Here's the funny part: Half the time it's at an investigator's house! They love cooking for us! We have such few members that each family feeds us about once a week. Another part I love is that we look at our schedule and it will say "You have dinner at the "M" family," so we go there and there are about 8 cars out front and it's our entire branch! Everything is a fiesta - I love it! We never just have dinner with one family, everyone always shows up! We see every member of our branch at least once a day, they are always at each others houses. The food is good and they make you eat a lot. I don't know how to pronounce most of the food.
PS I have another cat his name is Oliver and he lives outside our cabin I love him, we have bonded.

Anyways so our branch is tough to help but they are amazing examples of faith because they literally have nothing, but are so willing to share what they do have - especially the gospel.


"P"...His wife is Hermana "B". She has been a member for 2 years and she is amazing! So "P" has been scheduled to get baptized about 5 times. He has gotten so many missionaries' hopes up. So my first experience with him wasn't so fantastic. We went to visit his wife and he came in and told us to teach him, then he said "Hermanas I know I need to get baptized, I have received my answer. I know I need to." (PS God has given him about a million signs I'll explain in a letter) We told him about the Holy Ghost and the Atonement. So we would read a scripture and he was feel the Spirit and get frustrated because he doesn't know if he wants to change.

So Hermana "B" was at church a few days later...then yesterday we went to visit her and see if things were better and she had received her Patriarchal blessing and things had taken a 180! "P" came in and was a completely different person! He shaved and was clean and was overly nice to us and asked us what he could cook for us on Friday and how he wanted to continue the lesson and prepare for baptism.
In her blessing it told her some wonderful things. OH here's a fun thing about "P": He hands out Books of Mormons to his friends all the time and tells them it's true!!

This sums up about all our investigators...they all know it's true but don't act. Last night we had dinner at our investigators and they asked if they could feed us and see us more often which was pretty cool. I'll explain more about our investigators in my letter.

Although this area is really tough and has so many challenges and I wonder why I am here, I know it's right. I have this indescribable love for the people even though half the time I can't understand a word they are saying to me! I probably speak 2 words to them every now and then but oddly I love them a lot. I think that's all this Branch really needs.. a lot, and I mean A LOT of love.

Anyways, I have to go I'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Kaitlyn!