DADDY!!!!!!!
I GOT TRANSFERRED TO CINCINNATI!!!!!!This place is CRAZY!!!!!
They have only had sisters here for 3 months before I arrived. My new companion is Sister Corbridge. She only has two transfers left (including this one). We got doubled in!!!!!! So we knew absolutely NOTHING when we got here. And no one knew us. It was the scariest thing. Not to mention that no one in Cincinnati has really ever seen sister missionaries too much here anyways. The ward should be a branch. We got the ward roster, and there's about 30 actives and 300 inactives!!! There are so few people in the ward that the missionaries have to do a lot. Like we had to pray in sacrament meeting, we have to teach Young Womens, and help out in primary a lot. There are 4 Elders in the ward. Thankfully their areas cover the scariest parts of Cincinnati. Downtown. But daddy, we still have to drive through scary parts a lot. And, I've NEVER seen poverty. This place looks like a war zone!!! There are houses falling down, the streets are dirty, and smell. This place really is foreign.
We have one large family with four generations in our ward and they all make up about half of our active members. We live with a member, this little lady named Maxine. She's 86. She's a retired English teacher and Home Ec teacher, so she says exacts what she feels and does exactly as she
pleases. She is super bossy and super strict and pretty much just runs the world! She and I go back and forth all the time. She's so brutally honest. Whenever she starts dishing it out, I dish it right back to her. And she just gets this twinkle in her eye, smiles and walks away. I guess no one has ever dished it to her right back. Also, she and I argue for hours. (Not like contentious arguing, more like debating. Like what our family does a lot) and I'm almost about as brutally honest as she is, I
make her laugh all the time!! My companion has never seen anything like me and Maxine when we get together. She just doesn't ruffle me at all like she does everyone else. And people just let her get away with whatever she pleases because she's so old. The older you get, the more things people let you get away with. But I don't like how strict she is. She yells at me a lot for not eating at the table, and for eating packaged food, and for not making my bed. But it just makes me wanna do that stuff even more!! but I make my bed now.
Cincinnati needs A LOT of work. like A LOT. The first presidency has asked us, that in order to make sure that we are fulfilling our purpose as missionaries, that we extend baptism on the first lesson, and then extend a date for baptism on the second lesson whether we think that they really are ready or not. But the only people who have gotten baptized in this ward in the past 5 years have all gone immediately inactive. Listen, I didn't know what the plan of salvation was when I was baptized, I hadn't read the Book of Mormon, let alone the bible! I knew a few primary songs and maybe a few stories and that was it!!! These people are already 10 steps ahead, knowledge-wise, than I was when I was baptized. So it really is not, how much you know, that determines baptism. It is if you have felt compelled by the spirit and you have decided to act upon that compelling, to get baptized. I think that these people in Cincinnati just need to understand commitment, and responsibility to stick to the things that they commit to. So we are really going to need to just build up the ward member's faith in baptism and missionary work before we start converting anyone yet. So I need help daddy. I need help to know how to help strengthen this ward's faith in missionary work, and in us, and to help teach the people of Cincinnati about commitment and responsibility.
We helped clean up a house in the ghetto. It was so disgusting I wanted to just throw away my gloves and my shoes and everything else I wore that day. But I don't have another pair of shoes or gloves... So, I'm going to have to just really clean them well. And those are all the elders in our ward. They're pretty nerdy.
pleases. She is super bossy and super strict and pretty much just runs the world! She and I go back and forth all the time. She's so brutally honest. Whenever she starts dishing it out, I dish it right back to her. And she just gets this twinkle in her eye, smiles and walks away. I guess no one has ever dished it to her right back. Also, she and I argue for hours. (Not like contentious arguing, more like debating. Like what our family does a lot) and I'm almost about as brutally honest as she is, I
make her laugh all the time!! My companion has never seen anything like me and Maxine when we get together. She just doesn't ruffle me at all like she does everyone else. And people just let her get away with whatever she pleases because she's so old. The older you get, the more things people let you get away with. But I don't like how strict she is. She yells at me a lot for not eating at the table, and for eating packaged food, and for not making my bed. But it just makes me wanna do that stuff even more!! but I make my bed now.
Cincinnati needs A LOT of work. like A LOT. The first presidency has asked us, that in order to make sure that we are fulfilling our purpose as missionaries, that we extend baptism on the first lesson, and then extend a date for baptism on the second lesson whether we think that they really are ready or not. But the only people who have gotten baptized in this ward in the past 5 years have all gone immediately inactive. Listen, I didn't know what the plan of salvation was when I was baptized, I hadn't read the Book of Mormon, let alone the bible! I knew a few primary songs and maybe a few stories and that was it!!! These people are already 10 steps ahead, knowledge-wise, than I was when I was baptized. So it really is not, how much you know, that determines baptism. It is if you have felt compelled by the spirit and you have decided to act upon that compelling, to get baptized. I think that these people in Cincinnati just need to understand commitment, and responsibility to stick to the things that they commit to. So we are really going to need to just build up the ward member's faith in baptism and missionary work before we start converting anyone yet. So I need help daddy. I need help to know how to help strengthen this ward's faith in missionary work, and in us, and to help teach the people of Cincinnati about commitment and responsibility.
We helped clean up a house in the ghetto. It was so disgusting I wanted to just throw away my gloves and my shoes and everything else I wore that day. But I don't have another pair of shoes or gloves... So, I'm going to have to just really clean them well. And those are all the elders in our ward. They're pretty nerdy.
