Week one in the mission field has been such a blast!
Let's start with how much I love it here. It is so green, the people are great, and humidity is real (but it's the best!)
Southern hospitality is a real thing too! Then add Latino culture to that and you have the nicest people on the planet.
I am serving in a place called Walters. Our area, plus 2 others, make up one big Spanish ward.
My companion is great! Her name is Hermana Ordonez. She was born in Peru, then moved to New Jersey when she was 12. So basically, I am serving with a professional Spanish speaker and it is such a blessing!
My mission president is AWESOME. He and his wife are seriously the nicest people ever. Him and and his family moved here from California. He has 6 kids from ages 19-6 and they are the coolest. We got to stay in the mission home with them for the first night, so we really got to know them.
I have only been here for 5 days and I have seen so many miracles! I thought that I would share one of them.
On Friday, I met one of our investigators, Bertha. She is a sweet lady from Mexico and her husband passed away about a month ago. She is really just a solid lady.
We were teaching her for the 3rd time that night. After it was over, I invited her to be baptized. She began saying that she wasn't ready and wanted more time to study and learn to know if it was true. She then told us it felt right, but she still wasn't sure.
Fast forward to Sunday.
Bertha came to church for the 3rd time. We went to Sunday school together ere taught a really great lesson about Christ and charity, the spirit was really strong. At the end of the lesson, the teacher asked Bertha to give the closing prayer. She was really nervous, but she did it. During her prayer, she said, "Heavenly Father, thank you for letting me be here. I feel something developing within me and I don't know what it is. Please help me to know." And then she began to cry. The spirit was SO strong and Bertha was feeling the Holy Ghost confirm the truths of this gospel to her. It was amazing.
Other exciting things that have happened this week are:
- I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting on Sunday. It was terrifying.
- Our car broke down, so we were stranded for about an hour and a half
- A 22 year old recent convert blessed the Sacrament for the first time on Sunday. He also wants to serve a mission in a year. HE IS AMAZING.
I am so excited to be here in Houston! So many people are prepared to receive this happy message!
The church is true!
Love,
Hermana Rupp
Part 2
I thought I would just send this to give a little more detail of my week since the e-mails I send back are so lame.
Houston is a lovely place. Really green. Really hot. and really not that humid. I love it.
The first night we got here, the sisters got to stay in the mission home with the presidents family. They are awesome. They fed us so well and just took great care of us!
The next day, I met my companion, Hermana Ordonez. She is really cool. We live in a really cute apartment complex. Apparently, it is a little sketch though. Last month, 2 cars were stolen at gunpoint in the parking lot hah. But it is probably the best in the area.
I am serving in an area called Walters. It is really close to the airport and the mission home.
One of my favorite things to do is to go tracting! I love being able to talk to people in english and spanish. I love going to all of the apartment complexes to do it too. Pretty sure that half of the people we talk to have been totally wasted or high, but they are really nice. One of the people that answered the door was this big black dude and across his chest the words "Thug Life" were tattooed. haha it was really funny.
I also saw not one, but FOUR cockroaches in one house. You betcha I almost had a heart attack and died. It was so terrifying.
The Spanish people feed us SO MUCH. I literally am going to turn into a hippo out here. Thank goodness for morning workout time. Despite the fact I hate working out, I know I need to to make sure I don't turn into Aunt Marge (Like my HP reference haha)
I still don't understand Spanish at all. and can't really speak it. But the people are really nice and helpful. And gospel Spanish vs. just everyday conversation Spanish are totally different. I didn't learn to have normal conversations in the MTC haha.
I am not going to have to be a biking missionary! We have a car.. which is probably good because areas can be huge. But last night, our car wouldn't start.. so we were stranded for about an hour and a half outside of an apartment complex. 4 People came and saved us eventually though. We won't have a car until ours is fixed.. so that will be interesting to see how that works.
We helped a Latino family set up for one of their kids birthday parties on Friday. Latinos go all out. It was at an apartment, and they still got big bouncy slides and tacky party favors.
On Sunday, I met my ward. There are 6 missionaries in this ward (2 in each of the 3 areas the ward is made up of). It is a good ward, with nice people. A lot of the families are inactive though. The bishop is a little crazy I think though. He is some old, white guy. In the middle of sacrament (he was talking at the pulpit) he yells to my companion trying to figure out who I was. Then, later he was blessing a baby.. and he gave it the wrong name. It is very interesting haha!
I also bore my testimony. I figure it is better to just try even if I make a fool of myself with Spanish. I am glad I did it.
We are teaching some really great people. One of my favorites is Pedro. He was baptized in June, so we are going over the lessons again with him. He is awesome. He wants to go on a mission in a year. And on Sunday, he passed the sacrament for the first time. He is 22 and hilarious.
We also are teaching Bertha. I think that she will probably be baptized soon! Well at least commit to it. She has been feeling the spirit like crazy. It is awesome.
We had 4 investigators at church on Sunday, so that was really cool!
That's about all that is going on down here! I am really excited to get to know more people and to serve here. It will be really fun!
I hope you all have a great week.
Love and miss you all!
Love,
Lindsay
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