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| An airplane shot. It was so beautiful! |
Thanks for all of your emails / letters! It is so nice to have them. I'm sorry if I don't reply to all of them, because I don't really have tons of time to do so, but I will try.
This week has been crazy. First off, my companion and I are whitewashing (we're both new to the area) and so all we did for the first three days was basically tract, and street contact, and knock, and knock, and ... knock. I have shin splints from walking so much but other than that I'm fine. Also, I'm always tired (but happy..haha) I think it has to do with the fact that this is such a different lifestyle than what I was living before. Getting up at 6:30 remains difficult, haha, and every chance I have (which is during lunch hour and tea hour...so not really any) I try to power nap. Walking everywhere is kind of nice though.
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| Sister Lybbert & Sister Jodicke |
My companion is so great. I love her to bits. Her name is Sister Jodicke (Yu-di-ka) and she's German and is the sweetest trainer I could have asked for. Also, it is nice because our district leader and his companion live just across the road from us and so they helped us figure out our bus schedules and everything. Their names are Elder Amundsen, from Norway, and Elder Orr, from Utah/Winnipeg/ Cardston or something. He didn't really make it clear to me, haha.
Our area is a poorer area, it has some "posh" neighborhoods but for the most part they are just really dingy. It is nice like that though because it's all of the posh neighborhoods that have rejected us the most, and been more rude. It is amazing how humble so many of the people are here.
The first couple of days, like I said, were hard. i feel like I was really struggling with wanting ot be out here and finding the motivation to find joy in the work. At times I was feeling homesick and thought of how nice it would be to be at home with all of you With lots of studying, and more praying than I have ever done in my life, I found that I was able to just focus and remember my purpose for being here. I felt a lot like I did when I first moved to Edmonton.
Our first knocking experience was a miracle. It was my first day out, and I felt sick to my stomach because I felt like this was going to be the longest time of my life. Sister Jodicke and I decided to just go knocking through our neighborhood because after Orientation Meeting we didn't have a lot of time to figure out our area. The third door we knocked on was opened to us by an elderly man with coke bottle glasses. he let us in straightaway to share a message and then we found out he is a member. He is really cute, his name is Mr. Townsend. He lives by himself and is rather lonely so it was nice to be able to visit with him. It brought my spirits up a lot.
Something that I have noticed here, is that Andy was right. I haven't experienced dog hair in the food yet, but there is dog hair everywhere. The first few days in this area, with all of the messes and clutter and hair and smoke, I felt pretty uncomfortable and somewhat (or a lot) disgusted. For all of you who will get the reference, it was very comparable to how Jenny Lee must have felt when she first started her work. BUT I knew t hat I could just get over it and love the people. It has been improving every day with how I have been able t o do that. I really have met some amazing people.
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| St. Bartholomew's Chapel, in Armley, Leeds |
Oh, and Brother Jensen was correct. Everyone calls me 'love.' It is a nice addition to people's rejections. It softens the blow somewhat, haha. Something that is really interesting is when we ask something along the lines of "if you came to know that the message we share is true, would you follow the example of Jesus Christ?" and they say, "No...sorry." So, basically even if they did come to know the truth of our message, they'd still just want to keep living their lives as they are. Doesn't make much sense.
As missionaries, we are supposed to constantly bear testimony to the people that we meet. At first I found this hard because it was hard for me to bear testimony to people that I had grown up with and are members of the church. Every day though, I feel more comfortable and more sincere in it.
I know that the Lord is really protecting me and guiding me and Sister Jodicke. We went to visit a less active family the other day and when we got to their house, they claimed that they didn't know we were coming, and that the Elders were coming later. (They actually did know that we were coming, and we spoke to the Elders the next day and they cancelled on them too.) So, feeling disappointed, we just started knocking the street. It started raining and became really windy. We weren't finding much success until we knocked on one house and a 19 yer old girl answered the door. She was super cute and she let us in. We talked about so many things and she was really curious about everything. She and her family are strong Methodist and I didn't realize before, but Methodists believe many of the things we do. We gave her the first discussion (The Restoration) and set up a date for her to be baptized. I'm really praying that her family we be openhearted about this and that they will value the message of the Book of Mormon.
It is also interesting when really religious people don't care that we have another testament of Jesus Christ. They are so strong in the Bible, and they follow Christ in all of the ways they know how, so wouldn't they want more?
It is so nice to study every morning for so long too. It helps me to wake up and get excited for the lessons. We have been blessed so much too because we have appointments booked up all week and we whitewashed. That doesn't usually happen.
Church yesterday was good. the ward is big and there are a lot of Primary kids. Our tea list for this week is basically booked up, which will be so nice because I'm tired of eating ham sandwiches and bananas, haha. Oh, and Sister Jodicke makes the BEST oatmeal. Yes, mom and dad, I like homemade oatmeal. (This kind, haha). She makes the oatmeal in half water, half milk. Then she puts a drop of Golden Syrup (they put it in rice pudding too, and it is so good) and some granola-type cereal in it and mixes it around. We have had it every morning and I LOVE it. It is so so so good.
I love you all so much, and I am grateful to all of you for your support and the strength you give me. I am starting to love the work even though it is physically draining. I love when people start to understand the importance of the message that we share.
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| With Sisters Cochran, Peck, Pacis and Read |
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| Our 'party' we had as roomies a couple of nights before we left the MTC Sisters Peck, Klemm, and Pacis |
Love you so much,
Sister Lybbert
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