Hey everyone! I've been here for only a few days but so much has
happened! I hope to get it all in here. Real quick for future
reference there is missionary slang I was not aware of. Common ones...
Eternigator - someone who has been through multiple missionaries and
is still investigating.
Ex: One of our eternigators finally came to church for a whole month!
@sac - people at sacrament mtg.
Ex: Yo, we had 3 @sac today.
Blacktism - black person being baptized (possibly my favorite word as of now)
Ex: Hey we have a blacktism on the 5th, calendar it.
First off I got a new companion (my trainer), his name is Elder Parry.
He's a nice guy who works hard, but he goes home in a little over 5
weeks! So it's a little contrast having a seasoned vet against little
noob me, but it's all good. He is also a Spanish speaker as well. Also
got my iPad! It's sweet, even if its more tightly secured than a
prison. I love sharing videos during lessons.
The first night we spent in the mission home and it was super cool. My
mission president and his wife are so nice! We also toured the
independence visitor center which is really cool(: They call this the
Alpha and Omega mission. It has so much history here and roots of the
church. It will also end here as well, when Christ comes again. Really
cool I thought so I changed my email signature to it(': :P
Another thing is there are so many churches here!!! There are 2 other
churches next door to our chapel and I've seen up to 6 or so on a
single street! There's definitely still a religious excitement here.
The humidity is awful. I hate it. You stand outside for a minute and
it's like you wiped honey across your forehead and armpits. Yummy.
Haha but I will live. It could be lots worse!
Oh and the area I was assigned to...is...downtown Kansas City!!!
I work in the KC first ward(: the area is actually really pretty
big...more so than I expected! So, couple of cool things about this
place. First is that it is one of the poorest and richest wards in
America. We have people with no jobs living in shacks up to
billionaires in mission hills. The huge imbalance of money technically
makes it the richest ward but don't be fooled, there are plenty of
broke people. :l
The city itself is pretty huge. KC alone has just under a million and
if you count surrounding areas it's into two million I hear. Haha
there are also some really ghetto parts...I was kind of expecting more
Spanish people, but actually there are tons of black people! Nearly
Every single lesson we've taught has been to a black family or
person(': don't get me wrong, I love it. They all have crazy black
accents and are very friendly, even the thugs we run into. They're not
trying to break the stereotype on names though...I've taught people
named Andre, Martino, Nini, Laquita (you get the idea). I've also got
those two streets with the crazy high crime rates. It was crazy
walking through there O.o haha actually not, they're friendly to
"Jesus people"(: my favorite is when people will yell stuff at us like
"mhmm praise the lord" out their car windows at us (':
Oh and we have some fantastic news. We have 9 people scheduled to be
baptized in our ward!! That's like, unheard of for our mission! One of
the goals they give new missionaries is having us invite people to be
baptized. So we had this guy named Nate who's been a preacher
for like 37 years. He's an eternigator. Anyway I challenged him to set
a date for baptism and he accepted!(: I am super pumped and stoked for
the blacktisms; But none of this means anything unless they keep
progressing so our work is not done.
Speaking of which I have an interesting story..
One of our baptismal candidates I hadn't met, so we went to see him
and teach him. His name is Kareem. We got to the apartment complex and
it reeks of cigarettes, but that's not unusual. When we got to his
door and he opened it I knew something was wrong. He immediately
pulled my companion in for a big hug and laid his head on his shoulder
with his eyes closed and a weird smile. I was like "this guy is
stoned." Turns out quite the opposite. Completely WASTED.(': The
"lesson" was him talking with crazy huge hand gestures, bursting out
in song, and nearly crying because he loved us (his friends). I think
we're doing Word of Wisdom next..hahaha but other than him I actually
have a lot of hope for the other baptisms(:
I don't have a specific spiritual thought per say..but what I have
noticed is the overall difference the gospel makes in someone's life.
The contrast is stark. It is so easy to tell the members apart from
the non members by the way they glow or not. I'm super happy we are
blessed with the gospel and never have to worry about the other end of
the spectrum so long as we follow Christ (:
Mucho Amor
Elder Regis
Alpha and Omega Mission
happened! I hope to get it all in here. Real quick for future
reference there is missionary slang I was not aware of. Common ones...
Eternigator - someone who has been through multiple missionaries and
is still investigating.
Ex: One of our eternigators finally came to church for a whole month!
@sac - people at sacrament mtg.
Ex: Yo, we had 3 @sac today.
Blacktism - black person being baptized (possibly my favorite word as of now)
Ex: Hey we have a blacktism on the 5th, calendar it.
First off I got a new companion (my trainer), his name is Elder Parry.
He's a nice guy who works hard, but he goes home in a little over 5
weeks! So it's a little contrast having a seasoned vet against little
noob me, but it's all good. He is also a Spanish speaker as well. Also
got my iPad! It's sweet, even if its more tightly secured than a
prison. I love sharing videos during lessons.
The first night we spent in the mission home and it was super cool. My
mission president and his wife are so nice! We also toured the
independence visitor center which is really cool(: They call this the
Alpha and Omega mission. It has so much history here and roots of the
church. It will also end here as well, when Christ comes again. Really
cool I thought so I changed my email signature to it(': :P
Another thing is there are so many churches here!!! There are 2 other
churches next door to our chapel and I've seen up to 6 or so on a
single street! There's definitely still a religious excitement here.
The humidity is awful. I hate it. You stand outside for a minute and
it's like you wiped honey across your forehead and armpits. Yummy.
Haha but I will live. It could be lots worse!
Oh and the area I was assigned to...is...downtown Kansas City!!!
I work in the KC first ward(: the area is actually really pretty
big...more so than I expected! So, couple of cool things about this
place. First is that it is one of the poorest and richest wards in
America. We have people with no jobs living in shacks up to
billionaires in mission hills. The huge imbalance of money technically
makes it the richest ward but don't be fooled, there are plenty of
broke people. :l
The city itself is pretty huge. KC alone has just under a million and
if you count surrounding areas it's into two million I hear. Haha
there are also some really ghetto parts...I was kind of expecting more
Spanish people, but actually there are tons of black people! Nearly
Every single lesson we've taught has been to a black family or
person(': don't get me wrong, I love it. They all have crazy black
accents and are very friendly, even the thugs we run into. They're not
trying to break the stereotype on names though...I've taught people
named Andre, Martino, Nini, Laquita (you get the idea). I've also got
those two streets with the crazy high crime rates. It was crazy
walking through there O.o haha actually not, they're friendly to
"Jesus people"(: my favorite is when people will yell stuff at us like
"mhmm praise the lord" out their car windows at us (':
Oh and we have some fantastic news. We have 9 people scheduled to be
baptized in our ward!! That's like, unheard of for our mission! One of
the goals they give new missionaries is having us invite people to be
baptized. So we had this guy named Nate who's been a preacher
for like 37 years. He's an eternigator. Anyway I challenged him to set
a date for baptism and he accepted!(: I am super pumped and stoked for
the blacktisms; But none of this means anything unless they keep
progressing so our work is not done.
Speaking of which I have an interesting story..
One of our baptismal candidates I hadn't met, so we went to see him
and teach him. His name is Kareem. We got to the apartment complex and
it reeks of cigarettes, but that's not unusual. When we got to his
door and he opened it I knew something was wrong. He immediately
pulled my companion in for a big hug and laid his head on his shoulder
with his eyes closed and a weird smile. I was like "this guy is
stoned." Turns out quite the opposite. Completely WASTED.(': The
"lesson" was him talking with crazy huge hand gestures, bursting out
in song, and nearly crying because he loved us (his friends). I think
we're doing Word of Wisdom next..hahaha but other than him I actually
have a lot of hope for the other baptisms(:
I don't have a specific spiritual thought per say..but what I have
noticed is the overall difference the gospel makes in someone's life.
The contrast is stark. It is so easy to tell the members apart from
the non members by the way they glow or not. I'm super happy we are
blessed with the gospel and never have to worry about the other end of
the spectrum so long as we follow Christ (:
Mucho Amor
Elder Regis
Alpha and Omega Mission