Monday, September 30, 2013

Pictures!

 My MTC District! I love these guys!

Me with my mission president and his wife.

My first week in my first area is already over! It went by so fast! We headed out to Picayune Tuesday afternoon and it was raining for the entire four hour drive. And I'm not talking rain. I'm talking heavy, pouring, can-barely-see-the-road-in-front-of-you rain. You never see rain like that in Utah! It was kind of cool (and a little scary). Since then it's been pretty sunny though. 

I am currently in a tripanionship, so that means I have two companions instead of one. There are so many sisters coming out right now that there aren't enough sisters to train them all so this is how we're making it work! Sister Nielson has been out for about four months and Sister Diehl, who is technically my trainer, has been out six weeks and isn't completely trained herself! We make it work, though. 

 
There are about 500 people in our ward but only 150 of them are active, so we've got our work cut out for us there! The people who do come to church are very friendly. Many of them supply us missionaries with bottled water (the water from the tap is a little questionable here) and food and we get fed meals pretty often. Lots of the members are very willing to be involved in missionary work which is great because since there's three of us that means we can go on splits with a member and get twice the work done! I really had no idea how vital members are to missionary work until I got out here. Seriously, there's so much you can do to help the missionaries. 

So, what are my thoughts about Picayune? It's very backwards from what I'm used to. People down here are SO southern. There's no other way to describe it. Many people in Picayune are very willing to listen to what we have to say though! We have a lot more success tracting than missionaries in some other areas. We're currently teaching several people and three of them already have baptism dates. 

Being down here has definitely been a humbling experience. Half the people in Mississippi are living off the government and most of them are high school dropouts. They're just not in very good situations. Many of the people we've taught can hardly read. It makes me so grateful for the education I've had because so many people down here didn't have that opportunity. 

I'm learning that this mission is definitely going to test my patience. Sometimes when we're teaching people I just want to shake them and say, "Why don't you understand how important this message is?!" They appreciate our religion and what we stand for but they don't think it matters what church you're baptized into as long as your baptized, even when we explain to them about having the proper authority. 
 
Well, I think that's just about everything for today, minus a few pictures! Oh, and here's my current address. Everyone feel free to send me letters and stuff! I like emails but I love letters. They're like candy out here. 

Sister Michelle Glenn

413 Bay Street

Picayune, MS 39466

A few pictures of our two story townhouse. We have lots of room! It's way nice!