First E-mail From Arizona!!

Brittany arrived in Arizona on Tuesday last week and just sent her first e-mail from the field. Sounds like she is having an incredible time.


Hi!

I don't know what more to say other than that I am in Mesa, I am in the Visitor's Center, I am on my mission, I am in my first area, I'M ACTUALLY DOING THIS! And it's great, just wonderful. So much to tell you, and thank you for all your questions :) It was good to hear from all of you.

So..much to tell. Hopefully mom and dad told you all about the experience i had at temple square last weekend, where I got the opportunity to teach a group of about 10 people from Barcelona. Put my fake spanish accent to good use. They just had billions of questions, and so I answered them...and while I don't think any teaching opportunities will result, it was really cool to just answer their questions in a respective way and leave a good impression of teh church.

So I left the MTC tuesday morning, early early. There were about 18 of us on the flight to mesa, hma lamb and i were the only sisters. In the SLC airport, missionaries are basically celebrities... everyone's staring at you and asking where you're headed. So we got to the Mesa airport, and the AP's and the Ellsworths were waiting for us. Again, Sisters get top of the line treatment...the Ellsworths (Mission President and wife) carried our bags for us and we got to ride in their own car with them. The Ellsworths are super nice...they're very sweet, down to earth, humble people, but very friendly and wise too. He'll be a great mish president. So we then headed to the VC (Mesa Temple Visitor's Center) and toured around and had a testimony meeting here. The VC is great...it's not as up to date as the LA one, but it has all the resources you could ask for. After the testimony meeting we headed to the mission home and we had a lunch in the chapel there. Then we did paper work and got interviewed by the president. Again...sisters are first class, we had our own room to put all our stuff in and we got to be first in line for food, all that. We met all the senior couples that work in the office, and they're all really sweet.

So for that day, I got put with a companionship just for the day, before I met my trainer at the transfer meeting. I got put w/ Hermana Lopez and Hma Mazariegos, and I'm glad I did, because they were on fire...they have like 5 baptismal dates right now. My first day was overwhelmingly incredible. We had dinner with a less active member, dind' t think much of it, and then her daughter walked in with her 5 kids, who aren't members. Found out they've always wanted to be baptized but the husband is kind of ifffy. We tauight them a little bit and they all started crying, and now when I saw hma lopez and mazariegos yesterday, they told me that they all have baptismal dates, except for the mom...who's still waiting for permission from her husband. But it was pretty incredible. The whole day I was just sitting in the back of the car and I was like "whattt? this is what i'm doing for the next 18 monthssss??" We then went to an area with a bunch of trailer homes and taught a few families there. We read some scriptures with a really cute family of kids, and we visited recent converts. We also visited another lady and her daughter who were hilarious. I was struggling a little bit with Spanish, but I've improved since then. The whole day was great and so much to take in. There's days when I just realize the magnitude of the work that I'm doing, and I'm like "WHAT IN THE WORLD!!!" Hermana Lopez and Hermana Mazariegos were great examples of people who are just good friends with their investigators, they were so much fun.

So the next morning we headed to transfers where I got put with my trainer...drumrolllllll....Hermana Tejada! So, I will tell you about Hermana Tejada. I am so grateful for her. She is a little girl like my height, tiny. She's dominican! And she moved from the DR to New Jersey when she was like 16. Her whole family and her grew up studying as Jehovahs' Witnesses, but they were never actually members. Then the elders knocked on her door 4 years back, the morning after she had prayed to god for direction in her life. She took the discussions from them, and was baptized! She's the only member of her family that's baptized. So, she's great. She's really hard working, really knows her stuff, really obedient, all of that. She's really giving too...she did just tons of stuff for me the first couple days. Luckily, Dominicans are like the easiest Latinos for me to understand, so I understand almost all of what she says to me. So yes, I am so grateful for her. I'm definitely learning how to be teachable, but there's a lot I can learn from her.

So, we found out who we were with and headed to the VC. There I did lots of training. There's so much to learn about the VC, but really all it is is practice, practice, practice. Sometimes I'm like "There's no way I can do this!" but then I realize I'm only 5 days in, and I have 18 months to figure this all out. So I did mostly training there, and I also interviewed with our VC director, who i LOOVE. His name is Elder White, and he was a mission president in orlando. Just a really smart guy, but so down to earth and loving. He is great, and we get to see him virtually every day! So yes. In the VC, we have shifts for each hour. So for however many hours of the day, we will be either at the front greet, back greet, exhibit, telephones, etc. There's a new exhibit opening up today of Local artist paintings of Christ's life. So, the VC is really good. I've had the opportunity to work with both members and nonmembers. There's a big push for missionaries to bring in investigators and for wards to take tours here, so that's been great. Mostly the challenge is just to really form a relationship with the people that you're taking around, and to make it so that their expectations for the VC come to meet with our expectations for their VC experience, if that makes sense.

So I will tell you a little bit about our area. Our area is mesa grande, hma tejada and i live in the basement of an older couple who is super nice. We oversee the mesa grande branch, which consists of probably like 8 families and some others. The work in mesa grande has been pretty slow, but I have a feeling that will change. They currently don't have any investigators with baptismal dates, and they never have a problem finding someone to teach, rather its finding someone to commit. BUT already we have seen changes. So there's not a whole lot of time to proselyte, because of the VC, but we fill it up with appointments, just hoping that they don't drop them. So we have visited some recent converts, one named Marta who's really funny but she just needs to have a positive attitude about life's challenges, so we try to help her. We were going to meet with her son Fernando and commit him to baptism, but he didn't show...bummerrr. But we're also teaching a lot of teenage girls. One is Pamela, who's really shy but she always really understands what we're teaching her...we're trying to get her to commit and to teach her mom. We're also teaching 12 yr old Gisele and her sister Alexis (17)...we teach them in English. They are super outgoing and sweet, and they came to church yesterday with us! The only issue is they dont understand spanish super well, but they understood the english YW (Young Women) class...but there's only one other YW in the branch right now. But they're planning on coming to 1 or 2 activiteis this week which will be good. The branch is all soo sweet, and what's great about it is that it has a really solid PRIESTHOOD foundation...the men there are really great. We're also teaching Hortencia and her kids...her sons have been coming to church for a long time, and the sisters have committed them to baptism, but they're waiting for their parents before they get baptized. So yes, those are the main people.

NOW...for the miracle story of the week. So the sisters tracted out this 13 yr old girl named Kytsia before i got here. So kytsia told them to come back. Hma Tejada and I went by there, but Kytsia wasn't there, but we talked to the dad and brother and they told us to come and teach them yesterday. Theyre a family with 5 kids, and they just moved from mexico 1 month ago. So yesterday, Hma Tejada and I went over tehre after church to teach them the first lesson. Big deal! So we started teaching everyone except the oldest daughter and the mom, who was at work. We were teaching them and they were super receptive, and there was definitely a great spirit there. So then sister tejada recites the first vision, and literally midsentence the mom busts in the door carrying a bunch of pizzas. I was like...oh man, there goes this, she's gonna be so lost and we're not going to be able to finish teaching. But, we continued on, and the mom picked it right up...she didn't even need any of the background story. Within minutes, the mom was crying as we were finishing up teaching. We said a prayer with the family afterwards, and the dad said it, and it was such a sincere, great prayer. After the prayer, I open my eyes and Kytsia is crying and the mom is crying. Kytsia had just been quietly nodding the whole time, but she totally felt it. So they're both crying, and then the youngest daughter stands up and goes over and hugs both her mom and her dad. And they just talked about how they had never said a prayer all together as a family and how great it was. IT WAS INCREDIBLEEEEE! Definitely one of those moments I talked about when I'm like...whaaaaaaat just happened? And I realize just how real this work is. Really cool. So we're going to teach them again on Thursday, and I'm so excited. They are so receptive and such a great family, so sweet.
So yes..miracle. So I'm so grateful that I'm here in Mesa, where there's so much work to be done. And I'm so grateful for the VC...it really is challenging to try to teach a lesson so quickly. I had to give the first lesson to some nonmembers last night right before the center closed in like 5 minutes...it was madness. But it's so great. I meet a lot of awesome people from all over...people from India, China, Korea, everywhere. And yes, I saw the Nef's hahaha that was hilarious, and Rachel Sandman and her BF are coming this wednesday which i'm obviously really excited for. The work is good, thanks for all your support! I must be off now, love you allllll!

Love,
Hermana Fors