Dear Friends and Family,
Whew! I'm finally here in North Carolina! Flying in was a breathtaking experience because there are trees EVERYWHERE! I still can't get over how green it is here. The trees are so big that they are apparently hiding the mountains, because I can't find them anywhere. It's kind of a disorienting feeling. It is also super humid here! That has made tracting oodles of fun because the air is so full of water that it keeps your sweat from evaporating! I've had to get used to the fact that I will just feel nasty all the time, and that people here recognize that and it's not actually that gross to them. It smells like tobacco smoke, rain, and fried food outside wherever you go. There are tons of ghettos all around, and it's pretty funny because a lot of people here have cars (or even just the rims of their cars) that are more expensive than their houses! This is the only place I think I have ever been where I have been a minority! It's amazing how many African Americans are here! I think only about 30% of the people I see every day are white. So far, I have been doing really well at living my first mission goal, which is to not laugh at people while they are talking to me. Their accents are so awesome! I'm trying to get used to it, but I can't help chuckle on the inside whenever I hear a really thick southern accent, especially at church. People here say stuff like "Cut that light off!" and "Mash that button!" and "I usedta could _______" and, of course, "YA'LL".
My first transfer is in the Greenville 2nd ward of the Kinston stake. It's the area that is on the western end of the eastern most zone in my mission. So basically I don't get the coast at all, just the humidity of it. Nice. My companion is Elder Westley from Sandy, UT. He's been out here for about 19 months. He's loud, hyper, and absolutely hysterical. I love him! He's even a cancer survivor. He is an awesome trainer and I have loved working with him! He's been super helpful and I've learned a lot from him. Oh yeah, and Kyle Simmons, my friend from high school is in my district! I saw him a few days ago.
The Church just barely, barely came out with a brand new infield training program that involves the junior companion (me) a lot more so that he doesn't just sit back and let his senior companion (E. Westley) do all the work. It's so new that the group of missionaries who left the MTC with me is the first group to ever use it! They shipped us out with new manuals and DVD players so we could watch instructional videos. A lot of the videos are from The District.
Our day goes like this:
6:30 wake up, exercise, eat, yadda yadda yadda get ready for the day
7:30 personal study
8:30-10:30 companion study (an extra hour for the new training program)
10:30-9:00ish teaching, tracting, planning, and all of that good missionary stuff
9:30 plan for the next day and get ready for bed
10:30 bed time! Hooray!
So far, I've had no problem getting right to work! On my very first day we already were tracting. We just pick a place on our big map to go, ride our bikes out there (yep, I got my new bike!), lock them up on a street sign, and start walking! I was really nervous to start talking to people right away, but I decided to suck it up and deal with it! The second person I talked to was very interested in our message but she's out of town till the 20th. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet about the Restoration, and she sincerely committed to read them and pray to know if their words are true! We're going to follow up with her and start teaching her once she gets back.
When I got here, NO one was currently investigating, so, for the most part, we've been visiting members and asking them for referrals, and contacting/tracting. We've had some people let us talk and invite and they are super nice. Some of them even ask us to come back later. Others, however, are not so receptive. One lady opened the door, looked at our nametags, and rolled her eyes and shut the door right in the middle of our introducing ourselves. Oh well! It can be really hard here. There are a lot of hard-core Baptists here, who are "satisfied with their salvation". A lot of people think that as long as they verbally admit that Jesus Christ is their Savior that they are saved! That's frustrating alone! I don't really get how anyone can say they believe the Bible and believe that, too. Oh well, we just do our best and continually pray for the Lord to bless us by leading us to the people He has prepared for us to teach!
The people we teach, if we're lucky enough to be able to do that, are really interesting. We've gotten to teach a schizophrenic nonactive man who is so caught up in science that he has a hard time with faith. Then there's the woman who claims she is a "prophetess" because she shares God's word with others. We taught her yesterday. Actually, it was more like we talked to her yesterday. She was happy to "talk Jesus" with us... until we began to teach about the apostasy and a living prophet, and then she said she didn't want to talk anymore because she didn't believe in that. I thought that was the point of our being there: to teach what we believed to her. Oh well. She's super nice and she's going to call us soon to get our help with her gigantic lawn. It was really interesting praying in her home. I gave the opening prayer. After every sentance I said, she would say "Thank you, Jesus!" or "Oh, God, yes, Lord!" or something like that. It freaked me out the first time. The closing prayer was given by her. She had us stand in a circle and join hands and it was the craziest most beautiful prayer I have ever heard.
I actually had Coke for the first time here... on accident... kind of. For those of you who don't know, I don't drink caffeine because of how unhealthy it is (and it's not like I need that extra energy anyway) so it's a pretty big deal. :) We went out into the boonies to visit a prior potential investigator and invite him to come to church. He wasn't home, but his girlfriend was. So we just taught her instead! She sounded really interested! She even said that she was looking for a new church to go to cause she had just moved into the area, so we invited her to come to ours and she said she would! She saw that our faces were dripping, so she asked if we would like a drink. I said yes, because 1) I wanted to extend our time with her and get that church invite in, and 2) I was thirsty! A minute later she came back to the door with two cups. I looked in and saw some brown soda. It tasted nasty like nothing I'd ever drank before, so I assumed it was Cola. She was watching us, and I didn't want to offend her or make anything awkward, so I drank the whole thing. Gross. But we invited her to church in between sips and she said she would come! Yes! Did she come on Sunday? Nope. *Sigh* oh well. We'll follow up with her and get her there next time.
Please send me letters! Please, please, please! I know you are all busy, but it really is so wonderful to hear from all of you at home! I am so busy so I can only write to you on preparation days, but I will write back eventually! (Mom and Dad, please send me snail mail rather than emails... I don't have time to read emails with my limited computer time! Even if you just type it up, print it out, and send it. That would be perfect. If you could also mail me any emails you've sent since August 3rd, that would be great, because I haven't had a chance to read them. Thanks!) I will write back in the same order I get emails, and I will respond to family first. For those of you who sent me mail already, THANK YOU! I will be writing letters today. Our mailbox was actually broken when I got here, so I got a ton of letters all at once and I will try to get responses written ASAP! For those of you who haven't written me yet.... write me, for crying out loud! Thanks. :)
The work has been going really well! I love it here! The mission is awesome! I hope all of you are doing well yourselves! Please let me know how you are doing! I love you all and my computer time is up so I will write you again in a week!
Love,
Elder Schank
