Mission Update

Hey Family [and Friends]!

 

How's things in good ol' Utah?  California is good and I am definitely keeping busy.  We picked up a new investigator this past week!  His name is James and he's getting married to a girl in our ward.  It's been really fun teaching him because he's very smart with religious matters and has already read the Book of Mormon. 

Other awesome news: We can text now!!!  Isn't that exciting???  It's so cool to have texting capabilities.  It's closely monitered, but it's been so nice to have it this past week. 

Also, my comp and I are getting "kicked out" of our house this week.  The old lady we live with is having some family move in with her, so we have to go.  We are moving on Friday to another ward members house, but we will being staying in a Casita on their property.  It's super cute and we're pretty excited.  We really like our current landlady, but she's old and really crazy about some stuff. 

We have also started doing Sunday splits so that we can cover both of our wards effectively.  They changed the time of our family ward to the same time as our YSA and the conflict is making it so we have to split for pretty much the entire day.

Well, I love you a lot!  Write to me soon and tell me what's been happening lately.

 

Love,

Brittany

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm actually glad that you sent me a list of questions because so much happens in one day that it's really hard for me to summarize the mission experience.  My schedule is like this:  We wake up at 6 am and exercise until 6:45ish.  Then we get ready and we start personal study at 8.  We have companion study from 9-10 and then we head out for the day.  We don't really do any tracting and spend our days at teaching appointments with investigators and checking up on less actives, part members, and former investigators.  We are covering two wards, a family ward and a singles ward, so we have a TON of people to visit all the time.  We usually go home for lunch at 12 and we have dinner with a family from our family ward from 5-6.  On Monday nights we go the FHE in our singles ward and do a missionary message because there are always non-members going to those activities.  It's pretty fun :)

Sundays are our craziest days because we cover two wards.  We go to our family ward first and we have to be at the church building at 8am for Missionary Correlation Meeting with the ward mission leader and the ward missionaries.  Then at 9 we go to ward council.  At 10:30 we go start greeting before sacrament and try to get to know all the people in our ward.  It's a huge ward so we meet new people every week.  Then we head over to a different church building for the singles ward Ward Council at 12.  Church starts at one and we stay for all three meetings.  Then it's dinner and appointments for the rest of the night.

My companion is really great and I love her to pieces!  She's 24 and goes home in eight weeks, so this will be her last area and I will be her last companion.  She's kind of a wandering nomad and doesn't claim any state as home.  Her family life is a little crazy and complicated (parents are divorced and remarried multiple times and her dad is totally anti).  She graduated college with a degree in Theater Management.  She is so funny and when we're not teaching, we're pretty much always laughing.  She's incredibly smart and we are a powerhouse teaching duo!  

Our money gets deposited on the first of every month.  We have $140 for the month and with grocery prices the way they are here, it's really tight.  We get about $30 per week, but I've been making it work (I haven't bought one box of maccaroni and cheese yet!).  My mission president is a wonderful man.  He is so gentle and loving.  He is incredibly sensitive to the spirit and I love the changes he's been making in the mission.  His wife is this fiery lady that has an opinion on everything.  Definitely an aquired taste, but I'm learning to love her too. 

My area is great and the members have been very welcoming to us.  Obviously we're still getting to know everyone, but the ward mission leader and ward missionaries are amazing and we really love them!

The mission is completely different than I thought it would be.  I probably shouldn't say this, but it's so much easier than I thought it would be.  Everyone made it out to be this ridiculously hard thing, but I don't have to worry about anything except teaching people.  It's great!  No bills, no job, no school.  I study the gospel and I teach the gospel.  I think it would be harder if I had never lived on my own, but I have so it's really not too bad.  And there's much more planning than I ever imagined.  I swear we spend at half of our time just planning.  Ok, not really half, but ya know. . .

P-days are pretty much cleaning, email, shopping, washing the car, and what's left of the evening (which isn't much) is for writing letters.  P-day ends at five and with two hours of study in there, we really don't get much time to do anything fun, unfortunately.  Although my companion and I did get permission to go to the mall last week because she had to get her watches fixed.  Super fun!

Okay, I'm going to have to save the other questions for next week's email. I'll really try to be better at giving you more life details.  There's just soooooooo much!  I love you all so much.

 

Love,

 

Brittany

Hi,

 

I'm still doing really well.  Still hating on a couple of the mission rules (like not being able to write letters during the week.  SO LAME!) but I'm really trying to have a good attitude.  This week has been relatively uneventful for us.  We haven't picked up any new investigators, but we did make some progress with Fernando's mom.  Have I told you about Fernando?  He's 17 years old with crazy helmet hair and his parents are against him joining the church.  His mom was asking him the other night what this whole "Mormon thing" is all about.  He was able to have a very meaningful conversation with her and was able to remove some barriers between them.  We're praying that this means she'll soften enough to let him be baptized soon :)  We also taught this super cute 21 year old girl, who is a golden investigator.  She literally chased the Elders down on the street and asked to know what we believe.  They sent the referral to us and we taught her two days later.  I just know she'll get baptized soon.  She is so awesome!!! 

Well, I love you all!  Hope you have a great week!

 

Brittany

Hello Everyone!

Things in California are sunshiny and wonderful!  The baptism was so amazing!  I'll send you the pictures from it this week.  It was such a neat experience to be so involved in the salvation of one of Heavenly Father's precious daughters.  We were supposed to have another baptism this Friday, but our investigator went missing the day of his interview.  We know now that he was feeling guilty about some things he was doing that he hadn't disclosed to us.  We have hope that we can get these issues resolved so that he can be baptized in a few weeks.

Okay I have a couple of fun mission stories for you.  The first is that I was attacked by a dog last week.  Don't worry, I'm fine.  He didn't bite me thanks to the protection of my purse and the quick thinking of my companion.  We were visiting a recent convert, who had told us she was taking care of her mother's vicious dog for a few weeks.  When we pulled up to her house, he was barking like crazy behind the backyard fence, so we thought we were okay.  As I was walking to the front door, Sister Costa yelled at me to watch out and I turned around to see this large dog barreling towards me.  He was barking and snarling and trying to figure out how to eat me.  I put my purse out in front of me to put anything between me and the crazy beast and thankfully he went for that instead of me.  Meanwhile my companion set off our car alarm to distract it.  It gave us just enough time to run back to the car.  Whew, it was so scary.  I was shaking like a leaf for at least twenty minutes afterwards.

My other story is that we were over at another recent converts house and her housemate was going to the hospital to deliver her baby.  So, in an effort to help her we decided to clean their house.  We already knew the house was filthy.  There was dirt and grime everywhere, but we hiked up our skirts and went to work.  We cleaned the front room and I've never seen anything so disgusting in my life!  We swept up heaps and heaps of dirt and dog hair off the floor and cleaned cigarette tobacco out of the cracks.  We spent two hours barely scratching the surface of one room!  It made me really appreciate the circumstances I was raised in.  Well, my time is almost gone.  I feel like I have a million more things to write, but I'll have to save them for other letters.

Love you all so much!!!

Sister Baumgarten

First Area: Escondido/San Marcos

Hi Everyone!

 

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to write sooner.  My new p-day is Tuesday and according to my new companion p-day is the one and only day we can communicate with our families. Things here have been crazy.  My first area is Escondido and I'm litterally 10 minutes from Curtis and Kelly.  Crazy, huh?  We are coving two wards; a family ward and a young sinlge adult ward.  It's been a struggle but I'm doing pretty well now.  My companion's name is Sister Costa and she's really great other than being incredibly "obedient."  My companion is a bit of a Nomad and doesn't claim anywhere as home.  She's very smart and kinda quirky, but we get along really well so far.  She has a good sense of humor and is constantly making me laugh. 

We haven't had to do much tracting and it looks like it will be mostly referrals in this area.  I'm really excited about that because the little tracting I did wasn't very fun.  The ward mission leader in our family ward is fantastic and he's already provided us with a few referrals.  We have a full-time car and it's a little red 2010 Toyota Corolla.  Super cute!

The most exciting news I have is that we already have our first baptism coming up this Friday!  Can you believe it???  I'm so super excited!!!  She's been taking the missionary lessons off and on for a couple of years and for some reason we were exactly the missionaries she needed to finally settle some issues she's been having.  She has had an extremely difficult life and I'm amazed at her strength to face adversity.  She's 21 and a single mom of a darling 18 month old baby named Brittany, of all things :)  Seeing their lives transform over the past week has really helped solidify my conviction to be here.  It has been just as much a gift for me as it has been for them. 

What else do you need to know. . . Oh!  We live with a member.  Her name is Sis. Fowkes and she's about eighty years old :)  She's just darling and full of spunk.  She feeds us a lot, which is nice and has a cleaning lady come in a few times a month so we don't have to do very much deep cleaning.  I'm getting so spoiled in this area it's going to be a huge upset when I don't have as nice accomodations.  Well, my time is short, but I'll leave you with a funny tracting quote.  We met this very nice, very old man who wasn't interested in talking to us because he's already Christian.  So Sis. Costa said, "That's great!  How has faith in Jesus Christ helped you in your life."  He kinda chuckled and said, "I don't know.  I've been Catholic my whole life."  Haha, we almost laughed right in his face, but restrained ourselves until we got back to our car.  Anyway, I love you all so much and miss you.

 

Love you!

 

Brittany

...And On To Carlsbad!

Brittany left for Carlsbad Tuesday, December 28th at 8:30 A.M.  She called home from the airport and spoke with her family shortly before boarding her flight.  Her time in the MTC was brief but memorable and she met some wonderful people there.  She was very excited and eager to get out into the mission field to start putting her new missionary skills to work.

Two Weeks at the MTC and One to Go!

Hello Everyone!

 

How is everyone?  I miss you all so much, especially during this season.  Not to worry, I'm very happy and trying hard to always have a positive attitude.  This week has been completely crazy, so sorry if I've been slacking in my letter writing.  Yesterday were the auditions for the talent show and I waited for two hours to audition.  There were about 200 people that auditioned throughout the day and I was really excited when the auditioner told me she had to have me in the program :)  I'm pretty nervous though.  It will be my largest audience to date, but I'm really comfortable with the song.  It's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas".  Now I need to figure out what I'll be wearing.  It's a big deal and I have to get it right ;)

 

The schedule here is crazy and we literally have every minute of every day planned out.  I get up every morning at 5:40 to be at breakfast by 7:00 (The communal showers are pretty non-fun and not private at all, by the way).  Then it's class instruction and practice teaching in the TEC (Teaching Evaluation Center) until lunch at 11:30.  After lunch we have personal study for an hour and companion study for an hour before we have a large group meeting with our zone.  After that is dinner at 4:30 and then back to class and the TEC for a few more hours.  On Tuesdays we have an evening devotional at 7:00 pm and after we have a half hour of district devotional discussion with the branch presidency.  Then we have daily planning at 9:00 and back to our rooms for 45 minutes of personal time before lights out at 10:30.  Whew, it's pretty crazy.  Anyway, I hope that gives you an idea of what I do with my days.  I love you all and I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

 

Love,

Sister Baumgarten