Please pray for me I am really struggling with everything right now.

                                                                                                                        10 de Marzo

Well, this week went well. For some reason it seemed a little longer than usual but still. So in case any of you were wondering, yes, I am still in Sevierville. It's pretty crazy how I have almost been here 6 months. Oh and news flash, people!!! I will be coming home in ... August!!  I'm  telling you, it's loco, like hot cocoa. 

So anyways some stories about this week. We have really been working to find new investigators right now. This area is pretty difficult for me. I get frustrated sometimes probably with myself more than anything because I make a lot of mistakes. Thank goodness for the Atonement, right? 

My companera was sick this week so on Thursday I did some solo weekly planning and I studied a lot. On Saturday, guess what?? I got to go to Loudon again! Yayyyy! It was so cool. I got to spend the day with Hermana Horrocks, one of my old companions and it was great. We got to go teach Matt, Matt and Amy who I got to teach and baptize and we went out to eat with Johnny and had dinner with Yamel. So that was great.

I have to say that lately the thing that has brought me the most joy lately is studying the scriptures. Every time I read them I just get so happy I can't even handle myself(: Best thing ever. I am so grateful to have them in my life. 

Sunday we had this super duper long mission leadership meeting. Like it literally lasted 6 hours but it was really good. There are some dang good missionaries in this mission. It blows my mind sometimes. Anyways, that's basically it for me. I hope you all are good and happy.(: 

I love you and don't forget me. Hermana Bateson

Emails:

By the way... please pray for me mom because I am really struggling with everything right now. It is impossible to find people to teach and my attitude is horrible and my companion and I have to give this training for all these missionaries and .... well. Enough with that. Just pray for me. I know the Lord will answer YOUR prayers because you are a mother and mothers have top priority. hah Sorry and thanks. 


I think that I want to try and go to Utah State for a semester or SLCC or something and then I could try going to BYU the next year or semester because I honestly don't think that I could get in with my grades right now. 

As far as major, right now I would probably be an undeclared or something like that for a while and then I think I want to do Nutrition or Exercise science or something and I also want to Minor in Spanish FOR SURE. 

I don't know. I just am really nervous to get home and move in living with my family and just working or something and I am scared of getting super bored and depressed and all of that because out here I have been learning so much and I have all of these goals and plans and how I want to be successful and really live my life that way but I am scared of going home and just forgetting. It makes me nervous to not be in school and stuff. I just don't want the knowledge and the initiative that I have learned out here to go away. I am really scared of that. I bet you felt that way after your mission. It just makes me a little sad that I didn't learn earlier because I probably would be better off right now with school and everything if I just applied myself in High School better. But sorry about my ranting. Um... I will continue to pray on it and things. 

My mission president says that I could come home in August if I want to be able to start school and stuff. Do you think that I should? I am leaning towards it because I want to have a little bit of time and everything. Let me know because I need some direction here. It's stressing me out. 

Love you Mom. Thanks for everything that you do. 

Hermana Bateson

We finished the Book of Mormon and I got a call from my mission President and he tells me that I need to apply for schools.

Me and Elder Parke who just went down to Argentina!

One of my favorite elders, Elder Toomey and one of the best Hermana's, Hermana Collier.

Okay for reals... I don't have favorite Elders.... but if I did... it would be this guy. News flash everyone. He is actually from Chile. Like, the country. Cool, right?? (: Funniest, most inspiring Elder in the world. 

We finished the Book of Mormon. It was pretty hard but we did it. On Saturday night at like literally 10:29 I finished. One minute to spare! It was so awesome to just see like how the whole entire Book of Mormon is focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we can receive those blessings. It. was. awesome. Loved it. (: 

I got a call from my mission President March 3rd and he tells me that I need to apply for schools and stuff. It matters because I might come home a few weeks early depending on what day/ what school I go to.

One of my other thoughts that I had was to just apply to a ton of schools. Like all the ones and just to see where I would even get in because I don't think I could actually get into BYU even though that is eventually where I want to go. We will see.  

So could you get online and get some of that info together for me? If you could just do USU, BYU, BYU Idaho, and SLCC I guess because that idea is growing on me a little. I do think that I will be home in August though. Just to be able to go to school and stuff that first semester. 

Sorry about my loads of emails. hahah Your getting a healthy dose of Hermana Bateson this week. hahah 

I am trying to get everyone to read the Book of Mormon with me in one week!!

It snowed!!!! This is us and the Murphy's (my favorite family) when we were playing in the snow(:

Oh and we rolled this huge snowball into the pond. Good times.

This is Keegan. The cutest little boy that I am not allowed to hold. hah

hahah and this is Bonnie. hhaha

This is me and the biggest, most yummiest cookie we got from the Trapps for Valentines Day. (: 

24 de febrero

So this week was very interesante and I had a bunch of ups and downs....

 So last Monday we had a good day, just went up to Sevierville as usual and we had dinner with this super cool family the Turleys. He is literally 6 ft. 8 in. and she is like as tall as me. haha it's so funny. Also they fed us these tortillas and I honestly don't think I have ever had a tortilla that delicious in my life.

Tuesday we did service for Bonnie by picking up sticks in her yard. haha She is the funniest woman.

Wednesday we did exchanges and I got to spend the day with Sister Jones. She is a really good Sister but that day I was super stressed ( which I felt bad about) but I probably wasn't the best Sister Training Leader to her. We did get some good less- active work in though.

Thursday we had 3 (what I thought to be solid) appointments which  all inevitably..... fell through. por supuesto. haha

Friday we had a great district meeting as usual and we just did some more finding. 

Saturday honestly was one of the best days of my mission. 1. For some reason like everyone in this neighborhood like loves to Bible bash with us and so practically my whole day was spent bashing with like every house we went into but whats so great about the Spirit is that they could be totally rambling about something that seems to make sense to them and the Spirit just helps you know exactly what to say/do. It is fabulous. Just constantly striving to know the scriptures is all you need to do and thus far I have not been confounded. Love it.

Also I had this super awesome idea a few days ago. I am trying to get everyone to read the Book of Mormon with me in one week!! I am so excited and you should do it with me. You can start Sunday morning and you have to read 76 pages a day to finish it but you should  do it. (:  (Mom that means you) haha and also tell Grandma. (: Well I love you all!! Miss you. 

Hermana Bateson

I think I need a "forget yourself and go to work" moment

The Roners and I! (: Love them so much! They are ending their mission on the 27th.

Me and my little Hermanita(: She will be heading down to Dalton to speak her Spanish... So jealous! I am so scared to be without her now because now I don't have the army to protect me. hahah

Mi companera y yo in the snow!!!! 

I hope that you had a good week this week. My little Hermanita, Hermana Winters got taken away from me and so I am just with Sister Malloy which is cool. 

To be quite honest I am a little sick of this area and right now we just don't have anyone to teach so we seriously have been and will be tracting. Sorry to be so negative but I guess  I just don't know what's wrong with me. I think I need a "forget yourself and go to work" moment or something because I am a little frustrated.

 Anyways... so .. Como estas tu? I hope everything is good at home with that cute little nina! I'm really excited to see her in 7 months!  Hermana Bateson

PS:  D &C 90:24 Search ^adiligently, ^bpray always, and be believing, and ^call things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the ^dcovenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.

PSS: Happy "late" Valentines Day!

Well this week was seriously the fastest week in my whole entire mission.

Guess what? Hermana Winters (Olivia) is getting transferred and its super sad to see her go. I am also jealous because she is going to the only spanish ward in the whole mission and I get to be stuck in Sevierville with all these english people. hahah Oh well I guess. 

Well this week was seriously the fastest week in my whole entire mission. I think I say that every week but for reals this week was loco hot coco fast. haha (: 

So Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty boring although I was pretty excited because we were able to teach a few Spanish lessons which I was excited about. 

On Thursday guess what I got to do?? I WENT TO LOUDON!! I got to go to Loudon for an exchange with Hermana Lindhardt and I was SO excited(: Basically all we did all day was try and contact Spanish people that her and her companion are normally too scared to contact but none of them really worked out so we ended up visiting some people that I used to visit and that went pretty well. 

 

I had a really great experience with Hermana Lindhardt that really changed me as a missionary and a person though. If you don't mind I would like to share it with you. So she and I are very similar in a lot of different ways and I guess it wasn't anything significant that happened but she was able to really open up to me and we were able to work out some of her concerns with the mission and I don't know, I just felt like even though we didn't teach anyone any special lessons, I felt like I was suppose to be there for her and I am just so grateful for that. (: 

 

One other cool thing we did that day was translate for this one family. So we showed up at Yamels house (a less active/ Part-member family) and we walked right in and this white girl looked strait up at us and was all, "Oh my gosh, I am soo grateful that you guys are here!! Can you help me talk to them??" And so we ended up translating for this random girl from this company and we ended up committing the family to come to church on Sunday. Anyways, I know that the Lord leads and guides his missionaries to be in the right spot where he needs them. (: Loudon is the best place ever! Love it so much!(: 

 

Friday was the day that I was definitely not looking forward to. We had to go to la Conferencia de Zone and Sister Malloy and I had to give a training on "how to work with your companion in Unity" which is so ironic because we have both had like a ton of companions and so it was just one of the scariest things that I have ever done. hahah But we got through it, just like everything else. haha (:

 

 

On Sabado one cool thing we did was we went over to the Mcallesters (a less active family) and we watched the Joseph Smith movie and it seriously had been so long since I have seen a movie and when I watched it, it was like answer to prayer. I loved it because it sorta put into perspective what we are actually doing here. It has helped me to be less scared and shy when we go tracting or OYMing. I guess I am just so grateful that the Lord chose me to be one of his servants and someone he could trust to have the gospel. (: 

Love you all. That's all for this week(: 

Hermana Bateson

it snowed! Like a ton!...

Well I would definitely say it was a good week. (:

Let me tell you a few of my highlights:

First things first, it snowed! Like a ton!... Welll... not like Utah or anything but it was a good 5 or 6 inches and so it was exciting. It started snowing on Tuesday morning and that was the day that we had to travel all the way over to Farragut for this Leadership Conference thing. So we were driving over in Maryville trying to get to the Zone Leader's casa and we like totally slipped up and down these hills and I'm sure you can imagine me in the car. I was like freaking out of course, and Sister Malloy is just calm and trying ever so patiently to calm me down while Hermana Winters was asleep the whole time in the back seat. Lovely. So we got to the conference (eventually) and the whole thing was about how we need to be good leaders and there was a part all about "staying calm under pressure" hahaha Loved it. We ended up having to get a ride home from the mission home at like 10 in the Assistant's truck. Snow in Tennessee is just sooo funny(: hahah

Also, fun fact: because of the snow, the kids were out of school literally all week. hahah

Best thing ever happened this Saturday. Elder L. Tom Perry from the Quorum of the Twelve came to visit us! He is amazing! He is 91 years old and he has the energy of like a fifteen year old! He was great. He talked to us a ton about how the Ward Council needs to step up their game in missionary work. I think that it really pumped up the members to get out and HELP US! hahah Oh, and I was on the third row. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity or something. (: haha

Scariest thing of my life... so we are all just sitting in Relief Society just enjoying ourselves and this girl taps me on the back and has that awful headset in her hands and tells me I need to translate. LIKE WHAT?? For any of you that know me... The Spanish thing is super hard for me and so I bucked up and did my best. Needless to say, I was super embarrassed and stuff but I did it. (: Sometimes the Lord makes us to REALLY hard things. "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. " haha

Pray for my Spanish. haha

Well, I love you all. (: Esa me basta esta semana (:

Hermana Bateson

This week was SUPER awesome!

Brooke with some of her old companions

Zone Conference

Training session

Email 1-27-14
So basically this week was pretty interesting. Sometimes we like to say that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. That is so true! I can't even express how true that is! Everyday when I wake up it feels like I am about to run a marathon but then whenever my head hits the pillow Sunday night I am just so confused because it goes by so fast! Also it's crazy because March will be my year mark. Everytime when I think about it I just feel so scared! haha 

So last Monday was good. We had a lot of time for some reason and so we went to the church for like 3 hours and played basketball with the Elders. Let me just take a moment to reiterate how horrible I am at sports. I am horrible. horrible. 

But best thing ever happened. I bought these "cuties" they are like little oranges at Krogers and I have been eating like 5 or 6 a day. My new obsession. (: 

 Tuesday we had dinner with the Abregus and let me tell you they are the funnies people in this world. Like this little kid Fabrizio can rap and beatbox like soooo good. It is awesome. Also one of the sisters... she like barely speaks English and it was so funny. It started to snow like the tiniest bit and she went over to the window and lifted up the blinds and was like "Oh my gosh" sooo fast! Hermana Winters and I could not stop laughing! hahah 

Wednesday was a pretty boring day. We just visited with some people. We haven't been able to see like any of our investigators this week because they all have the flu. I used to think it was annoying when mom would take me in to get a flu shot but I am definitely not annoyed now. Everyone and their dog has the flu right now. It. is. awful. 

Oh yesterday the craziest thing happened. So we got this call while I was in the middle of like holding my face over the sink with a bloddy nose... ( Okay, sorry you definitely did NOT need to know that haha) but anyways. It was President Irion. And so he told me that I was going to be a Sister Training Leader and (for those of you who don't know missionary words.. it is like the equivalent of a zone leader but just for the sisters) so I just barely got a new companion and her name is Sister Malloy. I did already serve with her in Loudon for a week. But its just fun to see what the mission brings. Everyday is some new adventure you weren't expecting. Loving it(: 

Anyways... I love you all and I hope you have a great week. (: (: 

Hermana Bateson

Letter:
 Guess what?? This week was SUPER awesome! So the coolest thing ever happened. We were able to find and teach 3 new families about the Gospel. (: Seriously, it was awesome. I LOVE teaching the gospel to people that are actually interested. haha

Tambien, this week we ate over at these peoples house that are like literally crazy and I forgot what I was going to say about that but let me say that some people are just strait up loco!!

I don't know if I ever talked about this family the Murphy's but I love them so much and yesterday we went over and had dinner with them and it really truly is when I am with members that my testimony grows because they are just amazing(: 

We went with Scarlet Flores (16) and Nicole Abregu (14) well they actually came with us all day on Saturday and we ended up having this amazing lesson with an investigator and they were bearing their testimonies to this investigator and she started crying. I love the young women in the church. Some of them are like the only LDS people in their whole school and they are such great examples and I could go on and on but for lack of time and space I won't, I just love them(: 

Sorry so boring this week Hermana Bateson
P.S. Love y'all. Miss you! See you in September