I feel like its hard to keep in touch with all of you!

8 of the 9 "Hermanas" in Brooke's mission

How are you all? The longer I'm out here, the more I feel like its hard to keep in touch with all of you! Sorry if it seems short sometimes. Just trying to find a good balance. I still love and care about you and your lives. I also think the longer I am here I forget truly how different life is as a missionary.

 Our mission President challenged us to make a list of like all of the things we are going to do after our missions. Week by week my list gets longer. It truly is such a blessing to be here and to learn so much. I feel really different. Mostly I just feel privileged every day to go out and serve the Lord.

I am getting transferred on Wednesday. It feels scary to be leaving Sevierville because I have spent the last 8 months here. I trust the Lord though. He knows what is best.

Raisa got baptized!  Raisa se bautizo! I am so excited and happy for her. She was baptized yesterday (Sunday) and it was beautiful. I am grateful the Lord let me stay here to see it happen. Yayy!

Well I miss you so much It's going to be a great reunion when I come home. We will have to take a huge trip to Cafe Rio and then to the temple. haha

I have to make one quick confession. Being over here in the "Bible-belt" has caused me to do  a fair amount of study in it. Here is something I learned about the Spirit this week. 

1 Corinthians 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.


I love you and miss yall. See you soon.  Hermana Bateson

Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo!

I love the gospel. I love being able to watch it change peoples lives.  It's such a huge blessing.

 I hope you all are doing well. I should be coming home here within the next few months so that should be good. I'm a little excited but not at the same time because I will miss being a missionary.

Yes,  I am going to be skyping. I don't know what time because I am getting transferred tomorrow and so I will be in a new area and I won't really know anything until probably like Thursday. I want to say its going to be sometime in the afternoonish... although I am not for sure. I will just have to call you and it will be a surprise or something. haha I don't know. 

Yes, we had a baptism yesterday. It was great. It was a spanglish service. haha I will hopefully be able to send more pictures next week because I forgot my adapter this week so I won't be able to send pictures this week. :(  

Welllll...... Love yall Hermana Bateson

We will be having an emergency baptism THIS SUNDAY !

4 de april

GUESS WHAT???? 

I realized that I am always super depressed and frustrated right before something cool happens. Stupid Satan! Stop messing with me. Warning: Try not to pay too much attention to my last weeks letter. That was just me venting. 

 

 

ANYWAYS.... so we went to church yesterday just thinking that it was going to be a normal day. We went to Ward Council and Sacrament and Sunday School was a little crazy as usual, we went to Relief Society and that was.... well, relief society and then there was this baptism for the cutest little 8 year old kid named David Ortiz so he gets baptized and there was some time when him and his dad were changing and Hermano Henriquez stands up and he is all, "if anybody wants to share their testimonios that would be okay" so then we are all sitting there and Raisa (our investigator) stands up and of course I am like freaking out thinking that she is going to say something crazy and she just gets up and starts to give her testimony about Jose Smith and the Book of Mormon and how she made the decision at that moment to be baptized and it was like the best moment of my life. Like the whole Latino population of our ward was there and they all just were like staring at us and everyone got SOOO awesome and it's just like the most exciting thing to see an investigator actually GET IT. (: I loved it. So we will be having an emergency baptism THIS SUNDAY for Raisa Gonzalez! (: (: (: 

 

I just feel so blessed. She is going to be such a great member. I love her. I am so grateful that I could help someone understand the gospel. I love missionary work. 

 

BEST STORY EVER, RIGHT??? (: (: 

Hermana Bateson

I am doing just fine out here in the good ol South.

12 de Abril

So this week was pretty good. 

On Monday we went bowling and I won! Yayyy. haha
 So on Tuesday I did a ton of service. I swear it was like an all day service day or something. We cleaned houses and weeded. On Wednesday we basically just tried out best to find people to teach and  went to Erick Flores' despidida ( farewell) pretty cool.

A guy in our ward got his call to Ogden  and so that should be great for him. Thursday we got to see some less actives and some of them watched Conference and everything. Yayy again!

Coolest thing ever: Raisa ( investigadora) is taking a job for Sister Minton (miembro) so ... she will be baptized in no time! haha

Scariest thing ever: So Sunday morning we woke up and there was this ambulance outside and basically they just took Brother House to U.T. Hospital and now he is having open heart surgery. Que loco! Pray for him. 

But seriously, I am doing just fine out here in the good ol South. hahahah It is still pretty crazy here. These people are just so funny. Like the things they believe are soooooo just crazy.  Nobody has like a foundation for truth. They just believe whatever the preacher tells them and it is just so sad. Go read 

2 timothy 3: 5, 7 

5 Having a ^aform of godliness, but ^bdenying the power thereof: from such turn away.

7 Ever ^alearning, and never able to come to the ^bknowledge of the ^ctruth.

and that will explain this area I am in right now. I am going on 7 months here and wowwww I am just going to go crazy.

All around it was just a great week.(: I love the gospel and I love the scriptures. I love yall! 

Hermana Bateson

PS I got stung by a wasp!!! while standing on someone's porch. haha
News flash: STAY AWAY FROM WASPS!!!
Sorry it's really late. Gotta go. Love ya mucho.

General Conference was awesome, right?? Loved it all!!

Mission Leadership Council meetings

31 de Marzo

So this week was ...stressful. We had like no miles this week and so we had to do quite a bit of walking and our area isn't exactly a walk area, to say the least. So anyways, other than that it was really great because we got to watch Women's Conference and that was just a joy and a half. haha I loved every second. 

We also have like the greatest investigator known to man named Ton who is from Thailand. I probably told you about him but he is just like a blessing for me. (: He says the funniest things because he is just so honest about everything. haha

I have been thinking a lot about humility and pride and that whole cycle. Pride is like the major thing that keeps us from being close to God. I have been able to see it so much in myself lately which has truly helped me to change. Also, I am just almost overwhelmed with my love for the scriptures.

 Oh no. It's almost 10:27! Sorry got to go! Love ya all! Hermana Bateson

7 de Abril

General Conference was awesome, right?? Loved it all!! I especially loved Elder Holland's testimony and Elder Bednar talk. We all went to the church to watch it and we ended up pulling up chairs and couches to be able to be more comfy. haha Ton our investigator came. He left halfway through though which Sister Malloy and I were pretty sad about. Hopefully we will be able to talk to him about that. 

We also had the Mission Leadership Council meeting this week and Zone meeting so I would say that I have definitely been fed well spiritually this week. 

So how are you guys? We had quite a bit of success teaching this week. It was really cool. We got like 3 or 4 new solid investigators that I am pretty excited about as weel as I think Raisa is getting close to baptism. The only thing that is keeping her is just a bit of humility issues. But, if I was in her position I would probably act and do the same things. I really have learned a TON in the last few weeks about pride and humility. It has been on my mind a lot that it's basically a catalyst for all the other things that take the Spirit away from us. ( kinda like it says in Mosiah 3:19)

19 For the ^anatural ^bman is an ^cenemy to God, and has been from the ^dfall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he ^eyields to the enticings of the ^fHoly Spirit, and ^gputteth off the ^hnatural man and becometh a ⁱsaint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a ^jchild, ^ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

But, anyways, we did a lot of good this week with lots of study and prayer. Is there anything I can do for you all? Sometimes I feel like I just go on and on. haha Thank you for all the support that you have given me and I will continue to pray for you all. 

Love you, Hermana Bateson

"Yall know your in North Carolina, right??"

hahah Funniest thing ever. We were up in the Smokies with Bonnie one P-day and all of the sudden this guy on the Indian reservation goes, "Yall know your in North Carolina, right??" hahahah We had no idea. So I decided to take a picture of this little street. I am almost positive this was the entire town. haha

This is up in the Smoky Mountains. It is way prettier when everything is green but I think you get the point. It's beautiful(:

Me holding a baby kitten. (:

Momma Saas, Ashley, and Mi companera holding baby kittens. 

This is my investigator Ton. He is so funny I can't even handle myself. haha

Sister Shurtleff and I finally went on exchange together. It was one of the best days of my life(: hahahahah 

This picture is of the garden we did with the Murphy's. It was probably one of the funnest service projects I have ever done. (:

Yeah I am sorry I couldn't get to send you a letter this week. It is because I didn't have any stamps and I forgot to buy some. :( But I am almost positive I am going to remember today so keep your fingers crossed on that one.

So how is everything else?

Hermana Bateson

I must be going through like a "mid- life crisis" or something in my mission

Mission Leadership Council 3-9-2014

17 de Marzo

For some reason.... I am just really struggling. I must be going through like a "mid- life crisis" or something in my mission because this week has been so hard. I have learned a lot though. Mostly just that I have so much to learn.

One super fun thing that happened to us was we went tracting and I swear to you it was like our thousandth door and all the sudden it started pouring rain. POURING!! And we were at least a half a mile from the car. haha Needless to say by the time we reached the car we were sopping wet. We still tried to see some people and nobody was home so we went home and changed. 

Also, our investigator Raisa! Oh yeah. This is the best story ever. So we go on Wednesday and we tried to show her some church videos and it ended up being a huge test of my patience. We went back on Saturday and she told us that she spent 3 hours praying and she told us that God told her she needs to be baptized. LIKE WHAT!? hallelujah! por fin!!! She also says that she needs to go to the temple in Utah. haha ANYWAYS... that is super exciting!!

P.S Moroni 7: 45 I need more of this!!!
 45 And ^acharity suffereth long, and is ^bkind, and ^cenvieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily ^dprovoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.


25 de Marzo

Well this week has been the longest roller coaster of my life.  Monday started off pretty safe. We did some service at the Glatz house but not much more to report. Same with Tuesday and Wednesday, I got to exchange with the only "sister" I like in the whole mission, Sister Shurtleff. She is so awesome and funny but I probs won't ever get to be her companion because she isn't a Spanish missionary. 

But anyways...we committed Raisa to live the Word of Wisdom and so far it's been like five days since she has had coffee or tea!! Yayy!!(:

Thursday... was a good day too except for Hermana Malloy and I had to give yet another training. (why me...? haha) So then we had to go tracting and I will just be honest....Sister Bateson and tracting DON'T GET ALONG! haha But Sister Malloy is patient with me and she helps me get through it haha By the time Friday came along I decided I was mostly sick of tracting and trying to find people to teach then ... Saturday came and we found out the news that I will be staying in Seymour for my 5th transfer. I cried. Actually, bawled. But I think I can do it. This is what we like to call.. "Sevierville Endurance!" But really...it is truly testing my mission endurance here in Sevierville. There are a few people that i really love such as Bonnie and Scarlett and without them I would have died already.

 Oh coolest thing ever! We were tracting the other day in this neighborhood called Eagle Den and this kid came out and we were like talking to him and we asked him which church he went to and he said, "Um...I don't go to church I'm Asian" hahaha So anyways we are now teaching this kid named Ton who is from Thailand!! How cool is that?! It is a little different though because he doesn't have a Christian background and this is the first time doing that so I feel like a "newbie" all over again! haha

Sorry back to Sevierville Endurance. Please pray for me because I will be going on 7 months here and my patience is wearing thin, but that's all I'm going to say about that. 

So back to Ton. He sang for us the other day my most favorite song in the whole world called " You'll be in my heart" (yes, the one on Tarzan) and also some  T- Swift and Justin Bieber.  LOVED IT!

Today we are up in the Great Smoky Mountains with Bonnie and we went to the Cherokee Indian Reservation. It's beautiful up here although I wish it was a little more green. It's still all brown but still pretty wet. Well enough about me I love you! Gracias por escucharme(: 

Hermana Bateson

P.S.  I AM SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!!!!!!!! This is going to be the best weekend of my life!!!(: Seriously can't even wait right now. Did you watch the Women's conference?? Wasn't it like the best thing that you have ever seen in your whole life? Well I thought so. (: