This is the email from my sister, responding to my email! I told her that this past week I have definitely felt attacked. I've been having feelings of being less because I was called stateside instead of foreign, which I know is not true. But I feel like it's something a lot of people struggle with who are called stateside. My sister's email was a wonderful response and I just wanted to share it:
HEY! Don't even think that you are less than everyone else just because
you got called state side! You don't know fully what's ahead of you.
There are people who you promised even before this life that you would
find them, and that you would teach them. They're waiting for you! Not
in Spain, not in Argentina, not in Korea, or Switzerland, or Brazil, or
even WASHINGTON. They're there in Georgia. Waiting FOR YOU.
You
are right, Heavenly Father does love His Children. So much that he has
called and is qualifying you for the work in Georgia. Just remember- His
will be done.
You're freakin' awesome. I Love you!! Keep up the good work, and don't let satan get you dooooown, Regan!! :)
This is the email I got from Nathaniel! He spent most of his time telling me about his mission and answering his questions. He used up most of time and I really appreciate it, so here is his email:
That's okay, I wasn't expecting gospel related questions, but if you have them throw em' at me.
The
food here is fandabtastic! It's called soul food for a reason, it's
good for your soul, not your body. My favorite Southern food is probably
Jambalaya, please note that there are about as many different recipes
for jambalaya as there are people and that the same goes for gumbo and
many other recipes. The weirdest thing I've eaten... I really haven't
had a lot of opportunity to eat weird things, this is something I don't
like. When you end up in an area like Warner Robins, GA (where I am now)
or Evans, GA you end up eating a lot of "western food," as it might be
called, this is a result of the heavy military presence as well as the
colleges in the area that attract people from the West. Honestly these
places end up being a lot like Utah as far as the members are concerned.
One thing I ate that I really like that was very different was a baked
apple. It was like applesauce only it had butter and brown sugar in it.
I've also had authentic grits, they are good but I eat them "like a
Yankee." (I add sugar instead of salt, butter or meat) They taste like
cream of wheat to me, only difference is they have pretty much no
nutritional value.
Every area can be very different and can
have very different challenges. In my first area I don't remember there
being any challenges, this is probably because my trainer was such an
awesome missionary. In my second area the only thing keeping people from
being baptized was church attendance. That road block seems to be the
most prevalent one in the South, many people don't object to you coming
to their house and "teaching the about Jesus" but as soon as you expect
some effort on their part they don't respond, "I already done been
saved!" My third area had a lot of poverty and there just weren't a lot
of people there. In places with a lot of poverty you usually don't have
problems teaching people but getting them to keep the commitments they
make can be difficult and sometimes downright frustrating. My first area
was much like my third, it was just in South Carolina instead of
Alabama. My fifth area was Albany, GA. Albany had a lot of poverty as
well. The biggest difference between Albany, Lanett and Barnwell (my
last 3 areas) was that you could literally fit Lanett and Barnwell
inside of Albany's geographical area and in Albany we rode bikes instead
of having a car. You won't have to worry about riding bikes, there are
currently two walking areas for the sisters in this mission and the rest
have cars. We accomplished a lot in Albany, once again people didn't
come to church as much as we would have liked. Now I am in Warner
Robins, it's a very small area in contrast with my last 3. We ride bikes
and we still get a lot done. Awesome thing, we haven't had much of a
problem with people coming to church here. There have always been other
things. "My wife doesn't want me to join the church." "I'm afraid my
family will reject me if I become a Mormon."
I haven't had
trouble understanding people down here, they do talk funny sometimes
though. They say things that you didn't think you'd ever here. "I'm
fixing to cut that light on an don' you eva' think 'bout turnin' it back
off." That is being generous. People down here just don't put that much
effort into their speech. They will cut off as much of the word as is
possible. The word off might just become the short sound of the letter
O.
That's not really that important, you won't have a
problem understanding people, though while they are talking to their
family in front of you... That might be a different story.
My
overall biggest challenges on the mission? I would have to say that my
biggest challenge on the mission is the lifestyle, I don't mean the
going and knocking on people's doors and teaching people about the
gospel, I mean the daily schedule. I have always had trouble sleeping at
night. When I first came out on the mission I had no trouble because I
would work so hard that I would be exhausted when I went to bed that
night. Since I've been out for so long I've become accustomed to it and I
can't sleep anymore, sleeping pills help but they cause me to go into
such a deep sleep that I end up having nightmares so I avoid them. The
best advice I would give you to combat that is to never slow down. Set a
goal to keep the morning schedule for your entire mission right now and
stick with it, don't ever sleep in. I'm not gonna lie though, a lot of
sister missionaries here have a problem with gaining weight. I'm telling
you for the sake of warning. The problem is that they all drive cars
and the members would rather feed them than the elders so they eat a lot
more. Watch out for that, or you can just be like me and plan on
gaining weight whether you like it or not. I have gained a lot of weight
on my mission.
The winter down here is hard to describe to
someone who has experienced the winter in a dry place. It's wet! It
doesn't quite get cold enough to freeze the humidity. The only way I can
describe the result is, "it grabs a hold of you." When you get cold
here you get COLD! Once again, you'll have a car, you don't need to
worry about it.
To date I have had 13 companions counting my
MTC companion, this is an abnormal amount. All of them have been great!
Only in hindsight did I realize that I didn't like any of them. The
worst one I had would never ever stop talking and all that did was give
me migraine headaches that wouldn't quit. Excedrin took care of him.
If
you would like me to I can ask one of the sister missionaries in my
district if I can give you her e-mail so that you can ask her questions
that relate directly to sister missionaries. As far as advice goes for
you in ideas of preparation the best advice I can give someone to
prepare for a mission is to become familiar with the doctrine found in
the missionary lessons. Each lesson has some point in it, memorize those
points so that you can remember what the lesson is about. Memorize
Joseph Smith's account of the first vision as found in Preach My Gospel.
More importantly than memorizing these things is gaining a testimony of
them. Pray over them, ponder them, and experience some blessings from
those testimonies. Question them, not whether or not they are true but
how they could be true.
Read the Bible. Don't study it, that
will come later. At bare minimum read the four gospels and know which
books are in which testaments. Pay special attention to the words of
Jesus Christ, memorize some of your favorite quotes from Him, people
love it when you quote Jesus Christ down here. If you aren't able to
prepare very much before you enter the MTC don't worry. I'm a prime
example of how the Lord qualifies those that He calls. In the MTC you
will learn how to learn, don't take everything there too seriously,
don't take it too lightly either, but it's not life and death. The worst
thing someone can do is say, "no."
People will reject you,
prepare for that mentally. It's not a cake walk down here but it's
definitely worth it. "The hard times will outnumber the good and the
easy times. But the good time will far outweigh the hard times." You're
very fortunate to be coming on your mission to the South, you will
baptize many souls. I didn't realize this when I got my call. "How great
is your calling!"
I need to get off my soapbox. You have a
great week, sorry this e-mail is so dang long. I let myself go. I hope
you don't mind me using it as my weekly newsletter this week because I
ran out of time to write one of those.
If you have any more questions send em' my way.
Sincerely,
--Elder Nathaniel Morris Litwack
