This week was so different but fun! But let me start by saying, southerners are no joke!! More on that later😅 so this was my fist week in Tennessee and it has been a lot. I felt a little overwhelmed at times, but when I only focus on what I'm doing at the moment, it helps me to calm down.
I said goodbye to my family at the airport on Tuesday morning then arrived at the mission home around 6. It was fun to meet up with all the missionaries in the airport, but I also had a very hard time feeling connected/included. I had just said by to my family hours before, but all these missionaries came straight from the mtc, so they all already knew each other (most of them were companions in the mtc) and they had said goodbye to their families weeks ago. So I felt pretty disconnected, but I tried my best to get to know them! At the mission home we had dinner and a devotional then stayed at a hotel where the next day we spent most the day at the church getting our stuff and our assignments.
I was assigned to the Crossville area with Sister Jones! She is SO sweet and I could tell that I had so much to learn from her.
So Crossville is a little interesting 😅 it's definitely the country and mostly older folk. When we went knocking on doors, and I've heard more life stories in the last 3 days than I have in my entire life😂 these people LOVE to talk. (Mom takes this part out of the email before you post it, but there was a door that we knocked on thinking it was a lady named name Kimberly. But an older guy named Tommy opened the door. It smelled like smoke so bad, but he was super sweet. He let us talk and said he would be OK if we came over another time to teach him more. So then we asked if he knew where a Kimberly was since she was who we originally came for. He pointed across the street and said she was in that house. We thanked him and walked over. Kimberly was in that house but it wasn't her house. It was her friends house. Apparently Kimberly and tommy are married, but there's a lot of crap going down and she told us much more than we wanted to know😂 it was so awkward. She said "tommy sent you over here? You have no idea what s*** he's doing over there. Blah blah blah" and she just went on and on and on cussin at him and saying all these crazy things that he was doing and how much she hated him and how he's going to hell. Some (not all) things that she told us was that he was sneakin coccaine and her son set up hidden cameras in Tommy's house so that have video evidence to show the police. She also said that he was doing incest? and cheatin on her apparently. She also said that her and her son did something with the lease on the house, so now the house is under her name. So he's homeless and doesnt even know it!! Keep in mind this lady seemed crazy, and I thought tommy was much more normal of the two. She has a very sucken face, a THICK southern accent, one top tooth that was rotten, and a brown tongue while smoking a cigarette. Mom I feel like I'm in a movie sometimes with the crazy things I hear, the people that look like they should be dead, and the houses that looked abandoned but people actually live in them. I am in the ghetto and there are some sketchy houses that we decide not to knock on because there are no other houses around and there are creepy old people staring thru the window curtains. There are some houses that i am SHOCKED that people live in them. Its so crazy. Our apartment is pretty junky, but it is extremely fancy compared to the homes in crossville. And the people in the houses usually match the house too. Most people are nice and just want to talk, but there are some weirdos)
I don't think I've talked to a single person that has a full set of teeth. Most of them have no teeth, or their lucky they have 2 or 3 rotten ones. I got nauseous talking to this one lady cuz she only had 2 brown teeth and whole top of her tongue was brown and flaky and she was foaming at the sides of her mouth cuz she was talking so much. Oh her house also has fleas, but thays besides the point 😂 we talked with her outside, but she still gave us hugs😬 and when a frail old lady with fleas opens her door and says "oh girls its so good to see you" and goes in for a hug, you cant say no. I showered real good that night 😂OK that was it haha you can possibly include the stuff after this. Filter as needed
There have been many times where people right off the bat say that they are not interested in our religion, but they they chat to us for another 30 minutes. People love to tell stories which is so entertaining, but it's really hard to teach people. Especially the older ones cuz they love talking (and thats 90% of the population in crossivlle). Knocking on doors isnt scary anymore unless the house is sketchy. There was one house that was in the middle of nowhere and it we couldn't tell where the front door was. It looked abandoned except for a car that was there. So we went and found a door and knocked. A lady answered the door and we asked if Paul was there. She pointed around the house and said that he lived back there. So we went to where she pointed, and there was a small old shed... like a shed that could maybe fit 2 lawnmowers in it. We were both very hesitant cuz we are just 2 girls going to knock on a shed looking for a guy named Paul that was about 60 years old. But we didn't get a prompting not to, so we did. When we knocked he peaked out and stared at us for a bit, then waved us away. So nothing became of that, but I'll definitely never forget that haha. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a movie with the houses we visit and the people we meet.
Basically everyday consists of doing studies, driving around knocking on doors, talking and talking and talking, and eating really good food. I haven't gotten to teach a lesson yet which I am looking forward to. It's hard to get people to listen to us teach because they like to talk so much.
There is Bible study at the church Thursday nights and we went. It's so cool cuz in Utah I can't imagine having a ward Bible study😂 people here love the lord and praise God publicly and its so great. However it is hard to teach people cuz they are all mostly older people that are very religious, so they usually are pretty set in their ways. But they are still so fun to talk to!
I have learned so much in this week. It amazes me how many people there are out there that have crazy stories. I have learned to be kind to everyone because you never know what someone is going through. A little bit of kindness can go a long way, so be kind to everyone!!! Even if you have differences, whether that be opinions or appearances. We are all children of God no matter what people believe, you should still love everyone and be kind.
This email was kinda all over the place cuz I've had very little time, but in summary, God works miracles, and Tennessee is a very different place with very distinct people and I'm definitely still getting used to it.
I love you all!!
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