Monday, September 16, 2013

Sister Brinne Dawes's First Area- Brownwood, Texas 9.16.13


Hello Everyone!!!!!
New address
1801 Slayden Apt. 3
Brownwwood TX, 76801

Monday
My district woke up at 1:30 in the morning to be at the airport by 4:30 or something like that! Our flight didn't leave until 6:30???? We waited for a very long time!! So truth is, we are the biggest group to ever come to Lubbock, Texas. There were 32 new missionaries!!! Safe flight!
We got to Dallas, Texas and were supposed to have only a 2 hour lay over-- then they found something wrong with our plane so we were there for 4 hours :/ I was able to talk to mom and dad, Derrick and Megan! No Nanny-- she didn't want to wake up :( but thats okay!
We got to Lubbock and were greeted by President and Sister Agustin and Elder and Sister Kelly (they know Margret Fielding’s family. They are related). They were great!
All of my bags made it here... not really in one piece, but got here and everything was safe.... I have a feeling they aren't going to be joining me back to Utah :( Sad day… but they will work for a few more transfers.
We then went to the church (when there weren't many missionaries they would go to the President’s house-- then it got bigger and they went to the R.S. room --now its huge so we had to meet in the Cultural Hall!!! It was awesome. We had meetings for a LONG LONG TIME! Ate dinner then we smashed in President’s office to see the transfer board. I found out I AM STILL WITH SISTER CLARK! I LOVE HER SOOO MUCH!! WE ARE THE BEST OF FRIENDS, and we are being trained by Sister Dunham from Wahoogle, Washington. They told us she is the best! She is a sister training leader and is exactly obedient all the time. She has been out for 8 months and she also goes to byui! They then told us that we were going to be OPENING A NEW AREA! Then said to go load up in the cars! It took 2 suburbans, 1 van, and 1 15-passenger van to get us all around and the 15 van carried a huge trailer for luggage.
They took most of the sisters to president’s house to sleep. They dropped 4 of us off at our companions apartments to sleep at their house because they had been serving in Lubbock! So we met Sister Dunham that night! Slept great!

Tuesday-
Went to more meetings then went to lunch then went to get our bikes! So sad story.... I brought my camera so I could download pictures, but I am on a computer so I forgot my cord to download pictures. Sorry :( but I have a pic of my bike! It’s very nice. We then met up with sister Dunham again and we went to say bye to her investigators and recent converts! It's amazing how much love she had for them and how much they loved her. It made me excited to get going.
Slept great again.

Wednesday we had to be at the stake center by 8:00 to get on the transfer bus... then we found out that... we weren't going on the transfer bus because WE REALLY ARE OPENING A NEW AREA! So we got to drive a BRAND NEW mission car down to Brownwood, Texas. About 5 hours south of Lubbock-- it is a very “druggie” place near the border.
Here is what is going on down here-
Brownwood has had missionaries here before (In fact, I think Cort Jenson served here) Ask him-- I would love to know. But there is an Asian family here that have GORGEOUS daughters and they are “Willie Temptresses” and... they were helping elders get sent home early :( So President took them out and put sisters here, but the area is SOOO BIG! That they need help to that’s what opening a new area is.. However, the sisters that were here aren't super exactly obedient so Sister Dunham, as sister training leader, is here to crack this place into shape. We split boundaries and found out we have NO NEW INVESTIGATORS, NO PROGRESSING INVESTIGATORS, NO NOTHING! And the ward consists of (they say 50, but as of Sunday we counted) 25 active members. (1 primary kid, and 2 YW and 1 YM.... 6 R.S. sisters.) The bishop is active, however his 1 and 2 are not active... THEY HAVE 16 PAGES OF MEMERS ON THEIR ROSTER!!!! 16!!!! THAT’S QUITE A FEW PEOPLE... NO ONE COMES...we found out that a lot of people don't come because they don't have rides and this ward covers a huge area... the bishop it trying to buy a bus so he can go pick people up on Sundays.... sad story, right???
We met the R.S. president. She is worn out and older. She is trying but it's sad.
The bishops’ house burned down a year ago so we met him at the house he is rebuilding Saturday. He is a good guy with real hope.
We also met the ward mission leader and he is very good! He has great ideas however, some of them I would like to argue but won’t.. (we all would like to argue them)

Anyway. we went and knocked doors Saturday in the richer part of town... None of them were happy to see us... only one lady let us in. Her name was Amada she is 88 years old and VERY catholic. She only let us in so she could show us paintings she had done... she talked for like 1 hour. We are going to go back. She doesn't believe there is a church that knows everything....
We had no success in the park doing Morning Finds (that is what we call finding people anytime though the day while we are not knocking). There were some very unhappy/ unkind people at the park. But we will keep trying.

We have been starting from scratch color coding our area and finding out where things are....
Sunday Sister Dunham was sick so we had to stay inside after church. So we called some old former investigators from 2005-2012. The majority of the numbers are wrong or disconnected. Nobody wanted to talk to us again. There were a few we didn't call because we had feelings we should just show up.

So that is that. We are starting from square 1. Sister Dunham is AMAZING! We do everything with exactness! The only hard thing is she is so confused about this place too--- so it is hard.

We are going to go bowling today, shopping (we have had spaghetti 3 times since we got here on Wednesday) OHHHHHH!!! BUT WE WENT TO THIS AMAZING PLACE CALLED UNDERWOODS! Oh my amazing!!!! $10 bucks for some great meat and unlimited veggies, cobler, salads...THE BEST!!!

Anyway love you all! That is my past week. We aren't teaching anybody or anything --just knocking doors right now... they will come. There is a prophesy right now saying that Brownwood will be a stake one day so.... success will come!

Love, love, love you and talk to you next week!
Ness, I haven't gotten your letter yet because they have to forward it from the mission office.
Family, I sent out letters a few days ago so they should be on their way!!!

WITH SO MUCH LOVE,
 SISTER DAWES!

No comments:

Post a Comment