Week 2/3 Entering the Field - September 28, 2015

Hi everyone!

So, I wasn't able to write last week because I was traveling, so if you were wondering what happened to me, don't worry. I'm alive and well. Honestly, at this point, the last week of the MTC is a blur. I just remember waking up Tuesday morning at 2 AM and flying on a plane for the first time ever! Flying is so fun! In my journal while I was on the plane I wrote a whole page all about how cool flying is. We went from SLC to Atlanta, Georgia, and Atlanta to Knoxville. I got a window seat on the way to Knoxville, so I had a perfect view of downtown Atlanta. As soon as I saw it, I had the Walking Dead theme song start playing in my head, and ever since, I keep thinking about it because my mission just reminds me of that show. Is that horrible as a missionary? Probably.... I'll learn some day....

Anyway.... Here are the details of the area I'm serving in. I am in Rogersville, Tennessee! It is in
North East Tennessee, bordering Virginia. In fact, I got to go to Virginia for a district meeting the other day. Okay, now for my companion.... s..... Yeah that's right. I'm in a trio! So, in the picture below there is Sister Winget (left) and Sister Beckstead (right). They're both pretty great. :) Anyway, I'm going to go back to how my area is. It's tiny. It's green. It's adorable. It has many winding roads that make me carsick, but that's okay because I love seeing the random unique things Rogersville has. Like shacks. So many worn down shacks. And there's more graveyards than people here, so that's all sorts of creepy, but a fun creepy....  Rogersville is one of the biggest areas in our mission, and we're the only set of missionaries there.  It's also a pretty "mountainy" area. Jk... Some of their mountains really are mountains, just a lot of them are larger hill things. But beautiful larger hill things. I found out the reason the mountains are called "The Great Smokey Mountains." It's because fog will settle on them, and it looks like the mountains are on fire. It's pretty cool.

So the work here is going really well. We have quite a few investigators and two baptisms in the next two weeks! How cool is that? There's Sheila and Debbie. They're both so strong! Debbie is getting baptized between conference sessions on Sunday!  We're still getting things worked out on Sheila's baptism, but it's on October 10th. The branch over here is so great! It was a bit of a culture shock coming from Utah. On Saturday when we had the General Women's Conference, I was so excited because I thought we were going to go to a huge dinner, and I'd meet the whole branch, and it'd be so much fun. I was wrong... So wrong. We had dinner at our apartment and then went to the church. It was us and one member. On top of that, something was wrong with the satellite, so we ended up watching it on my companion's iPad.  It was awesome though! If you didn't see it, go watch it.  And everyone go watch General Conference this weekend!

For a while I was getting a bit discouraged with how few members I'd seen, and then Sunday happened, and I couldn't hold in how much love I felt from everyone. There may not be many members here, but those who are here are some of the most loving people I have met. It's weird being away from my whole life. But it's so comforting that the only thing I'm not away from is the most important thing. The church. It's
the same everywhere you go.

So one lesson I've learned is when to focus on yourself and when to focus on your investigator. I've heard some people to do one and some to do the other.  I figured out the formula.  If you are simply laying around feeling sad for yourself and getting homesick, get up and go to work and stop thinking about yourself.  But if when you go to work you could be doing better, even after preparing so hard
to help someone else, go focus on yourself, and invite the Lord to come along. God wants to help you with your problems and he knows better than you do how to fix them. And don't feel guilty for focusing on yourself.  If you're not in a good position, you can't teach others to be in a good position.  I'm happy I learned this lesson so early on.

I hope that last part made as much sense written out as it does in my head, because I know that it's the right way to deal with it.... If it doesn't.... Write me!  I love letters! I don't get enough!

Anyway, I love you, the book is true, and Jesus was a Mormon, too! Or you know..... a Jew.....

Sincerely,

Sister Erin Shelton