Kirksville letter #2
My second week here in Kirksville, Missouri was an interesting but very good one! I am so happy here and loving the work. Sister Ramsey and I have been busy with appointments and a lot of finding (aka knocking doors). We have a handful of investigators but are really looking for more people to teach. The members in the ward might be annoyed because we ask for referrals so much!
On Wednesday we went to Brashear, a town just 15 minutes out of Kirksville. It used to be the elder's area but we took it because they are strictly walking now. We went out there to find their old investigators and look for some new ones as well. Lets just say that the town sign says "Pop. 297" but probably one third of the houses are abandoned. You get the picture. One paved road. It felt like a ghost town. We turned down a dirt road the elders told us go find and investigator on and it wasn't dirt. Thick and tack clay mud coated our tires. We got to the top of this little hill somehow and saw there wasn't a house for a good mile! So I got out to help Sister Ramsey turn around! Thick mud coated my little city girl flats and I was soon sliding around. We turned around eventually after a 15 point turn on the small road and I took of my shoes to get in the car and they each weighed two pounds! No joke. We were laughing so hard and just having fun with our plight as we were scraping the mud off of my shoes and the car behind the public school while the large bearded janitor man was watching us and laughing too. Finding Brashear was definitely a hard time as it was 95 degrees and humid and we knocked on abandoned houses. The Lord blessed us though with two potential investigators so we will probably go back later this week when we get the car back.
Speaking of getting the car back, we lost our beloved vehicle to the elders in the other ward on Thursday and have had quite the experience walking. My little iPod shuffle has come in handy. We did a lot of finding on Saturday and at the end of the day we had walked ELEVEN miles and 24,000 steps!! We were so tired and when we got home we gorged ourselves on leftover frozen food from the previous sisters that left and candy. Then we just laid there on the couches as our legs lay limp. We are not in walking shape evidently. But we really like it because it gives us opportunities to talk to people and knock doors to meet people. The other night as we were getting home after a long day we saw fireflies! They were so pretty and cute just hovering over the grass.
There are Amish and Menonite people here, fyi. On Thursday we were sitting in Dairy Queen and there trots by a horse drawn carriage on the main street of town! I was looking around like are we in the 1800s?! They had just gone to Walmart and had all their bags of stuff in the back of the carriage flapping in the wind! Culture shock. No but I want to talk to one of them sometime. I heard they make great pastries and are really nice.
Like I said the people here are the best. I love them so much. If you are over 60 and still have teeth it's an anomaly. They love sitting out on their porches and just visiting with you for hours. We visit lots of old people and are just so sweet and feed us a lot.
Something cool I learned this week was that humility + faith = access to grace, or the enabling power of the atonement. Try it, it works. I have leaned on the atonement so much for added strength my whole mission. When I was having a hard time studying all day in the MTC or out here in Kirksville walking eleven miles in church shoes. Our Heavenly Father wants to help us, we just need to ask for that extra strength, or grace, in humility and with faith to get us through our personal trials.
The gospel blesses families, it is the way to find happiness in this life, and the Book of Mormon is the word of God.
Love you all,
Sister Skaggs
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