Week 2 - Deming, New Mexico!!

Whaddupp erryone!!

So today is the first 'real' day of this mish thing. I'm in Deming, New Mexico!! There are only 6 missionaries here and my comp. and I (Elder Flint the DL) opened a new area so we are basically starting from scratch...plus there's a ton of Spanish people down here which doesn't help since I can barely speak freakin' English haha. Elder F has been a very good missionary and is committed which is awesome. He's been here for 21 months so I'm his last companion til he leaves. CRAZY. We've met with a lot of ward members down here and there's only one church in this entire place, 2 english wards, and one spanish. Deming New Mexico....is interesting. It's a pretty small town, dangerous, very ghetto, and only 30 miles from the border...

The only investigators we have are the ones that other missionaries gave to us...there's like 5 I think. One is mentally disable and is 'suicidal', one has two children who apparently are huge 'gang' members and are in the very dangerous part of town, then others who are super drunk a lot and all that...so starting this whole areas puts an extra challenge on us. We have a Jeep Compass (awe yeah!) between like 80 miles of land we cover between two companionships...we're trying to get another car because we don't street contact hardly ever because of the conditions here. Our apartment....again pretty ghetto hahah. I opened up the window a crack and broke the window handle....the shower nops fell off and barely turn...we found a bong in our room...and lots of things don't freakin' work....but the spirit works in all conditions! Awe yeah. It takes an additional 3-4 days to get mail to Deming because of how far out we are. But we will get it! Hopefully if it doesn't get stolen....crap.

There's a 5am donut shop across the street from us.....they're only 80 cents...and they sell Monsters.....sooooooo tempting!! Missionaries drink mtn. dew and caffeine all the time....didn't think they were allowed too haha. I probably won't drink any because I'll probably abuse it hahah.

MTC Temple Trip

My mission President and his wife are awesome! President and Sister Killpack basically felt family because my fam. already knows them hahah. They've been out here for 1.5 years so we'll see a change in mission Presidents on this mish.

One of the Elders in Tucson was talking about how he knew someone's dad who worked with the twelve deciding where to send missionaries, and what they said is they're considering taking it down to 18 months for everyone....if they do, I bet they would soon. I'm sure it wouldn't effect me. We were also talking to this one guy who had his son sent home a month early  because of how many missionaries were there....the fact there's only 6 missionaries in this area, I'm not sure anything will happen to me.

Here's an example of contacting on the street: We start a simple conversation and then tell them we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder day Saints. We then continue to ask questions and get to know them. We carry around lots of BOMS so then we get to the point of trying to get them to read it. We practice it a lot so I'm pretty comfortable with approaching people. Then you have them read the last two paragraphs (often) and then.

It's crazy to be out here viewed as a missionary of Christ. I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed in how we started out because of the lack of missionary work we've done. We haven't taught one lesson yet or talked to anyone about the church and we've had multiple opportunities too..at least I believe we do. Elder Flint is pretty sick and he's a very good teacher. Every morning because of the '12 week program' every missionary has when they first get out here has double the amount of companion study and has a booklet you study from. Things like "let the new missionary invite the first person to be baptised" and things like that....there's quite a few things that I definitely don't agree with nor do I think I ever will, but if we follow the rules that we may not understand the Lord will bless us....sounds pretty sick to me.

There's no nice cars here....there's no bass here...it's definitely taken some adjusting and yesterday morning got me down a little bit because we didn't do much. We met with a bunch of members and introduced ourselves to the ward and we are doing that most days, but we've had a complicated start, but we have some leads and some appointments (finally) later today....we have to go buy a map at WallyWorld (Walmart is the 'cool' place to be....it sucks) because one of the Elders has a gps...but it doesn't pick up most of the stuff here hahah. This place is in the middle of no where. We see border patrol cops ALL the time haha. Literally everyone here is either retired, works at the mine, or is a cop. It sucks because it's a small town here and I wished there was a ton of people since I love big cities, but is all good yo. The weather here is nothing like Tucson either. It was like 70 degrees in Tucson on Monday when I was there and it's only like 40-50 in Deming...it almost snowed last night....it sucks!

Future missionaries...be prepared to 'roll play' your life away. As part of companionship study and having your comp. be a District Leader, you will do many roll plays....I hate them. They are frustrating but really actually help. Luckily my comp. is obedient haha. It's crazy how many Elders (almost all of them) get distracted by girls...plus the fact that UOA was apparently voted the school with the hottest girls or something hahaha. Everytime they saw a hott girl, they freaked out....not me hahah. I just do that when I see a hott car. :D

It's a huge adjustment to make yourself realize that you have to rely everything on the Lord. Literally everything. The Lord is now my Monster, music, and basically everything. He's been watching over me greatly and I'm so blessed to be here and do our best to bring this happiness and truth to everyone.

We had 1 hour of nothing to do yesterday, so my comp. decided we should go back to our apartment. I studied, he slept. Just things like that, that if you sacrifice something you COULD be doing for something you SHOULD be doing, the Lord will bless you and guide you.

I again appreciate all the support everyone has given me, and it's so nice to know this is where I'm supposed to be. I've only been on a mission for not even 3 weeks wtf hahah.

There's not many members down here, and not many leads/referrals at all, but it's just another challenge! 1Chronicles 19:13.

How is everyone?? :)
Letters are amazing!....haven't gotten any yet since we've only been here a few days...but I will reply to every one!

Thank you for everything!!
-If you get lost in your work, your time will become lost.-

We are so blessed, we just have to try and realize the insane amount of blessings and answers we have.

My computer just deleted a lot of this message and won't send......holy freakin' crap. Ghetoo.

Thanks again for everything! This church is true!!

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