WELCOME TO DEXTER!!!

Hello Everyone!!

So we left bright and early from the MTC at 4:30 last Monday and even though there were some rain delays all 26 new missionaries made it safely to Lubbock!

And I got assigned to help open up a new area called Dexter NM! It's a  cute little town that has about 1700 people in it. YES 1700! And you need 2400ish to get street delivery for mail so we have a P.O. Box!

If y'all wanna write me some letters you can use the mission home address:

Sister Heather Ann Lagrosa

6310 114th St.

Lubbock TX, 79424

or you can send it to me in NM:

Sister Heather Ann Lagrosa

P.O. Box #67

Dexter, NM 88230

Either way it'll get to me (I'd suggest just sending it to TX).

So yeah, my trainer (or mom in mission lingo) is Sister Johnson! She's about half dead (half way through her mission), from UT, super blonde (and it shows sometimes :P), and a fantastic missionary and teacher for us. Oh yeah... US. There's another fresh missionary here in the new area with us from the MTC. Guess who! ...yep. The sass-bucket! Sister Hoover! (and you'll finally have some pictures!!!) It's been pretty stinkin' awesome out here... but kinda hard. :P

First though, I'll start with last Monday and Tuesday. After we landed we had an AMAZING dinner at the chapel in Lubbock, and some time with President Augustine as he oriented us to the mission and gave us our assignments to our areas. Nine of the 13 incoming sisters stayed at the mission home that night, and then on Tuesday we had a little bit more orientation and went out to lunch. Then we picked up our bikes (or bought them... like me :P) and went back to the chapel because the transfer bus took about half of the new missionaries out to their areas. The lucky ones who got to stay (us Dexter Sisters included) packed it in for one more night, and we went out to talk to people in the Lubbock area. IT WAS SO SCARY... ahhahhahaha, I know you wouldn't believe it, but I'm actually kind of shy in new situations, so it took about 5 people for me to get used to it, and then we went knocking. :P

That night we slept at the Texas Tech Sister's apartment and I got to sleep on a chair! :P

Then the next morning we went back to the chapel, picked up our brand spankin' new car (for our new area) and packed it full! Surprise though... my bike was accidentally stolen the day before... we think one of the Elders took it because there was a leftover one at the church, but it was a few inches too big for me (but the same brand of bike I got)... lets just say I couldn't really get my leg over it, let alone ride it in a skirt lol. But, all is well, I'm borrowing a rusty Wal-mart bike (left by one of the Elders in the Artesia area) until the Assistants to the President (APs) figure out how to get my bike back.

So we headed out with our car PERFECTLY jam-packed, and blew into DEXTER in a dust storm! We met the Branch Mission Leader, and the 2 Elders that are serving in the Artesia Branch with us, and it was pretty cool. When we rolled into our house we were kinda surprised by how, uhm, well, run-down it kinda was. We had so much cleaning to do, and no cleaning supplies.... so we had to drive a half hour back to Walmart, and then spend the night cleaning stuff, building our beds, and trying to avoid some things crawling around on the floors. It didn't seem too bad until Thursday morning when we listed all of the things we needed and read it off to the mission office.... One of the major things was this sulfer-y smell in the  water (becasue the pipes hadn't been run in awhile) and on Friday we discovered our gas hadn't been turned on, so we had no hot water to shower with... if our shower worked lol (but don't worry, we've been able to shower at a member's home on our street) but yeah, all three of us a re pretty optimistic, so it was a good time for the most part, but we are currently finding another place to live lol.

Anyway, on to the good stuff! Since Thursday morning, we've been out knockin' and talkin' to people and it was so good! It's kinda really hard too, because there are like 5 churches in this little town, but there are so many good Christians out here, that it's not like I was expecting with people slamming doors in our faces or anything. I look down the street, smell that sulfur smell (yeah our town is a little sulfur-y... but I think I'm getting used to it, along with the incessant flies from the local dairies and fish hatchery) and I think to myself: "Sister Lagrosa, you are exactly where you need to be!" And then I smile. :D

Since it is a new area, I'm still trying to figure out exactly why I'm supposed to be here, but even with the discouraging times, there is something everyday that I get to experience that lifts me up so much!

One house we knocked on towards the end of our day on Friday was Felipa. (Oh about 60% of Dexter is mainly Spanish speaking, so I think I'll be picking up a little bit of in because everyone looks at me and starts goin'! lol) Anyway, we talked with her about what we were doing after she said she saw us walking around (yeah, the town's kinda small, so EVERYONE knows we're around lol), and she's just been having some rough times. We spoke with her about the restored gospel (her faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are already so strong) and we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon to read. I told her two of my favorite chapters are in 3 Nephi 17& 18 where the resurrected Christ comes and prays with the Nephites and ministers unto them. She said she would read them, and we prayed with her right there on the front porch! We are meeting with her again this week, and when we were leaving she said "Three angels came into my home today".

El sol es calor! (the sun is hot!! It gets up to 115F here!)

But the work is great! It's going to be a hard, but good 3 months here!

Love always,

Sister Lagrosa

Pictures:

1) our whole Zone from the MTC

2) Me and Twister outside the Lubbock airport!

3) Me and Sister Hoover pointing to our new area!

4) Me and Sister Hoover with my disappointing not-quite-a-black-eye

5) Me and Sister Nielsen the day I got my eyes dilated, and she was like "What the heck happened to yoU!?!?!"

6) Sister Hoover, Me, and Sister Johnson with our planners during weekly planning.

7) Our 2nd night in Lubbock!

8) Our house! (See it gets smaller as you walk to the back! :P

Our whole Zone from the MTC

Me and Twister outside the Lubbock Airport

Me and Sister Hoover pointing to our new Area

Me and Sister Hoover with my disappointing not-quite-a-black-eye

Sister Hoover, Me, and Sister Johnson with our planners during weekly planning.

Me and Sister Nielsen the day I got my eyes dilated, and she was like "What the heck happened to yoU!?!?!"

Our 2nd night in Lubbock!

Leavin' For Lubbock on Monday!

Hello Everybody!

There have been SOOOO many things that have happened this week, I'm going to hardly have time to go over them all! But good news though, I have tons of pictures to send as soon as I get out to Lubbock!!

First I'd just like to say, I'm sorry you got that call from the MTC Health Clinic Mom. I PROMISE everything is okay, I just took a soccer ball to the face during gym time on Wednesday, and the blind spot I had for about 20 minutes after the impact was sitll there in low light. Sister Heward (the wife of one of the members in our Branch Presidency) made me promise to go to the doctor if I woke up on Friday with the blind spot (in low light), and since I did, I felt obligated to do it. Dr. Neilsen at the MTC referred me to an opthamologist, just to make sure everything was alright, and Dr. Meyers (said opthamologist) dialted my left eye and took a look at my optic nerve and retina. The upper left (mirror of the bottom right where my blind spot was) wasn't the normal brownish/pinkish/orange that it should have been, it was kind of white. He called it a mild form of commotio retinae, which would heal on its own (it's just a little bit of sheering injury from the impact of the soccer ball). Missionaries truly are blessed with health! (There are pictures to come of the little bruise I had, and me with Sister Hoover who is the one who got me with the ball! She is such an energetic sass bucket! :D) (And it was way cool to be out of the MTC, as a MISSONARY!! People called me Sister Lagrosa! :D)

Something I've really come to realize this week is the power of prayer. As I've struggled a bit with feelings of inadequacy, among the other usually new missionary feelings, I realized that there truly is so much power in going to hte Lord with all of the desires of your heart. As most of you all know I am really a people person too (which is why I'm so excited to get to Texas soooo bad!), and it's been hard to not have the time I usually spend talking to people, and my roommates seem to get so much mail lol, but I know that there are so many people out there praying for me individually, but also for me as one of the Lord's missionaries!
Also, we kneel so much every day here, my favorite parts of the day are kneeling with my companion after a lesson (even if it wasn't successful at all) and having a prayer of grattitude for our investigator, and for the gifts the Lord has given us.
Sister Metzger (one of our teachers) had us do an activity with prayer that was so powerful. After we talked about some instances of prayer in the scriptures, we identified this patter of preparing to pray, and spending more than five minutes on our knees. After that she had us take a few minutes to write a letter to our Heavenly Father, preparing for a prayer about anything weighing down on our hearts, and then we all got on our knees and prayed. It was so impacting for me to feel my Father in Heaven's love for me with so much strenght, that I've made it a goal for me to follow that pattern (think, write, pray) at least once a week for the rest of my life.
One last thing about prayer I'd like to share is a really uplifiting experience as a zone (our two Lubbock districts) that we had on Thursday. One of the sisters (Sister Scott) going to Lubbock is from Australia, so she has had quite a bit more of an adjustment to the missonary schedule than a lot of us have. During our morning block of classes she passed out on the floor, and started hyperventalating. Two of the elders in her district were able to adminsiter a priesthood blessing for her while another called for the EMTs. She woke up just as the blessing was finished, and she ended up being okay. It was a really emotional expereince for us as a zone, mostly because we didn't know exactly what was wrong, and it was a trial of faith to know that she would be okay. We knelt together as a district and had a prayer together. And then we sang the hymn: "The Spirit of God", and I just started crying the Spirit was there, and it was so strong. After a short testimony meeting, we had some time for personal scripture study about the Atonement, and we shared some of what we learned with our class. I read in John 14, and my calling as a missionary was reaffirmed to me again as I read the words that Christ spoke and understood a little bit more that His power can truly heal us in whatever way we need it.

It seems that during almost every time I have to study the scriptures I am reminded that it is this knowledge that I have that I get to share with others. It's not fair for me to know so deeply that Christ is my Savior, that I not share that with others. Our purpose as missonaries is to: "Invite others to come unto Christ by recieving the restored gospel through, faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." I know this is going to be a difficult calling, but as I've settled in to being Sister Lagrosa, I KNOW with all of my heart that this is the Lord's work, and I cannot let my own reservations keep me from being a bold missonary and do my best to share the gospel with eveyone around me... even if it just by my actions.

I don't have much more time, but I did want to say that it is crazy to think this time next week, I'll be in an area I'll be serving for 12 weeks! In the Lubbock Texas Mission! Something we learned during in-feild orientation is to get to know the ward as soon as possible, so if the Bishop where ever I am agrees, I'll hopefully be able to speak or bear my testimony in sacrament meeting next week!

If you get an opportunity please watch Elder Holland's Mormon Message "God's Work Never Ceases". He loves you!

I know His grace is sufficient for us all.

Love always,
Sister Lagrosa

p.s.  I just want to say Happy Fathers Day! I hope you got my cards, and happy Birthday William! When I get home I"ll be 23! :D

I love you all!

Day 3 of the MTC

Hi Family!!!

So our district (our class basically) has 10 missionaries who are ALL going to Lubbock! Also there is another district next door to us with another 10, so in total there are 11 Sisters and 9 Elders departing the MTC on Monday the 17th!! We already received our travel plans, and we are leaving here at 4:30 in the morning!!! Arriving in Lubbock at 4:30.

Since we only have 30 minutes to e-mail here, I'm going to try and keep this short, also, I don't think we can upload photos yet... but I'm out of here soon, so you'll get some!!

First thing first though, wow, getting dropped off!!! Eliza, drove me down and Jen and Steph (aka ginger bear) met up with us for my final minutes of pre-MTC-ness. It was a whirlwind that night, everything went so fast I found myself forgetting to take a breath. After getting a brand spankin' new black name tag, I went to drop off my luggage, literally we just dropped it in the room, and went to the classroom to meet our teachers and our companions. My companion is Sister Bradford, a wonderful 20-year old UT grown Aggie (USU) from up north, and she is SOOOO GREAT! We are really different, she's quiet, more reserved, etc. but, wow is her faith BRIGHT! She is a hard worker, and I've felt over the past few days that it's difficult for her to feel discouraged, she is so strong and it's really amazing to be with her all the time.

Our days are jam-packed here, I love how perfectly they are scheduled, but I feel so rushed, and my heart is just aching to be in the mission field! Classes are amazing, and it's interesting to be back in them since I've graduated. The BEST part about classes is that it's more apparent to me more and more every hour my purpose as a missionary!

I'm inviting people to come unto Christ. How great is that?

The gospel is so simple, and it is testified to me over and over again here that Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children all that He wants for us is eternal happiness.

I'll have to admit though, my multiple inadequacies and shortcomings are MORE than apparent here. I've had to really rel on the power and strength of Heavenly Father and my calling to keep me from getting too discouraged. Sadly our first lesson was like a train wreck in slow motion.

But it's the little things that help us pull through. I've run into both of the Sumsion Sisters here (Tabitha and Kelli) and actually had a great conversation with the latter last night. And I've seen so many young sisters from the Brambleton Ward and from my time at BYU. I even ran into some return missionaries (RMs) that are now teachers here (you know they are teachers because they are walking by themselves lol).

I love the Spirit that is here, even though my heart is yearning for Texas. I am trying (and succeeding quite well may I add) at being an exactly obedient missionary (following all of the rules) and reading my Book of Mormon everyday for 30+ minutes! Our branch president gave us those commitments last night.

I love you, and my time is just about up! I want to share one more thing with you before I go though.

One of my teachers, Sister Metzger shared this scripture with us

D&C 100:1 "Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my [friend Sister Lagrosa], your families are well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power."

I know Heavenly Father is with you, and I know that you all are blessed.

Love Always,

Sister Lagrosa

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