Farr Along The Road I Traveled: 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!