Bakersfield....Very Interesting

February 4, 2013

 

 

 

 Hey Family! 

This was one of the craziest/weirdest weeks, yet, on my mission! It was definitely full of great activities! We had Sisters Conference on Tuesday, exchanges in Bakersfield on Thursday and Friday, and then Sister Lilywhite got sick and we had to stay in on Saturday and come in early last night. It was definitely an interesting week. Plus, we had a baptismal interview for Bob, which was a highlight for sure. Well, I have a lot to write about, so I guess I'll get to it! 

Sisters Conference was a success, in my eyes. When we went on our exchanges with the sisters in Bakersfield, they told us that they really enjoyed it and got a lot from it. I felt the Spirit a lot throughout the conference. It was really nice for me to be able to meet all of the sisters that I didn't really know, because I've been thinking about them and praying for them. It's good to have a face to all of the people I'm serving. It was just cool to be together with all of the sisters and to see some of my good friends that I've made on the mission. Sister Castro was so excited the whole day. I'm sure she just misses seeing all of the sisters. I felt a lot of love for the sisters and I am so grateful that Sister Lilywhite and I were given some assignments for the conference. We lead a discussion based on the talk "What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be?" by Elder Robbins of the Seventy. It stretched me a lot and opened my eyes to areas that I need to improve on. That was a blessing because I've felt like I was starting to plateau or something. I don't know if that's necessarily true, but I have had to look a lot deeper to see the improvements that I'm making. I guess a part of that is that I've been out a while now. I'm not making HUGE jumps and leaps of improvement like new missionaries do, but I now realize that it's about fine tuning things. There is a lot that I need to do better at, but those things aren't as obvious as "learning to teach the lessons" or goals that I may have had at the beginning of my mission. I learned a lot from the comments of all of the sisters throughout our Sisters Conference. Sister Lilywhite and I also taught a workshop on unity. It was pretty fun. We started it out by playing a game we called "Are you your sister's keeper?" Basically it was the Newly Wed game, and we asked them questions like, "How many times does your companion knock on the door?" Of course we had some more really funny questions. I mean...it's me. I'm hilarious. Anyway, I was so impressed by the maturity of the sisters and the spirit that they all carry with them. They had many profound comments that were answers to my prayers. I know that these sisters will be ready for all of the young, new sisters who will be coming to this great mission. They have that desire to be prepared and to help the new sisters succeed. I'm so grateful that I've been called as a traveling sister. I've already learned a ton and I keep thinking about what Elder Bednar said in a video clip that President Castro showed us. It was also something that Brandice and Solon talked about the night before I went into the MTC - "We need to reach the one" and then that person will reach one and so on. Brandice had talked about how she really felt like there was one person, specifically, that she had served a mission for. I have thought about that a lot. I know that if I can just reach one of these sisters, it will have a great effect on her companions, members in her areas, and especially the people she and her companion teach. That's what I'm trying to focus on and remember as I continue to adjust to the different way the work goes as a traveling sister. The Lord is helping me and I'm just doing my best to allow Him to change me. 

I had my first taste of Bakersfield this week!!! CRAZY! The air there is DISGUSTING. You can literally see it all day. Bakersfield, supposedly, has the worst air quality in the US. Our first exchange this week was on Thursday in South Bakersfield. That area is a more wealthy area. Well, it looks wealthy probably because the cost of living in Bakersfield is super cheap. It was just a normal town, so I was wondering why everyone talked about how terrible Bakersfield is. I didn't think it was that big of a deal....it was just whatever. I went with Sister Vandenhazel for the day. She's from Utah. I'll be honest - I was feeling very nervous about working with her because I know that she has struggled throughout her mission. She doesn't ever talk and she seems to have just given up on improving. I had been praying a lot leading up to my exchange with her, because I wanted to help her have a positive learning experience so she can grow and be more confident with the work. Well, the day didn't start out the best. We went to their district meeting with them and then afterward when we finally got out to start working, I parked the car at the home of an investigator we were trying and asked Sister Vandenhazel what her goal was for the day - something that I could help her with. She started crying immediately. I wasn't sure what I did wrong, but I did my best to console and comfort her. She just talked about how her mission has been a struggle and that she feels like a new missionary still even when she's going home in 2 months. She said that her goal is just to talk more, but I helped her make a more specific/attainable/measurable goal. Her goal was to lead out in declarations and teach, at least, "God is Our Loving Heavenly Father." We spent a lot of the day out tracting and walking around, so we had many opportunities to talk to people. Sister Vandenhazel didn't achieve her goal in the slightest. It was hard because I wasn't sure how to help her at least try. She did great in introducing us, but then she would just turn and look at me to continue talking. I just thought it was interesting because she knows the gospel. I was so impressed with her during companionship study. She has a really great understanding of the lessons and she knows how to teach simply. I reminded her of that throughout the day, but it didn't seem to help. I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me is her attitude toward herself. She is very negative when she speaks of herself, so I talked with her about that and helped her make goals on how to be more positive about herself. She needs to have faith and push those bad thoughts away. She is a good missionary. I know that she has a desire to improve, but she seems too scared to do it. I think that Sister Wilkinson and Sister Tagaloa could learn some very valuable things from her if she would speak up and share with them. I just felt sad because I'm not sure that I was able to help Sister Vandenhazel very much. I just hope she got at least one thing from our exchange. I know that she can improve; it just has to start with her attitude about it. 
 On Friday we were in East Bakersfield. Now that is a crazy place. It is soooo GHETTO! I can't even tell you how ghetto this area was. All of the houses have fences around them...who knows why. I swear that I saw like 15 stray dogs running around throughout the day and one pack of stray dogs creating havoc together. All of the yards are half dirt, half dead grass and everyone seems sketchy. It was awesome!! Seriously. The people are all willing to talk to us because they're in such humble situations. East Bakersfield is kind of how I always imagined Guatemala to be when Erin was there...it probably wasn't, but it's how I imagined it. That was really fun for me. I worked with Sister Romero and I loved it! She is a powerful missionary. She has a really strong desire to share the gospel with everyone. Her goal for the day was to be the one to talk to people on the street. She said she always just waits until Sister Burwell goes up to people, but she wants to be more assertive. She did a great job with her goal. I kind of just took the back seat, or acted as more of a junior companion/new missionary, to see how she would handle that. She was great. She was very focused in lessons and in declarations she got right into why we were there and what we have to offer. One thing I talked to her about a little bit was teaching the restoration in declarations. She talked about restored truths, but never talked about how we have those truths and how they can know for themselves. In situations when we had the opportunity to unexpectedly go into homes and teach, she knew what to teach or what scripture to share. She was great about telling me about each person we were visiting and where they are at in progressing toward baptism. She does tend to talk really fast. It's most likely because she speaks Spanish, but I think at times people aren't really sure of what she was saying because she said it so fast. We talked about that as well, and she said she knows that she does. She just gets really excited and talks too fast! She is a really great missionary and what I loved the most was hearing her insights throughout the day. She knows why she is here and she has a really great desire to fulfill the purpose that we have. I think she is definitely ready to train a new sister and that is so wonderful because we need these young sisters to be ready to train. I'm so glad that I could work with her. I had a really fun day there in East Bakersfield. 

When we got home to Ventura on Saturday we stayed in so Sister Lilywhite could rest. Then at 8 we went to the church for Bob's baptismal interview. That was great! He passed his interview and is getting baptized on Friday. Then yesterday for church he showed up with nice new church clothes on! He usually comes in jeans and a sweatshirt because he didn't have dress clothes, but he went out and bought some on Saturday. He looked spiffy in his new clothes and it was so cool to see how much he's changed since we started teaching him just a month ago. That is so great! I'm just glad that we've gotten to teach him. We really didn't do much. Bob came thirsting for more at every lesson. 

Anyway, it was a good....weird week! 

I love you!

Sister Bennett 

 

P.S. - I forgot to ask Erin if she knew a Sister Hanshaw on her mission in Guatemala. I had Christmas Eve dinner at her brother’s house and she said that she served in Guatemala...of course I asked if she knew a sister Bennett. She said "Yes! Of course I've heard of her! I would've had to try to not hear about her!" Erin must've been a powerhouse. Nice. Anyway, someone ask Erin if she knew her. 

 

 

 

Exchange with Sister Romero