Welcome to Liberty

 

Two Wednesday ago, I woke up nervous and paranoid. In 4 hours or so my fate would be decided. Would I stay in Kansas City but go to the Kansas version? Would I go to the little suburb in Kansas or the suburb in Liberty Missouri, or maybe even possibly back to Sedalia? One way or the other it would be a big change after having been in the same area for 3 transfers and the same companion for a consecutive 2 (which is a lot of sameness for my mission). 

And the night before we had just gotten back from going to the temple with our recent convert Tania who had done baptisms for her mom. It was the sweetest little trip even if she had forgotten about until we called her to come pick her up. But she loved it so much and is so excited to do work for her dad too! It was so cool to be able to go with her, especially since only by chance we had a Spanish speakers there who could do the baptism and confirmations. And cooler still he was there with his daughter who had just received a mission call for state side Spanish speaking!

But anyway, to cut the story short, I was transferred to Liberty, Missouri which consists of 0 latino stores, a lot of apartment buildings where you have to play Where's Waldito, and a branch that barely celebrated its month birthday. This all being said, the branch members are the kindest people and have been so encouraging and welcoming of our friends. 

And I already know quite a fe of the members already! Some were members in Santa Fe and others were actually members back in Alta Vista (my first area). So at English class my first day there, there was actually one if the recent converts I had gotten to know! And it was the sweetest thing ever because she actually recognized me, plus she's just the sweetest human being. 

But the transition has been interesting because my companion and I are new to the area and so is one set of Elders opening a new area as well as the other set of Elders, one of whom only has a week more experience. So all our knowledge of the area has to come from our personal experience or that one Elder's previous week experience. And my companion is actually younger than me in the mission, so after 13 months or something like that, I'm the senior companion in a Spanish área. So that's pretty slay.

We had a baptism to plan for that Saturday which was also pretty fun. The day before the baptism we actually met a really cool guy named Joaquin. We stopped him as he walked outside our car and offered to share a scripture. And even before we could share the scripture he said we were an answer to his prayer because he had just been praying to know if God was really listening, and we just popped out of our car. We invited him to the baptism the next day and he came and loved it, and then told us he was moving to Chicago. But hey, that's why I'm glad we're a world wide church and we don't have to just say "Well, good luck".

The baptism did go super well, and all the missionaries who had told the guy in the past showed up! Which was so great, but made for a funny picture to have Leo, a taller man who plays soccer and goes to the gym, an older member who looks a little too much like Moe, the bar tender from the Simpsons, and than 6 20 year old women (2 more showed up later). 

A few days later we found out we were actually going to be a trio as of the following Monday. So p-day last week consisted of doing laundry, going to the airport (she had gone home for medical reasons), going to the store, going to raising cane's, and that was about it. But our new trio mate is actually from Mexico, so hopefully we'll be able to way up our Spanish game. 

And it's been a ton of fun since! We all get along really well, and are able to work and teach together. We were also good at coordinating our efforts to get the phone number of a truck on the highway because the person inside looked kinda Latino, or jumping out of cars to catch up to people, or finding people across a busy street and having to find a safe way to cross it. Regardless we're all very set on finding every person we see. 

And my final story for the day is that of my friend Marlon who actually got baptized two days ago on Saturday. And in recognition of the fact I'm pretty sure I've written nothing about him in almost any of the 2 emails I've written in the past year, I'll summarize a bit about him now. 

It all began... three transfers ago, general conference morning. My companion, Hermana Petersen at the time decides to randomly text a guy named Juan Martinez, he being one of the many people who fill out Facebook ads showing interest in things like English class, scripture studies, or church. (We had a ton of those in Kansas City, Missouri.) She messages Juan and invites him to watch general conference with the ward even though we had had no prior interaction with this man. And he comes. He stays for the little potluck afterward and seems to really enjoy it. Like two days later, we have a return appointment with him and invited some other members. Juan shows up with his younger brother, Marlon. From there we began teaching Marlon, and Juan dropped of the face of the earth.

Marlon was actually incredibly interested from the beginning, and really persevered despite a lot of challenges. We taught him for about 4 and a half months. During this time we had a lot of video calls (he lives pretty far away). Our video calls sometimes included randomly adding other friends and members because we figured why not. It also included a lot of repetition to make sure he actually remember what we had taught. Our time teaching him also included the most chaotic in person lesson, because we had gone down to the area in which he lives for a member dinner which ended with us getting a cake. And so why not go have a lesson with Marlon and bring cake. So we had a little lesson standing outside and talking. We retaught the word of wisdom and he agreed to follow it again. And then we brought out the cake. But no plates, forks, and no knifes. And so cake may or may not have been spilled in the back of a 2024 rogue, but we cleaned it up and you couldn't even tell what had happened. It was all around funny. Than like a week later he finally accepted a baptismal date and we had a lot of really cool lessons with members, one of whom had just come here from his home country. And all these members at different times followed the same theme and shared the same advice  "don't doubt" 

And so he stopped doubting in himself, and the knowledge he has and he got baptized. Everything went smoothly despite the font being locked and unfilled until 29 minutes before the service and Marlon deciding his name was actually different than the name he told us 2 months ago, or one of the speakers showing up as the service ended. 

It was really sweet and my favorite part was seeing his smile as he got into the font, especially because he doesn't really smile all that much.

I struggled for a long time not being able to help people more especially in temporal things. My friends were evicted and I couldn't do anything, or they were starving, or alone, or scared for their family, or in pain, or exhausted in a way I can hardly understand. And yet there is only a couple things I can do. I can give them the gospel and I can introduce them to members and friends, I can love them, and I can do everything possible to help them. And I know that makes a difference, and what makes the biggest difference is this gospel and the covenants they can make. Their faces, their lives, their demeanor changes and it continues to change as they stay true and faithful to their covenants. And I was so grateful to see Marlon change over the course of 4 months and especially after he was baptized (even though he wasn't confirmed yet) and hopefully he understands a little more of just how much our Father in heaven loves him, because that makes all the difference. 

 And while it was a little hard to go back to Santa Fe and than come back to our foreign suburb, And low-key it made me awfully homesick for my little latino home away from home. But I know it's what God has asked me to do and that there's more work to be done here. 

Oh yeah, and we got to sing at a Kansas City Royals baseball game! Go royals!

Also if y'all could, pray for Elsa and Marilyn, especially that Elsa can find a way to go to church, so her and her daughter can go to church and be baptized