This first week in Bowling Green has been quite a "blessed" week (I've been working on my southern vocabulary). I've never been so blessed in my whole life, more literally than figuratively. Everywhere we go everyone is wishing blessings upon on us for the " important work" we are doing. Somehow that translates to "Thanks, but no thanks .. I've already got a church." This can be very difficult, you see, because many different people have different ideas here. Let me illustrate this point with a example from my first night in Bowling Green. We were knocking a street of doors. The first man we talked to seemed very enthusiastic and came out to talk with us. He identified himself as some Christian church, but after a little conversation he took a bit of a turn, next thing we knew he was gripping us by the shoulders and blessing us to have no success and be struck down because we are false prophets. Poor man.
Really, though, Bowling Green is great! It has a very diverse population because it has a huge refugee population. Fun Fact: there are missionaries who speak Swahili in my district! We have had the car this week and have had quite a time finding our way around (Sister H----- has been here just a few more weeks than me).
We have some pretty solid investigators -- a good bunch of different countries of Asian people we are teaching, very simple teaching, and it's hard to keep their countries straight. Another investigator named C----- is awesome. He has a baptism date for the end of August, and we are in the process of helping him stop smoking. We knocked a lot of doors this week and met a lot of the wards recent converts and less actives. We met with 3 siblings who got baptized a month ago, two who are named K- and P---. They are from somewhere by Thailand and speak pretty good English. Their parents don't speak any English, only a language called Karenni.
We also went on exchanges this week. My third day in Bowling Green, I left to go on exchanges in Hendersonville with the STLs. We met some really awesome people and had some really great lessons and a lot of fun! Also this week was Spanish Conference! So I was back in Nashville for that! We talked a lot about how we can better do Spanish missionary work and improve on our Spanish and work with Hispanics and members. We ate tortillas and fried chicken, so that was appropriate. I rode with the Spanish elders and a senior elder from Bowling Green while his wife stayed with Sister H-----.
So if you can't tell, it has been quite a crazy week! I am looking forward to staying in BG for a whole week, meeting some of our other investigators too! (And maybe meet some Spanish investigators.) Also, the county fair is coming to BG this week, so that will be interesting!
Spiritual thought from our lesson in gospel principles this week: Remember how important the sacrament is in our lives. The effectual rebaptism every week is so import in our continual repentance process. It is so important. Never miss a chance to recommit to the Lord.
Hope y'all have a great week!
Love,
Sister Nielson
P.S. I took a lot of pictures this week
1- Stopped in a cute town on the way to exchanges #epitomeofthesouth
2- We look like tourists that robbed the little bank
3- All the Spanish missionaries in the mish!
4- We have to walk through a forest to get to a couple of our investigator's homes
5- We do very in-depth weekly cleaning/my cute comp.
6- All my previous companions (Hermana H----- returns home in 2 weeks.
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