Serving in the Las Vegas Nevada Mission

Thursday, April 23, 2015

# 12 New area Kingman Arizona April 20th, 2015

TRANSFER WEEK!!!
   I am here in good 'ol Kingman Arizona, the heart of Rout 66! Like from the movie cars!!! It is the cutest old town! There is nothing around except for dirt & tumble weeds! ya gotta go look up this place on google, it is so fun! (I'll send pictures next week, I forgot my camera.) I needed a change of pace and i sure found it!
MY Companion is Sister Onorato! She is the sweetest person in the whole world! She has an ability to love people that amazes me! I am so blessed to be serving with her! We have had a crazy week trying to get to know the area and each other. The people here are amazing!! We live in an area that if you drive 15 min up the hill you are surrounded my mansion size homes, and then if you drive 15 min the other direction, you are in an area where people are living in little man made tin huts, because that’s all they could find. I have never seen this kind of poverty before! It is so humbling to think about everything we take for granted...for example a roof over our head, heat, water, a toilet, a bed, a room to put your bed! It just amazes me! They are some of the kindest people I have ever met, maybe, because they have no reason to be selfish or judgmental. But there are also some pretty scary “ghetto” areas that we tend to avoid in the evening times. Places like "slaughter canyon"....yea let’s just say we don’t go down that road! hahaha I love it here :) this is my kind of town!

   We had two baptisms this week!!! Kate is 20, she has an amazing testimony!! When she told her family she wanted to join the church they formally disowned her with legal papers in an Easter card! So she sent them an invitation to her Baptism and told us "Sisters I just know it’s true, I have to be baptized, I have never wanted something so much in my entire life!" She was baptized on Friday night!! It was an amazing experience to be there for that. Although I didn’t get to teach her, I am learning from her testimony! The other baptism was a little girl, she waited to be baptized until she knew the church was true, so we get to teach her!
   There are a lot of recent converts here that we have been teaching! Carlos, Della and Andy! They are AMAZING! They all have a fire within them, they love the gospel more than life!! Della is a sweet older Lady who we go over and have bible study with every week! And she invites everyone she sees to come and join us! Her Husband is atheist, and he is so nice. He sat in on our lesson this week, and Sister Onorato told me that he has never done that before! 
   Andy, oh I love that guy! He reminds me so much of my brothers! He got baptized recently and we are teaching his wife Anna, and son Braden. They soak it up!  Braden knows it's true and he wants to get baptized once his dad gets the priesthood so that he can baptize him! Anna has a little harder time, she loves the lessons, but we need something that will really help her feel the spirit! They have another Son, Thomas. The missionaries have never met him, he doesn't come out of his room, and he has serious social anxiety. They whole family has struggled with it. Andy hadn’t come out of his apartment for months, and then the day he did was the day the Sister missionaries met him outside and he took it as a sign. So it’s amazing to see how far they have come! I have started leaving notes for Thomas and hopefully one day something will change! 
   
We also had the blessing of being able to go to the Temple this week! Sister Onorato had a doctor appt. in the valley so we drove back to Las Vegas and got permission to go the temple while we were there! And then I had an appt. this morning so we got to make the 4 hour drive again! We have had some fun mini road trips! It’s been fun! also.....we live in the desert...so there are lots of bugs. We find roaches in our apartment all the time! It was super bad for a while so we would sleep with the light on ‘cuz they don’t like light. But we have been getting tips and tricks from people, on how to get rid of them that have been working so there are a lot less now!! But hey I have a toilet and runny water so I am not complaining one bit! 
We have another crazy week coming up. I’m excited to see what it brings!

A mission is the best and hardest thing I have ever done, and I am so thankful for the blessing of being able to struggle my way through it! The atonement is real, and that is the way I get through the hard things! I love this gospel with all my heart! 
I’m praying for you all!
Love,

Sister Loveless

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