My first week in Pullman seems like it went by really slow. It is definitely a lot different than Orofino. The first difference is that it it a city and we walk everywhere we go. We could ride bikes except for the fact that Pullman is super hilly and Elder M. has had 2 bikes stolen on his mission so far, so he won't by another one. Also, we wouldn't know where to ride our bikes even if we rode them. We have one investigator, who technically shouldn't be "our" investigator because she is not a married student. But all of her friends are in the married student ward so that's where she is going. She's been on date for baptism for a while so that's good. Other than her we are not teaching anyone else.
Our area is actually pretty tough. I briefly mentioned it before, but were are in the married student ward. So anyone we want to teach has to be a married student, and if they have kids then the kids have to be under the age of 8, otherwise the family goes to the family ward. If they are not married then they are taught by the single adult ward's missionaries. We are allowed to find and teach anyone we want, but if they are not a married student then we have to pass them off to the missionaries that are supposed to teach them as soon as we can. (no more than 2 lessons) So it's hard to find people to teach because at Washington State University there really aren't that many married students. Also, school isn't in session yet, so... campus is for the most part, pretty empty. Elder M. mentioned that they had a total of about 5 lessons last transfer. Whenever we find someone who would want to know more we just refer them to the young single adult ward's Elders rather than trying to teach them ourselves, since we would eventually have to pass them on anyway. The YSA Elder's just see us as a great source for referrals.
I was looking at our ward list, which isn't even a full page. and I made a comment about the number of names there were. Elder M. got a really confused look on his face then said, "Well that doesn't sound right" He took the list from me then after looking at it said, "Oh, this is the problem" then he took a pen and started crossing off names saying, "They moved, they moved, they moved..."
Our ward is very small. I believe I counted about 30-35 people at sacrament meeting.
So in order to try and find stuff to do, we've been just trying to find service opportunities. We went to the chamber of commerce and got a list of all the places in Pullman that we could do volunteer work at. While there we were asked if we would want to help at the cities 4th of July celebration. So that's what we did. We spend the 4th selling concessions at the cities celebration. It was actually a lot of fun. While we were there we saw some people we had briefly met throughout the week. Which was awesome because it was a lot easier to strike up natural conversations than if we were on the street. Which both Elder M. and I suck at. Most of the people we have talked too this week actually talked to us first, normally by asking what class we were dressed up for. haha, we get asked all the time if we are students, which is great because It gives us a chance to explain what we do as missionaries.
Anyways, work is slow and so we do a lot of walking around and visiting members.
Also, our apartments has spiders.
-Elder Rebalkin
And a response to a letter I wrote him:
We can tract but not a single missionary likes to do that. Mainly because it's really not that effective in finding people. I did not find my scriptures, I'm actually really near to the missionaries that should have had them. So I talked to them and they don't know where they are.
This area will be difficult to stay productive. Elder M. has been out about 20-21 months and says that this area is the only one where he has no idea what to do. Our area book is almost no help because we have maybe 5 records of former investigators, and about 10 or so names of old potentials. Almost all of those people were contacted by him and his last companion. Most moved out at the end of the last school semester. Also WSU is a party school, people don't exactly come here to get married. It'll be tough, but we'll find stuff to do. Like I said, we look for service opportunities.
Also, thanks for the package, it was all good. I appreciate it :)
I'll try and take some pictures. I don't know exactly what to take pictures of... it's not like Orofino where everywhere you look is a pretty view, and I'm not a big fan of being in pictures.
Love ya,
Elder Rebalkin
We can tract but not a single missionary likes to do that. Mainly because it's really not that effective in finding people. I did not find my scriptures, I'm actually really near to the missionaries that should have had them. So I talked to them and they don't know where they are.
This area will be difficult to stay productive. Elder M. has been out about 20-21 months and says that this area is the only one where he has no idea what to do. Our area book is almost no help because we have maybe 5 records of former investigators, and about 10 or so names of old potentials. Almost all of those people were contacted by him and his last companion. Most moved out at the end of the last school semester. Also WSU is a party school, people don't exactly come here to get married. It'll be tough, but we'll find stuff to do. Like I said, we look for service opportunities.
Also, thanks for the package, it was all good. I appreciate it :)
I'll try and take some pictures. I don't know exactly what to take pictures of... it's not like Orofino where everywhere you look is a pretty view, and I'm not a big fan of being in pictures.
Love ya,
Elder Rebalkin
We made Mason an awesome care package, complete with pretzel sparklers, red, white and blue popcorn. We threw in red, white and blue hygiene items and topped it off with patriotic quotes and scriptures that talking about the promised land. It was spectacular. It was a work of art. And we lost the pictures AND, I only saved the outer package label......so sad.