I FREAKING LOVE ERIE.
Seriously, this area is golden. I’ve never stepped into an area
where there is so much going on. The Erieites here are in a perfect situation
for finding as well. My new companion says that tracting actually works here. There not super rich but
it’s not slummy or run-down. Erie is a quaint city set on the edge of the lake.
On a good day you can see the light blue of the sky touch the dark blue of the
water in the distance. I’m eager to get down to Presque Isle and enjoy the
beach, pretending that I’m somewhere tropical. Everyone keeps telling me that I
arrived at the perfect time; apparently it just snowed last week and the
temperatures are continually ascending.
The members here remind me a bit of when I served in Hershey.
The local medical university (LECOM) attracts many young LDS families so I
could probably describe it as a “Western Ward.” Elder Shipp (a former Jamestown
Zone Leader) described our Zone by saying that “every area sucks except Erie 1st.”
It reminds me a little bit of home, but there are advantages to each type of
Ward. I felt like I got really close with the local members in wards where a
majority of the people were Pennsylvanian converts. So I’m afraid that like the
majority of the members in Hershey, I may feel a little estranged because of
the robotic and seemingly independent nature of what missionaries should be.
But I’m enjoying it a lot. The members here are very missionary minded – in
fact, we were invited to attend Relief Society and address some concerns the
women had about doing member missionary work. The Ward here, although not as
big as Hershey, is fairly large and young, so I’m slowly getting to know some
people.
My new companion is Elder Levi Swensen from the outskirts of Great
Falls, Montana. I was his Zone Leader in Altoona when he was serving in
Johnstown so I had a little bit of knowledge about him beforehand. He’s a
wonderful, hard-working missionary, who has a great desire to be obedient. It’s
fun to see how far we can push to be obedient rather than the flipside of how
far we can bend the rules as missionaries. We already have 3 investigators with
a baptismal date this transfer and I am excited to see how we teach and are
blessed with more people to teach as we find.
Your ending comments reminded me of a concern one of the
missionaries brought up at Zone Leader Council on Friday. In John 4:31-38, the
Savior commissioned his disciples to go and reap the fruits of what the
prophets that came before them had already sown. In a like manner, we are sent
to “thrust in our sickle with all our might” (D&C 4:4). Our Mission
President reminded us that although we are planting seeds everywhere we go, we
are sent to reap. Then one missionary explained that he felt he had golly well thrust
in his sickle and that he hadn’t seen much of the fruits that we’re supposedly
left to lay up in store. President Topham said, “but that’s the best part! What
does it say that we will reap?” D&C 4:4 says that if we do this we will not
perish, but bring salvation to our own souls. Our missions are to convert
ourselves and to become the best we can be and maybe we’ll get some baptisms
along the way.
Elder Low
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