Hermiston

Well I'm here.

Hermiston is a small town. There isn't too much going on here. Just a lot of crime apparently. We don't ever see it but for a small town people say there is a lot of crime.

 

There are about 15,000 people in Hermiston. And all the outskirts are farm country. That makes for good people :).

We cover the Sandstone Ward, Buttercreek YSA, Willow Creek Branch, and The Monument Branch. The Willow Creek and Monument Branches are small branches in the southern area of our mission. They cover a huge area but have very small attendance. We don't usually make it down to the Monument Branch because it's just too far. But every Thursday we drive to Heppner, which is the main city in the Willow Creek Branch. They meet in a small church building much like the one in Cathlamet. And the Monument Branch meets in a double wide trailer... Not very big.

 

We went to Heppner on Thursday and I got to meet everyone there. We had some extra time and ended up getting two new investigators while tracting. We also saw an investigator named Linda Tefft who is on date for baptism but has some work to do before she can get baptized. It's tough to work with her because we can only go down there once a week and we don't get to go to their sacrament meeting. She has some issues with LDS doctrine but has read through Alma in only a month of meeting with us. Another big thing is that she smokes. A lot. And drinks coffee. So. She is supposed to get baptized on February 23rd. It would be quite the miracle if that actually happened... She has a lot of work to do.

We set a baptismal date with a 96 year old woman. Her name is Lilly She's getting baptized on February 9th. She is really old. But sweet. She has come to church the past 4 weeks with her caregiver, Sister Pearson. Sister Pearson moved from New Mexico to take care of her and has introduced her to the gospel. Lilly has a lot of family and friends who are LDS. I don't quite know what took her so long to find the gospel but she seems excited now! But the rest of her family is more excited than she is. She is very sharp for a 96 year old. Has good hearing. Doesn't talk much. Sort of answers our questions when we teach her... Everyone needs baptism! We're just getting Lilly before the missionaries in the Spirit World do hahaha. That's mean. I'm sorry.

We found 6 new investigators this week in our area. But only 9 in the zone... Things have kinda been dead in Hermiston for awhile. Things were really booming in 2011, but 2012 was a down year. We are trying to take things back to where they were in 2011.

 

We just got Sister Missionaries in Hermiston for the first time in a very very long time. They got doubled in because we had so many Sisters come out this past transfer. It's the first time Sisters have served anywhere in Oregon in awhile. It's exciting to have them here and it means we have one more companionship to work with.

 

Actually. Sister Smith is being trained by Sister Hovorka there and Sister Smith is best friends with David Robertson's fiance. I think... Trisha is her name? I dunno how accurate all of that is. And it probably doesn't mean much to most of you. Maybe Kristen can confirm that for me sometime.

Oh by the way. We are living in "the plex". A famed apartment in the WKM. It's a pretty nice place. Just an apartment though. There are four of us living there. Us and the sisters. Kidding. Its us, Elder Babbitt and Elder Nance.

Out of time.

Love love

Elder Paxman