But last time I spoke with you I was at the MTC! I am now doing work here in the Cleveland, Ohio mission. We got here last Wednesday and met our Mission president, President Brown and his wife along with most of the mission directors. After that we got up at 5am to take a tour of the Kirtland Temple and Kirtland Visitors Center! It was so awesome to see how a huge part of Church history was right here in good ol' Kirtland Ohio. Anyways I got my new Companion/Trainer, her name is Sister Gren and she is from Spanish Fork, Utah! She is awesome and I have definitely learned so much from her in the past week that i've been here. But my new area is Euclid and its right in between Kirtland and Cleveland. Its kinda Ghetto but I love it anyways. Proselyting and going around is so hard but so funny as well. Have had a few doors shut in our faces but for the most part people are really kind.
We already have a few investigators that we have been working with! One of them's name is Gloria and she is a 60 year old woman who has been looking for the right church since she was like 10. She believes in everything that we have been teaching and absolutely loves the Book of Mormon. Gloria had never been the the VC so we took her on a tour of all the sites of Historic Kirtland and she bawled the whole time cause the spirit was so strong. We want her to get baptized already and she does too... so im still not sure why she won't just accept yet. haha we'll get down to the bottom of it soon I hope. Another one of them is a guy named Chris we found on teaching center (When we get online to answer questions from Mormon.org and do referrals). He has some mental problems but meets with the missionaries all the time and has a baptismal date for the end of August which is super cool! He loves to call us just to talk about/read the Book of Mormon and pray too.
As far as the visitor center goes it has been crazy. I literally got thrown into the fire aka the peak of the busy season. At first I almost died because I literally knew about 1% of the information about the tour. So I just testified of different things and was like the sheep herder gathering people from the back into the next room. lol But now I am able to almost give the whole tour by myself which is crazy to think about how much i've learned from the spirit and from the visitors center in just a week. Also, there are so many sets of sisters. hahah there is like a total of 26 of us here but not all at one. Some are in there area's and out proselyting during the days we are at the visitors center. But there are also like 10 senior couples here who are like grandparents who are hilarious. They are some of my favorite people ever and take care of all of us girls. Also giving tours to youth groups is probably my favorite but also took women on tour who were 90 and 100. Everyone else in the group was 80+ and climbing stairs and walking around like champs. I just hope im that spunky and youthful when im that age. They were hilarious though, always making jokes about things. The 100 year old lady looked at the iron and said that looks like the one we used when I was a kid... Which honestly does not suprise me at all.. hahah It was a good time with them. But lastly we give 3-6 tours a day and each one lasts about an hour to an hour and a half. It is so exhausting but so much fun!
On a fun note we got to go to a play called "This is Kirtland" and it was put on by some of the members from our ward in Euclid and surrounding wards. It was basically a recap of everything that happened during the 8 years the Saints were living in Ohio! It was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be considering it was a musical effort lol. But also we got to help out with the Historic Kirtland 5K race. and when I mean help I mean we gave water to the runners, drove a golf cart and listened to REAL MUSIC! probably the biggest highlight of my life haha President Brown only allows us to listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir and General Conference talks. It's been good but I can't complain cause all I have is church hymns stuck in my head all day. Also, We already had exchanges so I spend the day yesterday with Sister Adame and she is the cutest ever. She is like 4'11 and this is her last transfer before she heads back home to Salem Oregon! Spiritual Giant is all I can say about that.
But thank you everyone who writes me emails and sends me pictures! Its so fun to keep up with everyones lives and yes I do read all emails! lol But I love you all and keep you in my prayers. This gospel has made me so tired as a missionary but it is so rewarding and I can't imagine any place else I would rather be for the next 16 and a half months then Ohio!
Love Always,
Sister Togisala
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