MARSHALLESE???

Llakwe (hello in Marshallese),

    It's been an eventful past two weeks. The last week in the MTC

was so great. It was really hard to say goodbye to my district and

zone. Our zone was way strong and I'm excited to hear about everyones

experiences in Honolulu, Atlanta, Long Beach, Texas, Washington, etc

(state missionaries for life). Tuesday morning we woke up at 2am

(haha) and headed out to the airport; BYE MTC. We flew right over

Arkansas to ATL and then caught our flight to Little Rock. THEN I RAN

INTO A BRICK WALL CALLED HUMIDITY. All 15 of us ALRM missionaries were

greeted by President and Sister Wakolo, who are the most wonderful

humans. We spent the rest of Tuesday at the stake center eating great

food and starting our training. I met my new companions! Sister Clarke

and Sister Lange are awesome. Wednesday was the best day. We did some

more training with the Wakolos and AP. Then we went out on a blitz,

knocking doors around a neighborhood in Little Rock. It was a million

degrees and humid I felt like I was doing bikram yoga (hi mom). BUT I

seriously was so happy. No one could have wiped that smile off my face

even after all of the doors slammed and rude comments. I placed 2

copies of the Book of Mormon. All together our entire group placed 80!

80 copies of the Book of Mormon in 80 new houses. The fullness of the

gospel sitting on 80 coffee tables. How cool is that.

    On Thursday we had breakfast at the stake center and then headed

out to our areas. I'm in the Searcy zone (northern Arkansas by

Missouri) in a town called Paragould. The guys that live behind us

hotbox their apartment all the time so our apartment smells like weed.

Paragould is pretty ghetto. Lots of trailers and junk. Also, my

mission call said I'd be serving in the states but I'm actually

serving in the Marshall Islands. All of our investigators are

Marshallese. The parents moved out here to work at a factory and

brought their kids with them. Side note: they've got bluebell ice

cream in Arkansas. On Friday we had a lesson with a Marshallese woman

named Mandy. She and two of her kids, Aaliyah and Jules, are committed

to be baptized on the 18th (so exciting). I met some of the other

Marshallese kids Nicholas, Helena, and Ranly. These kids are so smart

its ridiculous. Friday night we met with them to talk about faith and

how God will help us when we are in trouble. The kids brought up the

second coming. I asked if they were excited or scared for that. They

all said "excited" immediately. I was a little surprised and asked

them why they were so excited. They all said some variation of

"because we get to see Jesus Christ" or "because we get to live with

Heavenly Father again". I was blown away. We also played the name game

and Helena said that her favorite sports were "baseball and telling

friends about the bible".. Talk about being a disciple of Christ,

right? They are so in tune with the spirit.

    Friday night we had dinner with a woman named Faith and her

family. She is less active and Sister Lange warned us that the best

way to go about her is to just love her and not bring up church at

all. The first thing Faith said to me when I met her was "I say what I

want and I don't have a filter so plug your ears if you don't want to

hear it" (true statement). I said "great, we are on the same page". As

we got to know her more and got talking I asked her why she got

baptized. She said she was young and 20 and stupid, to which I replied

"come on, you know the church is true" hahaha wait for it.. she looked

me right in the face and said "all you new missionaries come out here

trying to find someone to save, well I'm telling you right now it's

not going to be me" so I replied (of course) "I'm a missionary. I'd

say this to anyone and everyone. I didn't come on a mission to sit

back and keep my mouth shut". A few more comments were made about the

gospel as the night went on. We left and that was that. This is where

it gets good. The next morning during studies Faith called us twice,

and texted. We checked the text after studies which said to call

because she needed to talk to us. So, we called Faith. All she said

was "I'll make a deal with you. If you come to dinner again on Sunday

night our entire family (5 kids and nonmember husband) will come to

sacrament meeting." We obviously took the deal. Sister Lange was

shocked. Apparently Faith hasn't budged about church in a looong time.

t was quite the miracle. Church here is nuts. We are over a branch.

Also, it's us three Sisters, the Elders and our senior missionary

couple over this same branch so basically Paragould is the promise

land. There were two deacons passing the sacrament and like fifty

people in the entire branch. Crazy. We are going to the community

center for pday to play risk and racquetball with the Elders and

Harmons (senior couple).

Cool quote about prophets from PMG "The teachings of living prophets

provide an anchor of eternal truth in a world of shifting values.. The

confusion and strife of the world will not overwhelm us, and we can

enjoy the assurance of being in harmony with God's will."

I love it here and I love being a missionary. I love being a

representative of my savior Jesus Christ and serving him. How can I

ever repay Him for all He has done for me? Today is the best day of my

life, but everyday of my mission so far has been and probably will

continue to be. Sorry this email is so long you probably didn't read

it all but it's cool I love you all.

GOD BLESS,

Sister Guthrie

913 S. 22nd St. #6

Paragould, AR 72450