Kansas Wichita Mission!

We headed out  Tuesday Morning June 28th for Wichita, Kansas.  Once past Grand Junction Colorado and into the canyon it was an absolutely gorgeous drive. We drove through Glenwood Springs, Eagle, Vail then on to Denver for the night. The plan was to stay in Denver but we couldn't find a hotel anywhere! There was some kind of baseball tournament going on and nothing was available so we drove on for another hour or so. We ended up in a small town called Limon Colorado where we found a hotel. It was decent and we stayed there for the night. We had a nice thunderstorm come through and it rained really hard. The next morning we found out that Denver had a flooding rainstorm so we got the tail end of it there in Limon. We tried to figure on the map where our mission boundaries started and we figure it was Flagger Colorado. Mitch said his heart started pounding so he knew we must be close! We drove to Salina Kansas which is a really nice city and found a nice hotel to stay in. I wanted to get a pedicure so I drug Mitch with me over to a place called Divine Nails. A man named Kenny and his wife Christy from Vietnam own Divine Nails. We both got a pedicures and Kenny was so friendly and talkative with us.  We told him it was our first day in Kansas and he asked us why we had moved there. We told him that we were there as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Mormon church. He said I know the Mormon church I watch Sister Wives. We had a good laugh over that and explained to him that those people on the TV show Sister Wives have broken off from the Mormon church. When I've gotten pedicures in Utah nobody talks to each other. When we got this pedicure in Salina everybody in the shop visited with us. Everyone was so friendly and so talkative it was a really nice Introduction to the people of Kansas. We have found in our 10 days here that people are so friendly and open and very kind.

Thursday morning we left Salina and drove to Wichita. The drive was beautiful! Everything here is green and there's corn fields and I think Alfalfa but it's just beautiful and we loved everything about the drive! People comment about it being so flat and a lot of it is but it's so pretty and there's so many water towers!  We arrived at our new home and found it to be very nice and comfortable! We got into our church clothes and headed over to the mission office where we got to meet president and sister Bell, the outgoing Mission president and his wife. They are wonderful people and we so enjoyed our visit with them. We had lunch with all of the mission office staff and they are also wonderful friendly people! We had a “meet the president” with the missionaries from the zones around Wichita. We went in and shook everyone's hands and found out a little about them and then spent about an hour-and-a-half letting them know who we are and talking about the mission. After the meeting we took the assistants who are Elder Labrum and Elder Gilliam and the sister trainer leaders, Sister Fountain and Scaister Wade to dinner. We are so impressed with these four young men and young women. After dinner Mitch went with the missionaries and I went with the sisters to do some missionary work. The sisters had a man they were going to visit who had just had surgery but he didn't answer the door. They looked around and down the street saw a woman raking her yard. They said let's go talk to her so off we went in the blazing hot Kansas sun to go visit someone they had never met. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous. This woman her name is Janae, she has 4 children and was very friendly and receptive to talking about Jesus Christ! She is a religious person and said that she would come to a chapel tour. We then visited with her nephew and his girlfriend who were sitting on the doorstep.  They too were friendly and happy to talk with us. I was so tired from all that we had  going on that day and all I wanted to do was go home after dinner but I am so thankful that I went with the sisters and experienced meeting these people! There is Spirit in missionary work that is amazing and I was energized! Mitch had a great experience with the elders as they visited with a woman they've been teaching for a short while. This was our introduction to the  Kansas Wichita mission. it was the best day ever!

We have done four other meet the president meetings across the state with different zones, held an MLC which is a Mission Leadership Council, been asked to share our testimony in two Sacrament meetings and we’ve attended various other meetings and activities. We had dinner at one of the stake presidents (President and Sister Daley) home last sunday and they showed us around the area Friday. It is a busy life but we love the work and the people!

ission1We have already traveled all over this state and we will be traveling every week. Mitch has already filled up his car 5 or 6 times in the 10 days we have been here! Everywhere we go we find strong members and people interested in hearing the gospel. Yesterday we attended three baptisms in 3 different cities which took us all day to drive around to. There were several more baptisms that took place yesterday we just couldn't get to them all since they were spread over the state. Today at church Janae came to sacrament meeting for the first time and I was so thrilled to see her with the sisters! This is mission life and I love it!