My name is Sister Wathen

I am an official missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Independence Missouri Mission! I have ARRIVED!!! Hooray!!!
The first day we met President and Sister VanKomen and stayed at their beautiful home. I had the opportunity to sleep in one of the "apostle rooms," which is where the general authorities stay when they visit the mission. I got my own room and my own comfy bed for one WHOLE night. It was AMAZING! The next morning were transfers. I met my new companion whose name is Allie Jacobs (Two Allie's in a row!). She is a super sweet gal from Oakland California. And she is a RIOT! Sister Jacobs is actually Hermana Jacobs. She is called to be spanish speaking. The first few days, Heavenly Father was very aware of me because for one, I'm FINALLY SLEEPING at night. And two, it was warm and beautiful and sunny... it was wonderful. We moved into our house which is right off of Noland RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE WOODLAWN CEMETARY. Yeah, I look out my window and see a HUGE cemetary... It's crazy. Good thing I'm not afraid of ghosts (uhhhh....). It's actually a BEAUTIFUL graveyard though. In Missouri there are no hills or mountains so in the morning it's beautiful to watch the sun rise over the graves. I'll try to take some pictures.

My first area was to the Visitor Center. This mission is really cool. I'll explain how it works because I know that I Whoever said being a visitor center sister was easy really needs to reconsider. Because on TOP of learning all of the stuff for tours, my companion and I still have the same standards to meet for prosyliting as all the full time pros. missionaries. We still have to get 20 lessons a week. We have a crazy busy schedule because we don't really have much time to tract and find new people but the Lord blesses us so much because we know we only have half the time. In the last week we got 16 lessons taught... Which isn't 20... But I was feeling pretty good about life. We taught one family from El Salvador who didn't speak english so I just watched. It was really amazing though how the spirit really was still the same. We don't have any progressing investigators right now, but we have 6 new investigators that we've begun teaching. We have to get two lessons with them before they are considered "progressing." I'm excited. I'll keep you posted on specific investigators as they progress towards baptism.

I'm in the Independence 4th ward. It is INCREDIBLE. A lot of the men wear colorful tags on their church shirt that says, "I am excited, and will remember to share the gospel with others." There are a lot of Islanders in Independence. They are all so driven to do missionary work and to help bulid up Zion HERE. Many of the moved here specifically for that purpose. They know that the final Zion will be established here, so they all moved here to help. The spirit and heart they put into this work is inspiring. Our Ward Mission Leader Brother Tonga is an amazing man.
Our first Zone Conference was on Monday. Elder Mask of the Quorom of the Seventy came to visit. He and his wife talked surprisingly a lot about marriage. Haha. True story. Both Sister and Elder Mask served in the same mission and he spoke a LOT about how sister missionaries make the best wives and mothers. Satan wants us to be miserable like unto himself. He wants to stop us from getting to the temple. Elder Mask reminded us that Satan does not have a girlfriend. Haha. They also talked to us about the importance of having the spirit and the importance of finding people to teach.

Missionary work is hard. True story. I'm still trying to get into the swing of things. But I know the Lord has blessed me in my calling so far and I will continue to move forward in the work. This work is the most important work in the world. Every word I say as a missionary can affect salvation. There is a certain spiritual power I am learning as a missionary... Like I said, I'm still trying to figure it out, but I know with the Lord by my side that I can be instrumental in bringing others unto Christ to recieve the same love and happiness that this gospel has brought me to my life.

I love you all and hope you're doing well.

Dream Big. Wish Hard, and Love Always-
Sister Jessica Rose Wathen