Hello from Natchitoches (pronounced nak-u-dish)!
No joke, that's really how it is pronounced and I know that there is no
way you would ever pronounce it that way by looking at the way it is spelt,
but... that's Louisiana and I love it!! I'm now serving in Natchitoches which is
about an hour up the highway from Alexandria. It is actually the oldest city in
the Louisiana Purchase and it is very beautiful! The cane river runs through it
and there are a ton of Victorian style houses. It is very southern and I love
it! The members that I have met so far are also extremely friendly and
welcoming! We had stake conference this past weekend so that was weird because
I was back in Alexandria for church and we stayed at the Green's on Saturday
night so I was back at home. It was especially weird after church because I was
still with my old ward but it was also a huge tender mercy because I got to say
goodbye to a lot of people that I hadn't had the chance to. My companion is a
total sweet heart! She has been out 9 months and is probably the shiest girl
you will ever meet in your entire life :) She was very shocked after stake
conference and when we finally got home she just looked at me stunned and said,
"being with you at stake conference is like being with a celebrity". I just
laughed and told her that's what happens when you serve in those two wards for 6
months, you become friends with half the stake! She has been serving in
Natchitoches her entire mission and we're pretty positive she'll be transferred
this next transferred and I'm pretty positive I'll be finishing up my mission
here. We also have double the missionaries coming in that are leaving next
transfer so there is a good chance I could finish out my mission training, but
we'll see.
As for the work here it has been pretty slow but I'm hoping we can
start picking it up. I'm back on a college campus too! For some reason the
Lord really likes me serving on college campuses! Northwestern State University
is in Natchitoches and school started today. President Hansen really wants
missionaries to focus on YSAs in the areas where we have universities so we are
working to figure out what we can do to meet YSAs and get them involved. The
rules on NSU are a lot more stringent than on LSU. We can't proselyte on campus
and while we couldn't on LSU either, we at least had free speech alley there and
we don't have anything like that here. Our stake president is head of the art
department at NSU so we went to his house and talked to him last night and we
are going to try and put together an LDS student association on campus and
hopefully get people informed about institute through that. We already have one
girl that the sisters met right before I came here and we had our first lesson
with her on Thursday and we taught the restoration. It went really well and we
are hoping to meet up again next week, since school starts this week. We also
have another former investigator that just moved back and the sisters through
she had been antied by her family during the summer but she texted us yesterday
and asked when institute starts up so we are hoping we can get her to take the
lessons again too! So that is two investigators right there and hopefully we
can find some more!
I'm excited to be here in Natchitoches! I had already been here twice
before for exchanges so for the first while it just felt like I was on another
exchange. I think it's finally clicking in that this is my new area though! It
also feels great to not be a sister training leader anymore! I loved that
assignment but it was so much extra stress having to leave our area to go on
exchanges every week and we had to spend so much time in the car traveling
because our zone is so large, so it's really nice to be able to just focus on my
area and how things are progressing here! I know I'm here for my companion
too! I remember when I first became an STL in Alexandria she was a sister that
we prayed for a lot and talked to President Wall a lot about what we can do to
help her. She is so shy and stresses out easily over the work. I'm grateful to
be serving with her here and I know that together we are going to be able to
accomplish a lot in Natchitoches! Her last two companions have been really shy
as well so you can tell it's a slight shock to her and the members to have
someone that actually talks and asks them questions :) The best is when we meet
members and I quickly stick out my hand and introduce myself and ask their name.
They just kind of look at me with a shocked expression because they weren't
used to the sister missionaries being bubbly and talking! So... this should be
fun :)
Things are going good though! It was definitely hard to say goodbye to
the Greens but luckily I will still see them every month because we have all our
zone meetings in Alexandria :)
Thank you for your emails and prayers! I love y'all and I hope you
have a fantastic week!!
Love,
Sister Emily Ogden
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