Arkansas Bentonville Mission

Something that I experienced a lot serving in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission was living around or interacting with those who are Amish and Mennonites. I served in a lot of rural areas and so when I mean I live next to them, I mean I live down the dirt road about a mile. So just learning about them and their culture and their beliefs and so that you can respect them and they can respect you would be an important thing to take into consideration. An important thing to know about being in the Midwest is that you are in the Bible Belt and so you're going to have a lot of Baptists, at least I ran into a lot of Baptists and there's multiple kinds of Baptists, there's not just one kind. And so having an understanding and a testimony of how the Book of Mormon and the Bible support each other is going to help you in this Bible Belt area.

Alright, so a culture tip or two about the Arkansas Bentonville Mission is that people are very laid back, very friendly, very religious. This is known as the Bible Belt or as other people would call it, God's Country. So you will find a lot of people will talk to you about the gospel and they may or may not be interested, but you will have plenty of opportunities to bear your testimony for sure. With this being a very religious area of the United States, you'll find a lot of churches, you'll find a lot of small towns, you'll find a lot of welcoming people, and I think that you'll better understand and appreciate people of different religious backgrounds, particularly if you're willing to listen to them and be patient with them. You'll find much opportunity to share the gospel and truly see what the culture is like in this part of the country.

One really cool thing about the culture down there is that everybody just loves Jesus Christ. Like, they will talk to you about him and they will tell you how much they love him and it's kind of awesome. Everybody's super friendly and like willing to talk to you. One thing to be aware of is a lot of people in this mission are not super busy so they will talk to you for a very long time and sometimes it can be a little hard to get away without being rude. So basically you gotta tell them, like, we only have like 20 minutes and then you can stay for like an hour and then it's fine because then they feel like you gave them more time. So that would be my advice.

I guess a culture tip I'd have is that it's not really the South that you're going to be in, in Arkansas, Bentonville. It's very, like, a lot of different cultures there. Depends on where you're at. You know, there's definitely, like, the Midwest Christian culture, and it does feel different, especially if you're from Utah or predominantly LDS area. But there's also, like, a lot of Indian people there. I served in the Marshallese branch, which was, like, a totally different culture. There's people from all over coming because there's a lot of work there because of Walmart and the surrounding companies that kind of just built headquarters there. And it's a really cool place. It's really unique. And wherever you go, it's going to be a little bit different. And I'd say just be ready to adapt and love everybody that you're serving, and it'll be great.

So the mission is right in the middle of the Bible belt and because of that you get a lot of different Christian denominations very devout Christian people with Varying levels of knowledge about the Bible generally, they're pretty nice I mean you get a fair amount of doors slammed in your face, but that's that's anywhere really Generally people are like, oh, yeah, you guys are doing a great thing. I really respect what you're doing They generally may not want to hear your message But at least that's encouraging and then you run to those people who just want to Bible bash I just tell you that you're wrong because of what the Bible says I use it this is what it says here and The best way to deal with the Bible bash is to avoid in the first place try and talk your way around it make clear that your intentions that You just wants to be there to talk about talk about Christ and build people's faith in Christ So avoid Bible bashing It's a great opportunity to build your own testimony and find and study the Bible more and see where this all came from But don't argue it's a waste of time is kind of fun though

I love the South. I had never been anywhere around there and it was a really cool experience. So in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission, you could cover areas that are rural areas or other areas that are cities. In the city like Bentonville, the majority of the people come from Utah or other areas that aren't, you know, the South. So they don't have like the Southern accent and it's not too different. But you could go to other areas that have like really thick Southern accents.

One thing that I wish that I had done better when I was a missionary in this mission is being way more respectful about other Christians and their beliefs. You're going to meet a lot of people who are devout Christians, who already know Jesus, who already love Jesus, who already have a relationship with Jesus, and I think it's important to not assume that you know more than them, and just being really respectful and like believing that they validly have a relationship with God, that they know Him, and seeking to maybe find common ground and build up each other's love of Jesus rather than trying to like prove everybody wrong.

As far as culture tips, I think a good idea is to start learning as much as you can about the different sects of Christianity. Start learning about all the different types of Catholicism. If you're Spanish speaking, that's what I was Spanish speaking, and it's like a religion and a cultural tradition that gets passed down, and it's important to know where people are coming from when you're there when you're teaching. You gotta eat the chili. Whenever they offer you the chili, just eat it, and they love their chili, so the more you learn to love spicy things.

The Arkansas Bentonville Mission covers the Bible Belt. There's tons and tons and tons of different Christian denominations and there's so many churches and so many Christian faiths around that area. There's many people that are, you know, very open and nice and kind. There's also a lot of people that are not as kind and don't like the church. Many people that would want to Bible bash with you, but I would just recommend just don't Bible bash, just don't fight, just respect other, you know, cultures.

The Bentonville Mission is comprised of four states. Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas. So a very small portion of it is actually in Arkansas, but there's a lot of areas and wards and branches that are in that city, and so there actually are a lot of areas that you can serve in there. Bentonville is the home of Walmart. A lot of people work for Walmart. It's a very nice city. People are great. They love to talk about Jesus Christ and anything about Christianity. Outside of that, in the other states, there are a lot smaller towns. Still, people love to talk about Christ, but it's just a lot less people, a lot more spread out. The areas are a lot bigger, and it's a little bit of a different culture, whether you're in Bentonville or the rest of the mission.

It is in the South, Midwest South area, and so people are really, really nice. They're always willing to help one another. They say honoree a lot, which means like, it'd be an honoree, but like they say it often. They, if you ask someone how far away something is, instead of saying, oh it's like 10 minutes away, they'll say, oh it's like 2 miles. They will give distance. I thought that was really interesting. You know, they have like all the common like Southern sayings, which is really fun to learn. That's pretty much it. But there's not a lot of like differences compared to the rest of the country. Just basically everyone's a lot nicer over there. Or they're really mean because you're a missionary.

If they don't like something that you say, then they will let you know about it. And it's not that they're trying to be rude or anything to you, that's just how they are. And so don't be offended if people say something that you might take as a little bit rude. You'll have some communities that are very, very poor, some communities that are really, really wealthy, you'll have some areas that are very rural with just lots of farms, and you'll have some areas that are really big cities, like Springfield is in the Mission, and that's the biggest city in Missouri because Kansas City is split between the two states right there. But you'll have some people that are in the military, there's a couple of different army bases that are in the Mission. So don't pigeonhole the people and expect them all to be backwoods and hicks and farmers and stuff like that, because you have people from all over and all walks of life with lots of different languages going on around there.