Settling in

So, the last day that we were in the MTC, the 8th, we had to leave super early. We got up at 3 to see the other half of our district off and them we left at 4. Oh and mom apparently Sister Holt is going to send you an e-mail so keep and eye out for that. We had to take a bus, two trains, and a plane in order to finally get to Albuquerque (why they didn't just drive us to the airport I don't know, I mean, it's not like there were people to talk to on the train at 4 in the morning but whatever. Ha, we also had some people turn and run from us in the airport that was fun. I feel like I've never had people be nicer to me and I've never had people be meaner to me since becoming a missionary). Anyway, we finally got there around noon on Monday and took a picture at the temple and then had a million hours worth of instruction at the mission home. President and Sister Miller are pretty cool, they are both pilots and like to race motorcycles. 

The missionary stereotypes also started in the mission home since they kept giving us a bunch of food to eat and asked us like 10 times if we wanted more. Elder Campbell and I also had a contest to see who could choke down the most tomatoes since neither of us like them and they gave us so many. I feel like I've really already encountered most of the missionary stereotypes. I've already run into an investigator on his way home from the store with a 6 pack, already been asked about why we don't drink caffeine and why we have weird underwear and about oppression of women in the church (that was a fun conversation with a Jehovah's Witness) so I've got most of them down already.

So I'm actually in a trio right now, my comps are Sister Stokes who is my trainer and Sister Mendehall. Sister Mendenhall leaves the day after Christmas so there will be the three of us until then. They're both from Idaho and Utah so people are always pleasantly surprised when I tell them that I'm from Washington. I actually even met a member couple last night that grew up in Everett, so that was kind of cool. We get along pretty well and Sister Mendenhall and I bonded over our mutual dislike of cooked fruit (see mom, I told you it's totally normal!). 

I haven't met any super crazy people yet, one lady who was burning sage when we came over to ward off evil spirits, but that's about it. We did have dinner at one member's house though who's dad was staying with them. He's 98 and totally coherent and can walk around with pretty much no help and everything. Seriously, the guy is a beast for an old man. He was telling us about how he served his mission in Holland before WWII and about how being a Post Master used to be a political position so it would change depending on what the political affiliation of the president was.

Just Serve also just started here. We had the presentation on it on Sunday. Have any of you done anything with it yet? I guess here we aren't allowed to do anything off of it unless we're invited by a member, so that's kind of disappointing, but oh well.     

Well, that's about all that's been going down. Mostly just trying to get the hang of things around here and figure out the new area since Sister Mendenhall will be leaving soon and it's new to both Sister Stokes and I. But things are going well and I haven't died yet! (Although if I did there would be plenty of desert to bury me in). I hope that things are going well for you all and that you have a fantastic Christmas! Don't forget to remember Christ in all of your partying! Don't make me come up there and show you all the He's the gift video! (honestly, it's pretty good but I've seen it sooooo many times now). Also, there's rumors of getting ipads at the zone conference this week! So exciting things are happening. 

Love you all!

April

Hello from Tatooine !

Hello from Tatouine! (how do you spell that? I have no idea) and you thing that's a joke but it only kind of is, because apparently some of the filming for that area was actually done here in New Mexico. My first area is in the actual city of Albuquerque, in the Albuquerque West stake, Taylor Ranch ward. And basically New Mexico is exactly how you would expect it to be. Almost everyone lives in an adobe house, even our apartments are adobe, and everything is the color of a Mexican restaurant. The apartment building we live in is nacho cheese orange and our neighbors is guacamole green and if something isn't one of those two colors it's some shade of brown. Even the temple here is brownish. Almost all of our investigators are Hispanic (we have about 10 right now), almost everyone is Catholic, and there is no grass anywhere. People have rock yards here. Also, no one has rain gutters. The one day that it did rain (and it was like a drizzle), everyone was freaking out, the streets started flooding a little and the next day, people in their prayers were thanking God for the rain. Ha, that's not something that goes down regularly at home! Oh and it's averaging about 50 degrees here during the day, although there is a pretty big temperature range, it does get kind of cold at night (it's like this place is a desert or something!). Basically it's exactly like what you'd expect if you saw Breaking Bad. Speaking of which, the To'hajiilee reservation is like right next to our area. Hmm, I wonder if digging for drug money is an appropriate p-day activity, ha, ha. There are actually missionaries that serve out there but only Elders and they're really only service missions since there are weird proselyting rules on the reservation and all that jazz. 

The Taylor Ranch area itself is pretty well off. No one is like super rich or anything (at least that I've met) but there are some pretty big houses here and everyone has a lot of kids. I've met a lot of doctors, lawyers, business men, and the like. The ward though is really good, we've been fed every night that I've been here and people have been super willing to come out with us. We've had a member at almost every lesson so far and we've had a pretty good number. This past week we taught 7 lessons to investigators and 7 to less actives. So I'm pretty excited about the area, I really do feel like the people have done so well here because they have been blessed. 

I've already had lots of "picturesque" Christmas experiences here, what with the fancy houses. We've gone caroling to at least one house every night and then shared with them the Christmas story out of Luke 2. And we've been to a few members’ homes where people played the piano in front of the fire and everyone sang around it and all that type of stuff. I've also been to a few Christmas concerts. The last one I went to on Sunday I talked to a little kid who had just moved here from Rochester who was telling me all about how cool it is there.  

Love you all!

April

Day Forty

One of my coworks today read me a poem that she wrote for her elm ed class and it reminded me of the poem collection Scott and I put together for Mr. Wold's class a million years ago and more specifically, the Mimi drawing and poem. I won't post it here because it's horrible (the poem) but, I reread it and it certainly entertained me. If you want to find it, it's on the HOTT website.

Day Thirty Eight

Spring has finally started! Ok I know that technically it started a few days ago but today was the first day that it actually felt nice and and really spring like. We had FHE outside and played spoons. It was great, even though the spoon cut my hand!

Day Thirty Seven

Lisa and I made Cinnamon Rolls for Conference this morning and it was fantastic. It was my first time making then and they were surprising similar to doughnuts, the dough at least. I've had better but I have to say that in general they turned out pretty well.

Day Thirty Six

Today was the first day of Conference, which means that I spent the better part of my day listening to talks in my pajamas. When you're stressed out from school ending it doesn't get much better than that.

Day Thirty Five

I went to see the new Captain America today and all I can say is that it was amazing! If you haven't seen it than you are seriously missing out. Go out there now! It's probably one of my all time favorite Marvel movies.