I'm Here, I'm Here!!

Hi ya everybody! I'm here, I'm here, I'm here in... Elko?!

Well this week has been crazy!! The flight to Reno was great except for the whole time I was freaking out that the plane was going to crash and burn, even though it was packed with 30 missionaries on it!! Thank goodness the flight to Reno was only like 30 minutes long. We made it safely!! My first day here was spent learning about the mission and things pertaining to the Reno, Nevada Mission. President and Sister Hermansen are wonderful!! I love 'em so much!! So the first day, like I said was spent training. The way we (the newbies) meet our new companions here is so embarrassing, you basically strut out in front of everyone in nearby areas, stand on a blue x, and after your name and your comps name are read, wait to be claimed!! Yep, that was pretty weird! After your claimed everyone cheers and claps. It is a pretty big deal! But my first night I stayed with Sister Flores and Sister Garcia in an area close-ish to sparks since, you guessed it, the zone I am serving in is Elko! Elko is like a 4 hour drive from sparks, which we couldn't make the first night cause it was kind of late. My first night was great, we just had dinner at a members home and then visited the ward mission leader. Then the next morning I had to pack up and go to the mission home to be shipped out to Elko. It was nice though, because I slept most of the drive so I was able to catch up on some zzz's.

So I actually met my companion on Wednesday. Sister Fellman is awesome! She has an amazingly strong testimony and literally has like no fear. She comes from a big family from Alaska. She is great and has taught me a bunch so far!! We pretty much got straight to work after we went grocery shopping and put my luggage in our home. We actually live in the basement of a member family's! It is great! They are a sweet family with 3 young girls.

Pretty much time has flown by!! My P-days are on Mondays (by the way). I can't believe that I've been out in the field almost a week!! The first few days were hard because spending all day everyday, immersed in learning, teaching, and worrying about others is an adjustment! Now I've gotten used to it and I love it! I am not sure how I feel about Elko yet though. Seriously like everyone who knows where Riverton/Salt Lake is without fail, will make the comment of "Oh, So your not far from home." or "You are a long ways from home" (in a voice full of sarcasm). It is pretty funny but is starting to get on my nerves! Funny story though that has helped me realize that serving in Nevada isn't such a bad thing is that in Institute we were talking about the Savior's ministry. Ironically I wrote a thought that I think I had had from that lesson and put it in my scriptures. The thought goes something along the lines of... "Christ's ministry was so central to his place of birth. So be okay with wherever you are called." How crazy is that?!?! The Lord knew that Nevada is where I need to be and had prompted me to write that down! Now I feel lots better about my call to Reno, Nevada. (Not that I didn't before, but this has helped me to realize even more so that this place is where the Lord wants me to be).

The work here is just going along! We do a lot of work with less actives, which is interesting because in the MTC, you don't really focus on that, you focus more on people wanting to learn about the church. So that has definitely been a learning experience. Pretty much everything I learn and do out here is kind of on the fly. I seriously never realized how much missionary is done by following the promptings of the Holy Ghost! I love that about being a missionary because it totally strengthens my testimony that this is truly the Lord's church and His work, so we find and teach people how he wants! We just got a new investigator and she is so ready for baptism even if she doesn't know it yet!

The members here are AMAZING!! They love the missionaries! They are so loving and welcoming it is awesome! Saturday night was one of my favorite nights here. We went to a member's home for dinner and everything was green. We had green enchiladas (with green tortillas and green filling), green rice, green water, green juice, green soda, and green ice cream! Even the cups and plates were green! It was hilarious once I understood why everything was green! I am the greenie, greenhorn, whatever the newest missionaries are called!! I now feel like I am a part of the club.

So far, I have not had to make myself dinner!! We eat at a member's home every night of the week!! So here is my challenge to you, invite the missionaries over for dinner, if there are still missionaries serving in our ward. Have them over and let them share a spiritual message with you! We love doing that! Now our calling is not only to bring people into the Church and closer to Christ, but to strengthen the ward, to help the members! So do that for me please because I get fed so well each and every night! Sometimes it is awkward and weird but just ask them a lot of questions about where they are from, how long they've been out, how the work is going in the area, and you will have lots to talk about!! ( Sorry about the challenge, but I've got to practice inviting people to do things because that is like all we do as missionaries, so I've got to get used to it).