August 12, 2013 ~Week 3

"So Tuesday... Tuesday I woke up at 3 AM to make it to the travel center at the MTC by 3:30. I threw my stuff together and quickly made my way up there. After we had checked in and gotten on the bus, Elder Meline and I were asked to wait and get on the next bus. So we got off and waved the rest of the bus, and our district goodbye. We sat and waited, then got on the new bus and off we went to the airport! After we got to the airport we met up with the rest of our district and went and found phones to call. It was really interesting going through security at the airport. Some people were giving us funny looks but most of them were happy and said hi to us. We boarded our plane and I sat by the window next to Sister Gerber and then slept for the whole plane ride to Detroit. We got tons of funny looks at that airport though. While we were on the short plane ride from Detroit to Philly, I was sitting alone. So of course after we could move around I tricked Sister Clark into coming and sitting by me, and right when she did the fasten seat belt sign came on so she was STUCK WITH ME. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Thus my evil scheming was flushed out of my system for hopefully the rest of my mission. After we touched down in Philly, we went and met our mission prez and his wife. They were nice but I didn't have much time to talk to them. We were all thrown into 12 person vans and went to the mission home. The ride there was crazy. The mission home is in Broomall. It is soooo green there. It's like driving up in the canyon but without mountains. So pretty. We ate at the mission home and had some training. It was terribly hard to stay awake through it though. I went to bed. Woke up in the morning and we were bussed off to one of the churches in Philly. We went out and did some street contacting but weren't too successful because of our lack of confidence I guess. After that we went back to the Broomall mission office/church and we were assigned our trainers. To be honest I was assigned probably the last guy I would have guessed from first glance alone. His name is Elder Hopkins and he is from Tempe, Arizona. He wants to be a pilot when he gets back. We are serving in upper Darby. It's a SEPTA mission. We ride busses and subways and trolleys everywhere. It's a lot of fun but it is going to be a lot of work to get the routes and schedules down. We live right next to the 69th street terminal so we can pretty much get to anywhere from there. The first night walking to our apartment from the bus at like 9 at night was weird though. Now I don't mean this in a innocent little Utah boy way, but in the 3 blocks we walked we talked to 6 or so people who were straight up CrAzY. I couldn't understand them but Elder Hopkins just nodded his head and told them to pray to Heavenly Father for answers. It was interesting. So the very next day we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Barker and went into Darby with him. It was my first experience in Philly and it was strange. I can pretty much guarantee that if I wasn't wearing my missionary name tag I probably would have gotten mugged. I loved it though. People gave us dirty looks as we were walking up and down these row homes that are pretty dumpy. I thought it was so funny as people opened up and just started talking to us once we smiled and talked to them. People really are very nice and love it when people talk to us. Everyone has a story...you just have to ask. They are dying to tell you. I loved my day with Elder Barker. Most of the people I have talked to are from Africa, specifically Liberia. I learned the African handshake and everything! One of my favorite things I do is to cook for myself. I honestly love it so much. I'm so glad I spent all that time watching the cooking channel cause I guarantee that I eat more than twice as well as my companion. We haven't really had the chance to sit down and teach anyone yet. We've street contacted to no avail, and visited with people and tried to set up a return appointment with people that we already knew. We had an appointment with Crystal, who is supposed to be baptized on the 25th, but it fell through. We had dinner with the Players who are a family in our ward on Sunday and I loved talking to them. I am so ready to get the work here moving. We need investigators to teach, and I'm dead committed to teaching the Gospel. The only problem is getting people to talk to us at all. Once we start talking, people can recognize that the message we share is one of truth that can bring happiness to all people. So that's my first week! I will make sure to keep you updated hopefully every week. Love you! Bye!"