1st week in Michigan

Okay, I have been completely jipped of my P-Days!  Our first p day was that Thursday I sent my last email, notice I went to the MTC on a Wednesday so I should have gotten one that next day but I didn't. Then I left the MTC on a Tuesday missing my next p day. We were at the airport at 2:30 am and I didn't really have money to call anyone. We arrived in MI and I found out that I had to wait till the following Monday before I could write anyone!  So im sorry I haven't really gotten much out!  It's been crazy and today I am sooooo grateful for a break. Three weeks in the mission field and I've only had 1 day to do laundry.... you can imagine my anger.. haha

Anyways Hello family and friends!  Thank you so much for all the emails!  It seriously made my day and I cried for the first time since leaving when I saw all of them, especially the pictures of sweet little Claire. She is precious Lisa, Can't wait for yours, Danielle!

Let me backtrack a bit... uhhh so last you all heard I was still in the MTC. So the rest of that week was weird. The church had just called a bunch of new mission presidents to be trained at the MTC so every general authority was at the MTC and were walking all around the Campus. It was pretty cool. I got to meet a couple of them and shake their hands.  That Saturday the MTC president called all the sister missionaries in for a meeting and in that meeting they told us that there were bats flying around our rooms in the 1st and 4th floors of our brand new building that we all just moved into. You can imagine the freak out of all the sisters. haha.  So they had us all move out into these weird rooms that seemed like they were going to fall apart at any second. I was on the top bunk and prayed every night that my bed wouldn't collapse in the night on my dear companion sister Dillman, although maybe that would have fixed my singing problem.  JUST KIDDING!   Our companionship got better throughout the 12 days at the MTC.

So Tuesday morning sister Sodja and I woke up at 2am, we were supposed to be on a bus at 2:30 and had both somehow slept right through our 3 alarms we set the previous night.  The panic that broke out was hilarious. Sister Sodja is the slowest person I have ever met and was just bawling her eyes out while we were scrambling around trying to pack everything up and get ready. The day before our branch president had told us that we were to look our best for our mission president. Ya, that didn't happen!  But while sister Sodja was crying I was just laughing at her. I thought it was the funniest thing.  We ran down the stairs and sprinted to the bus and made it just in time. Throughout my MTC stay I never met anyone else going to MI, but when we got on the bus there were like 16 other elders!  No sisters, and again the odds were in my favor!!  haha  We got to the airport around 3:15 and our flight wasn't until 5:45.  I was weirdly so awake and hyper at the MTC and sister Sodja was not and I could tell she wanted to kill me. Sister Sodja has Krone's disease and can't eat much, she is deathly allergic to apples. I forgot about this and while in the airport to try and cheer her up I pulled an apple out of my backpack and offered it to her.  She looked at me and said "are you trying to kill me?" oops...  I Felt bad about that and left her alone and just kinda hung out with all the elders and joked around with them.  Our first flight was to Minneapolis. There is nothing there.  Then we boarded this tiny plane to Michigan. I sat by some interesting ladies who were traveling home. They told me all about MI. Made me pretty excited.

When we landed I had completely forgotten about Breck Steele. (Great friend all through childhood now serving in the same mission as Shannon)  I was walking towards what I guessed was my mission president and she just popped right out in front of me!  She had been hiding behind some guy!  She scared me to death!  We both just hugged each other and cried and laughed.  It was such a good reunion. We were inseparable the next two days.  President Jacobsen thought we were nothing but trouble and scolded me every single time I said "Breck."  haha  Why is it so hard for me to remember SISTER!??

Next thing I new they had herded us all together and were making me do Personal Contacting. Personal Contacting is basically chasing after people and complimenting their clothes in order to get them to stop walking or running away from you. haha!   I just thought this was hilarious. Breck and I were chasing down bikers, joggers, longboarders, and full on yelling at them to stop so we could share a gospel message with them lol.  Then we went to the mission home were I killed all the elders in ping pong. They couldn't beat me and it was making them so mad.  President Jacobsen started to warm up to me a bit after that.  He's a champion ping pong player himself.  I met my trainer and then that was that.

Im currently located in Bay City, MI and it is a weird place. 

Some things I've learned about Michigan

1. It's green

2. It's flat

3. The roads are terrible

4. The humidity is horrible

5. I have allergies here??  What the heck are allergies?

6. Every single person you meet has a different religion. We went door knocking on one street and I kid you not every single door we knocked was a different religion. Makes things hard.

7. There is one ward in Bay City. 350 members, 115 active members

8. Everyone here is named Angel, both men and women. and if the men are named Angel the wife is named America

It's so weird being in a place were no one knows who you are.  Im in a sketchy part of MI. So far I have already had a gun pulled on me, been chased by a dog, and hit on by total druggies. Everyone here smokes drinks and does drugs.  There was this one house we went up to that freaked me out so badly.  The door was just wide open, so we knocked and this guy came out and started talking to us. He wanted us to come inside so badly, but I knew it wasn't a good idea. It smelt so badly of every drug in the book.  We finally got him to let us get off his porch, but he ended up walking down the street with us for a couple of minutes until I just flat out asked him to leave us alone.  I felt so dirty afterwards, all I wanted to do was wash my hands.  I have never felt like such a small town girl in my life. Everyone makes fun of me for being from Idaho.  The work is so hard, but it is good. I get discouraged when people slam the doors in my face, but we've found some investigators and even have a baptism date for one!

Love you all so much and again thanks for the emails!!  Thank you Brittany and Kristin for your package and thank you aunts for all the candy!!!  I wish I could write to you all individually and respond to your separate emails but I just don't have enough time! thanks for keeping me updated with your lives siblings, your emails/letters make me smile every single time.

apartment address

5141 kasemeyer road

Bay City, MI

Mission office

4910 South Hagadorn Road

East Lansing, MI 48823

Last Day in the MTC

Trailer Park Tracting