I made it to Missouri. It's super cold and there is freezing rain and everything's ice but it's awesome! Seriously there is no snow, just ice out here!
Hello family and friends, as you can tell my p-day is now Monday so that's awesome and feel free to email me back :)
So, Wednesday morning was the worst thing ever! Everyone heading to Missouri woke up at 4 am. We went to the travel office, got on a bus and they gave us instructions on how to get the bags of 30+ missionaries on and off a train, onto the trax thing, and to the airport, and I can tell you the whole thing was a mess. We had one minute to unload like 75 suit cases from that train and it was insane, but we did it.
Anyways we got to the airport and checked in our bags and my grandpa GP was waiting there for me that silly guy we got there at about 7 and he had been there since 5, that little bum haha. But we got a good pic and I got to say goodbye so it was great!
After we got to our gate I called my parents and it was very much needed but the calling card thing they gave me sucked so bad cause it cut me off at 5 minutes and we were just about to talk about the good stuff! It was alright tho cause I had to get on the plane, so it all worked out.
The first thing I noticed when landing in Kansas City was NO MOUNTAINS!
I have no sense of direction out here, but hopefully I'll get used to it.
After landing we met President Love and Sister Love, we grabbed out bags and headed straight to the temple took some pictures. The main things I noticed was that the grass was ice and it was 30 degrees but felt like -10 it's freezing here, after that we went to Liberty Jail.
We had lunch and they gave us a small tour of the Jail which was amazing! It's such a cool place and it had a special spirit, it was my first time there but it was awesome. The weirdest part for me was that we ate lunch next to the Jail and that not to long ago Joseph and his friends were thrown into the Jail for the beliefs him and I share and that wasn't too long ago, but being there gave me a greater appreciation for our Prophet of the restoration and that was a great blessing to be there.
After that we went to the Independence visitor center and that was pretty cool! I got some pictures in front of the sea shell temple. haha
We then went to the mission home and ate some dinner which was great and had orientations along with President interviews and I love President Love he's awesome and I'm excited to serve with him a lot.
Transfers the next morning were pushed back a couple hours because of frozen rain, it's the weirdest thing in the world when the rain hits the ground it all turns into ice and everything is super slick and travel is impossible so we had to wait a few hours till heading to the Independence stake center which is right next to the visitor center to meet our new companion.
My new companion is Elder Beck from Oakley Idaho and he's awesome! We ate lunch at a Mexican place called Ponchos where I got a breakfast burrito and headed to my new area with the Crooked River ward. It's in the boonies and is about 50 minutes from Independence. We dropped of my bags at our house, which really is a house cause we live with members, the Ratliff fam, which is brother and sister Ratliff and their two dogs. I've been told and now know it's true that we get spoiled cause they have tons of food, so imma get fat haha
After we dropped off the bags we met with the Cooperriders and they're super funny people.George made sure that I knew he was a big guy, he had me guess his weight and I was wrong, he's bigger than I am for now and that's what I can tell you. We also talked to his dad Harry and we all call him OTD, or Older than Dirt, just Dirt for short. He's like 84 and is a super funny old man. He challenged me to an arm wrestle which will probably take place next time I see him so I'll let you know about that next week. After meeting with them we ate dinner with the Ratliffs and went to bed so it was a good first day.
Friday was the ward party and Elder Beck and I spent the day giving out invitations to less active and trying to just talk to somebody but not a single success all day so that was rough. But the party was super fun! We had an international themed dance party that I didn't really participate in but was a good time and I got to meet the Bishop and a ton of members from the Crooked River Ward and they're all jokesters and messed with me a lot, but the whole night was a blast.
Saturday morning we got to go play ball which was awesome and then knocked on doors, visited members all day long, so I can say that I'm always tired.
Sunday was great though. I got to share my testimony during sacrament meeting and just got to have fun with everyone in the ward. After church I got to meet some of the Ratliff kids and their kids so that was fun and for dinner we ate the Cooperriders and that's when Dirt challenged me so I'm going to be working out my arm so I can beat him. haha
Wow this email is so long!
Sorry about that everybody, but I guess you can tell that a lot went on this week and I'm a little overwhelmed and freaking out.
I'm so grateful to be out here though and wouldn't trade it in for anything. It's starting to warm up so hopefully we will be able to teach some lessons this week or do some service, I didn't know this but there are tornadoes here so I'm super excited to see those in the spring haha
I love you all and will talk to y'all next week!
Elder Andersen
I forgot to say that my last night in the MTC we saw Elder Holland in I'm going to be a good missionary because of it haha love you all
2. Elder Engemann and I3. Kansas city temple4. Independence visitor center5. Liberty jail
No comments:
Post a Comment