HELLO MY PEOPLE!

How's it goin? I love getting emails/letters from y'all! It makes me happy :) Oh, and letter wise: just send them to the PO mission office box thing. That's the fastest way to do it. Apparently it's faster to send packages there as well. Hmmm. And...don't panic when I tell you this...but pepper spray has been advised for the sisters here.

Okay, so update on life. Let's start from when I landed in New York.

So I was kind of in a daze that whole night. Everyone in my district was like, "OH MY GOSH WE'RE HERE THIS IS SO EXCITING!" and I was like, "Yeah....I'm just gonna do what you tell me to do cause I kind of feel like I'm just floating through this so....yeah." I have a very weird way of processing things.

When we all got to the airport, President and Sister Wirthlin were there to greet us! As we were putting our luggage in the trailer, President grabbed five girls in my district that I was talking to and said, "Okay, you five are going to ride with my wife. The rest of your will come in the van."
Yay!

It was also pouring rain, and my hair was just a big ball of frizz.

So we go to dinner at a delicious pizza place, and then we start towards Utica, where Sister Wirthlin says, "Okay. So we don't have enough room for all the sisters at the mission home. But I'm going to have you five stay in the mission home and the rest will stay with members."

My thoughts, "Yesssss!"

What I actually said: "Oh, thank you!"

Some of the girls who had to stay with members tried to argue and see if they could swap. Sister Wirthlin wouldn't have it. I was secretly very gleeful.

So after getting things organized at the stake center, our district of girls climbs in the car and Sister Wirthlin asks, "So, who here is above 5 foot 7?"

Pause. "...Meeeeee." I said.

"Great. You get the general authority room."

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS BUT AWESOME!"
"It's your own room with the biggest bed. The rest will share."
"YES!" Guys. I had my own room. On a kind sized bed. To myself. It was the single most glorious thing I have ever slept on.

The next day we got assigned our area/companion. I also saw Elder Taylor that day! We were friends in high school.

My companion is awesome!! She's only been out 3 months so we're both kind of learning how things are, but she's great and we get along really well. She's from Arizona. 

So when I heard I was being assigned to Owego, I was picturing the scenery from Napoleon Dynamite and thinking, "Great. This is gonna be awful. There's just gonna be cows and a bunch of Napolean's and Pedros."
Nope.
Owego is BEAUTIFUL! The whole thing is ma-and-pop shops. I didn't know towns like this still existed! The nearest WalMart is a 30 minute drive away, and we can't really go to it cause it'll use all our miles. Our back yard is the river Joseph Smith got baptized in! We also live above an adorable antique shop. I love it so much. We're also the first sister missionaries here in 10 years! They've completely white washed the area, so we have a new set of elders as well. The ward is very excited. I feel like a celebrity.

So...let me tell you about how the apartment was when we got there. The Elders lived here before us. LAYERS of dust! Like, thick, thick black layers. Disgusting. Rotting food was on the counter AND in the fridge, including a stick of butter with dead bugs stuck to it. No joke. Who knows how long it had been there. Trash was everywhere. The floors were nasty. It was just...it was bad. There was also rotting fruit sitting in a bike helmet. WHO DOES THAT?!

But they cleaned the bathroom! Yay! Oh, and through all this mess, there was one thing in order: a stack of cans. They had just this neat stack of perfectly arranged soda cans sitting in one of the cupboards.

Also, if I die here, there are gonna be two reasons why:
1. The cats. Everyone has a cat. We're teaching a less active/new convert who has a VERY friendly cat. By the end of the visit I almost couldn't talk my sinuses were so congested! Thank you for inhalers, though!
2. The floorboards of our apartment. I just KNOW we're gonna step inside one day and go WHAM through the floor and into the antique shop. It's pretty sketchy. But now that we've gotten rid of most the rotting food (we still find some under the sink and above cupboards still. Ugh.) and cleaned up the place, it looks really nice :)

Ah! so much to say! So ever since we got here, everyone was talking about the Strawberry Festival that was going on. It was Saturday, and basically it's the only big thing that goes on around here. They set up a bunch of tents and sell a bunch of strawberry-related stuff and have live music. My companion and I decided to go street contacting here. It was both our first time doing anything like that and it was HARD! Most everyone here is either A) Already religious and not interested B) Don't really care for religion at all or C) Already religious and REALLY not interested! We were talking to this couple and I SWEAR they were gonna start hitting me with a bible! It was great :) And believe it or not but we've become friends with the Jehovah's Witness missionaries in the area. They were street contacting as well, and I was actually trying to talk to them about the gospel but they stopped me and said, "We're actually Jehovah's Witnesses, so we can really relate to you guys." And we just talked to them for like 10 - 15 minutes! They're great! We've seen/talked to them a couple times since. So hey, we've made a friend.

People here are different. Many people are missing most of their teeth. I placed my first Book of Mormon and I'm pretty sure the lady was missing a few wires but hey...I placed it! I love the people here though! Overall they're really nice, even if they're shutting you down :) A lot of people have also told me I'm pretty. Mostly it's old and/or drunk people, but hey it's a nice self esteem booster. I thank the fact that I have all my teeth. "Excellent teeth."

Anyway, we're trying to get started working but it's been hard. The past two sets of Elders haven't kept any teaching records, so it was hard to know where to start. But we're starting to meet more with Less Active members, so hopefully we'll have some success there.

I still feel like an AWFUL teacher! People will ask me a question and I'll just give them this deer-in-the-headlights look! Oh man it's been hard. I know, I know, the spirit will help me, but still. Mostly I'm just like, "Uh...."
Yeah hopefully we'll get some improvement with that but man. It's been so frustrating!
Also, I discovered that I have a secret superpower.
My hair can tell me when it's going to rain. No joke, about 20 minutes before it starts to rain, my hair goes POOF and gets REALLY frizzy. It's great. Okay it's not really great my hair is unmanageable here.
Anyway, I love you all :) continue to keep me updated on things, I LOVE hearing news with your life!