First Week in the Field!

 Hey all!!!!  Yes yes yes I know it's been a long time since you've heard from me, but that's because my P day is a little bit different, it's now on Mondays. Alrighty!!  So for the dump of the info. It's been 1 week and we've done so so so much. 

So, I flew out on Monday which means that I've had a full week in the mission field. I was one of the first in my CTM district to go!  So exciting and scary all at the same time. 

So Monday, Aug 23rd I left for the field. Taking off from SLC that morning after saying goodbye to my best friend and my family. It was a hard moment, there was plenty of tears shed I will not lie. But I'm happy I've been able to contact them today and let them all know how it is. 

   

So I got on the plane with 29 other missionaries all starting on the same day!!!!  What??!! Big big group. About half of us are all on reassignment from Brazil, Mozambique, Mexico and others. So big group.  I sat with Elder Higby and Elder Wright and we got to practice some Portuguese on the way

over.  and as we passed over Florida we just saw lakes. So much water. And coming from Utah, this was foreign. I saw a literally bayou I swear straight outta Princess and the Frog on the way down. We all landed in Orlando  and just hung out a big group of missionaries by the luggage claim. We all got in cars and drove to the mission stake center!  Dinner with the President and getting to know all the other greenies (new missionaries) We stayed the night that night in hotels and I got to spend the night with Elder Peterson!!  We went to High School together and so it was nice to have a familiar face.

The next day we met our companions!!!  I've got two trainers, Elder Grier and Elder Da Costa!!  We are in the Hunters Creek Portugêus area, which means we are doing both Portuguese speaking and English speaking so I've been able to continue my practicing!  And let me tell you, Brazilians speak fastttttttt. I'm gonna have to work on that. 

The first day Elder Da Costa told me we would have 4 lessons in Portuguese!  For my first day, that was daunting for sure!  But then within the hour they were all canceled. Apparently this was a good introduction to normal missionary work!!  

The rest of this week has just been lessons and finding people!  I've been getting to know my district more and more (Elder Grier is actually out district leader!) I've been spending a lot of time getting used to the mission life!  It's a lot a lot to do. We actually haven't been doing a whole ton of FB work, but we've been out and about finding people to teach and teaching lessons with various people. 

And let me tell you, the humidity in here is REAL!!!  We spent our P Day today playing games outside and I was drenched in sweat. It's literally what like all the Utah missionaries said the mission we got off the plane. Wow...it's wet here all the time. But we are getting used to it. It also rains a lot. We were in the park teaching a lesson with the YSA elders and then it started pouring!!!  So 5 missionaries and a security guard starting running hard to the only dry spot in the park....right in front of the bathrooms. We ended up finishing our lessons there.....but definitely actually was a great lesson as we waited out the rain!  Also the drops are BIG!! But I'm getting used to it now, doing okay with it. 

Okay, there is so much more to say but I'll keep it short in ending in my testimony. Throughout this week I've been able to teach parts of the lessons, and one of the things I teach out commonly is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His life, he gave for us. His pain was for us the tears he shed were for us. And it's because he loves us. He loves every single person who has ever or ever will live perfectly. His love is unconditional and perfect. He showed that by dying for us. For suffering. We can get closer to him by praying. We can pray for his love to live in us. He truly is the light and life of the world. I know this truth.