Glen Carbon - 10/13/14 (Glen Carbon, IL)

Dear concerning loved ones,

I have arrived safely to the mission field and I am enjoying my time here. I Flew in Tuesday afternoon and we landed at 1:00pm in St Louis. You could feel the humidity right out of the terminal, but it wasn't too bad at all. We met our mission president, President Morgan and Sister Morgan. They are great! We then were taken to the Mission Office and met some people there. Afterwards we drove to the St Louis Missouri Temple to take pictures and talk. By this point it was about 4:00pm when we went back to the mission Home which was only about 5 minutes away. We ate dinner and had a testimony meeting. The Morgans have a beautiful home and it was a comfortable place to spend the night.

Wednesday morning we had zone Conference where we met our trainers, and found out where we'd be serving. My Companion's name is Elder Abad, he is from the Philippines. He has been serving his mission for a little over a year now. He is a great trainer and I am learning a lot from him, his English is pretty good, so that is a blessing! haha. 

We are serving in the Glen Carbon Area of Illinois which is about an hour and a half drive from St Louis just across The Mississippi River. It is a very nice area and is full of a lot of great people. We go to a lot of surrounding areas during the week, like Maryville, Granite, Collinsville, and Troy. The weather has been very rainy the past few days, and there have even been some tornado warnings around the mission, but not close to our area. I am very surprised at the amount of tree's and vegetation here, its very beautiful. Here in Glen carbon there are a lot of Corn Fields and no mountains, so thats different... but I like it! 

We are blessed to be in an area with a car! We drive a newer model Toyota Carola which is cool. Oh and Because Elder Abad is from the Philippines we never got a drivers License nor has he ever really driven a car, so I'm a lucky Greenie because I get the car keys! We drive a lot, and I am not allowed to let my trainer drive! 

I have been meeting a lot of people and members here, so it's taken me a while to get names and places down, but I'm learning. Our area is pretty nice and not too Ghetto, except for the city of Granite or when we have to drive through East St Louis. Let's just say that when I am driving through East St Louis I lock the doors and never bring the car to a complete stop! Haha! 

Our P-day was moved to Tuesday for this week, because Monday we had a special Mission Conference where we had every missionary in the entire Missouri St Louis Mission gathered together! It was amazing and is the first and probably the only time we would get to experience that. I think there were about 240 missionaries there too, so we pretty well filled the entire chapel. But we had some great talks and discussions. We heard from President Morgan and Sister Morgan, and we heard from Elder Sitati from the Quorum of the Seventy. The Conference went from 10:00am till 2:00pm, then at that 2:00pm President Morgan got up and started talking about the new movie "Meet The Mormons" and how it's been very popular in theaters the past few days. Anyways, he said he'd gotten a copy and that we'd be watching it! So that's what we did and it was incredible and I think it was just what everyone needed at the time. 

This coming Saturday October 18th is Elder Abad's Birthday! and Monday October 20th is my Birthday! So for next Monday's P-Day we will be going into St Louis to visit the Gateway Arch and see some cool areas, as a nice birthday present. Today we are going to see The Cahokia Mounds which are Indian ruins and grave sites. We also have a meeting tonight with Eric who is 9 years old and has a baptismal date for this coming Sunday. 

We will continue to teach a lot this week and find new investigators. We are also focusing a lot of efforts on Reactivation and retention of members. I am trying to learn as much as I can and to get Adjusted to Missionary life. It is definitely not easy, it's hard because you are taken away from People you know and Love, the places yo love and feel comfortable in, and you don't have the things I love to do anymore. But instead are dropped in a place with unfamiliar people, places, and you have to do things you're not used to doing. But I am determined to stay diligent and focused on what I am doing because I know its right and I know the messages that we share can bless and change people's life's for the better.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week, you all will be in mine. Please feel free to write me a letter and even hand written letters would be amazing since I can only email once a week! Anything to help break up the week and to boost my spirits!

I will write back next week with more adventures and stories! But until next week