That was the summary. I'm going to start back at the beginning and go into depth. 2 weeks ago sense like a different lifetime. My companion had been sick for our whole stay at the MTC, and I'm grateful I have a strong immune system so I didn't get sick, but he had been sick so I had the chance of giving my first priesthood blessing. It was a really cool experience for both of us. He got much better over the next few days. Say what you want but the blessing definitely helped.
We also taught Tanner again. He was very excited about the gospel and what we were teaching. (And yes he is a real investigator even though we were at the MTC.) We invited him to be baptized by the missionaries in the area and he says yes! It was really cool to get to experience that at the MTC. He's a really amazing guy.
Another cool experience I had that not many missionaries have is the chance to host new missionaries. I got to take 2 missionaries into the MTC, Elder Zeman and Elder Fielding. It was fun showing them around and talking to them. I tried to answer every question I wanted answered my first day and help them with their questions while also comforting them. I really enjoyed doing that.
We also watched conference in the gym. My whole district got there really early to get the good seats. We're hung out there and talked for a while. It was fun. Conference itself was also amazing. 2hourchurch! Basically that means an extra hour of teaching for me, but after my mission that will be great. The talks about representing Christ and why were are moving away from being called Mormons, and also the talk about not holding grudges were some of my favorites. Conference seemed very inspired and it was what we needed.
Saying goodbye to my district was so hard.😥 I love all of them so much. We had a really good time together.
I left the MTC at 5AM and had my first flight. It was fun. I enjoyed flying. I also got since cool pictures from the plane. It was weird, as soon as the plane landed you could see the water coming in. When I got off the plane it felt like I was, as Elder Thornock said, breathing underwater.
I've gotten used to the weather and quite enjoy it now. It was rough at first because our AC didn't work so it was 85 in our apartment.
My companion is now Elder Squires. He is very funny and is a good trainer. He's been out 5 months. He likes Clash Royale, playing card games, and getting swole😁.
It's definitely been an adjustment here. I've been praying a lot for help learning, help finding people, knowing what I need to do, and forgetting myself and losing myself in the work. Prayer works and I'm now starting to really enjoy it here.
The MTC is a weird little bubble. It's very nice and as close as we can get to Zion here on earth, but we forget there's still a world out there. It's been good to get out and ride our bikes around and knock doors, talk to potentials, and get to know members. We were basically whitewashing an area, but we're already finding some people to teach. Our ward is also super cool so we've been eating some amazing meals.
The geography is unusual here. It's sui flat. Not only are there no mountains for there's no hills. It's just flat. There are also little lakes and dense jungles literally everywhere. There are 2 houses and then jungle, 2 houses and jungle. It's kind of cool. There are also billions of little lizards and squirrels. It's kind of fun. And a member had a huge tortoise.
Anyway, that's a lot of info but basically it's been a good couple weeks and I'm finally in Orlando down in the Palm Bay area. Still no alligators yet and we got almost no rain or anything even with the hurricane in North Florida.
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On a side note: We have a young lady from our stake serving in the same mission, Sister Aniah Young, and a sister missionary from Grantsville who is her companion, Sister Lindsay Wilson. I ran into both their moms last week on two different occasions and we talked about the possibility of all three being in the same area. Well, it's happened. Erik is sharing the same ward with both of these girls and sees them a couple of times a week. Aniah is Kiersten's age.
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| Sister Young and Elder Leary |
I also got our first missionary email from Grandma and Grandpa. They've made it safely to their little area of the world -- the Cook Islands.
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