I've made it to Florida. It is muggy, buggy, and full of trees. Weird looking trees. but trees all the same! My new companion is named Sister Eddington and she is fantastic! I love her o so much! we are serving in the Mandarin 2nd ward with another pair of sisters and the Assistants to the President. The senior couple in our ward, the Christensen's, work in the office so we see them quite a bit.
So how did I get here? Well I walked. That's why it took we so long to get here. Just kidding. We flew out of Salt Lake at 7:10. which meant we had to leave at 3:30 from the MTC, but Sister Blatter had to leave at 2:30 so we were already up. I was barely under the weight limit (my suitcase... not me). It was a miracle and tricky packing on my part. I slept through the whole first flight to Atlanta and the whole flight to Jacksonville. Don't worry, I didn't miss an missionary opportunities since I sat next to missionaries on both flights. All 33 of us new missionaries arrived at about 3 in the afternoon and then headed to the mission home. President and Sister Craig are such wonderful and amazing people. They really love each other, they love us, and they really love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We had a delicious southern meal and a mini-testimony meeting and did some role playing and then we went to go stay at member's houses. Me, Sister Blatter, and two other sisters went to stay with the Ellis family. They are so wonderful and he is the Bishop of a ward. I'm not sure which one... They were so interesting to talk with and really have us a great first night in Florida.
The next day we got up and had a short training at a stake center. Then all of the trainers showed up. We were already a pretty quite group, but the mixture of fear, excitement, and anticipations pretty much made it silent. This transfer 12 new areas were opened and I'm in one of them, which means... drum roll... I get a new apartment and a new CAR. That's right. A CAR. Heavenly Father answers prayers y'all. He listens. He does. Deep down I know that I'll be in a bike mission in the dead of summer though... I should have thought this one through better...
Anyway. Sister Eddington (she's my new companion!!) has been out for 9 months and we are whitewashing this area, which means that both of us are new here. The A.P.s were kind enough to lend us their GPS since the roads here answer to no one and pretty much do whatever the heck they want. I have never been so lost. It makes me miss Utah. I digress. Sister Eddington is from Roosevelt Utah, has 11 siblings, has her associates from BYUi, sings like an angel, is going to BYU to study physics, and plays the piano. She is magical to say the least. She also makes the best grilled cheese and came with Ramen noodles. You can probably guess how I feel about her. Every night we say 3 things that we love about each other before we go to sleep (Such Sisters, right?) and it's always hard to narrow it down to three.
Since we are both brand new to the area and no one told them we were coming, things have been moving pretty slowly. But they're moving! We go out tracting and I am a master at passalong cards. If there was an olympics I'd be a gold medalist. We met a man named Branson. Yes, Branson. I know you all know that I automatically thought is Downton. Well I did. Brybil FOREVER. (Sister Eddington likes Downton. and Les Mis. And High School Musical, AND the Emperor's New Groove. Ask me not how I know this since it isn't Gospel related.) So Branson took our pamphlet, said he would come to church in two weeks, and we set up a return appointment. He couldn't come to church THIS week because he's in morning since his team lost. We actually met him because he was throwing away his Georgia State stuff after they lost to Vanderbilt. I wish that meant something to me.....
So I'm having a great time here in Florida. There are SO MANY LIZARDS. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE. EVERY. WHERE. And frogs. Yuck. Our apartment smells like smoke so I hope we don't have to teach someone about the word of wisdom anytime soon because out investigator would be SO confused. I'm not even kidding. Sister Eddington and I smell like we smoke at least a pack a day. We reek. Sister Eddington and I saw a medium sized hill the other day and about died. It's probably the tallest land mass in Florida. Enjoy the mountains my friends, enjoy them.
Well that's all folks.
love,
Sister Perkes
P.S. Our ward is amazing! I already saw a lady that I will forcibly make my best friend. She is SO COOL. I just want to be her. Our bishop is also fantastic and we love him already! We had stake conference this week so it was kind of hard to meet everyone in our ward. There is a brother from Utah who went to Jordan the last year at the old high school. We also met out ward mission leader. Feel free to peruse the pamphlet on Chastity that is put out by the Church. HE'S IN IT. It's the one where the couple is gazing at each other.
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