11/30/20 - I would walk 500 miles . . .

Well everyone I've made it to the field! You think my mission looks big on a map well you should try driving it lol. I arrived to my mission with 15 other missionaries! You should of seen our herd walking through the airport Haha. 

I love my mission president and wife! They are absolutely the best people I've ever met! It was cool to meet 3 members from my MTc district this week! It was comforting to see some familiar faces. On Wednesday we got in our mission travel busses and headed to mount Rushmore in rapid city for thanksgiving! I HAD THANKSGIVING AT MOUNT RUSHMORE! Well it was a church near by, but it was fun to sightsee before heading to our areas. The next day we drove back to bismarck for transfers. I wouldn't be leaving till Saturday so bless all the sisters who let me camp out in their apartment all week. I was assigned to ABERDEEN, SOUTH DAKOTA! just about the cutest town I ever did see. My trainers are heaven sent. I'm back in the trio gang! Sister Baldwin served in New Zealand before being reassigned to bismarck and sister White was assigned to Brazil before here! They are almost finished with their missions! They both go home in February. So technically after 2 transfers I would have "killed off" two missionaries. The mission lingo is great Haha! On our 3 hour drive from Bismarck to Aberdeen we get a call from the bishop asking if we could speak in church the next day... nothing like being a 5 day old missionary speaking in church. Luckily I feel it went great! I used my farewell talk but just adjusting it to the crowd. Is that cheating??? Hahahahah 

Yesterday was technically my first day in the field. I've been here since Tuesday but it's been a lot of traveling and now we are finally here! I calculated how many miles I've driven since Tuesday and it comes to a booming 964.3 miles. Woot woot! Being honest- I am not the best road tripper. But driving over the Dakotas is beautiful! It all looks the same. You could be driving for 2 hours and it looks exactly like it did when you began. And hold up... the sun sets at (no joke) 4:30..every. day. This is wild! I felt my first bit of dakota wind yesterday. MAN O MAN I almost fell over! Aberdeen is flat! I didn't tell my mission president about wanting to serve in somewhere warm before I got my call. But either way he decides to send me to the coldest part of the mission! He showed us some weather clips and no joke aberdeen was -54° while Fargo was -57°. The ward members were talking to us about how a few members froze in a field not too far from here. Not terrifying at all... the mission Office gave us a wind to temperature chart to hang in our apartment. Fun fact: if it's -10° at 25mph you can get frostbite in 10 minutes... Isn't nature exquisite... 

Either way I am pleased to be here. I've met some awesome members and some very friendly people! Everyone honks to say hello here. It's always two honks and a wave cuz one or three honks is too aggressive. HA My comps and I took a walk to the "big hill" yesterday where the whole city sleds in the winter. It's no joke maybe 13ft give or take a few inches. What a crazy place hahah! 

I'm learning how to find people on Facebook. I friended a bunch of people and then sent them messages. The first one that messages me back just happened to be the neighboring church's pastors wife... she was not pleased I was reaching out, but either way we jumped into it and responded how christ would. Who would have ever thought this would be how we find people. Its awesome because it's working! My mission is only 20 baptisms behind what we had last year! Covid has nothing on us! We are trying to beat it and I definitely think we can! All things are possible!! I am seeing many miracles each day! Way back on Thursday when we were driving from rapid city to Bismarck and it was pitch black and as we are driving a family of ELK come out of nowhere! We almost hit them but amazingly we didn't touch them. We all could've been so hurt but we were saved by the hand of the Lord. 

I love it here! Its definitely been hard and through lots of tears we finished one week. I was promised it would get better and it will! I love you all and are praying for you! Maybe next week I'll have a more cool spiritual stories I can share ;) Thank you those who have sent packages and emails! You make me feel so loved! If you would like to send anything my parents have my address in aberdeen :)