Week 1 in the mission field

Hi everyone!

I survived my first week here in Kentucky! I'll start from the beginning and tell you all about what's happened in my first week here. Hold on, because this is going to be a long email!

We got up nice and early, made it to the SLC airport, Atlanta airport, and finally the Louisville airport. The President and his wife were eagerly awaiting us with the three very excited AP's by his side. I love President and Sister Woodbury already. The first thing out of their mouths after I told them who I was was, "Oh! Some Baxter lady called about you! She said something about your dad's conversion way back when!" I was so impressed they remembered something like that when meeting nine new missionaries. They have tons of faces to remember, but knowing at least a little something like that was so nice. I was also impressed with Sister Baxter, but I later told Pres and Sister Woodbury that I actually don't know her at all, but that you guys do.

Anyway, we loaded all of our stuff up into the trailer and piled into the van. The APs drove us to the mission home. After the sister in my district in the MTC told me that the mission home in Houston is gigantic and brand new, I was kind of expecting a lot. We pulled up to a house clearly built in the 1960s. As Sister Woodbury put it, the home is a little "Brady Bunch" in style. Even though it looks old and small, once you're inside it's a whole different story. It's very nice, recently remodeled, and has a huge basement. They could easily sleep 12 or more missionaries in the basement alone.

That night we had a really nice dinner with President and Sister Woodbury and two senior couples in the mission. They went over some rules in the mission with us, and we each had a short interview with the president. He is so cool. He remembered that I studied journalism, and when I briefly mentioned my calling as an FHE coordinator and how that helped impact me he said, "Oh yes, I heard you had done a good job with that!" Apparently Bishop Bell had written about it in his notes on my mission papers. But how cool that he knows me already! Anyway, he showed me my companion on a big wall of pictures and areas he has there in his office. After dinner and interviews we had a testimony meeting and then it was off to bed.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast, and then a demonstration by the APs. They role-played, etc. It was nice. After that we were given our church debit cards, and that was all explained to us. Then we headed off to the mission office for transfer meetings. They actually hold the transfer meeting in a chapel that shares the parking lot with the mission office. The meeting was really really nice, and it was super interesting because I thought it was going to be sort of formal and reverent, but there is a ton of clapping when new companionships and assignments are given out over the pulpit. We also sang "Called to Serve" at about a million beats a minute. Everything here in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission has an addition or something to make it our own (just look at our mission name. Being the "Kentucky Louisville Mission" isn't enough). We throw in "go baptize!" and all sorts of other words into hymns and recited things. Just because we can. It's super fun.

I got my companion. His name is Elder S, and he was born in Mexico, so he's a native speaker. His English is really good, too, but sometimes he says things out of order, or uses words that almost mean the same thing, but aren't quite right. But because he knows Spanish so well it's really helped me out. He is nice. He's great with the people, and he's absolutely fearless. More on that to come.

Message from the outgoing Elder. That was so fun to see on my first night into the apartment.

So we're assigned to Versailles, KY. It's little and it's far away. Our area is gigantic because we're the only Spanish elders out here. We cover Versailles, Lawrenceburg, and Frankfort (and maybe more?). I don't really know how big that is in comparison to the other areas, but we drive a ton of miles. We have a brand new Corolla (we picked it up after transfer meeting and had to stuff two new elders' belongings in it because they had carpooled up to the meeting! it was tight, but we managed it) and have been allotted 1455 miles for the month. And apparently that will be just enough with all of the traveling we do. Versailles is a tiny bit ghetto, but all of the people are super nice, clean cut, etc. You don't see lots of ghetto cars with mismatched body panels everywhere like in Tucson, which is interesting. Most of the trees have dropped all of their leaves, so there are giant piles of brown leaves all along the sides of the roads. Kyle, remember how we've always talked about driving our nice cars down a road where the leaves fly around behind us? Kentucky is the place. After the mission let's bring Rustin and his G8 down here! Haha.

Anyway, it's absolutely gorgeous here. We cover a lot of area that is horse farm, so we drive down tons of little roads in between rolling green fields. Giant trees line the roads and driveways. It's amazing. I'll probably hate it in the wintertime, but right now it's amazing. Also, the weather here is more temperamental than Utah's. Any time there are clouds you have to plan on rain, because you never know what it's going to be like. It can rain here for an hour, and then the storm blows away and the sun is out. Elder S says it's because there aren't any mountains, the clouds can move in and out really really quickly.

We drive roads like this all the time. It's so cool!

It's overwhelming to talk to people in Spanish sometimes. We've mostly gone and visited people that they were working with before I showed up. They are all so nice when I tell them, "Hablo un poco espanol, pero no entiendo mucho" and "mas despacio, por favor." (Translation: I speak a little Spanish, but don't understand much. Slower please.) Hahaha. But I already really love some of the people we are meeting with, and they have been so kind with me being slow and white. Hahaha

One family in particular, the Rojas, are so great. Apparently they have been taking the lessons for months and months and months, and then last night was the breakthrough. We just stopped in to chat, and ended up talking to them about marriage for like an hour. I didn't really say much, because I don't understand their situation completely, but I understood most of what happened. Mayra and Felipe have lived together for a few years. She has five kids, and he treats them all like his own. They are illegal (everyone we talk to is), and don't have enough money to throw a big party. We kept telling them that throwing the party isn't what is important. Getting married to get baptized is what's important. Then, after a year, they can go to the temple! They said if they don't have a big party, lots of their family and friends will get really offended. We told them to think about it and pray about it, and that they should set a date that night. We told them to set the date for sooner, rather than later, and suggested within the next 12 weeks. Elder S was so persistent. I'm still learning how in-you-face we can be, but he knows exactly how to do it in a way that doesn't put them off. We called them back that night and they said they're planning on getting married in the middle of February! That's really far. Really really far. But I think they can do it, and they seem to really want to do it, so we're so excited about it.

Irma is a recent convert, she got baptized the Saturday before I got here. She lives out in a trailer (a very nice one, actually) on a horse farm a few miles from our apartment. She has a big batch of kids, and she's illegal. Anyway, we visit her a lot to help her and her family stay strong. Her son, Agustin, came tracting with us this week, and he's so cool. He doesn't have a lot to say, but we can tell he likes the church, and has tons of potential. In the week that I've been here I can absolutely tell that my Spanish has advanced. I don't speak much more than I did, but I'm understanding so much more than I was before. I measure it by her, because she speaks really quickly, and she's actually the first Hispanic that I talked to. On Wednesday morning she called us and said she needed our help at the Food Stamp office. We went down there and I had no idea what she was saying, but Elder S translated and helped get everything resolved. Turns out one of her kids said he was hungry to someone at school, so there was some investigation and her Food Stamp card was turned off. It was a misunderstanding, so it was turned back on and she's doing great now.

We visit a man named Manuel a lot. He got baptized two or three weeks before I got here, and he's really cool. We don't talk a lot because I don't understand/can't speak much, but you can tell that he loves the missionaries a lot. We're actually trying to find him an apartment in Shelbyville, because he got a job there. We make tons and tons of phone calls everyday between bishops, ward mission leaders, the district leader, etc, for him and for other people. We text a lot too, and that's good practice for my Spanish. My most frequent is "Cuando podemos visitarle?" (When can we come visit you?)

We were on a farm of a less active family, but their son said he wants to serve a mission. They came to stake conference too!

Yesterday was Stake Conference, up in Lexington. We take for granted how many members we have in Tucson, because it's over a half hour to get to Lexington from here, and that's by freeway! Anyway, the Rojas were there, Jubileo (who has a baptism date for the 27th!), and Manuel were there. We have some super cool translation equipment, so they all were able to wear these headset things while someone in another room translated the talks, and spoke into a microphone for the people that don't know English. Too cool, huh? One of the talks was actually given in Spanish by someone in a Spanish branch in Georgetown. I think all of our investigators thought that was really really cool. President and Sister Woodbury were actually there, too. She is a hoot, and I hope you guys get to meet them someday. She was asking me how Spanish was going and if Elder S is treating me right (playfully). Elder S said they were there because we're trying to build a Spanish branch in the stake. If we work hard, anything is possible!

Things here are going fine. It's hard sometimes. It's overwhelming. But I already love lots of the people (members included. They are sooooo fun!). It was especially fun to hear from you guys today. It was a really long week learning everything, meeting tons of people, etc. There's a lot left to learn. But I'm loving a lot of things about it, and I know it'll be so good. I just have to tell myself that it's kinda like the MTC -- I freaked out really hard in the MTC for like three weeks. Then I got it under my belt and it was smooth sailing. Out here it's a little different, but the application is similar. It'll just take a little bit of time before it's second nature, before I understand all of the Spanish, before I know where to turn when we're going to district meeting in Georgetown (speaking of, I have a wonderful district. I'm excited to work with them.), but afterwards it will be smoother.

The South is a lot like it's perceived to be -- accents, the word y'all, comfort food, black people (not really in Versailles, mostly in Lexington). We've been to the Food Stamp office, we went to Court with Mayra because her baby-daddy isn't paying child support (she won). I love it. I know y'all will love it when I bring you here. Which, might I just say, I want the whole family to come out here because it really is amazing.

I think that's all. Thanks for everything you do for me! I love you all!

Much love,
Zac

Last temple walk at the MTC.