Dated 3/9/11
Aloha family,
So I am now in Riverside California. Wow, what a rush. I'm serving in Yucaipa, Riverside and my trainer, Elder Peterson is from Wyoming, but i'll get into that a little later.
Tuesday morning we woke up at 3AM and went to the airport, which was interesting. A car crashed into the rail in front of us and swerved out in circles into the middle of the road because of the ice. No one was hurt, at least I don't think so, but it definitely woke us all up. We flew in to Vegas and then to Ontario Cali ... President Reeves and his wife along with the office missionaries greeted us.
We loaded up our bags and from there went straight to the mission center which is where we send all of the mail. We got our pictures taken, got our debit cards and had a driving test and orientation. We then had lunch, and honestly everything was so surreal. ... I know i'm prepared but seriously, the MTC was a fairy land compared to the field. I really enjoyed everything I learned, but we were not prepared for denial at all.
From there, we went to President and Sister Reeves mission home and introduced ourselves to everyone, it was pretty cool. ... We then watched some talks and just basically waited around while the president interviewed everyone. From there, we got ready for dinner, and ate our first HOMEMADE meal. It was so different from the MTC. We had lasagna and salad and cheesecake.
Anyways, after that we had a huge testimony meeting with all the greenies and the president. It was really spiritual. ... From there, the mission president interviewed me and I told him about Dad and 29 Palms. I'm pretty sure i'm being sent there once I'm a better missionary. We all went to sleep on the couches and mattresses.
I woke up at 630 and got dressed and ready. It was basically just us waiting around for our trainers. When they got there, we had another brief testimony meeting and we were paired up. By about 12 we were in the truck on the way to Yucaipa. I'm lucky, because Riverside is a more conservative family centered area. It's full of people waiting for that gospel. It was a 45 minute drive to Yucaipa ... I got the bike at the mission home and its beat up but it works, which is all that matters because Yucaipa for the most part is a biking mission, which is what I will be doing for a while.
I know that Hills Grandpa's funeral is today, so I hope that went alright. I thought she would be in Logan, so I sent a letter to her home address but turns out she's not going to be there, so that will have to be forwarded.
So far we hung out with the zone leaders for a while. They asked me what I was excited about for the mission, and I said learning how to take rejection because as of now i'm having a hard time. Immediately after, one of the zone leaders said, i'll teach you come with me. We ran to the first person we saw and she told us that we were misled and she hopes we find the truth. Sweet start haha. We then knocked on about 10 doors, some said no engles, some said i've heard it before and others said i'm a nazareth. No real success.
Just pray for me to love the people enough to know that they have their agency. Gospel principles are only effective if you live them. Its one thing to say it, but its another thing to live it. I need grace.
Elder Peterson is a good guy, he's been out for about 18 months or something like that. Hopefully I can pump some excitement into him just like the other greenies. Anyways, thats everything thats been going on so far. ... Hopefully all is going well with you guys, give Hill my love when she returns. I'll continue praying.
We have a dinner appointment tonight and since my companion is the District leader, he'll be gone all day tomorrow which means i'll be with some other elder I dont really know. Oh boy. One day at a time I guess.
But yeah, my Pdays are on Monday and that's when I'll normally be emailing you guys. ... Thank you for your words of advice, i'm sure i'll adapt quickly. Both of my bags for luggage came out to exactly 50 pounds each which was funny, I didn't have to pay. It's so weird just transitioning from fake food to real food, fake people to real people and stuff like that.
I hope you are all doing well, I love you guys.
Love,
Elder Watson
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