I"m Definately Serving in the Best Mission Ever!!!

Hey!!

Man so much has happened the past few days, I don't even know where to begin. So the last few days at the MTC were pretty whatever. I actually had some really great spiritual experiences and it was sad to see everyone in my district leave. But that stuff really isn't near as entertaining as leaving the MTC.

On Tuesday morning, I had to be at the travel office at 4 so it was an early morning. When I got to the airport, I called my family and that was great. I didn't have much more time before we boarded after talking to them. At least that's what I thought until we sat on the tarmac for almost 2 hours. Apparently there were some problems with the breaks and after trying to fix them they finally decided to just replace them. So the flight was long but it ended up being ok. I was sitting next to another Elder serving in my mission so we talked a lot. And I talked to the other lady I was sitting next to and she told me about her whole life. It's really interesting being a missionary because all of the sudden people are telling you everything about their life, including the really hard things they've gone through. But it was good talking to her and she was super nice and helpful as we tried to figure out if we would make our connection. When we got to Detroit, that plane had been delayed for 30 minutes so it was still there, which was a miracle. But we literally had to walk from one end of the airport to the other so we had the desk people call our gate and tell them we were on our way. I was sort of sad we didn't have a real layover because I was going to call Grandma and Grandma Staheli and Grandma and Grandpa Parkin. So if you guys are reading this, I'm really sorry you didn't get to hear from me. But I still love you.

President and Sister Morgan and the AP's were waiting for us at the airport. I seriously love them so much already. They have kids around our ages so basically they are super cool and know what's up. They actually changed a lot of the rules from the other president, which is good with me. I guess we use to not be able to go into Time Square or any of lower Manhatten because it was 'bad' but President Morgan and his family went down there and decided that it's not as bad as any other part of the city and you really don't see anything horrible unless you're looking for it. So this is awesome news because there are a lot of cool things to see in that part of the city and as long as we're serving in the city, we can go anywhere in our zone on p-day. Which means I'll have some super cool p-days. President Morgan is super funny but also super in tune with the spirit. He's just great and I feel really lucky to have such an awesome president.

Today is p-day, clearly. So you'll hear from me every Wednesday. And you'll never guess where my first area is. THE BRONX!!!! I am literally SO FREAKING EXCITED!! I'm in the Conners area I think...I don't really know what it's called. They keep telling me and I don't understand. haha But my trainer is Hermana Pipes and she seems super awesome. And really everyone just seems super awesome. Everyone at the transfer meeting was so nice. I haven't even made it to my apartment yet because the library is across the street from the church building so I still have a lot of stuff to find out about but I'm just really excited. I mean I'm basically in the legit ghetto but I stinking love it! And I don't feel like anyone is going to shoot me down on the street or anything so that's good. But I've also never really felt like that in cities so maybe I should be more concerned. I figure the Lord is going to protect me, right? Also, we don't have bikes in the mission at all which I'm super excited about to! Since I'm in the city, we used public transportation a lot and walk which I'm way excited about.

I don't even know what else to tell you. So much has happened in so little time. But things are awesome. I'm excited to get settled in and start working and I'm really excited to have the companion that I do and to serve in this area. It sounds like we don't get transfered out of areas very often so hopefully I'll have the opportunity to serve here for a while.

You are all awesome!! Love you!

Hermana Parkin (a real life missionary in New York!!!)