New Mexico or Bust!

I made it to New Mexico...Holy cow! This doesn't even seem real! :) I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS PLACE! It was kind of a sad thing saying goodbye to my district. We grew extremely close, and I love every single one of them. It was also really hard to say goodbye to my sweet teachers as well. I cried quite a bit about it :( But, I am doing great now, haha.

 

Sunday was such an awesome day. It was kind of funny that I flew out to New Mexico a day after Miss Idaho was last year. That was a huge blessing, because I was thinking about it a lot this weekend. The Lord truly blessed me though, because yesterday couldn't have been any more perfect.

Back to Sunday, we woke up and had Sacrament Meeting like usual. My district put together a really sweet special musical number. We did "A Child's Prayer" in Spanish. We had the boys do the first verse and then the sisters did the second verse and I harmonized. Then we did it all together. It actually turned out really well. :) Later that day our branch president came in and talked to our district. He said that he didn't ever do this, but decided to read to us some of the things our teachers wrote about us. It was so good to hear so many sweet compliments about our district. I am not surprised though, because ALL of the missionaries in my district will be phenomenal. They will seriously do such great things :) I didn't even mind being led by an 18 year old, haha!

Yesterday morning, we had to get up at 4am. We rode a train thing to the airport and then I was able to eat Cafe Rio!  I have been talking about it all week. I didn't even mind that it was 9 AM. Then I was able to talk to y'all. :) I loved being able to talk to you all before the plane. Saying goodbye was one of the very few times I have cried (without it being related to something spiritual). I really do miss you all, but the Lord is blessing me with courage and faith that I have never known. I just want to share the gospel with everyone.

The flight was SO quick :) Only a little over an hour or something. Then we were met at the airport by the APs, mission president, his wife, and a couple senior missionaries. My favorite is Sister Dennis. She is from the south and is such a hoot! One of my suitcases actually didn't get on the flight so I didn't get it until later.

 

 

There were only three of us "hermanas" out of the 30 missionaries, so we were able to ride with the President and his wife. It was fun getting to know them. They actually knew a lot about us already. They really studied our pictures and resumes. I am glad we used that pic Nessa took of me, because they have used it for EVERYTHING.  It seems like everyone studies up on the missionaries before they come. The APs already knew us too. Our APs are great!

 

Yesterday we all went to the missions home and had interviews with President and Sister Miller. We also were able to go out with some missionaries too! I went out with the sweetest sisters. One was from Honduras and the other from Utah. The first place we went to was super rude to us and then we decided to go somewhere else. The second house was the home of a guy named Albert and his "wife" Reina. I don't think they are married. They seemed really interested. It is hard to remember everything that happened, but I do remember being led by the Spirit. They spoke in English and Spanish, so we kind of did both. We got their info for the missionaries here.

 

Then we went to the next door. When the 12 year opened the door, I thought he was Hispanic so I said "Hola." He was like, "Hello?" Haha...he was adorable though. :) He is actually Russian and as we talked to him more he said his parents weren't home, but that they were looking for a church! HOW COOL!?! We gave him a mormon.org card and told him to go watch some of the videos on there.

 

Yesterday was just so awesome. The three hermanas also got to stay at the mission home. We were the only ones. We were exhausted last night. Fell asleep at 10, then we had to get up at 5:30! This morning was transfers and now I am out of time! I love you all and am getting my companion later today!!! YAY! NEW MEXICO IS THE BEST! LOVE THE PEOPLE! And,  we are going to Chic fil a for lunch...oh yeah! :)

 

Camden Gillins from Buhl!

 

Katherine Christensen