Week 4

Hey Ya'll!

I finally made it to West Virginia! The last week in the MTC was just as great and spiritual as the previous two. I got to see Eldste Cribbs before I left so that was fun to say hi! On our last Sunday we were able to go visit the temple grounds with our Branch President and his wife and have a small devotional. I absolutely love the grounds there. It was sad to say goodbye to my district because we had all grown so close to each other but I'm excited for everyone to be out in the field!

Eldste Cribbs and I with our Companions.

Something else cool that happened: Each Sunday after the devotional we get to choose a video that is playing and so we decided to go watch a talk by Elder Holland. There were a couple hundred missionaries in the room waiting for the video to start but they couldn't get the sound to work. For the first ten minutes everyone was just talking to each other in the dark with the room only being lit by the emergency exit signs. Then out of nowhere someone starts singing A Child's Prayer and immediately everyone starts joining in. It was such a powerful experience to have that many missionaries singing in the dark together. We then sang several more hymns and eventually the video was able to play. I'm really going to miss experiences like that at the MTC. You can't find them anywhere else.

Provo Temple

I have already had so many blessings since being out here. When we got on the plane in Salt Lake to fly to Atlanta for our layover the captain told us that there were some mechanical issues and they were going to have to get checked. We ended up leaving about an hour late and our layover was only supposed to be like 45 minutes. We thought for sure we were going to miss our flight to Charleston. We ended up getting into Atlanta 10 minutes after our plane was scheduled to take off but by some miracle the flight had been delayed and we were able to run and catch it before it left! 

We met our Mission President and family at the airport and they took us to their house which is where we spent the next couple days doing a little bit more training. They are AMAZING and I can't wait to work with them for the next 18 months. We also got to go visit the State Capitol and the West Virginia State museum which were both really cool.

The Moses Mural

My first area is Teay's Valley West Viginia! It includes Hurricane, Teay's Valley, St. Albans, and Scott Depot. Most of the people here are really nice and are always asking if there is anything they can do to help us. It seems like they are either really poor or really well off. Not much of an in between. The ward is a pretty good size and very welcoming. We have had dinner with a couple families already. My trainer's name is Sister Condie and she is great! She's been on her mission for 13 months and I'm the third missionaries she's trained. She's from Idaho and went to BYU-I for a year before coming here. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun together.

Sister Condie playing with a stray cat that was following us around.

Our apartment is okay. We took the area over from Elder's and so they didn't keep it very clean. We also have to do a lot of contacting people because we don't know much of what's going on in the area and we get a truck to drive around. I have to back Sister Condie out every time she back's up because that's a rule so that's really annoying.

I'm having a really great time here and love the people already! I have grown so much and can't wait to see where I am in 18 months!

Have a great week! Love you all!

Sister de la Cruz