16 Sept. 2013

First p day in the mission field. So much fun. So I got to Boise on Tuesday, picked up President and Sister Windor at the terminal along with 33 other missionaries who were also arriving. There is only 5 of us waiting to visas, 4 to Brazil and 1 to Austrailia. So we were picked up, got our luggage and headed over to a nearby chapel to get lunch and get introduced to some of the missionaries. We got assigned temporary companions, had an interview quickly with President Windor, and then were off tracting down on the streets of Boise downtown. We did that till dinner, but didn't have any success, nobody wanted to listen to us and would actually turn around when they saw us walking down the street. So we headed to the mission office, got dinner and had a brief testimony meeting with all of the new missionaries. Then some of the missionaries picked us up to take us to housing where we would spend the night. Wednesday was transfer day. I got assigned to my two companions, yeah I'm in a trio again, Elder Smith my trainer from Snowflake AZ and really loves to go golfing. Elder Crowley from Monticello UT who is doing ROTC as well is also being trained Fun stuff. They are both pretty cool, and we get along really well. So the rest of Wednesday was mostly getting briefed on the mission field area that I'm in. We cover 3 wards here so we spend a while at church on Sundays. But Wednesday was mostly just meeting families and trying to find bikes for us.

   Thursday was spent mostly trying to get bikes till lunch time and we actually got some that we are now able to use. Nothing special but they get us around. We spent the day going around meeting bishops and ward mission leaders and starting to coordinate with them to be able to really get the work moving forward. Lots of fun. Our area is 2 miles by 2 miles so its pretty big so we have to use our bikes to make good time. Only the ZLs and APs get cars, lucky them. 

    Friday was district meeting so the entire district met at the chapel, we had a get to know you activity since this was the first meeting we had as a district.  After that we had a lesson by Elder Smith, who is also the DL and then headed to Costa Vida where we had lunch, so good. I got a huge sweet pork burrito and it tasted delicious.  The rest of the day was planning for the rest of the week and then we went out and taught some investigators that we had.

    Saturday was mostly the same, going around and teaching lessons to different people. I got to meet Barb, one of our investigators who is super nice, but doesn't want to take the discussions right now, but still we drop by to say hi. I also met Peggy who is a grandma of a priest in the ward who is soon going a mission and we were able to teach her the first discussion with her family there (who are members). The spirit was really strong in that lesson.

    First Sunday.  So the first ward started at 9,but we got there shortly after 8 to help prep the building and to greet everybody. The 3 sacrament meetings were all pretty good, and one of them had a primary program, so a nice break from the norm. Next week there is another one as well. Peggy was there to see the primary program and we're teaching again tonight, so excited! I also got into my first bike accident.  I had draped my suit coat over my scripture case and it was sliding off so I reached back to correct it as we were going around a sharp turn and hit the front brake instead of the back brake and needless to say that I ended up on the ground, and now I need a new suit, b/c the suit pants have a hole in them about he size of a quarter. I was fine besides from that though, so if in your next package you could send me a suit, like the gray one I could probably use that, otherwise I do have some money to buy a new suit if I need to. 

  Otherwise from that everything is going good here and its so great to be out here in the mission field! We can listen to the Piano Guys out here and one of my companions has both cps so we listen to that at times. We're busy nonstop here and we never seem to have enough time to be able to do what we want to be able to do.  I've had people comment on my Portuguese name tag a lot too, b/c I don't get an English one and its a conversation starter Anyway I miss you all and can't wait to hear from you!

Love Ben/Elder Battraw