18 September 2017

Well, it's my first official week in field. Here in Raleigh (And sorry mom, everyone here pronounces it the same way as Matt does) it's crazy humid all the time and I'm usually dripping in an hour. It's a part time car mission, but we don't get it until this week, so we've been biking, using the buses, and walking. We've only used the bus once so far, and it was really hard to figure it out at first. We missed one by like five minutes, and another wasn't coming for an hour. So we walked until we found a Wendy's were I could get some more water (I had already drained my bottle), walked out, and there was a bus heading in the right direction for us. So we ran and hopped on, took two more buses, then realized that we had no idea where the apartments we were trying to get to were. So we walked and knocked for a while and were picked up by a member for dinner. Speaking of dinner, we had dinner at a member's house with a recent convert, Jovany. He's super cool and 20, and wants to serve a mission. He's from Mexico, and we had a serrano pepper eating contest. I won by eating most of a pretty big one and going the required two minutes without eating or drinking anything. It hurt really bad, but I just sat there and smiled to make him think I wasn't struggling with it. I think that's what got him over the edge of defeat. I was very proud of myself. The previous Elders in our area didn't leave us with any investigators, so we've been trying to do a lot of finding this week. We've got a few now, one of them being a crazy drunk who speaks Spanish really fast but wants to change his life. We invited him to church, but he didn't show. We'll try to visit him again. Also, we have the boyfriend of a member who we started teaching, but he only seems to want to do it for her. We'll see how it goes, but we don't expect too much. And now, because I know you've been dying to know, here's my lovely travel story. So, we woke up at two to get ready and be at Reception at 3 (I was travel leader and so had to be the first one there). I tried to print off my boarding pass, but it said that I had to do it at the airport due to federal regulations. I was literally the only missionary to get that message. Everyone else did just fine. Anyways, everyone showed up, weighed their luggage for the last time, and we loaded up the bus to leave at four. By the way, there is an Hermana who is going the the Indianapolis mission. If you see an Hermana Hendricks somehow (she is Spanish speaking) tell her Elder Battraw says hi. So we got to the airport at about five and went through to check our luggage, where I was able to print my boarding pass. I was also the only missionary who had to pay for their luggage. After that, we went through security where I was randomly selected and they tested all of my stuff for drugs. Then there was an hour long wait to board our plane, which was scheduled to leave at 7:22. There were some seating issues that had to figured out with some irate passengers, and so we didn't end up leaving until 7:45. The flight was pretty uneventful up until about a half hour before we got to Atlanta. Then, we had super bad turbulence and got to circle the airport for another half hour because of the hurricane. So when we made our landing attempt (yes, attempt) we got within probably 30-40 feet of the runway with the entire plane shaking really badly when we feel the pilot just punch it. We flew for about ten minutes (still turbulent) before he got on the intercom and explained they couldn't land because of the 70 mile per hour crosswinds. The limit for a landing is 33. He also said that if we had made it just five minutes before we could have landed. So, we got diverted to Memphis, another hour away. Upon landing uneventfully, we were stuck on the plane for another 45 minutes while Memphis scrambled to prepare for international arrivals. Once we got off, we got to go through customs without electronics because their system was down, so we had to use paper. On the plane there, forms were handed out to all the non-residents, saying that U.S. residents didn't need to fill them out. Upon getting to the front of the line, we were handed a form to fill out and told to go to the back of the line. We got through customs finally at about 4:15 and got to wander the Memphis airport. We checked in with Delta to find out when our flight was going to leave and were told that they had no idea, all the flights to and from Atlanta were grounded and they didn't know when they were going to be able to fly again. We were also told that we weren't getting meal vouchers. Our last food had been a snack on the plane and as we were leaving the MTC at four. So we wandered the airport and found a Moe's Southwest Grill and I got a burrito. Finally, at about seven o'clock we heard over the intercom that our flight was about to start boarding, and so we got on. We left and got to Atlanta at about 8:30, then asked when our flight to Raleigh was. We were told that it was in twenty minutes. So we got to take the train across the busiest (and I think largest) airport in the world to catch our next flight. In twenty minutes. We got there and boarded the lovely 757 they had ready for us. It was a replacement plane, and was way bigger than it needed to be for the number of passengers we had. It was pretty great, and ended up being the smoothest flight I've ever taken after the first five minutes. I took a fantastic hour long nap and woke up as we were landing. We walked in and were quickly greeted by the mission president and his wife. They had just realized they didn't bring a car big enough for the three new missionaries and our luggage, but it turned out to not be a problem because somewhere along the line, our luggage was lost, and one of the Elders didn't bring any extra clothes. So we got to the house at about 11 and had some dinner and our interviews, and got to bed at 12:30. So yeah, not quite as easy as we though it was going to be. We got to meet our companions the next day and got our luggage. So yeah, my new companion is Elder Rolph and he seems pretty cool. He's easy to work with and has been helping with my Spanish. Also, thanks so much for the care package! It was great, and we both enjoyed it. We got my bike and everything without a problem and got the apartment and started knocking that day. So yeah, there's my week. (Is this long enough, mom?)
 
This is the last picture of my district (and one of my teachers). From left to right, Hermana Smith, Hermana Compton, Elder Hull, me, Elder Benson, Elder Johnson, Elder Kluger, Hermano Trejo, Elder Perkes, Elder Rasmussen, Hermana Meyer, and Hermana Reed.
   
I found an interesting picture in the Memphis airport

And finally Elder Rolph, my new companion.