Monday, March 15, 2010

New world, new wonderful

Wow, lots of questions for me to answer! In terms of our area, we cover all of downtown as well as the west side including Price Hill, and the suburbs as far north as Kenwood just outside of Norwood, which has missionaries there. So basically, it's a pretty good sized area to cover! And without the busses, we'd be doomed, especially considering they took our car away just before I got here because the Norwood Spanish elders needed it because one of them was injured. I don't mind the busses, though, and in fact one of our goals this week is to talk to at least one person whenever we get on the bus. That can be challenging, but it's a fun challenge. 

Things here in Cincy are moving along great! Just working on getting my feet wet, which has proved true not only in the sense of learning the area, but also literally so with all the rain the past few days. It hasn't slowed the work down though! As I said last week, we have a quadruple baptism planned for March 27th; a 31 year old black woman named Shawntae along with her 3 oldest kids. She has 7 kids in all, and none of them are older than 11! They have a lot of support from the ward members, which is great to see! I've only been here for a week, but I already like this ward a lot! I've even met a few people who are related to other members that I've known in past areas, so that's been cool talking with them. They were surprised yesterday when I told them that I have always been a diehard Reds fan, probably because I live out West! :) It would be the coolest thing if I got to go to a Reds game before I went home. Our ward mission leader, Bro. Martin, whose family lives up in Wilmington, pretty much works for the Reds, and he said he would work on getting me to a game that falls on Monday, for obvious reasons. 

This has been a fun area to learn about, the history of the Church here is very rich and the members here are proud of that fact. They do a great job of getting us involved in things, and so the least we can do is return the favor. Obviously, they are our best means for successful missionary work and we need to take advantage. By the way, it's the only ward that we cover, but it takes in the same amount of area that we work in. A lot of the members work for Proctor and Gamble or the Reds or Kroger (the local grocery place, they are everywhere) or some other company, and so of course they have lots of money but they are still very humble. Well, this ought to be an eventful week, with Zone Conference on Wednesday and moving into a new place on Friday! Sheesh, we'll have like half the mission there to help us move! Only a slight exaggeration, we'll really have 7; but hey, many hands make light work, right?

It's in a good location near several stores and what-not, plus no bus stop is more than 5 minutes away which is nice. We live in a nice place right now, but it takes 10 minutes to get to a bus stop, so this will save us time and energy. I think I answered all the questions, but I'm sure there are more to come. :) Sounds like ward conference was spiritual. Pres. Cooper and Bis. Hoopes are both great men, wish I had been there to listen to them. Well, by the next ward conference, I should be! And good luck on your upcoming talk, I'm confident you will say what the Lord wants said. Hope everyone in the family is doing well!! I'm grateful to have this privilege of serving in such a promising area (again) where the Church is doing really well! Thank you for your continued love, support, and prayers in my behalf! Have another great week!