"I could tell you're new because you look so innocent. And you're tall!"

June 17, 2016

^^I get comments about my height daily. Idk why...Maybe because of the height difference between me and sis atkinson? (She's 5'0 flat)

Hello everyone!! Guess what!! Week 1 is DOWN! To prove it, sweet sister spendlove even made a cake for me that says it! (Picture attached)

Wow let me just start off by saying how much I love the Bronx!!! I feel so blessed every day to be here! The people are so ready and so open to the gospel it's incredible! It's sad, but their circumstances help open their hearts to any available light. Also, I'm definitely a fan of the daily warnings like "you girls best not be here after dark! You go on home now!" And the "hey God bless you and if you need any help you give us boys here a holler!" Apparently some of the gangs here call us Jesus sisters and swear to have our back. It's so great. Like let me tell you, we get more doors held open for us here than I did at byui. YEAH. like the scariest people here are the white people, like you gotta have some serious street cred to be white and living in the Bronx hahahaha (sister Atkinson thinks the woman here are way scarier cuz they all walk around with their 5 in long nails ready to scratch your eyes out if you glance at their boyfriend)(speaking of which, we saw a SERIOUS cat fight outside our apartment window the other day haha)

So maybe one of the best things about the Bronx is that we do ZERO tracting and street contacting, it's all less active and referral work. I LOVE IT. Apparently there's this daily bible verse app that the church advertises free bibles on, and tons of people in the Bronx request it. Lucky them, we show up with not one free book, but two! And sometimes a pamphlet and a pass a long card! We get a ton of investigators from there. We also have like 600 less actives to reactivate hahaha so we never have any down time here! It's the best!

Also church on Sunday was quite the experience hahaha. Let's just say that 95% of the ward are first generation Mormons, so I guess it could be said that I'm not in Utah anymore hahaha. It was great though! Joanna came for all three hours and absolutley LOVED it. Man I'm so glad I know for sure that I'll be here for her baptism!
Speaking of which, we secured a bap date with Samantha this week! She lives with her recent convert aunt and is about 20 years old. She will be so great and we are super excited for her!

One of my favorite investigators ( can I do that?? Haha) is cheryl, probably just cuz she is your typical black lady who calls us her babies and speaks/reacts so expressively. When we visited her last week I legit started laughing while we were holding hands in a circle praying while she's like PRAISE JESUS LET HIS NAME BE PRAISED and moving our hands all over the place hahaha it was the best part of my day. Bronx, man.

Being a missionary is just the best thing ever and I would just love to be one for like the rest of my life. Maybe with like 6 month breaks in between though so I can sleep in and wear pants occasionally. It's the best/hardest thing ever.

Today for pday we went shopping on Fordham road, which is kinda like the 5th Ave of the Bronx so we could buy Bronx pants. Don't know what those are? Pic coming next week.

This email is all over the place, oh well. Here are some of my favorite moments from the past week:
1. Sis Atkinson went to grab a pole on the bus but accidently grabbed some lady's hair instead. I don't think she noticed.
2.5. I've met so many Jamaicans!!!!! They all tell me not to go to Kingston hahaha
2. We taught a family where the 12 year old was named sexy and we were leaving and I was like "bye sexy!" And in that moment I thought I was going to be sent home from my mission
3. The sweetest less active lady crystal interrupted us in the middle of our lesson to ask us how president Monson was doing. When we told her, she got so sad and said that she used to imagine his voice when she was living in the streets so she could fall asleep at night. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard!!!!!

With that, I know that prophets are ordained of God to lead us and guide us. They are seriously the best! We are so fortunate to have a living prophet on earth! I love president monson!!

And you! I love you! Remember how fortunate we are to have the gospel available to us, some people have been searching for this their whole lives!!

1. Happy birthday week!!I love sis spendlove