005

15 August 2011

Dear Homefront,

The new address is:
9624 Hanover Crossing Rd. Apt. H
Mechanicsville VA, 23116

Transfers are every six weeks, so if you plan to send something to me (letter, package, etc), don't send it on week five until you know whether I'm moving or staying in one place.

It's a small, but comfortable appartment. Large enough that four elders could share it comfortably. But it's just Elder Beardall and me right now. It has a full kitchen, two bedrooms (only one has beds), a split bathroom (shower and toilet on one side, sink on the other with a door in between), a couch and two desks.

The flights went fine, I slept through part of one and spoke with another elder through most of the other. I didn't get much opportunity to proselyte at the airport or on the flights. President and Sister Perry met us at the airport along with the two Assistants. President and Sister Perry are very open and carring. President doesn't impose any additional rules specific to the mission. He leaves it up to the missionaries to interpret and follow the rules and guidlines found in the white handbook. The two Assistants are funny, and good missionaries. We loaded up everything in a trailer and drove back to the mission home wich is a comfortable cottage capable of hosting up to twenty missionaries at once. There, we were served dinner (Sister Perry is an amazing cook!), and were interviewed by the President.

The next morning, we went to a stake center and had a transfer meeting during which we met our trainers. Mine is Elder Beardall. He's from Rexburg, ID, and has been in the field for about nine months. He has a lot of responsibilities. He's a District Leader and my trainer, and we were "shotgunned." That's where two elders who have never served in a particular area get assigned to that area. We're serving in the Mechanicsville area, and working with the ward of the same name. Mostly we've been getting settled in and getting to know the ward and the area the past couple days, but we'll begin working full out very soon. The ward members here are so strong and helpful. They want to help us in any way they can, and they also love to feed us (of the next 18 days, we have 17 members signed up to feed us dinner. It's absolutly unheard of!). We do have a car, but we also have a mileage limit for each month, so I'm going to be calling the "car czar" Elder LeBaron (the senior missionary in charge of the mission fleet of cars and bikes) fairly soon about buying a used bike from the mission home, and if that doesn't yield results there's a WalMart fairly close by.

That's all I have to write thus far. P-Day is on Monday mission wide so that's when you can expect e-mails from here until I come home.

I love you all,
Elder Roberts

PS: Could you please send me that small green knife you kept? Then I may have you send me some extra supplies for my 72-hour kit. It depends on the selection they have at WalMart. Also, I forgot to grab my camera today, but next week I'll try to see if I can upload pictures and send them home. If I can't, I'll have them printed at a WalMart and mail copies home.