Hello all! Florida is great!!
Just kidding. I'm in the arctic. :) But really HELLO FROM NEW YORK!!! First things first, New York is COLD. Although! It appears that I am already kind of acclimating because this morning we went running in about 4 inches of snow and I only wore a hoodie and I was ok! Actually if I had worn gloves I would have been ok. Still, quite the improvement. For those of you who have known me through winter (cough Austin are you reading this) your jaws are likely on your keyboard. Well GOOD. Hmph. Look at me triumphing snow and all that. Yeah.
Also, everyone says that this is the mildest winter in the past decade. Man does God love me.
Next! My trainer! Sister Fetuli is from Tonga and is learning English. She is happy all the time! But not the annoying bouncy I-want-to-kill-you happy. Just like content. Nothing really ruffles her feathers. It's nice. My favorite thing so far is that she says "da funny fing is" all the time. It doesn't even fit the context. But it's so good! "Da funny fing is we need to go to da store." Hahahaha sorry. Love it. So you're probably all wondering how that works out with my Spanish. Since this area is not highly Spanish, I just teach hispanic investigators on my own. There are only 4 Spanish speaking sisters in the mission. President says that eventually I'll definitely be in one of those areas, but for now he feels that I should be here.
Here! Ha I didn't even tell you my first area! I'm in Shortsville. What a silly name. We spend most of our time in a town called Canandaigua. What a BOSS name. Also I live in Farmington. Less boss.
President Christianson is AMAZING. Him and his wife are absolutely wonderful. They care so much about us and they are also both really smart which I love. Our first day here we got to go to some of the sites, including the Sacred Grove, of which I think he sent a picture home. It was great.
Ok more things about New York:
-The houses here are all old and beautiful! Besides the trailer parks. There is very little development here but people always seem to be moving. Where do they move you might ask? Like...5 minutes down the road. All the time. Hopping from house to house all within the same everything. It's so strange to me! But whatever works I suppose. I'll be sending pictures of the beautiful houses before too long.
-EVERYONE smokes here. When I first heard that before I started meeting people I thought, "Very funny. I'm from North Carolina. I'll be fine." Wrong! Everyone smokes here! If I come home with lung cancer...just kidding I'll be fine.
-I can't find cracked wheat anywhere! What the what?! Here I was all excited to start my new breakfast life and no dice. Instead I have been eating oatmeal which is a sad sad substitute. No matter. Thanks for NOTHING New York.
-Never use the highway! There are tollbooths everywhere that actually charge you. In Utah there are signs saying you will get charged but no tollbooths. Not here! No no. So you always use by roads to get everywhere. Also I am starting out driving here since Sister Fetuli is aversed to driving in NY. I can't say I blame her because she's from a small island in the pacific. This white stuff doesn't agree with her background. I slid once this week but my brilliant Drivers Ed information came back to my mind and we were safe :)
-My acne se fue! Tis gone! The east coast is BRILLIANT! Kinda cool, yeah? I'm ok with that. One less thing to worry about!
-One of my investigators is from Puerto Rico (one that I teach by myself since she's Spanish) thought that I was a native Spanish speaker! She just thought I had been born in Spain since I'm pasty white and I have a "funny accent." Ha! Folks do you know what this means?! I can consider myself fluent!! Yeeeaaahhh! I slipped up one night cause I was rill tired and that's when she asked what my first language was. Before then she couldn't tell! Yes yes yes!
-The Dressmans sent me Skyline chili a while back and this week I ate it...it might just be that I miss the Dressman an INSANE amount...but it was really good! What is happening to me?!!
-Right now we only work at the Visitors Centers on weekends because it is too blasted cold and not many people come out. Therefore, we are full proslyeting right now and will switch to half and half about April or May.
-I'm going to keep my address the same my whole mission- the Perinton Halls address- because when I move they'll still be able to get it to me. That's the address of the mission home and we have meetings every week so they are great about getting everything to me. When I first got to NY I had about 6 letters and a package waiting for me. Oh happy day! I could have cried from pure joy. CRIED I tell you.
Ok if I missed anything then let me know...I'm open to questions :) I'm sure I'll have a lot more to talk about next week. Oh and I'll always be emailing on Mondays now. I've had a lot to think about of course, but it's still processing and I'm not sure how to get it down just yet. Next week I will!
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Que tengan una buena semana,
Just kidding. I'm in the arctic. :) But really HELLO FROM NEW YORK!!! First things first, New York is COLD. Although! It appears that I am already kind of acclimating because this morning we went running in about 4 inches of snow and I only wore a hoodie and I was ok! Actually if I had worn gloves I would have been ok. Still, quite the improvement. For those of you who have known me through winter (cough Austin are you reading this) your jaws are likely on your keyboard. Well GOOD. Hmph. Look at me triumphing snow and all that. Yeah.
Also, everyone says that this is the mildest winter in the past decade. Man does God love me.
Next! My trainer! Sister Fetuli is from Tonga and is learning English. She is happy all the time! But not the annoying bouncy I-want-to-kill-you happy. Just like content. Nothing really ruffles her feathers. It's nice. My favorite thing so far is that she says "da funny fing is" all the time. It doesn't even fit the context. But it's so good! "Da funny fing is we need to go to da store." Hahahaha sorry. Love it. So you're probably all wondering how that works out with my Spanish. Since this area is not highly Spanish, I just teach hispanic investigators on my own. There are only 4 Spanish speaking sisters in the mission. President says that eventually I'll definitely be in one of those areas, but for now he feels that I should be here.
Here! Ha I didn't even tell you my first area! I'm in Shortsville. What a silly name. We spend most of our time in a town called Canandaigua. What a BOSS name. Also I live in Farmington. Less boss.
President Christianson is AMAZING. Him and his wife are absolutely wonderful. They care so much about us and they are also both really smart which I love. Our first day here we got to go to some of the sites, including the Sacred Grove, of which I think he sent a picture home. It was great.
Ok more things about New York:
-The houses here are all old and beautiful! Besides the trailer parks. There is very little development here but people always seem to be moving. Where do they move you might ask? Like...5 minutes down the road. All the time. Hopping from house to house all within the same everything. It's so strange to me! But whatever works I suppose. I'll be sending pictures of the beautiful houses before too long.
-EVERYONE smokes here. When I first heard that before I started meeting people I thought, "Very funny. I'm from North Carolina. I'll be fine." Wrong! Everyone smokes here! If I come home with lung cancer...just kidding I'll be fine.
-I can't find cracked wheat anywhere! What the what?! Here I was all excited to start my new breakfast life and no dice. Instead I have been eating oatmeal which is a sad sad substitute. No matter. Thanks for NOTHING New York.
-Never use the highway! There are tollbooths everywhere that actually charge you. In Utah there are signs saying you will get charged but no tollbooths. Not here! No no. So you always use by roads to get everywhere. Also I am starting out driving here since Sister Fetuli is aversed to driving in NY. I can't say I blame her because she's from a small island in the pacific. This white stuff doesn't agree with her background. I slid once this week but my brilliant Drivers Ed information came back to my mind and we were safe :)
-My acne se fue! Tis gone! The east coast is BRILLIANT! Kinda cool, yeah? I'm ok with that. One less thing to worry about!
-One of my investigators is from Puerto Rico (one that I teach by myself since she's Spanish) thought that I was a native Spanish speaker! She just thought I had been born in Spain since I'm pasty white and I have a "funny accent." Ha! Folks do you know what this means?! I can consider myself fluent!! Yeeeaaahhh! I slipped up one night cause I was rill tired and that's when she asked what my first language was. Before then she couldn't tell! Yes yes yes!
-The Dressmans sent me Skyline chili a while back and this week I ate it...it might just be that I miss the Dressman an INSANE amount...but it was really good! What is happening to me?!!
-Right now we only work at the Visitors Centers on weekends because it is too blasted cold and not many people come out. Therefore, we are full proslyeting right now and will switch to half and half about April or May.
-I'm going to keep my address the same my whole mission- the Perinton Halls address- because when I move they'll still be able to get it to me. That's the address of the mission home and we have meetings every week so they are great about getting everything to me. When I first got to NY I had about 6 letters and a package waiting for me. Oh happy day! I could have cried from pure joy. CRIED I tell you.
Ok if I missed anything then let me know...I'm open to questions :) I'm sure I'll have a lot more to talk about next week. Oh and I'll always be emailing on Mondays now. I've had a lot to think about of course, but it's still processing and I'm not sure how to get it down just yet. Next week I will!
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Que tengan una buena semana,
Hermana Ray
PS Da funny fing is that my companion actually says "Sisteh Ray" because that's just how it comes out due to her accent. First Elder Poirier, now my trainer. Perrrfect.
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| Natalie and President & Sister Christianson |
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