First email from Indiana

I'm in the mission field! I can barely believe it! I have so much to tell you, but I hope I can get it all down in time! We have lots to do today, so we're kind of in a rush, but I'll tell you what I can!

 

Tuesday morning, I woke up at 2:15 (yes in the morning, luckily there were no shower lines at that time.) to go to the travel office with Elder Wilson. We got there and were bused off to the airport to begin our adventure. I called you guys, which it was great to hear your voices, even if it was 6 in the morning and you all had groggy voices. :) And then we were off! The first faces we saw off of the airport in Indiana were the assistants, and President and Sister Cleveland. They greeted all of us with hugs (other than Sister Cleveland of course) and they were just awesome. Then we spent the night in the mission home. There was 38 of us, so it was pretty cramped, but still an awesome night. I slept like a rock. President Cleveland had a little meeting with us, and he's the man! You can definitely tell he was a basketball coach. One of the Elders described him as Clint Eastwood mixed with Mitt Romney mixed with Elder Holland. He definitely pumps you up when he talks. Anyway, I can already tell I'm not making a lot of sense in this email, but there's just so much I want to tell you! Also, Sister Cleveland's cooking is way good! But of course, not as good as yours Mom. :)

 

The next morning we woke up and headed straight to transfer meeting. There I met my trainer, Elder Ernest, and found out where I would be serving. I am serving in a suburb of Indianapolis called Avon. I'll talk more about the area in a minute. Elder Ernest is the man! We get along super well, and he's a goofball! But he's also super spiritual. He's taught me tons! He's a great teacher, and he's really good at talking to people and breaking the ice when we knock on doors. That's something I've really been trying to work at. Because Avon's a new area (there was a set of Sisters here before, but last transfer they added a set of Elders too), we're really in the finding mode. So we've been doing lots of door knocking and going through the former investigators. We're really trying to get the members here to help us find people to teach, because it's hard to find people that are interested. Avon's a pretty rich place so there are a lot of people that aren't really open. There are also some really poor parts, like a few trailer parks, and that's where we get the most doors opened up. So please do member missionary work back home! I've realized more while I've been out here how important the members are to missionary work!

 

We were able to teach a few lessons this week, and there are also some other notable events. On Friday we taught an old man named Lee. He's like 84, and he's super hard to teach. He's really nice, but he just kept on rambling on. We taught him most of the restoration, especially Joseph Smith's story, but right after we'd make a point he'd change the subject. So I didn't think much sunk in... He's a Quaker, and he's written his own books on religion and leadership and things. He's an interesting old guy. Here's one of my favorite quotes from the lesson: "You know, China's always trying to give us bad things! I had two cats that died from cat food sent from China, that the Chinese poisoned. And Betty lost 5 cats from the poisoned food!" Anyway, that kind of gives you a taste of Lee.

 

Saturday was an exciting day. We were out tracting and it started sprinkling a little. We knocked on a few doors, and then it started pouring. And I mean a total down pour. It's like someone had a huge bucket and just dumped it all out at once. We were completely soaked. We kept knocking on doors for a little while in it, but then realized people probably wouldn't even open their doors it was so bad. I've never seen rain like that in Utah, that's for sure. And Elder Ernest says he's never seen it that bad here either, and he's been here 17 months. We went back to the apartment and changed. Everything was wet. Luckily our scriptures and books were good, but it was pretty crazy. And we waited out the storm at the apartment.

 

That night, we taught Spencer, who is a guy that's been meeting with the missionaries for 7 years. He's been pretty sick lately, and he told us that it made him really think about not putting it off anymore. We invited him to be baptized, and it's looking pretty good. He didn't say yes, but he said "I'm sure you guys know this scripture, but there's something in the Book of Mormon about not procrastinating the day of your repentance...Maybe it's about time I did get baptized." It was an awesome lesson.

 

Anyway, I hope this email made sense. I love all of you, and I love this gospel! Stay true, and always be a missionary!

 

-Elder Tom Hill