HEY THERE PEOPLE OF NORMAL LIFE

so here I am in Virginia wondering what in the hails bells i have gotten myself into.  This is the weirdest thing in the world but it's cool.  They say the first transfer is way weird but after that things start getting normal.  So yeah I'M HERE IN VIRGINIA my area is called Manchester it's in this place called Midlothian i don't even know but

MY ADDRESS IS:

4612 Valley Overlook Drive #207

Midlothian, VA

23112

Okay now that's out of the way my trainer's name is Sister Newell.  She's from alpine and has been out for about a year.  She's a Nauvoo sister on an outbound assignment.  She is wonderful wow i'm kind of shocked that i like her.  haha not in a bad way but i just thought me and my trainer wouldn't get along and i just feel so blessed that we do!  She's such a good teacher and she helps me learn things by example and not by making me feel dumb.  Fun fact: we do tract.  and I tracted for the first time on Sunday and i felt so awkward it was almost unbearable.  one lady let us in out of like 20 houses and she was a black lady named genieveve and she was dooooope haha we taught her the first lesson (my first real lesson!) and it was really cool.  I'm not sure if she was really interested but she told us to come back friday but one lesson about the mish is that i've already learned is that appointments always falls through but maybe gen with follow through and we'll have another lesson. 

My mission president and his wife are so sweet.  like they say i love you when we talk on the phone and they are seriously just so cute i love them.  So funny story my trainer's last area was this place called bristow, it used to be in the DC south mission but now it's part of the richmond mission.  So she had this baptism yesterday for a family that her and her old companion taught and she reallllllly wanted to be there.  So she got permission from the mission pres for us to go to bristow yesterday, go to the baptism, then spend the night here in the house the sisters in bristow live in and now we are headed back to machester later today.  It was really cool to see a baptism, i can't imagine what it would be like to see someone i taught the gospel to get baptized.  The hard thing about that thought is that I really don't think i have a testimony of missionary work.  I feel like so many missionaries just teach to get the baptism, and the person they baptize isn't really converted so they just end up falling away.  I don't know if this is making any sense but it's just something that's been weighing on my mind a lot while being here (for the past what 3 weeks hehe).  I just wanna make sure that if i were teaching someone it would be for real.  Not just a caught up in the moment let's get baptized, but like they really know the gospels true and have a desire to follow christ, so they choose to be baptized.

So sad story of the week mom my favorite face wash, the one we order from fran, exploded in my suit case.  luckily it was inside a ziplock bag so it didn't get all over my stuff but still.  there's not much left.  I was a very sad human.  So maybe you could get in touch with fran and see if she could order me some more.  Okay also thanks for the package, it was totally here when i got here and ya know my companion thinks i am so cool with my looney toons comforter.  haha  okay and one more thing, actually two.  could you mail me a copy of the insurance card so i can get my perscription filled?  and are my shoes waterproof?  we never sprayed them with that stuff so i've been having anxiety.

moving on.... my apartment is SO NICE.  we live with another set of sisters but we each have our own bathroom and THERE'S A GYM  haha holy crap heavenly father is just really lookin out for me.  what a guy. 

So mom I FINALLY GOT TO TALK TO KELL like right before we boarded the plane to richmond i tried calling one last time and she FINALLY answered but we only got to talk for like 5 mins but still it was good.  I don't really know what else to say..... the members here are freakin nuts like they are SO NICE TO US and they feed us like every night which is good and bad.  The bishop here is way cool too.  Sister newell and I are pretty lost though cause she's new to area too but we are learning.  I'll only get to be comps with her until the beginning of april cause that's when she's goes back to nauvoo so that's pretty sad.  I'll have to get a new trainer and that'll be way awkward.  well yeah have a good week you people i hope you are enjoying the warmth of vegas while i'm freezing my butt off in virginia.  (i was about to say freezing my A off but then i imagined G&G VO reading it and i decided that would be awkard hahaha)

GOOD LUCK TO THE SWAGGIN FAM ON THE DOGTOWN HALF i hope you all kill it i'm so depressed i won't be there ugh seriously that sounds so fun.  but i'm havin fun kinda here so it's okay.  i think haden will beat everyone so my money's on him.  My P day is monday but everything was closed yesterday cause of presidents day so yeah.  talk to ya next week latttterrrsssss

-abby