Zarahemla Week 1 - First week in the field

(The keyboards are a little different so please pardon any mistakes)

This week has been super busy, but things are going great!

After saying some last goodbyes at the MTC on Monday, we finally set out early Tuesday morning. After a full day of travelling, we finally made it to Montréal! The Mission President and his wife are awesome, and they were so cool to finally meet. That night we ate homemade food for the first time in SO long, and it was amazing. We each had a short meeting with the President that night, and we were all super stressed and excited to find out which area we would go and which language(s) we would be speaking! We weren't going to find out until the following afternoon.

That next morning, we got up early, ate another great homemade meal at the mission home, and then headed down to the mission office where we would have a short orientation and then get assigned an area and a trainer! We were all super excited. After the short orientation meeting, we went into a chapel where the President announced each missionary's area, language(s), and trainer. You'll never believe where I got assigned. I'm in the Zarahemla North area, speaking Spanish (and French most of the time)! The Zarahemla ward is coincidentaly the same exact ward that we visited in April! Isn't that crazy? Yesterday at church I told a few members that I remembered that I had been there only a few months ago, and they actually remembered! Hermana Lopez, who lent us a Spanish hymn book and who my dad talked to for a bit, says hi! The members are super nice, and I'm super excited to get to know all of them.

My trainer is Elder Colunga and he's great. He's super good at French, and he's fluent in Spanish, so he's been helping me a lot in the languages. When we go contacting (which is when we basically go out in the city and find people who are interested) we mostly do it in French, and he's been helping me a lot with that. It's scary to talk to people in another language that you barely know! I've tried a few times, and they don't usually understand me well, but it's good practice. It'll come, I just have to be patient. Most of the time we just ride the metro back and forth and talk to people, which gets a bit awkward, but I'm sure I'll get used to it 

At my apartment we have 2 other Elders, Elder Tueller and Elder Brenchley, and they're awesome. I was looking through the cookbook that I brought with me, and I was craving these cinnamon muffins that my mom sometimes makes, and surprisingly we had everything I needed to make them so I did! The other Elders loved them and they were gone within only a day. Since we have limited money, usually we just eat super simple things at the apartment each day and don't have enough money to eat out at all, so food gets bland pretty quick. Good thing I have the cookbook and most of the things are pretty cheap to make! I only need enough time.

Anyway, everything is going great. I'm so excited to be here, and I'm super happy with the experience so far. Love you all so much! Hope you are doing well!

Elder James