July 31, 2012

Greetings from New Freaking York!!!!!!!!!

I'm finally here! It's crazy! In a way it feels like I've already been here forever, but then I realize I've only been here a week (not that I'm complaining that it feels like I've been here a while, just a comment). I already LOVE it here!! I'll try to tell you EVERYTHING I can so hold on to your hats!


When we got to Rochester President Christianson, Sister Christianson and the APs came and picked us up. President and Sister Christianson are AWESOME!!! I love them already! They are so loving and kind and took great care of us! We went from the airport to the mission home in Fairport where we spent the night. We had dinner and met the senior couples from the office and they went over orientation type things with us.
The next day we went to some of the sites for the first time. We started at Alvin Smith's grave, which is right by the corner with the four churches (there are actually kind of five). Then we went to the Smith farm and went in the log home and in the Sacred Grove. It was sooo cool to do that with President since he knows so much. The spirit was so strong too. It was cool that we went to the sites in that order because we were able to really get a sense of how Joseph Smith would have felt at the time and how much confusion he would have felt. I felt so peaceful in the Sacred Grove. It's really powerful, just like you said, Mom. I really loved the upper room in the log home, though, where Moroni appeared to Joseph. It was really surreal to be in there as I was HOLDING a Book of Mormon in the same space that it was REVEALED!!! Talk about exciting! Oh my, I can't even express how cool it is to be here where the Restoration happened! It's opened my eyes to how Joseph would have felt and how much of a family matter the Restoration was. His family was so supportive every step of the way, which reminds me of my freaking awesome family!
After the sites we went to transfer meeting where we met our companions! My official trainer is Sister Alex Adams from Mesa, Arizona, but for the first two weeks of the transfer (now just one week left) we are in a trio with Sister Jayci Barrus, the one I was emailing before I came out into the field! She is going home next Tuesday because of school, so until then it's the three of us! It's really great! Sister Barrus trained Sister Adams, so Sister Adams has only been out 3 months! It just shows you how awesome she is that she is already training me after such a short time!
Our area is the Newark North area. It encompasses the northern part of Newark and goes up into Sodus. Look it up on a map. Ha ha I still get so turned around without mountains. Sodus is FREAKING BEAUTIFUL! It's right on Lake Ontario and it's insanely gorgeous! We have taught 2 lessons at a park that's literally right on the lake. Everything here is so beautiful. Newark and Palmyra (where the sites are obviously) are villages, so that means they are small (not even big enough to be classified as a town). Everything here is sooooo green! There are farms everywhere too! And the houses are sooo cute and old. I seriously can't even express how beautiful it is here. The weather hasn't been too bad either. I haven't melted yet! Ha ha. The humidity doesn't seem too bad. Maybe Heavenly Father is blessing me with mild weather so I can gradually get used to it. 

Our schedule is structured in a way that we spend half of our day at one of the sites and then the other half in our area. We rotate between the Book of Mormon Publication Site, the Smith Farm and the Hill Cumorah. The days we work at the Peter Whitmer farm we spend the whole day there since it's farther to travel there. Our first day at the Whit is tomorrow so I'm excited! We've worked all of the other sites and I've even led tours ALL BY MYSELF! Our first shift when I got here was at the Smith Farm and the second tour I ever took was completely by myself. It was super scary but the Spirit was there. Plus everything at the Smith farm is things we've learned our entire life and it's easy to teach the Restoration there. The Book of Mormon Publication Site (BOMPS for short) has a ton more details to remember. It takes you through the entire process of printing and binding the Book of Mormon. They gave me site manuals to study that I will continue to study throughout my mission the same as if it were a language I was learning.
Between shifts at the site, personal, companion, training (we have an extra hour of study for the first 12 weeks of my mission that's the new training program the church put out) and site study, we don't get a whole ton of time to go proselyting yet. But we still get to do a lot of work. We've taught like 6 lessons since I got here and guess what? We had a baptism on Sunday!!!! So cool for my first Sunday. I got to help teach her her final two lessons last week and everything.

Holy cow, I wish I could write more but my time on the computer is about up and I still need to write President. I'll try to write you a letter too! I love and miss you all sooooo much! It makes me so happy to hear you are all doing well! Kiss them babies for me!

Lots of love!!!!!

Sister Butters