Week One in the Mission Field

        This was my first week of being in the mission field and I've got to say I loved it. I am currently serving in the Sebring mission area. I first started by flying to Atlanta from Portland. It was a long but very quiet flight. Afterwards I met two other missionaries who joined me going from Atlanta to Orlando. They were pretty cool. We met the Mission President in Orlando who took us to find our companions. I first met the two other missionaries I am staying with who are Elder Kent and Elder Rice. After a little while I met my companion, who is Elder Kelly. After I signed a lot of paperwork we took off for our area. Sebring is one of the most southern areas of the whole mission zone. The missionaries most commonly refer to it as "banishment". So we drove 2 hours south to our area.

  Right now I am in a district with two groups of missionaries and we live together. At first they were the most cluttered group of people. There was trash everywhere. So we spent the whole day cleaning and rearranging the whole house. Then after we were done, we went shopping so I could get some things I needed. There are a lot of older couples in Sebring and we have a really good lady that schedules all our dinner dates. We literally get fed every day that we want, and some that we don't want, but sometimes the best food is cash, and we were given some cash for dinner this night. So I cooked pasta that was lit.

          On Thursday we had a District conference and I got to meet a lot of super cool people. We went to a church building and talked about how our weeks were. I also got to meet Elder Baymax, then we raided a DQ. Later that day we all decided that we wanted to play D and D so we all made characters. That took a lot of time. But not much of an eventful day.

          As the week went on we needed to attend Zone Conference, so on Friday we had to drive 2 hours back to Orlando for a devotional. After that we were fed pizza and received our Christmas packages. Then we went and got my bike, which was pretty nice too. That day was not that fun, but we were absolutely happy to be back home. We then had dinner with the Bishop’s family, and let me say he was a different kind of person. He and his family are the kind of people that I call home. After eating more pizza, we talked about all kinds of things. I will just list some of them: Nerf guns, real guns, who is the most dangerous missionary (I won, "I think him, he looks smart, it's terrifying"), what is important that people know, and how we should teach. After that whole maze of questions we left and went back home.

         On Saturday, the day started not like the other. We started by going over to Sister Knapp's house and doing service. I was glad to get on a small John Deer mower and just drive. After doing that for about 1 hour I finished and helped pick up some sticks, and then we got some "Gatorade" which is actually diesel and I lit the thing on fire because I had experience with it before. As this bonfire is going she comes back with of course, more pizza. After we ate we then went and played some tethered ball (I won of course). After we left we were pretty tired so I took a nap. That day we were fed by a family that flies down for the winter from Minnesota. They had a lot of cool stories and I loved how he talked about hunting pigs. 

            On Sunday I was lucky enough to attend church council and later prepare and bless the sacrament. It was a Christmas devotional and the bishop talked about Grace. It was a good lesson and after the meeting closed I helped put the sacrament away. We met with our mission counselor and talked about what we had done this week. This day we were not fed pizza, but a really good lasagna. We played some more D and D and eventually lost all sense of time and as someone yawned and looked at their phone, and found it was 3 am.

            Today was P-day and it was the most fun because we went shopping for Santa hats and then met with our district for games. First we played some basketball, then I played some corn whole (I won). After that we were fed some good burgers. Later we went to a college campus and played beach volleyball. My team wasn't the greatest but it was the most fun thing I have done this whole time.

             All in all this has been a super cool experience and I am extremely grateful for all the people that are here with me in this new world and area. Thank you to my Mom and Dad who helped me to get this point. I am extremely grateful for this experience and wouldn't trade it for anywhere else!

Elder Waite