April 4, 2011

Hello Everyone,
   WOW!!! Where to begin? I guess I should start by saying I am in Florida! YAY!!!!!!! My first area is the St. Petersburg area and My companions and I serve in Pinellas Park County (yes, I still have companions (plural), more to come!) Just getting here was quite the adventure. I had some of my first experiences in contacting and sharing the gospel with other people right in the airport! It was really cool. Turns out the church is so incredible that it is pretty easy to talk about it with everyone I meet. We had turbulence flying into Tampa for the last 45 minutes. We almost had to fly to Ft Meyers for gas because our poor pilot couldn't land! All of us missionaries were shoved into the last two back rows and we were having a grand old time being thrown around! Apparently a lot of people were throwing up in the middle of the plane, but we were just laughing!
What can I say about my Mission President-President Summerhays? He is incredible. What an honor it will be to serve with and for him. I am so excited for the plans that he has for our mission. We had an incredible talk our first night and I know he is truly called of God. What we discussed was really personal, so I won't share, but rest-assured that I am in good hands and that there will be miracles that happen every day on my mission.
My companions: About three weeks ago I had a thought that I would have a native companion. I told my Teacher, Hermana Rex about it and she said that would be REALLY good for me. So I started to pray for a native, and I fasted this last week that I could have a companion that was kind, excited for the work, and patient with me.
The day after I arrived (I slept on the floor of a closet my first night! Oh also, we had five new sisters to the mission and four new elders, first time in our mission history that there are more new sisters than elders!), I met my companions. It was so cool because each trainer got up and told a little about him or herself, the time they had been in the mission and then, which missionary they were to train. I knew the second they read their names that they were going to be my companions, when they said my name all I could think was, yeah, I know. So my new and INCREDIBLE companions are Hermana Gallegos (my native) of Chile (and more recently Miami) and Hermana Dollahite of Orem Utah. Both are amazing missionaries and are so excited to shake things up here in St. Pete.
We have quite a few investigators and less-active members that we are working with. In fact we have so many people we do and can visit we don't really have time for tracting like missionaries of old! That is ok though; that is the direction the Church wants missionary work to go. This area hasn't had a baptism since December, but the three of us will be changing that really soon. We mostly drive a car because we are responsible for the entire county as we are not only the only sister missionaries in the zone, but also the only Spanish missionaries in the zone! So even though it is a predominantly Non-Hispanic area, every lesson and person we teach is speaking Spanish.
I wish I had more time to tell you just how incredible it is to be a missionary. I LOVE the field. It is ten thousand times better than the MTC, and I loved the MTC. My Spanish is coming along, I can usually understand at least the topic of conversation, and I can almost always add something meaningful. It is amazing how much you can love someone you have barely met. The people I teach are of the humblest circumstances and face incredible hardships. I am so honored to have been chosen to serve them on behalf of my Father.
Like I said, I wish I had time to write more, but I will write about my work every Monday, so I guess all I can say is , "Tune in next week!" I would love to stick around and write all day, but I would rather be out doing the work, so that is what I am going to do!
Love you, stay true and stay strong,
Hermana Levanger