The First Week!

Where to begin?? There is so much to talk about so I'll start at the end of the MTC.

The last Sunday at the MTC was awesome! I was called to give the talk in sacrament meeting, everyone needs to prepare one but 2 people (usually a sister and an Elder) get called randomly right before, I had a feeling it would be me too, haha! Monday was good and it went fast. We had to leave the MTC at 3:30 am Tuesday morning so I stayed up with the other Elders because there was no point to sleeping. We flew to Detroit then from there to Syracuse. It was snowing when we got there and it was really cool. We met President Wirthlin and drove to the mission home. We got there, had a brief overview of the mission and then went to bed. We got up and went to the church building for more instruction and transfers. My companions name is Elder Sanders from Spanish Fork Utah. He is cool and we get along great. Then we drove about 3 hours to our area. The area is Hudson but we live in Claverack. The area is the very bottom right corner of the mission.

 Here is my area in a nutshell. The area is basicaly the ghettos, the houses are old, the streets are weird, the town I live in celebrated its 232nd birthday this year, my apartment is small and is one of the oldest buildings in the town, the streetlights hang from wires, the people are somewhat poor, there are bed bugs in this state (thankfully not in my apartment!!) the tap water tastes bad b/c it comes from the Hudson river and it's cold but it's only in the low 40's-30's. Overall, I love this town!! The people are awesome and friendly too.

So for Thanksgiving Elder Sanders and I went to an investigator families house and it was great, after dinner we went back to the aptm. for weekly planning which takes about 3 hours. Afterwards the same investigator family invited us over to help put Christmas ornaments on their tree which was awesome because it's my favorite Christmas tradition. I've only had one sit-down-and-teach lesson to man who has already been taught the lessons but has a hard time remembering so it was great practice. There aren't many new investigators which is why . My branch contains 20 members give or take 0 (not including investigators or visitors), it doesn't have a primary, the youngest person is 17 and it mainly consists of older women. There are 5 men in priest quorum. So basicly it's Priesthood and relief society.  

So far I am really enjoying it here and I hope to teach and bless many lives in Hudson and in the overall mission. I am already beginning to love the people and my companion is a great trainer. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ so much and want to share it with everyone! I want to be the best missionary I can to bring the New York His truth!

~Elder Reyne!

The Elders in my zone. The last four on the right were in my district the rest went to Jacksonville Florida

The Sisters and Elders in my district, the girls went to Florida.

My favorite thing to put on!!!