Friends/Family,
Week 1 in phoenix has been pretty awesome. It is wierd being in public around people who aren't missionaries...very wierd. I never realized how much we stood out until we saw the elders riding bikes one day. We are also on bikes! I am getting more graceful at dismounting my sweet man bike without a kickstand. I might add that my flashtec helmet completes the outfit haha. The first couple of days were pretty chill and we were just getting settled in and getting to know the area. Sister Belnap and I are opening a new area, and the ward that we are in is called the South Mountain ward in south phoenix. There is us, then a set of elders in one ward, so it's crazy splitting the area and stuff. We have some investigators lined up from the previous elders that were here, so we have appointments lined up for this week. Friday we organized all of our area book and mapped out our area and went exploring and contacted a bit. Saturday we went to a baptism of this lady that is like 80 years old and it was awesome. She started crying when she got into the font because she said the water was too cold haha. The elders felt soooo bad but we were prepared with hair dryers to dry her hair when she got out and that made her happy. She was a cute lady. Church on sunday was awesome because it was good to see the ward and get to know a few people. The bishop had all 4 of us introduce ourselves and share our testimonys, so that was a good opportunity. Our ward mission leader is amazing, his name is brother torres and he is a hoot. he loves missionary work, and actually served in phoenix a long time ago. He didn't know that the ward was getting sisters, and when he saw us he almost started crying and told us how happy he was and that he was going to put us to work. It is strange because both sister belnap and i are new to the area, so it's really nice to have brother torres and the other elders to help us know whats going on and stuff. we have some solid investigators that all want to get baptized so that's pretty sweet. i really like the ward so far, and they are all eager to help us in missionary work. the lady who taught relief society was amazing, she also served in phoenix a long time ago, and wants to do splits with us anytime. it's so nice to have people offer to help us.
we live with 2 other sisters who are covering the spanish area. they are seriously amazing and hilarious. sister kigeuta, and sister watson. sister kigeuta is hilarious, her real last name is borrows, but all the hispanics would make fun of her because borrows means donkey in spanish. she is from canada, and her grandma is native american, so kigueta is a name she received from one of the chiefs or something. you would never guess she is native american because she is like blonde with a huge smile and stuff haha i love her. she likes lord of the rings and went hiking in new zeland where they filmed the movies. sister watson is from sandy, and she is so sweet. she is such a good cook and is always cooking something up for us. she makes me laugh all the time and is such a sweetheart. our apartment is hilarious because we all sleep in one room, and it actually isn't that crowded. the other room in our place is our study room, then we have 2 bathrooms and a little kitchen. it is a blast even though there are cockroaches sometimes. our neighbors like to smoke and there are usually cop cars somewhere on the premisis, but it is sweet. the worst part though is we live on the 3rd floor and so we have to haul our bikes up and down the stairs all the time haha.
this week we have a "mission tour" with Elder Duncan from the 70 coming. i think it's kind of like a zone conference and some meetings and stuff, so it should be sweet. we also have a "sisters" meeting next week which should be fun. sister taylor (our mission president's wife) is awesome, and she will make it fun.
the last week of the mtc was crazy with everyone leaving and having to say goodbye to my elders and sisters. i was pretty much a solo sister for 3 days because everyone left by tuesday. it was so wierd in class, becaue it was me, elder hopkins, elder holbrook, and elder kennedy. haha and me and elder hopkins taught a lesson together, and that was so so wierd. it was fun traveling down here and being in real society for a change. i loved all of my experiences in the mtc and sometimes i get nastalgic about it, but its fun being in the real world and i love being a missionary. this week will be great with teaching lessons and the mission tour. i love president and sister taylor, they were so welcoming and they told us some stories about how pres. taylor had to wait for his visa for his mission to venezuela, so he knows how we feel. also their son went to ukraine on his mission and they have been their a few times. they got to go for the temple dedication because pres taylor is a writer for the deseret news so he got to go cover it. so it's great to be in their mission. i love it so far, and it will get better once we start teaching a lot and getting to know the area a lot better. i love you all and i am grateful for your prayers and support. i love being a missionary and i love the gospel. thank you all for everything!
sister demille
here is my address in phoenix:
sister amanda demille
915 W Alta Vista #3014
Phoenix, Arizona
85041
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