Sister Rachel Marie Crofts: Orem, Utah Mission--Eagle Mountain March 20th, 2017

Hello everyone!

It's been so long since my last email it feels like months! This first week of the real deal has been crazy, definitely nothing like the MTC!

My companion is Sister Hutchinson. She's about a foot shorter than me but super sweet! She just switched from being a Spanish missionary so we both have things to adjust to. She's from Mississippi. The place everyone knows how to spell but no one knows where it is! Haha! When we first became companions I found out that we were white washing an area- Basically we are both new to the Eagle Mountain area and have to start from scratch finding people and visiting people! They also call it Pink Washing since we replaced Elders who had been here for a while!

We live in a members basement/apartment that's pretty nice. The Elders didn't leave it super clean so we had to clean it up today! There's a cat that lives in the backyard named Cheeto and he's my new best friend here. He meows to get into our apartment and climbs up our window to see us! Silly Cheeto.

Also, the first day I got here an Elder that was leaving handed me a phone and told me I was the new ASL missionary.. The only one in the mission! I told him I hadn't taken ASL in the MTC but he left! Haha I thought I was going to have a panic attack! But my companion and I called President Killpack later that day and found out I wasn't called... yet. Haha phew. But since my companion still has to study Spanish during the day I'm going to study sign language while she does that! I'm actually pretty excited!

We've taught three lessons since Wednesday, mostly because we are still getting used to the area and don't really know anyone or where anything is! But we're starting to get the hang of it.

Sometime we've found since we've been here is that most of our investigators are under 18! It's crazy! Because there are so many less active families who never baptize their kids and once they turn 9 they have to take discussions to get baptized. So on Thursday we taught Ayla and Jorda, who are 9 and 10. They're super cute but we want to also reactivate their whole family so they have some support!

We also taught Dylan, who's 17 and he's super awesome. He wants to learn so much and he's very mature for his age. His mom is less active as well.

The last lesson we taught was last night, around 8pm. The Bell family. They are so awesome. We talked to the parents and they invited us in and told us they were inactive but were working on hopefully getting sealed in the temple soon. They have a 9 year old son, Camryn, who's super adorable and wants to be baptized. So we are going to be teaching him the discussions as well. They have such a great family.

Another thing that came as a shock to me was how many wards we are over. We're over two stakes, and 19 wards! We had to contact every single bishop and mission leader to introduce ourselves and ask if they had any referals! our phone was ringing off the hook for a while.

Another thing is that during the day, we literally do not stop moving. I like it though. Sometimes we've been studying for over an hour and I start to go stir crazy but since the last few days have been so nice outside we've gone to the church to study outside there!

On Friday there was a mission wide musical fireside which was super cool. I got to see all of the missionaries in our entire mission and had to introduce myself in front of all of them.

Another funny thing, my companion forgot to buy another towel after she transferred here so she's been using a hand towel to dry off from the shower!Hahaha cracks me up.

I've definitely had some stressful and exhausted moments, but whenever I'm teaching or taking to people I'm so happy! I know this is God's work.

For everyone who hasn't been to Eagle mountain, it's basically mountains, desert, houses and a gas station. literally haha. We have to drive into the nearest town to get groceries from Walmart! it's crazy

Sunday was pretty awesome, we went to a meeting at 7 am, then a Stake conference, then 2 Sacrament meetings, then dinner, then went around visiting anyone we could! I love staying busy it makes the day go by fast and better!

Sometimes I feel like a celebrity around here lol. Everyone wants to have us over for dinner but each ward only gets two nights every transfer! So we've definitely broken some hearts lol. We make our own lunch and breakfast and there's even a couple of places around here where missionaries eat for free! But don't worry we won't be taking advantage of them :)

Sorry for such a long email! But thanks everyone who's emailed and sent letters! I love hearing from all of you!

Love,

Sister Crofts