I'M HERE

Well, I made it to Arizona, and so far I LOVE IT!

The last week in the MTC was crazy, and time flew by... trying to squeeze in everything I wanted to learn and do before heading out into the real world. Monday I packed up all my stuff and said goodbye to everyone, and Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. (Yes, 5) I got on a bus for the airport.

When we got to Phoenix we were greeted by the mission presidency and the assistants, and then drove to the mission home in Tempe. The rest of the day was mostly filled with orientation and other training activities. Everyone I have met so far is AMAZING. They are all so pumped about the work, and so willing to help out.

Before dinner we got to go the Mesa Temple, which is beautiful! We took a tour at the Visitor's Center (where we can bring any solid investigator - awesome!) and then walked around the temple grounds. It is beautifully landscaped (not unusual for temples), but it is done with palm trees, orange trees, and cacti. Wow. Honestly if most of the people around me weren't speaking English I would think I'm in a foreign country.

We had dinner at a Church members home, and then I slept at a different member family's home. Both families were great... I've heard lots of good things about the members here, and we're going to put them to work helping us find people to teach!

This morning I finally met my new companion and trainer, Hermana Wilkins. She is great - she seems like a really hard worker and totally on the ball, so I'm super excited to be working with her. We were transferred into a brand new area, Queens Creek, so we have lots of work to do to get things started here.

I'm so motivated to finally meet the people and get to work. It helps that the weather is beautiful (think perfect spring day in New England) and there are tangelo trees in my back yard... but honestly I have never been more excited about the sharing the blessings that I enjoy about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hope you're all surviving the winter!

Love,

Hermana Richelle Ouellette