Arizona

There was no official newsletter this week due to Kendall's travel schedule but he did email me so I have included portions of that letter here for this week along with the photos that were sent to us from the mission president and a few others that we got from the mission blog.

Well I am really tired, and my brain is having an overload of information and events to process. 

We arrived safely to the mission home yesterday afternoon, then we immediately split off and began knocking on doors in Scottsdale. The first door we knocked on was a super nice lady who I think was pretty lonely, who also loved learning and was super excited about the Book of Mormon. So on our way back to the car to get a large print copy for her, we ran into a guy who called the police on us for doing absolutely nothing. So there's all kinds of people here.

Then last night we had dinner with President and Sister Robinson and all the other new missionaries and the Assistants and Sister Training Leaders. Then we had like an orientation and QandA and information stuff. 

New Arizona Scottsdale Missionaries

Elder Oswald with President and Sister Robinson

This morning we had breakfast, and then the whole morning and early afternoon filled with training and stuff on medical and safety and a whole bunch of stuff for the mission. Then right before lunch we found out our new companions and our areas!

It was seriously the most nerve racking moment of my life, seeing all the trainers on one side of the room but not knowing who mine would be and where I'm going. 

There's actually two parts of the mission as well. There's valley, and there's mountains. They're different because the mountains will actually get some snow and the valley doesn't. Then another part of the mission that's just vastly different from everything else are the Reservations. So it was just nerve racking not knowing where I would be going.

And so my area is..... drum roll......

Paradise Valley. It's super pretty, it's about half an hour from Scottsdale, and it's very warm right now. It does not feel like mid November.

In future emails I can tell you more, I just don't really know much more right now. 

My companion is Elder Bower. He's pretty cool. All the Assistants and other Elders and people were telling me how much I'll learn from from him and how such a good missionary he is so that's really exciting. Elder Bower and I already placed a Book of Mormon before we even left the mission home so that was cool.

Elder Oswald waiting to find out who his companion is

Elder Oswald and Elder Bower