Monday September 19, 2016 Kamiah, ID

All righty my first week has felt like 4 months and 1 day all at the same time. Crazy.

1. My companion is named Elder Stoddard he’s awesome! He’s super nice and smart and works hard. He’s from St. George Utah.

2. I’m in a ghetto apartment. It’s not so bad though
3. We have a full time truck because we are the biggest area in the mission.
4. The weather is so cold and gray most of the time. I could use some sweaters.
5. My area is suuupppperrr big. Way big. Grande. Extra-large or family sized.
6. I email from the library 
7. There’s only one grocery store and it’s called harvest foods. Kinda ghetto.
8. I’ve been eating at members houses a lot and for lunch I eat sandwiches and oj (yes they have my oj and I’m very happy).
9. We get fed dinner at members almost every night. 
10. I’m mostly good. I’m going to need to buy a winter coat soon. But sweaters would be appreciated.

So my area is the booniest place ever. There’s hardly any people here and everything is very spread out. Its super pretty though. Lots of pine trees. The people are a little weird but I love them anyway. Everyone smokes and I mean everyone. Also there's about 3 dogs per person here. This week has been crazy and fun. I’m getting to know the area and stuff. We don’t tract a whole lot. We mostly go off of referrals from members and investigators. The weather is cold and mostly like Utah, just the seasons switch earlier. Ummm my trainer is really good at teaching me how to work hard. Oh! So second day here we taught an investigator and she brought up baptism and the date she wanted to be baptized. Crazy! So her baptism will be on Oct 29^th. I’m way excited for her. We’ve been teaching a few other investigators and been working with the members a lot. There’s a lot of hunters here and a really cool log furniture store that sells the kind of stuff that is at the ranch. I’m thankful for all the emails and support! I’ll try to send a better letter next time but I don’t have a whole lot of time and way too much to talk about but that’s alright. I’ll keep you updated on the people I’m teaching and stories that happen. I cover 2 wards so church is interesting but good. And the members have interesting ideas. But all is well and I’m doing good. 

The gospel has taught me many things already but mostly shown how it can improve our lives. I know that if we follow the teachings of the prophets that we can have a good state of life and be blessed for it. I have seen what it’s like to live without purpose and I am so glad that I have the gospel in my life.

-Elder St. John