My Journey: Virginia Richmond Mission: New Beginnings:)

Yo, yo, I am emailing from the Gooch! Goochland is quite the place to be...you know they have trees, trees, and trees, and trees and a carl Jr. This is literally all that is out here. It was quite the culture shock for me to come out here from the streets of Richmond. The first two days I suffered a bit of culture shock, but it is all starting to settle in. I will always have a piece of my heart in Richmond. I loved the people there and the city it self. Oh well:) My area is huge! Like when I say huge, I mean HUGE. I think it is the size of Africa. No joke, and we only get to drive 1500 mils a month. So that is kind of a joke..haha, but we are trying our best to get rides. It is pretty here and does look a lot like Oregon. It is really funny sometimes. They all have thick southern accents, but they do have some finger-licking southern cooking! I hope I don't get fat here....I like it a lot! We get fed a lot here. We got fed quite a bit in Chippenham but this is good ole home cooking. Oh No!

It is cold here! Like Bone chilling cold. Thanks to Sister Jepson (my old training leader) she let me borrow her winter jacket. She goes home in February, so I will borrow it until she leaves. well hopefully I will be gone before she leaves....but who knows! We actually live in a former investigators home. Interesting, huh? she is way nice and we live in her basement, which is cool! But it is pretty chilly down there. like the space heaters do a little bit, but not enough...haha. I just put on all I own and I am fine. It is a way nice apartment though. She owns a ton of property so it is kind of fun to walk around. It's a beautiful area. It's kind of funny because some of the houses are WAY nice and some of them are trailers. So, sometimes it can be a bit sketchy. There is also a women's and men's prison out here. I actually think some of the area here is more dangerous than downtown Richmond....but I am pretty dangerous so that is probably why I am here.

We serve in the Gayton Ward and my companion and I cover the country side of the ward. There are Elders that cover the city area and more around where I used to be in Chippenham. So there are only two sets of us and I have only met them once. Since we are so far out we hardly ever see other missionaries which is a big change for me. I am used to seeing them all of the time. I didn't get to meet a whole lot of the ward since it was Stake Conference this week. My new companion is Sister Gale. She is from Utah (surprise!) and is 20 years old. She just finished training in this area, so it is nice because she knows a lot of different people. We are getting along pretty good. I have learned so much from all my companions. we are never exactly alike but we grow from each other. We have big plans for this transfer, so pray that we can make it all work out with the little amount of miles that we have. We have been invited for Thanksgiving Dinner by four different families and we plan on going to all of them. Haha, really, it will be great!:) I am excited for some good ol' southern cookin'!

We have one investigator set with a date. She has been set for a date in the past and didn't quite make it. I sure hope she can make it this time. She has a heavy smoking problem, but we hope she stays on track. There is not to much else going on. We are hoping to change that this transfer.

I was thinking that it would be way cool if once a week every week, you post something from Mormon Messages or something about the church or even about Christ til Christmas. They were talking about how we can use social media to do good missionary work. So you should all do that! President Wilson spoke at the Stake Conference and said that we can pray to show God we love him, but if we act we can show him that we love him in a deeper way. So do it! :)

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and it is 30 days until Christmas......just saying!:)

Love,
Sister siepert