1st March - 6th March 2017

Honestly this has been the hardest and longest week of my life. I tried to stay positive in the MTC about going to Salt Lake but when I arrived here there were heaps of members talking about visa waiters, waiting for 3-6 months which really scares me. It is freezing cold here so I have to wear the same jumper and jacket every day. So my companions are elder Raharjo and elder Workman, we're in a trio so that the work isn't disrupted when my visa comes and I leave. Elder workman is from Witchata Cansis and Elder Raharjo is from Jakarta Indonesia! So president Spendlove put me with the Indo so I could keep it up! We speak fairly often together and I understand most of what he says. Elder Raharjo served for 5 months in Indo and 6 in Salt lake. Elder Workman is a recent convert to the church, he has a strong testimony and he is VERY hard working and optimistic. So in our area we cover an entire stake which has 7 wards but the missionary work is more active in the 21st, 27th and 27th east ward so we visit those most. This area seems to be all but dead.... we have soooo many members in the wards but the problem is that because the church is so well known in Utah, either everyone is a member or they already know a lot about the church and are not interested or they are anti. The members are amazing though. They see us walking on the streets and give us rides to places we want to go, they have had us over to their places for dinner every night and most lunches and sometimes members take us out for meals. But right now we are completely dry of investigators, we have literally nobody to teach. Nearly every day consists of just walking to members places and asking for referrals and them saying they have none. Yesterday we went tracting (door knocking) in some heavy snow for an hour and we have tracted here and there throughout the week but again they are members, anti or uninterested. Most missionaries in this mission live with members in their basement so they have really nice places but we have an apartment sort of similar quality to the Moe missionaries apartment. We get $120 a month and hardly spend anything because we get feed most meals, have no car, have a place to get free haircuts and most cleaning supplies are paid for too so I don't know where all this money is going to go. 

I was ok in the MTC with missing the family because I made a home of the MTC having the zone as a family and a familiar daily routine with a constant spirit about every person there. But in the field I REEEAAALLLY miss home badly, I have to keep the photos of the family away from me or 'll miss them too much. The lack of consistency in the field just messed me up. I'm a bit better now but it's just difficult when I don't know any of the people, brands, schools, programs, or sayings of anything around me. We have some fairly friendly missionaries around us and they are somewhat interested in me but all they talk about is mission experiences about other missionaries who I don't know. 

So there is a HUGE homeless people problem here in Salt lake and in our area is this place called the road home. So we teach a few people there and it is basically just one big congregation of about 100 homeless people who do drugs, have no money or clothes and are all stuck there. It was extremely confronting for me that people live like that but they seem to respect the missionaries pretty well. There are many mental health issues there and I hope we don't have to go there too often. 

Not knowing when my visa will come is the most frustrating part of the entire situation. They say that when the visa arrives the mission president will get an email with my flight details and I would leave within the week so I could leave in the week or in the next few months as far as I know but in the MTC the teachers repeatedly reassured me I'd stay here for only one transfer (6 weeks) at most so I'm just a little anxious about that. I was also supposed to get an ipad but that never happened and I'm not sure why but the missionaries do daily planning, lessons, and the area book all on the ipads so I don't know what's happening most of the time, I just essentially follow elder Workman around everywhere. The area is also mostly up hill so bikes are not very useful, we just walk everywhere all day. 

I am relying on prayer extremely heavily because I've never struggled so much before just to get through the day. The days feel very very long and I look forward to bed time every night. I love going to members houses for meals and they are the nicest people. Please pray for me as I try my best to endure this trial. I can't wait for Indonesia. There is a definite language barrier between elder Workman and Raharjo so sometimes I have to translate. It seems elder Raharjo knows about as much as I do and because elder Workman is the most sociable person I've ever met, he does a lot of the talking, he stays happy by getting to know everyone he meets and relating really well to everyone. I find it hard to talk sometimes because I just don't understand America. I hope it warms up here because this cold is killing me. Well it's my first p day today and it seems we will usually just email, shop, clean and play basketball every p day. God has been my strength and being grateful for what I have (which was easier after seeing the road home) has sustained me. Sorry  this email was so long, a LOT happened and it felt REALLY long so this email reflects that.