It was so good to talk to you on Monday. We landed in Torreón around 8 15 on Monday night and after going through migration and customs, we were picked up by President Ramos and his assistants. We went back to the mission home, where we stayed the night. There was a slight almost catastrophe on Monday night; when the assistants asked for my passport, a paper I had gotten from migrations was missing. We started back for the airport to try and find it when I remembered that I had dropped my passport when I stepped out of the car outside of the mission home. Elder Hansen called another elder at the mission home and luckily they were able to find it on the sidewalk. That was a miracle; I need that paper to be granted residency, so it was such a blessing to find it.
We were at the mission home most of Tuesday for an orientation meeting and to meet our trainers. There are about a dozen new missionaries this transfer. Five are Americans and the rest are native Spanish speakers who were down at the Mexico MTC. My trainer is Hermana Leiataua. She is 23 years old, from California, and is Samoan. She has been in the field only five months and I am her first trainee. We are actually not in Torreón; we are in Durango, which is about three hours away from Torreón. I'm glad to be here...Torreón is SUPER hot. I woke up on Tuesday morning covered in sweat! But Durango is a lot more mild. Apparently it rains almost every day here. It's raining right now, actually.
So we're opening a new area in Durango called Guadalupe 2. Two other sisters, including one who was in the MTC with me, are in the same ward and bordering area. This area hasn't had sister missionaries for almost 20 years...only elders. So right now we have no investigators and a lot of contacting to do! We did a little of contacting today at our zone meeting and spoke with a man who was very eager to learn more about the Church, but we have to pass him on to the elders in that area. He lives on the streets, so we don't really have a way to contact him, but he said he wanted to come to Church this Sunday. Hopefully he shows up and the elders can work with him.
The living conditions are pretty good here. My companion and I live in a new apartment that she said is one of the nicest in the mission. We have hot water (yay!) but we are going to have to wash our clothes by hand. That's pretty typical though.
Well, I need to sign off, but I'll be able to write again on Monday! I love you all so much. Last night I kept repeating in my head a quote that I heard from an elder in the MTC: "Don't worry about being homesick. Don't worry about being new. Don't worry about the language. None of that matters. God loves you. This is the truth. You can do it. Start fast. Run hard. You can rest later." (Elder Holland). I was nervous this morning because I didn't know what I was doing, but I'm feeling better now. I have a lot to learn, but I'm excited to get started!
I hope you all have a great week!
Hermana Southard
