So, my first week in the field. What can I say? Its been pretty great. I'm in the Purvis Area in the Hattiesburg Zone. Its at the very bottom of Mississippi, almost in Louisianna. Its awesome though, Elder McMullin, my Canadian companion, keeps telling me that we're in a rare kind of area for our mission, an anomoly, if you will. Its cool though, our ward is huge! Its the size of a normal Utah ward, you know, like 200 ish people, but for here in mississippi thats crazy unusual. So we've got a ton of support coming in from the members. its awesome! we have dinner appointments EVERY night, its pretty nuts. Although, I am yet to have some real southern cookin. It'll come though, I'm excited. Yesterday we had two meals made for us, so that was pretty sweet. The members take pride in makin us missionaries gain weight, so we'll see how much I gain. We play basketball every Monday and Thursday mornings at 6 am, thats been way fun. We just play with some ward memebers and some less actives. today there was more black people than white guys, so that was kinda cool. The area I'm in is mostly white, so we don't see too many black people. Its been way fun though. Its wicked hot and super humid! its been hovering right around 100 degrees the whole time I've been here. Usually 95 or 96, but thats still crazy hot, especailly when we're walkin in it. Ridin bikes isn't too bad, and we had to do that all day Thursday and Friday because the guy I replaced here, Elder Dean, drove 80 miles on Monday saying bye to people, so we had to bike cuz we were runnin low on miles. Elder McMullin told me that it was the farthest he's ever ridden his bike while on his mission and he's been out for nine months. So yeah, it was hot, but since we're biking, its not super bad, cuz the wind hits your sweat and cools you down. This is honestly the most I've sweat in my whole life, its nuts! and I'm wearing a white shirt and tie, so that is probably a factor. As for the ya'll, its pretty catchy. It's hard not to say it sometimes so I'm kinda getting into it. Not a ton, but sometimes. I still talk like a utahn, just a utahn that says ya'll. Its so much easier than sayin 'you guys', just say ya'll. it just flows, haha. Nobody here really talks southern. there are a few people, but they're definately the minority. If it weren't for the heat and humidity, I wouldn't even feel like I was in the south, it just feels like a bigger, more spread out Utah. Which is good I guess, it'll make adjusting to missionary life easier.
So, we flew in monday, and I called ya'll from Dallas, then we flew from there into Jackson and President Tucker, his wife and the AP's met us at the airport. We went to the churchouse in Clinton for lunch, had an orientation meeting and I fell asleep. I was trying SO hard not to, but I did anyway. My eyes were only closed for like 30 seconds and Elder Scott swatted me with some papers, he's a pretty funny, chill guy so it was alright. I guess thats what happens when you wake up at two in the morning to catch a plane. I had my first experience tracting that day and it was kinda crazy. I hated going outside then, I told 'em that and they just laughed. Its not so bad now, but I still don't like all this heat and humidity. Anyway, after that we went to the mission home, had dinner and a fireside/testimoy meeting. It was pretty sweet. Tuesday I woke up, went to Clinton again and waited for the transfer van to come pick me and some other missionaries up, we were there all day till 4 pm. Well, thats not totally true, cuz we went to this place called the frog head grill for lunch, it was pretty good. Transfer van picked me up, took me to Petal where I met my companion, then we drove down to our appartment, which, by the way, has the reputation of being the nicest appartment (we call 'em pads) in the mission, so I'm just gettin hooked up here in Purvis. But we drove down here, I unpacked, then we went to bed, woke up and had a full day of missionary work. It's been real.
As for my companion, Elder McMullin, he's aweosme. He's from Vancouver, British Columbia, so he's got canadian flags all over everything. He's definately proud to be a canadian. He's a lot bigger than me too, he's like 6'1" 220. Yeah, wrestled him today, mma style, at a members martial arts gym. man, he whooped me good. anyway, he's a rugby player and played at University of Utah, so that pretty cool. He's been a great trainer so far and we get along great, so thats good. We teach pretty well together too, so I think we'll be an awesome companionship.
The work is good, we've gotten out and taught a few lessons and such, its been great. We don't have any investigators with a baptisimal date, but I'm gonna try and commit this family to baptism tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. We're basically just trying to find people right now, visiting memebers, trying to get refferrals, knockin doors and such, but its been pretty good. We've got this one guy, Steven, who's on house arrest, that we've been teaching and he's probably our most interested investigator. he's super awesome, but without special permission we wouldn't be able to baptize him for like 10 years cuz he'd be on probation and what not. But hopefully he's keep progressing and President Tucker will allow him to get baptized. i guess we'll find out. Teaching is awesome though, its great when we actually have someone home for when our scheduled appointment's at, cuz then we get to teach! thats what I came here to do, so its awesome!
Well, the people of the south are all super nice, even if they don't want to hear the message you're trying to share with them. If you're sweaty and hot, they'll invite you in and get you some ice water, then, naturally, you'll have the opportunity to share with them the message we have for them. Well, everything has been awesome here. I hope all is well at home, I hope none of you got the measles, cuz that would suck. Well, our p-day is Monday now, so that when you can expect emails and such, so yeah. I'll write to you next monday! Oh, and sorry if this email jumps around a lot, thats kinda what I've done while writing it, so.... haha. well, I love ya'll, you can expect to hear from me next monday.
Elder Zachary Green
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