First Week in Jersey

Where to start, where to start!? So much has happened since the last time I emailed.

My last few days in the MTC were great. It was really hard saying goodbye to my teachers and the people in my district. But 7 out of the 11 missionaries in my MTC district are here in Jersey with me so at least I didn't have to say goodbye to them!

My last full day in the MTC was Sunday the 3rd. We had all our regular Sunday meetings and devotionals and we also spent a lot of time packing. Sunday night we didn't go to sleep at all. We had to leave the MTC at 2:30am the next morning, so all the girls in my casa decided it would be easier to just not even bother going to bed. Personally I would have preferred to sleep a little, but even if I had tried I wouldn't have been able to, since everyone was awake and loud all night. We finished packing and got on buses at 2:30am and arrived at the Mexico City airport at 3:30am. We went through security pretty quickly and then just sat around and waited for our flight because our flight didn't leave until 7am.I managed to go in and out of sleep while on the flight but I never slept much. We landed for our layover in Atlanta and had to spend a while going through customs and immigration. There were 12 of us missionaries there on our way to Jersey and we got a lot of questions from the immigration officers. They kept asking us why we were in Mexico for 6 weeks and we tried to explain that we were learning Spanish for our missions and that now we were heading to Jersey. People thought it was so strange haha.

My best friend Mykelin lives 20 minutes from the Atlanta airport, and since her dad is a pilot, she can get through security easily. I had told her that my layover was going to be in Atlanta and that she might be able to find me. She got a free ticket to Minneapolis (because she can get airline tickets for free) and used that to get through security so she could be there waiting for me when I got to my gate. I told her the number for my flight to Jersey so she would know which gate to find me at. She was there waiting for me when I got there. It felt SO GOOD to see her and talk to her. I only got to talk to her for about an hour before I had to board my flight to Jersey, but it was seriously so great to see her. She's the best <3

My flight from Atlanta to New Jersey was about 3 hours. When the plane was landing we could see New York City from above and it was so cool looking. Of course I was super excited because I haven't traveled very much in my life so seeing NYC from above was pretty cool for me haha. When we got off the plane we were greeted by the mission president, President Taggart, and his wife and two of his daughters. First thing they did was take us to downtown Newark which is unlike anything I've ever seen. Then they had us do this thing called a "fearbuster" where we team up with a more experienced missionary (there were a bunch of them there waiting for us) and have to go find someone walking down the street and give them a Book of Mormon. I ended up talking to a really cool guy from Ghana and gave him a Book of Mormon.

After we were done with that, we were taken to the mission president's house and had a really nice dinner. By this time I was SO TIRED because I hadn't gone to bed at all the night before, and I had only gotten like one hour of sleep on the plane. It felt so good to finally go to sleep.

Tuesday I got to find out who my trainer (that's what they call your first companion, the person who teaches you and trains you) is and where my first area is. My companion is Hermana Galvan. She is from Argentina! She is fluent in both English and Spanish so that will really help me as I progress with my Spanish. She is awesome. We are in Union City. It is really close to New York City and we can see the skyline really well. Some missionaries in some areas of Jersey get cars but we don't have one in Union City because we don't need one. The part of the city that we are assigned to is relatively small and it all is within walking distance so we really wouldn't need a car in a place like this. This place is so cool. The people here are from EVERYWHERE. I've hardly met a single person who was born in the US. So far I've met people from Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Honduras, and Colombia. It's awesome.

Yesterday was my first Sunday in the ward here. There is only one ward in the whole city and there are four pairs of missionaries in that ward. The ward members are great and they were all super welcoming to me.

Thanks for all the love and support! I really do love it here. I am still getting used to it but I am sure by next Monday I will have a lot more to tell you about my area and the people in it!

xoxo Hermana Harris

My MTC district with our teacher, Hermana Molina.

With our teacher Hermano Murillo

The five missionaries in the Mexico MTC who are from Temecula. We really wanted to take a picture together. From right to left: Hermana Annelise Eddy (Iowa Des Moines Mission), Hermana Ellen Logan (Chile Vina del Mar Mission), Elder Brennen Eisenhut (Texas McAllen MIssion), me, and Hermana Madison Baugh (Florida Tampa Mission).