Down South

Well I have officially been transferred to my second area! Saying goodbye to everyone I've come to love in Union City was super hard but now I am in my new area with my new companion! I am now in Toms River which is wayyy down south in the mission. It took 3 hours to drive here from Morristown. My new companion is SIster Daines. She is from Idaho and is #7 out of 11 children! She is one transfer younger than I am in the mission.

There was a big change in the mission this week. The total number of missionaries is going down because the big group of people that came out soon after the age change is going home, so there are more missionaries going home than are arriving. There used to be 12 Zones in the mission, but at transfer conference on Tuesday President announced that now there will only be 10, because some areas are closing and others are getting moved into different zones. Most of the changes have been happening in the southern part of the mission (where I am now) because it's not nearly as densely populated down here as it is up north. A lot of areas down here are getting absorbed by other companionships to make up for the missionaries going home.

There used to be 2 elders and 2 sisters in the Spanish branch here. But the elders both got transferred out and now the Sister Daines and I are covering their old area as well as the original sisters' area. So now it is just the two of us in the branch and no elders. Our new area is HUGE. It includes Lakewood in the north and goes down to the southern border of the mission, almost to Atlantic City. It includes 40 miles of the famous Jersey Shore so I am excited to go visit the beach on Pdays (when it's not snowing like it is today :/ )

This week we got hardly any missionary work done because we have been in the process of moving apartments. We are moving into the apartment that the elders in this area used to live in, and apartment that the sisters originally lived in is getting closed. So this week we had to deep clean that apartment and clear out everything before the lease ended, and move everything into the elders' old apartment. We got all the food that the elders left in their apartment plus all the food that Sister Daines and her previous companion had in their apartment. There is also another apartment here the mission is closing down that used to have English-speaking sisters in it, and they left a lot of food too. So now we have 3 apartments' worth of food in our kitchen! :D So we won't have to buy much food for quite a while! #dreamcometrue

Now I am no longer in a walking area! We have a car! This week I drove a car for the first time since I left home 7 months ago!

Here is my new address! Please send mail to this address instead of the mission home because we are about 3 hours south of the mission home and mail would take forever to get to me from there.

83 Walnut St Apt #49

Toms River NJ 08753

<3 Hermana Harris

At Transfer Conference! Sister Detrinidad (on the left) is from Nicaragua and served with me in Union City. She trained Sister Parker (next to her) and I trained Sister Stone, and now Sister Parker and Sister Stone are companions in Union City!