Meet Me In St. Louis: I made it to St. Louis

Letter Dated August 19, 2013

I made it!! But just barely. As I was leaving the MTC, I might have overslept. We were supposed to be on the bus for the airport at 3:30 am. Me and my companion didn't wake up until 3:30 am. I have never moved so fast in my life! But we made it in time with only a little heckling from the other missionaries (all in good fun, of course). The plane ride was uneventful. I wrote letters home and read my scriptures and enjoyed my first Dr Pepper since entering the MTC. It was delicious.

When we got to St Louis, I was surprised at how cool it was! Turns out this whole past week has been a bit of an oddity. It's been pretty cool with little humidity. They new I was coming and turned down the thermostat for me. One thing that's bizarre is that when there's a breeze, it's a cool breeze. That doesn't happen in Utah. If there's a wind during the summer, it feels like a blow dryer is pointed at you. And it is so green here!! I'll try and figure out how to get pictures on the library computer next week to share with you all.

The first day was pretty relaxed. We went and walked around the temple, which is gorgeous by the way, then went to the mission home and had dinner. It was so nice to sit on a comfy couch and relax. Especially knowing that I won't be doing to much of that for the next year and a half. Then the sisters stayed there and slept downstairs and the elders went to a hotel. The next day we had transfer meeting where I would meet my new companion. It was hard to say goodbye to Sis Mortensen. We had gotten to know each other pretty well in the 13 days we were in the MTC. Maybe we will be companions again further down the road.

My new companion is Sister Felt. She's from California and is one of those who were affected by the age change. She is super optimistic and her catchphrase (or what I've dubbed as her catchphrase) is, "Love it!" She says it probably 20 times a day. She makes me sing for her all the time. Sometimes she even has me sing her to sleep. I think she is hysterical.

So my area. I'm in Edwardsville, Illinois. It's about 30-45 minutes away from St Louis. We passed by the arch on our way here. I'm excited to go in there one day. Edwardsville is considered a college town. It housed Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) but still has quite a bit of suburb. We went over to campus housing when all the students were moving in and helped a few people. Most people were a little hesitant to let to strangers in skirts help them move in. We're planning on going over there when they have they're club fair. We'll actually have our own booth and be able to pass out pamphlets and videos and other things. I'm really excited for that. It's funny, Edwardsville is considered a small town and SIUE is considered a small school, but compared to St George and Dixie, it's huge!

The people here are great. They are super friendly but a lot of them aren't to eager to talk to Mormon missionaries. A lot of people are very content with their lives and see no need to switch churches. If they only know how much better their lives would be with the gospel!! Oh well, we found a girl named Epiphany and I'm so excited to go back and teach her. She's sixteen and doesn't really have any opinions, but thinks she should start getting some. We also met a couple named LaShante and Jabere. We keep running into them wherever we go. It's totally a sign that they are ready to hear about the gospel. We invited them to church this past sunday, but they already had plans. We invited them again for this Sunday and we got a phone number so we'll check with them later this week.

I've had dinner with a few ward members last week and so far so good! I love the members here, they really are fantastic. The Van Leisouts are both theater people so I had fun talking to them. And they're really good cooks. They made an alfredo sauce that was pretty much the best thing ever. The Nolans remind me of the Watsons, especially Brother Nolan. He's a carbon copy of Scott Watson. The Armstrongs used to live in Utah and have two little kids who are WILD!! They are super fun and I had a blast playing with them. They had me, my companion, and the two elders in my area line up and took a picture of us to send home to our parents to make sure that we are alive and well.

I am pretty alive, the well part, the verdict is still out. I ended up getting a lot of bug bites on my legs and they started to blister and ooze. It's super disgusting and everybody started freaking out that it might be bed bugs. I checked my mattress and there are no signs of them anywhere. I'm thinking it's an allergic reaction to the mosquitos out here. Or it could be a bug called chiggers. I've never heard of them before but they are tiny and live in grass. They look like mosquito bites when they bite you so there's no way to differentiate. But I've got some neosporin and bug spray so I should be good.

That's all I've got for this week. I'm having a blast being a missionary and I love Edwardsville, Illinois!!

-Sister Trop