August 18th, 2014 ~First email from Springville, New York

Hello family,                                                                                                         August 18^th, 2014

I have so much to tell you and I don't think that I'll be able to tell you everything. So if this email seems really random and out of order that's why.  First we woke up at two thirty at the MTC to head off to New York. We got to Detroit and it was raining pretty hard and that made our flight to New York about four hours late. We got to Rochester and President and sister Francis were waiting there with the AP’s. Some of our luggage got lost, and the AP's had to go back later and get it.

New York is so awesome. It's really humid but I'm used to it now. Everything is super green and there isn't a single thing that is brown? Tons of trees so you can't see very far. Even when you’re by the city you can't really see it until your right in it because of the trees. It has rained at least once everyday since I've been here and I've seen the hardest rainstorm of my life already. Utah rain is no comparison, there is a river down the road and it went up four feet just while we had dinner one night. We went to the mission home which is in Brighton. On the way, we drove through down town Rochester, which was really cool! It is way bigger than Salt Lake and it's a lot different in person than from on the computer. We ate dinner, and stayed the night there all crammed into a room with six beds and two others in another room.  The sisters got the nice bedrooms upstairs.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, then we played basketball in the rain for a little bit then we went to go and see the sites. 

We went to Hill Cumorah

Alvin Smiths grave

Martin Harris' farm

Palmyra and the Palmyra Temple

The Smith home

 their second home

and the Sacred Grove!

The sacred grove was awesome! We got to go in there all by our selves with no companions or other visitors in there and just feel the spirit and pray for about half an hour. That's something that not very many people get to do! Next, we went to the mission office and got our companions and were assigned an area. My companion is Elder Vickers and we are in the village of Springville.  Our area is the area for about 20 miles in each direction, so it's mostly farmland.  There are tons of hills everywhere and the roads are like roller coasters because the speed limit is 55 or sixty on all of the roads and if your not careful you'll catch air! It's pretty fun though.

There are only a couple of areas that need bikes in the mission, everyone else drives. All of the mission vehicles are brand new and really nice. Most of them are four-door, Chevy Colorado, and they aren't the basic low end ones, they're pretty nice. Some zone leaders and APs have Chevy Silverado, or Equinox, and like I said, not the low end ones! We have a Nissan Frontier, brand new, only 5,000 miles. We are allowed 1250 miles a month and we've already put 750 on in august. There are not many members here or through out the whole mission. The are 56 churches in the little village of Springville and not one of them is LDS.  No wonder Joseph Smith was confused!!!  We are in the Freedom Branch, the first branch in this dispensation. The building is about 15 miles away and is really small. The chapel, priesthood, Sunday school and relief society rooms are all the same room the size of our multipurpose room!!! I'm eating a ton of food, no wings yet but I've heard they eat them a lot. I've had lots of chicken, deer sausage, and lots of corn.  We go over to the Owens a couple times a week and they are members. They have two daughters around our age so it's nice to talk to someone our age at dinner. I think we are going over there for family home evening tonight. They have this really nice, cool house on Lime Lake. They have this deck over looking the lake where we eat dinner and watch the boats. They have a couple of boats too, but we can't go on them unfortunately! Look up Lime Lake on Google earth so you can see how cool it is!!  I had to buy a GPS because there isn't a single street with a number in it in the whole mission!! We picked it up in Rochester at this really ghetto pawnshop. It was probably stolen but oh well! It was pretty sketchy looking in that part of Rochester but that's fourth wards boundaries so not mine, you don't have to worry mom! Everybody looks at us funny but that's probably because of how we're dressed and because the only other white person I saw the first day was Elder Vickers!  That's only half of what I wanted to tell you but I have to be done. Love you guys!!!!

Oh ya, I also got an iPad!

P.S. to his Dad

The GPS is used and it's from a pawnshop from the super sketchy part of Rochester. It was probably stolen and taken to the pawnshop but it works and it was cheap so that's good. I was a little bit scared walking in that pawnshop since I was the only white person for 40 miles around. It works really well though. Me and my companion are getting along pretty good. I think we have a lot in common. It's hard finding thinks to do though! We've only taught two lessons, one to a new member and one to a Jehovah witness on her porch. That's the only people who want to here about the gospel besides members. You can show mom this and tell her she can put it on the blog if she wants.

Serving in the Buffalo Stake, Freedom Branch .  First Companion in the field is Elder Kaylen Vickers from Stansbury Park, Utah. 

Google Earth Picture of his Church in the Freedom Branch.  First LDS branch in this dispensation!

Boundary line for the Freedom Branch

 Lime Lake near Springville where Addison spends time with the Owen Family who are members of the church.  They are kind enough to feed the missionaries.