Loving Elwood Indiana

So I got transferred to the Elwood, Indiana area, and it is legit! It's an older town a little more in poverty and going down hill because most of the business' have moved out and it is hard to find a job here. Also, interesting fact, Elwood actually used to be the headquarters for the KKK awhile ago I guess? Kind of interesting, maybe I'll meet a couple in the group? ;) The area is super cool though! It is very flat, not a ton of trees but there are a lot of corn fields and fields of soy beans. It's cool though. :) My new companion is Elder Searle and he is from Heber City, Utah and is the coolest guy! We were in the same MTC district and we sat next to each other on the plane ride here. He is so set on following all the rules, even the little ones which makes me soooo happy! You have no idea! He is awesome. :) We are in an apartment and its not bad. Smaller than the one before but my companion is really clean and organized which I am so grateful for. We share a car with the other Elders in the branch. Pretty small area though so its easy to get around.

So I'm kinda starting to get to know the people a little bit but not super well. One thing moving into an area is you start teaching these investigators that you know like nothing about but they have been taught for awhile so you don't know what they do or anything but your companion does. So its kind of awkward but gimme another week or two and I'll be good with that. :) But we did find these new investigators that are pretty cool! Their names are Ashley, Donald, and Kazen, who is the son, and they are boyfriend and girlfriend and have dated for 10 years (Just get married already right???) ;)

General conference was fantastic though. I loved it! I was really paying attention and trying to get stuff out of it! Priesthood session was super powerful too. There was a lot of cool messages that I liked a lot. There seemed to be a big focus though on a couple subjects. Faith, being temple worthy, listening to the spirit, and being prepared. I especially loved Elder Holland's talk on women. There's so many mothers that don't really get enough credit like they deserve so I loved that. There may have been one or two others that I missed or forgot but yeah it was great! President Monson was getting kind of sketchy though towards the end of his talk he looked like he was really struggling to keep going and looks pretty ill. Hopefully we won't lose him soon as well.

FUNNY STORY TIME! :D So Elder Searle, on our second night, left the keys in the apartment and so we got locked out... BUT, we have a balcony in our back yard, so I decided to climb the balcony and get on the deck to see if our back sliding glass door was unlocked, but NOPE! So when I went to get down, I was hanging off the side and was going to jump and do the whole, jump tuck and roll tactic like many times before (cuz I'm a ninja like that) and well, I failed... I jumped and my foot caught on something on the deck and I fell awkwardly and landed right on my left tail bone/lower back, and the neighbor right below saw me fall off the deck.... AWKWARD!!! :P So yeah, fun fun fun.

The new area is great! I really like it a lot. It's super cool and I like the people too! It's a lot more in poverty than Milford for sure and we've gone into some pretty beat up houses. One of our investigators pretty much has a camping cot and blankets for a bed with no heating, water, or electricity and is about to leave cuz he can't pay rent anymore and whatnot. Rough area! But its good. We are in a branch, not a ward. I barely know anyone cuz I haven't been to church here yet. But there is about as many members here as there were in Milford from what I've heard.  Love you all.