1st Area - Mountain Home, ID

Hey, so Mission President wanted me to email you to let you know I'm here safe and sound. (10-5-11)

So my 1st area is a place called Mountain Home. (about 45 minutes from Boise)  I've never heard of it before today. It's a pretty small town, about 10,000 people or so I heard. There's 10 wards and 2 branches. There's 2 companionships serving here, so we cover 5 wards and 1 branch each. That seems like a lot = P .  I'm so excited though, I'm ready to start working. Oh, and one ward already has me speaking on Sunday. That came as a shock when I heard that. I'm just excited, scared to death, but excited.

Another funny fact, usually (at least they tell me) it's pretty dry here in Idaho, but it's been raining since we got here. Kinda like how Simi was in a drought before we moved and got 2 weeks of rain. Kinda like rain is God's way of saying "this is where you need to be"; rained in Simi, rained in the MTC, and is now raining here. Thought that was kinda funny.

It's cold... dunno if it's just the rain or if it's normally this cold, but it is cold. I'm so glad we got me that big jacket. It's still in my luggage (which isn't at the house yet so I havent been able to use it yet) but I'm glad I have it. They say it can get down to like 10-15 normally in the winter. They say it doesn't snow that much here though. Not sure if I'm happy or sad about that.

We live with a member. It's kinda interesting. Don't know anything about them and have only seem them once in passing, but we share a house with a member. Like I said, there's 2 companionships here, so we also share it with them. The other Elders who serve here, well, it's Elder Jiminez, my MTC companion. We were together 3 weeks at the MTC and now we share the same house. Not his companion anymore (my companion's name is Elder Ika (pronounce ee-kuh). Heard good things about him so I'm excited.). But I mean, 3 weeks with Jiminez as my companion and I can't get rid of him! Not that I want to, but still...

I'm so excited to be here. Heard from Elder Ika that the work here has kinda been dead, but we're gonna change that. He's been serving here for a bit, but we're basically starting from scratch. I love it here. Small town is definitely different than what I'm used to, but I am so excited to be here and start teaching and serving.

Hope everything's okay at home.

Love,

Elder Blomquist