Working in Peoria, Illinois

Entao, here I am in Peoria, Illinois, where it is beautiful every single day and we don’t have to wear suits if it’s over 70 degrees. I am on a reassignment to the Iowa Des Moines Mission for a minimum of a month. If my visa arrives tomorrow, I still will not leave until the next transfer. But I’m super excited and happy to serve here. There is a lot of church history in Iowa and Illinois and I don’t know if I will get to see the sights, but my trainer and I will try.

We have been whitewashed into our area. That means that neither of us have been here, so we don’t know the members, recent converts, less-actives, investigators, the area, the bishop or anything else about our district. Most of the time we are just trying to figure out where people live which is more challenging than I thought (with no iPhone 4). We trade a car every other week with our district leader, so starting today we have a car! (My butt is sore from the bikes we use.) It’s a gold Chevy Malibu. It’s also very weird to be carrying a cell phone again. I usually forget that I have one.

My trainer’s name is Elder Brinkerhoff from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He is a really nice guy, although I can’t seem to find his humorous side, but we both really like Chinese food. He is about 6-months-old and as they say here on the mission, He's my daddy. We haven’t taught anyone yet except from members at dinner. But I’m excited to get out there and find some investigators. Oh, if you ever see an Elder Fortuna, let me know, he is serving in the Everett Washington Mission and we are having dinner with the Fortuna family tonight. I spoke with Momma Fortuna and I told her I live in her son's mission, she then quickly got to the missionary meal calendar and signed us up for the very next day. We are excited. Everyone is pretty surprised that I live on an island. "There are islands in Washington?!" they say. Good stuff. I don’t think I want to go to Brazil now.

It’s hard to remember what happened over the week. I should bring my journal when I type out emails.

Well I love you all and I know I’m supposed to be here. There is someone that I need to talk to or something I need to learn. Maybe I won’t go to Brazil and that’s totally fine because the only thing that matters is that I’m serving the Lord.

Elder Willard

P.S. Oh, and the temple for our mission is Nauvoo.