Ben

Ben

Arrival in Beaumont

Subject: Texas

Hey yall!

So I just finished my first week here in Texas! It was fantastic! But
it was kinda slow. My and my new comp, Elder Leftwich were assigned to
the Beaumont North area. The previous missionaries didn't leave us
anything to go off of... So we spent this last week trying to find
some new investigators. On top of that, our apartment was just barely
refurbished, and everything was in boxes. So we spent Tuesday
unpacking and getting settled in. Just crazy stuff.

Let me back up a little bit. I'll start from the beginning. We woke up
in the MTC at about 1:20am to catch our flight at 5:40. As we were
leaving the MTC, it was pouring down rain, like major rainstorm. The
bus took extra long to get us to the airport for "safety". When we got
to the airport, we had to stand around and wait, cause the ticket
kiosks weren't even open yet, that's how early it was. As the ticket
kiosks opened and we all got our tickets, one elder decided that he
couldn't do this, and me, as the travel "supervisor" and my companion
had to wait with him for the next bus to take him back to the MTC.
This bus wasn't supposed to be arriving at the airport until 5:15. Now
remember how our flight is at 5:40? Ya. We had a half hour to clear
security, find the gate, make sure everyone was accounted for, and get
on the plane. My comp and I were sprinting to,the gate, which happened
to be the furthest one down at the very end. Fun stuff. No reason to
not start the mission with an adventure! But long story short, we made
it to the flight and got into the air. Fast forward an hour and a half
or so. We land in Denver and we have about a half hour layover or so.
Come to find out, our flight was leaving from the other side of the
airport. So here we are again, running through the airport to catch
another flight... All 28 of us. We catch the flight and make it to
Houston. First thought off the plane, I'm drowning. I was looking
around for the lifeguard... Came down the store and President Drake
was standing there! He's a super cool guy! I'm excited for it all.

He and the APs took us to the church in Kingwood. We were fed pulled
pork sandwiches, which were amazing, and other Texas foods. Come to
find out, Sister Drake made it all! It was way good. All of our bikes
were lined up in the gym. It wasn't too hard to find mine, seeing as
it was the only bright red one in the entire line of 32 bikes...
Thanks dad:) after pictures and everything else was taken (too many of
them...) we were each interviewed by President. Short interview, but
effective. As we are doing all of this, the other missionaries are
showing up. After we get everything that we need to get, ie iPads,
bikes, helmets, etc, we are taken into the chapel. And they start
reading off names, I'm assigned to be trained by Elder Leftwich. He's
a way cool guy! Anyway come to find out, we don't get keys to our
apartment, cause it's been refurbished and we need to get them from
the landlady. So we hitch a ride to Beaumont (did I mention it's a
biking area!?) and we try to get into our apartment. And guess what!?
The front desk is closed cause it's like 9:00. Go figure. So we can't
get into our apartment. Luckily, we only had to wait about an hour for
the Elders that live across the street to show up... So we ended
up,spending the night at their place, with just a few sheets and
stuff... Crazy. So that's my first night.

The rest of the week basically has been the same... Lots of fun stuff.
Setting up iPads and getting together with other missionaries that
were just here to find out who we were teaching and when. They didn't
leave us any notes or anything. So yep... We spent the last week
contacting and such. That's it for me!

Love yall!

-Elder Allen

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