Key Indicators in Decatur...haha!

Hello Everyone!

Here are a couple more MTC photos that I came across today and I thought I would start off by sharing them...

Part of my MTC zone... We are being jelly fish

Last temple walk before leaving

My roomies and I at the temple on our last p-day at the MTC

Everybody has to get one like this :)

Classic shot with my MTC companion Sister Clark (sorry this is SO BLURRY!)

So I'm FINALLY in the mission field! I flew out with 21 other missionaries last Monday to Cincinnati Ohio, and the flight was great! I sat by an elder and a lady named "Ruthie" and she was pretty cool. We had great conversations. Sister Clark (MTC companion) and I gave away a book of mormon in the airport right before we got on the plane (SCORE!).

WE'RE HERE!

We were greeted by President and Sister Porter and all of the APs at the airport and then had dinner at the mission home (it was so nice to have real non-MTC food!). Then two of the APs (Pope and Seegmiller) took all of the sisters on a drive. We went to a lookout point where we could see the entire city of Cincinnati, and the view was BREATHTAKING. Cincinnati is a very beautiful place! They read us a scripture in D&C 60: 6-7 where it talks about when Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Sidney Rigdon were called to this very mission! I feel so blessed to be serving in the best mission EVER. :P

YUMMY!

So... Tuesday was my very first transfer meeting; There I met my trainer, Sister Nicol, and then we headed out to DECATUR, INDIANA (pronounced de-cay-ter) hence why I think my title is so funny—lol)!

Water tower

I LOVE my companion—she's super awesome! We totally get along... we have fun, we work hard, and we are very excited about this transfer!

Smile!

Our area is HUGE! We can only go so many miles/week in our car so this will be a challenge because we have three towns all approx. 20 minutes away in DIFFERENT directions that are all in our area. As a result, we will have to use our miles very wisely and be cautious about how often we visit the neighboring towns. But the houses here are literally so cute and there are so many ridiculously beautiful green fields that it's crazy.

Me by an open field outside a member's house

The member who drove us here from the transfer meeting was Sister Gimbel, and she has literally been saving mine and my companions lives since we got here.

Sister Gimbel - She's the BOMB!!!

So, Sister Nicol and I were 'doubled in' to this area, and because we had General Conference this past weekend and we have stake conference this coming weekend, we basically don't know ANYBODY and are having a bit of a hard time trying to meet and getting to know the branch members. We have been working really hard to rectify that, but it has been a challenge! We have tried to call members and set appointments to meet with them, but It has been difficult to get a hold of many of them—plus we don't have a GPS so we are still struggling with learning how best to get around.

The BRANCH we are serving in IS VERY SMALL... but the members we have met are GREAT! It's been a little stressful, but Sister Nicol and I have learned so much and we are getting to know this town better and better everyday. Plus we have the Lord on our side, and He has helped us so much! He's the best.

 So, some highlights from the past week... Sister Nicol and I went to Huntington for a district meeting, and our district is awesome! Sister Nicol's trainer, Sister Jones, is our sister training leader (AKA my GRANDMA) and she is literally the coolest! Oh! oh! oh! A miracle happened to Sister Nicol and I a couple nights ago! We had worked all day until about 8pm at night and we had no idea what to do for the next hour. We called the STL's and they told us that faith is a choice and that we should pray. So we did. And afterwards, we tried calling members and less actives and couldn't get ahold of anyone. We then walked on the main street for about thirty minutes searching for opportunities to help something happen. AND THEN IT DID. We ran into this girl and started sharing our message with her. As we got to know her, we found out that she has a desire to be baptized. In fact, she had just found out that she had never been baptized as a child so she has been actively looking for a local church to be baptized in... DING! DING! DING! We were like WE CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT! haha. We set up an appointment and will be meeting with her tomorrow. MIRACLE!!! It probably doesn't sound that awesome but I felt soooo soooo soooo good after that. I knew that the Lord was with us the whole time, and that we were guided to that specific place at that specific moment to meet that sweet girl. I love this gospel everybody! It is so so true!!

SO. GENERAL. CONFERENCE. WAS. AWESOME. I especially loved the concept of "ponderizing" and I am definitely going to implement that into my life. I honestly learned so much from each session of conference and I feel so spiritually fed—Like I'M SO FULL and it's INCREDIBLE! haha.

Sister Gimbel made us General Conference goodie bags!

Oh, so apparently BED BUGS ARE A THING here. eewww. The sisters that lived in our apartment before us had to deal with a HUGE bed bug infestation, and so far we haven't had any issues, but we have to vacuum all the time and spray this diluted chemical all over our apartment to subsist the bed bugs. Yeah. Gross. Hate bugs.

My side of the room

So it's been a great first week in the field. And we have another great week ahead! I love you all! And now I am going to quote a sister in our branch... TEAM JESUS! All the way. Haha. I love my Savior and am so grateful for His sacrifice and His example. I would be so lost without the gospel. I can't wait to help others have that peace and comfort in their lives!! Yay! #225 (the number of baptisms we want by the end of the year).

 Anyways, have a rocking week!

 Love, Sister Feil

Greenie package