May 13,2013

I was right! I was transferred to BERWICK! I live not even 5 minutes away from the Susquehanna River, about 2.5 hours away from where the Priesthood was restored! HOW COOL IS THAT! It was quite the interesting experience getting here and getting started. Before I left State College last week, all the missionaries spent our P-day taking pictures at the Penn State sign and the Nittany lion which was fun. We got to spend the night in Pittsburgh again which was a blast and transfer meeting was great! My new greenie, Sister Roberts, is pretty great too. She is from New Mexico. We get along great so thats good too. Because our area is so rural we get a car. I drive brand spankin new 2013 Chevy Cruze that we affectionately named "Tom." :) Get it? Get it? Anyways. Tuesday we drove all day to get to our area, we are actually the farthest east our mission goes. We are closer to Philadelphia than Pittsburgh. Kinda crazy! The city we live in is called Bloomsburg. The city of Berwick is pretty dangerous and so we dont ever go into that part of town. The elders cover Berwick and we cover a smaller, slightly less-scary town. The apartment we currently live in is over 10 years old. The Elders have been in this apartment before us but moved to Berwick so they got a new apartment and didnt tell the mission office how horrible this apartment is when they moved out. S we got here and I was trying to be a good sport, but it is a pretty bad apartment. We dont have hot water, we have holes in the floor that we could pretty much fall through, the walls are in horrible condition, NONE of the doors shut and its in a sketchier part of town. I kept thinking as we were walking around our apartment "I AM IN AMERICA! I AM IN AMERICA!". I finally called the mission office the next day once we saw it in the sunlight and they were totally disgusted at the elders for letting it get that bad. So they are moving us ASAP. Last night a family in our ward brought us blankets and stuff because we didnt have any and they were pretty shocked we were living in this apartment. They offered to let us live with them but because they live on the edge of our ward boundary it would take all of our daily miles just to get into town! But we are making the most of it, I will have some fun stories to tell my about my mission now I guess. The mission office said they will have us out by the end of the month, so we are praying hard they find a place sooner than later. Pray for an apartment to come up for sale! Bloomsburg is a neat town. Its WAY different than State College, to say the least. People here are super....humble...... :) but super receptive to us. Everyone around here knows the Elders so they are all excited to see Sisters. Sisters were taken out of the area about 10 years ago so they all are grateful to see us. We have an appointment at least once sometimes twice a day, which is about a 100% increase from State College. The Elders had an investigator named Christine that was transferred to us. She is actually getting baptized this Saturday! We met her this week and it was quite the experience. I have finally come to see the true side of Pennsylvania. Christine lives in a tiny, old apartment with no Central lighting or air. We pretty much sat in the dark, on boxes and buckets and got to know her. She weighs about 350+ lbs, has no teeth, has an interesting odor, and LOVES GOD! It was so fun to get to know her and hear her life story. People from Bloomsburg are some of the coolest people I've met. Its so humbling to see how little they have and how happy they are. We are excited for Christine's baptism this week, look forward to pictures about that next week! The church here is super young, so attending Sacrament Meeting was a new experience for me. The talks were a little less.... "structured" and the people looked a little more casual, but it was cool to see how devoted they are. Our Chapel is in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, fields on either side for as far as they eye can see, so getting to church is a big deal for these people. Yesterday was so great to be able to Skype home! IT WAS SO GOOD TO SEE YOU! Everyone sounds like they are doing great. It was fun to be able to talk face to face with you guys, I havent seen you in almost 5 months! I love you all so much. It was so fun to be able to hear all the fun things you have been up to. And it was good to see mom is doing much better. I can't wait for Christmas :) Things here are a bit different, this area is different but I am so happy and I know that Heavenly Father has me here for a reaon! I love missionary work and I love being able to serve the Lord. Have a great week!

Sister Andresen

The first picture is me trying to "ride" the Nittany Lion. Its a big deal to take a picture on the Lion before you leave State College. CHECK!

The second picture is of me and my new companion Sister Roberts at transfers. Check out our sweet ride in the background!