Trekking Georgia: A Missionary Experience to Remember: First email from the field!!

Hello everyone, I'm here in Atlanta!!! Things are great here... I'm in Peachtree City and my trainer is Elder Schlsinger... He's great, he's the new District leader here in the area and he's only been out for 3 months! He's pretty stressed out about training and doing district leader stuff but I'm trying to help him out as much as possible... he also has some problems with his muscles locking up on him but so far we haven't had any struggles with it... he's super obedient and wants to do everything the right way and work hard... so we're great together. We're actually both perfectionists so we've had some rough days where we've been pretty hard on ourselves but its something we're working on getting better at and we're improving every day.

My first Saturday here, I got to go to a baptism with him for a couple of people he and his last companion taught. He baptized one of them... it was his first one ever! That was a neat experience to watch and help with... I even gave a brief talk on the Holy Ghost. Can't wait to be setting up more baptisms for our current investigators!!! I've had some crazy experiences so far... some really great ones too. It's been good though, every time I've felt like I've needed something or someone to help me so I could make it through the day, the Lord has blessed me with that. He's for sure watching over me and Elder Schlsinger and blessing us for our persistent hard work and obedience.

Some funny stories... it's been raining here like crazy! We've gotten soaked to the bone a few nights while out tracting... we're working so hard and blessing so many people (in this mission, we do blessings via prayer to everyone we meet... its pretty cool and opens up great dialogue... we usually give out about 10 a day!) but we're so determined to talk/bless everyone we see that we even blessed a mailman who was driving by on a street we were door-to-dooring. I've also been given a Bible from a lady who wasn't interested but thought I'd be interested in her church! Also got yelled at/chewed out by a Baptist who I accidentally called again right after he told me he wasn't interested... that was fun!

I can't believe how diverse it is here though... we went to a conference with Elder Suarz of the 70 (who I met) and on the way there, we passed a road that had a Karishna temple, Baptist church and a Catholic school all right next to each other... I've never met so many people with so many different religious beliefs! The people down here are great though... so nice and respectful and they all are VERY religious.

Peachtree City, the area I'm currently in, reminds me a lot of Bountiful so it's not out in the Styx or anything... it's very close to downtown ATL. In fact, a lot of the people around here grew up outside of Utah and TONS of people have even lived in Bountiful or Salt Lake before... so it really doesn't feel like I'm THAT far away from home. The ward we go to is great... this last Sunday was awesome.

Another funny story... while going door to door, we ran into a Spanish speaking family and tried talking to them... but it mostly consisted of "No hablo english" and "No hablo espanol"... too bad I didn't take that rossetta stone Spanish program before I came out here! We sat there for a good 5 minutes just laughing and trying to talk back and forth.

I'm glad it's P-day though cause we're out of food! I've been living off of oatmeal for the last few days... so I'm excited to get some other food! Our favorite place to eat out down here is Chick-Fil-A... we actually ran into a young man there one night who was very interested in our message... we gave him a BoM, a pass along card and got his phone #... we talked to him for about 45 minutes and practically taught all the mini-lessons to him... we have high hopes for him!!!

Anyways, that's kinda what's going on... hope all is well. My Apartment address is 1000 Stevens Entry, Peachtree City, GA 30269 apartment # F113... I've read all of your letters (and I still do!) and I love getting them so keep sending them! I have NO time to write back except on P-day so I'm sorry if I don't get back to you or if takes awhile but keep them coming please! They help me so much! I'll try sending some pictures but this computer is weird and I can't see which ones are what... and I can only send 3 at a time! I'll be emailing from 10:00 am to 11:00 am GA time every Monday! Love you all! Remember, keep doing the right things and always do your part to have the spirit with you! The Lord loves you and will always be there for you... just remember to ask for help!!!! Love, Elder Wahlen