How My Low-Budget Horror Film Got Reproduced by Disney.

Dear friends and family,

I adore my new companion. Like, adore her. 

Name: Hermana Perry

From:  Huntington, West Virginia (be excited!)

Age: 19. She knew she wanted to serve a mission the second she found out about the announcement (in part b/c her boyfriend is serving in Italy and will get back just 2 months before her :) They're adorably in love)

Went to BYU before the mission and reminds me a whole lot of my dear cousin, Suzette.  Hard-working, SO sweet, friendly, and out going. But still hilarious in the most adorable way. I have laughed more with her than I have my whole mission I think. (I'm so grateful for that.  I don't think I have laughed enough on my mission. And my last companion told me that I'm starting to get wrinkles on my brow...ay!) She's super down-to-earth and chill, but has an obvious desire to serve and be the best she can be. She has so much light. 

And most importantly, she is a STELLAR missionary. She's discouraged by the Spanish sometimes (even though she's learning it so well!), but she has awesome ideas for our area and is a truly powerful teacher. I'm learning so much from her.  Plus, her Spanish just makes her even more endearing to everyone that we talk to. 

Needless to say, I am relieved. Because I don't actually have to train her, you know? I just have to love her, which I can't really help doing anyway. 

We just had our first real lesson last night with M**** and J***** P*** and M**** now has a baptismal date! Joy!  She said she wants to be baptized, but she wants to know more about what it is and why it's necessary first. And obviously...that's what we do. So it's done business. Pray for them though, yeah?  

G***** is still ignoring us so he can hang w/ his family whose still in town, and yesterday in stake conference, I had a piercing feeling in my heart about him. Like an "he should be here and he isn't and it's my job to tell him that" sort of moment. And then a sort of heart-broken feeling. So...we'll see what that means when I actually get a chance to talk to him. 

Speaking of stake conference...it was awesome. As church always is. But our stake has a handful of Spanish/Samoan branches and wards in it, so there was a plethura of translation headsets and the hymns were all mixed up in their various languages. It was neat stuff. Another one of those "I love serving in California" moments. Though it can't be easy to organize and coordinate all of that. I was super impressed with the leadership and their messages.

And the rest of the week has just been a mess of going stir-crazy sitting at our desk in our apartments for the forever-long transfer-and-weekly planning session and our extra hours of companionship/training study, getting lost on California freeways, and in a wide variety of trainings for new missionaries and their in-over-their-head trainers. We were spiritually, mentally, and physically exhausted by the end, and are now ready to start a normal week of work in the field. 

Anywho, I should go write a letter to my mission president about how marvelous my new companion is. You're all in my prayers, como siempre. And I just love you. So so much. Como siempre. (...which means "like aways"...not, "I eat always". Though that would be true as well. Also, pray for my metabolism yeah?)

So much love and faith,

Sister Abigail Wells

p.s. Peg Moffat! I ran into the Prince family last month and forgot to tel you about it! I even have pictures, which I can't upload... :/  But I mentioned that Kevin (...right? It's Kevin?) was the starting quarterback at UCLA to some of the elders, and they swarmed him a bit. I forgot that's a big deal to guys.  It was hilarious. I took stalker pics.