So this week has been an adventure. I feel like this place is the opposite of the MTC. In the MTC the days went by SUPER slow, but the weeks flew by. Here the days go by so fast, but the weeks seem super long. Like, I just feel like the last time I wrote to you guys was forever ago! But I'm doing well. It's been a little bit crazy though-- it always seems to be that way! 

        So at the Visitors' Center, we have a schedule by the hour that tells us where we are supposed to be.  We could be at front greet, back greet, giving a reserved tour... but for a couple hours a day we are on media. Media is pretty much just time on the computer. We do the online chats that come in from mormon.org. We call referrals of people that have come into the visitors' center. We teach our online investigators, and we take the calls that come in from pass-a-long cards. These calls... are sometimes amazing, and sometimes really taxing. I know it sounds really easy, on her mission Holly gets to sit inside in the air conditioning and talk on the phone! But this past week I have had some calls that are just so hard and really it's hard emotionally. I can't really describe it. We always get antis calling-which is fine. Sometimes it's annoying or it can be hard to react kindly :] I talked to a guy that was very clearly under the influence of something... he was totally high. He was like the nicest person ever (of course, hahaha) but he was crazy. He had the craziest ideas about religion. I really wish that I could have recorded the conversation. I was trying so hard to not laugh at some points. Yesterday I answered the phone and said "Thank you so much for calling the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, this is Holly, how may I help you?" and this girl is like "are you ready for this" and I was like "umm yes?" and she WENT OFF ON ME. Just furious, cursing every other word (which was quite shocking for me, since I hadn't heard any of these words in 4 months) She told me that she got this number off her boyfriend's phone and that I had been going behind her back calling her boyfriend. It was pretty crazy. Anyways I eventually hung up on her because she wouldn't let me say anything. She was just yelling at me. But when I got off the phone it was hard. I don't know. It just made me sad. Then Sister Cottrell was on the phone with some one that had called in and told her that he had a gun to his head. She called the priesthood leader on call to come into the call center, but she didn't really know how to deal with it. Anyways everyone helped her out and everything turned out alright. But it's terrifying because you feel like you have to say exactly the right thing so that they don't do something! Apparently suicidal people call in fairly often. Sister Avila was on shift when this happened and told me that two months ago she was on the phone with someone when they pulled the trigger... it really freaked her out for a while. Anyways. This paragraph is kind of a downer. But the church is really trying to turn to online proselyting... which is cool... but definitely emotionally tolling sometimes.

         Wednesday night Hermana McKee and I had 3 hours in our area and in an effort to find new investigators we went to this trailer park in our area to try and contact some former investigators. We met some really cool people and were also just talking to everyone that was passing by. We saw an entire family just standing in front of a trailer. As we went to go talk to them we noticed that the mom was crying. When we asked what was wrong she told us that she had caught her husband cheating with the next door neighbor. He had just ran away with her and had taken everything. Like seriously everything they had. He took all of the kids papers (they are legal) so they couldn't leave. The mom was afraid to call the police because she's here illegally. The oldest daughter is handicapped and the mom was telling us about how her husband always takes the government checks  and spends it on alcohol. Then she told us about how abusive he is. I could see all the bruises on all of them, but hadn't really thought that that's where it would be from. Like the kids were so abused. They hadn't eaten in days because they didn't have any money. I wanted to help them so badly but I really didn't know what to do. While we were standing there talking to them, someone ran a truck into a trailer behind us. Like drove straight into someone's HOUSE. I was like this place is crazy--we gotta get out of here. It was like 9:15 pm and the area was pretty sketchy. So we left but we got the family's information and called our zone leaders when we got home. They told us to report it to the police and then try and stay out of it. So we did. But it was pretty insane. The next day a lady in our ward called us and told us that her 17 year old son had been sent to prison and asked us to contact the missionaries assigned to the prison and have them teach him. So it was a fun-filled day talking to the police and the prison. haha.

       We found a new investigator named  Jonathan that is 19 years old. He has a 2 year old son, tons of tattoos and has already been through so much in his life. He told us that he has never really been interested in religion in his life but knows that he needs to make a change in his life. But he just knows it's going to be really hard, so at the same time he doesn't really want to. We made a deal with him that he would work with us seriously for 2 weeks and then see how he feels. And he has been so awesome. He's already read like 10 chapters in the book of mormon. He's following through with all of his commitments. We're just really excited for him because he is progressing so quickly. He came to church on Sunday and has already made a lot of friends in the ward.

       Sunday night we had a charla in our ward. Like a missionary fireside where the missionaries sing songs, recent converts come and talk about their conversion and President Ellsworth speaks. It went so well. I sang a song and Hermana McKee played the piano. Emanuel (our recent convert) got up and talked and it was just so awesome. We had some investigators come and it was a great night. It was also fun to see President and Sister Ellsworth. I talked to her and she told me that they had gone to a mission president conference and had met and talked to President and Sister Crawford for a while, who asked how I was doing. So that was fun to hear that!
 
       Sunday night everyone got transfer news. I'm staying here with Sister McKee because I am still in my first 12 weeks. But it's so just weird to have everyone moving around.  I know that that is part of the mission, but I've never really been through it before. And thus far it's just kind of been like this is how my mission is. But now it's changing and it's weird! Sister Avila is leaving and her companion Sister Sordes (from France) is going to be training and Sister that is coming today from the MTC! Sister McKee and I have been assigned to take her for her first night and so we're having a little sleep over tonight. We are excited... except that it makes our P-day end at 3pm. But that's okay! 
     Things are going really well. I love hearing from all of you. I miss you tons. Someone mentioned something this past week about how mother's day is only a month away and we'll get to talk to our families! And I was like whoa... that's right! I totally forgot. But I'm excited. Miss you so much!
 
Love, Holly