Sunday, March 9, 2014

First Area: Ritzville, WA

Hello everyone!
So! First week of mission life is done! It was like the longest week of my life but I liked it at the same time! I am in a very small town called Ritzville. It says that there are around 800 people here but i feel like its more around 4 or 5 hundred. Like every house that we go knock on has been abandoned. Its kinda sketchy sometimes. My Companion/trainer is Elder Colburn! He was born in California moved to Oklahoma when he was 8 and then moved to Faren Nevada? I guess its like east of Reno. He is a really cool guy. We have a very hard time finding things to do here. Its so small and the people here are perfectly content with what they are doing everyday. There are like 15 churches in this tiny town. We probably have around 150 members but only like 50 of them are active. We have already knocked the entire list twice.
 Its very cold now. I bought a coat in Spokane before we came out here. It has helped a lot. It snowed all day yesterday but we only got like 2 inches on the ground. The snow here is so weird. when it snows like none of it sticks. The wind just blows the entire time and takes most of the snow with it. The wind chill here is terrible.  It was the coldest I have ever been. But worth It! A shirtless man came to the door and said "I'd love to hear from some fellow Christ believers!" Man I was so pumped when he said that. He is getting baptized. He just doesn't know it yet! 
So we cover 2 other towns and they are called Lind and Odessa. They are both just as small or smaller than this town.  We are trying to find stuff to do but its pretty hard. I think working 3 jobs prepared me more than I thought it would for this. We have been fed a ton! Its so sweet! In the past week we were fed probably like 5 times! The Kiel family is awesome! They fed us both Thursday and Friday night! I am so grateful for them! Also There is a huge family here named the Galbreaths. No idea how or where that name came from. One of the Galbreath families loaded us with pulled pork! we have had like 5 or 6 burritos at home and we still have some left over! 
Since I worked at a snack bar for 2 years I decided that I would make My comp and I some grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. It was 5 star quality. haha just kidding but it was pretty good. I have gained like 10 pounds already. I did like 500 hundred sit-ups in the MTC cuz we had a goal that if we called the elders or sisters "Guys" then we have to do 10 sit-ups. I failed miserably. Its all good though. I still do sit-ups every morning but my stomach just keeps getting bigger. like what the heck. Maybe that's why I was so skinny all my life... cuz I never worked out? I dunno. its weird. 
We haven't taught any families. My comp hasn't ever been to this area either and it opened like 6 months ago so we are basically sweep training. We have knocked like every door here. We had 2 appointments yesterday but neither one of them answered. 
So my comp has been out for like 17 months. I've been kinda depressed about the whole visa thing. But then a couple days ago I opened to a random page in a hymn book and it opened to Ill Go Where You Want Me To Go. I immediately thought "Well, I'm stuck here." But then I just started to read the words and realized that the Lord needs me here. I still believe there is a reason I was called to India and am hoping my visa arrives soon. But we will see.
Happy Birthday Ryan! are you "feelin' 22?" Ha ha. Everyone here is obsessed with Taylor Swift. I see why I was sent here. I fit in perfectly. Oh! So i have a couple of Fav scriptures that You can pick to put on my plaque thing... I love Alma 26:12! Such a great scripture about Ammon! Or there is 2 Nephi 33:10! Both way good! I don't care which one you pick.... or even Mosiah 5:8! There are so many! Anywho. Hopefully we can make something happen in this town. We are in the middle of no where. Its awesome. but at the same time I kind of want to die.I am slowly but surely warming up to it. Let me know how things in Utah are going!
Coming to you live from the small town of Ritzville, Washington
Love,
Elder Zachary Checketts



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