Deer Valley

I'm in my mission and now I'm a real missionary! I'm in the Deer Valley Ward, in the Deer Valley Stake, in the Deer Valley Zone. Its 20 miles north of The mission home in Glendale. We are in a grey area between Phoenix and Glendale that we just call Deer Valley. Everyone has rocks instead of grass in the front of their houses so that's weird. Also every roof is a tile roof like you'd picture in Mexico. I got my bike without any problems and everything is going great! The heat isn't too bad and I have an amazing trainer. His name is Elder Burbank. He's from Idaho. He's quiet when it comes to talking about normal things but when it comes to talking about missionary things he's more open. He has a great spirit about him and I've already learned a lot from him. We stop and invite everyone walking by to comoe to the temple open house and most are really excited about it. We have hundreds of little temple pass along cards and we hand them out like candy. We live with the zone leaders and they're pretty great too. We're definitely 20 year old guys though...hahaha it's pretty funny! The initiation was they took a pink exercise ball and jumped on me multiple times. I guess it had to happen to be welcomed into the mission. We also play a game called death ball with that pink exercise ball and a green dodgeball. It's a way fun game! Teaching real people is kind of a weird thing but it's amazing at the same time. I love it. I thought I'd hate having an iPad but it's great and makes things like teaching records so much easier! It's funny on our iPad we get little notes from Siri on our calendar and every day it says either "wow today is busy" or "there's a lot going on today". Everything has an app now so we don't need to carry much which is convenient on a bike. I'm so glad I'm on a bike area honestly. I love riding around and being able to talk to everyone. I thought I would feel stressed and uncomfortable here but it almost feels like home. It definitely feels right and I know this is where I'm suppose to be. Missionary work seems to be second nature to me. I love talking to people, especially all the homeless people. They're some of the most genuine people and very humble. They aren't interested in the gospel yet but they're still super nice. I've met a few ward members that are really welcoming people. We've had dinners every night which is delightful. It's crazy how diverse our ward is. We have some really rich people and then we have people that live in Budget Sweets. This is the place where the state sends people who can't afford to live somewhere. They have some really nice people there though! Love ya'll!!

-Elder Tribe