First email from the mission field. She's in W. Virginia!!

Hello friends and family! How's life? Great? I hope so!

So, I flew into Maryland last Tuesday! That was one busy day! When we landed in the airport, many missionaries, along with President and Sister Richards, were there to great us! We got slammed with 99 degree weather and lots of humidity! That was definitely a change! I felt like I was swimming! But, other than that day, it's actually been pretty nice here! Not too hot or humid :) There was a giant thunderstorm the night we flew in. I've never heard thunder that loud! I was in awe :) Love it here! 

So, I met my trainer, Sister Lawrence, last week and she's pretty awesome. She bow hunts like Katniss Everdeen and totally gets teased about it all the time haha. We both love yoga, cats, and ice cream, which is basically all I ask for, so we get along pretty well haha. I've been sent to serve in the Harper's Ferry, West Virginia part of this mission, so that's amazing! It's everything I could've hoped for! Lots of country, wide open spaces, and it's SO GREEN! I've never before seen so many trees! I'll send some pictures :)

My companion mentioned to me the other day something pretty cool to think about. There are a bunch of Sisters out on missions and a bunch in my mission, but we are the ONLY TWO SISTERS to be called to the Harper's Ferry area at this time! How lucky are we?!

On transfers day, it was pretty awesome; I was driving through Maryland, then we went through Virginia, and made it to West Virginia twice in one day and the drive was less than 2 hours. Super cool. I've almost been in all the states in my mission! I'm just missing Pennsylvania and I haven't even been here a full week yet! For those of you who don't know now, my Preparation Day will be on Monday for the rest of my weekend. Just so you know. 

Oh, and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! Almost! This Saturday! That'll be fun! Sis. Lawrence and I get to go to a cookout with one of the recent converts in this area. She's pretty awesome :) We were weeding in her yard a couple days ago and, I kid you not, a giant spider that looked more like a creature, was right above our heads staring at us! I swear, it's legs were the size of my pinky! And a new Tongan sister, Sister F., just poked it with a stick and it totally moved all the plants and weeds while it was running away. Terrifying. The bugs here are big.

Speaking of bugs, FIREFLIES!! I've never in my life seen fireflies and they're everywhere here! God totally knew I'd need that because, as you all know I love glitter, and these little bugs are like bursts of glitter everywhere here and it's perfect after a long hard day. Just amazing :) Utah needs fireflies. Bad. 

So, the townhouse I'm living in is more like a mansion! I've been so spoiled here! Just my comp and I live in it and we have 3 floors, our own bathrooms, and a full-size kitchen! I'll probably never be this spoiled in my entire life. Love it! And we get to drive by the Potomac river almost every day. So beautiful. I'm extremely blessed. 

So, we have one investigator family that is absolutely golden! All the children know their bible and what we are teaching them just makes sense to them, which is awesome! The mom, Amy, really wants to come to church, but her husband refuses to let her. He thinks Mormons are those polygamists and they marry children; she knows he's wrong, but his heart won't soften. We're praying for her... 

So, we have awesome members here who are super involved in the missionary efforts. I love it. They feed us well and I've never seen so much ward/missionary interaction. DO MISSIONARY WORK! The missionaries will appreciate the referrals and you and your family will be blessed! It's hard being rejected so much here because the people are comfortable in their lifestyle and they don't want to put in the work to learn more, so they just don't, but it really is like handing out $100 and having people just stomp on them. Sometimes people can be mean and will offer my companion and I beer just because they know we don't drink and they'll tease us about it, but that's okay. It is frustrating, but it's okay. I really do love these people and so many people love God here, so that's always great! I just have to keep remembering that The Lord is preparing people for me to teach if I just stay obedient. 

So, you know how Hazing is totally and completely bad? Well, my companion totally hazed me into this mission! Haha, so we had an appointment with this family who had tattoos everywhere and were offering us alcohol and all this stuff, and it got super uncomfortable really fast because they were asking me these deep doctrine questions and my companion wasn't answering anything! I was all along while teaching them, then they all busted up laughing because it was all fake! RUDE! They have this cute little 7 year old who thought her family was super mean for doing this for me, but I thought it was funny. Sister Lawrence is lucky I have a good sense of humor. It was good. They're a great family. We're going to start teaching their little girl the missionary lessons to prepare her for baptism. They're a less-active family and we're working a lot with the less-actives so hopefully that'll help. We are going to have a yoga party soon :) 

Well, I think this is all for now. Our district hiked Maryland Heights this morning. We were hiking for about 4 1/2 hours, but I have lots of pictures! I'm so exhausted by now haha, and we haven't had anything to eat, so grocery shopping is the next thing on the list!
I love you all and I know you're all amazing! I know this Church is True! I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Many people get comfortable with where they're at in life; DON'T! Push yourself to work harder, be better, and love more. Learn new things! I know that if I hadn't had that desire to learn for myself if this Gospel was true, I would be completely lost. This world is a tough place to live. Life isn't fair. I've met some people here who have lost children and just terrible things, but this gospel and God's love gives them hope. I know this Gospel can give you hope too. It won't take away your challenges, but it will make life easier. Remember that. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, 

Sister Humphrey