It's truly has been a roller coaster of a week. I'm super excited to finally be in Washington, but I'll tell you I miss the MTC a lot. I made some really good friends and it was hard to let them go. I hope in this email I can remember and describe all the things that happened in my first week in the field.
So after a super long day of flights, I finally landed in Yakima around 9:30pm. There I met the Pendleberrys and we then drove to the mission office. That night I spent the night in the zone leaders apartment. Man it felt good to go to bed. The next morning we drove back to the mission office to grab the rest of my luggage. That morning I met the mission president and his wife as well as other office presidency. After getting to know each of them we left for the mission home. The mission home is literally the best place. It just made me feel back at home with all the decorations. This day was also a longer day, because it was basically all orientation stuff. President Jackman and sister Jackman are the best. They are super cool, normal, and hard working. They remind me a lot of mom and dad, and they also look similar too. They even let the new missionaries sleep in until 7am the next morning.
To clear up any confusion of where I'm serving and whose my companion, I am not serving in Leavenworth, that was just my guess before president Jackman showed the transfer board. I'm serving in a town roughly 40 min from Yakima called Sunnyside. My companion is Elder Bradshaw. He's been out nearly a year, he's pretty funny and a cool guy. He's from Utah and is also the youngest of 4. He had a pretty normal life up until his high school years when he had done some pretty bad stuff. I won't tell you the major details, but his mission has truly changed his life.
So transfer day was last Wednesday, which is where you saw some of those pictures on Facebook. I will be updating my Facebook with a newer profile pic so be on the lookout for that. Bradshaw and I loaded our stuff in the car and headed to Sunnyside. Somehow we got hooked up with a sweet car, a 2017 Toyota Rav-4. Such a nice car. We are both brand new to this area, or mission terms we got doubled in, so it's been a rough adjustment getting to know the people and the area especially because it's my first week.
The people in Sunnyside are mostly Hispanic. There are a few pockets where its English. However, I would say most of the Hispanics know English, especially the kids. Usually if they grew up in Sunnyside they speak English, but if they came from Mexico, then they speak Spanish. So it's nice to teach lessons in English, but hopefully next week I can get more practice with Spanish. Sunnyside is also a lot of farm land as well. Right when you take the exit, you'll see a bunch of cows. There's not a whole of shopping or restaurants here, but have we have all we need. Our apartment is pretty decent. For the two of us its actually pretty big. The sisters that lived there before us and left us with basically nothing, so we've been sorting out some things but will need more from the store today.
So far every night we have been eating with our branch members. It's hit or miss you'll get a authentic Mexican meal, but the majority of the time you do. I don't mind and have enjoyed trying new things here even though sometimes it doesn't or shouldn't look edible. Haha. Although I will have to tell you about this one dinner. So Saturday night we had dinner at a family called the Sorsycks. They served Taco Salad and it was pretty good. Well about 30 min after my stomach started to feel pretty sick. I wouldn't have imagined it was the food, I just thought I needed to go to the bathroom really bad. Well after knocking on a few doors and a lesson or two, my stomach pains were the same and it was time to go back to the apartment. I quickly showered and went to bed. Usually when I lay down I feel a lot better, but in this case I didn't and I just could not fall asleep. To summarize, I probably threw up about 6 to 7 times throughout the night, getting only a few hours of sleep. It was a rough night, and the next morning was my first Sunday in the branch, one that I could not miss. After emptying both the black and grey tank in my body, I was left with zero energy and I didn't want to eat a whole bunch, but I did feel a lot better and I feel fine now.
We have a pretty small branch. At most there would be 40 people, which from what others were explaining was higher than I expected. President Wise asked the new missionaries to introduce themselves and so Elder Bradshaw, another new Hermana, and I each went up. Our Branch starts at noon. Our Elders quorum is super small, there's only 5 of us. So I'm looking forward to getting to know each member of the branch.
We don't have a lot of plans for Halloween this week. Hopefully we can carve some pumpkins or something. Thank you so much for the letters and packages. I love them. We really have the best family. Good luck with school and work. Happy, happy happy birthday Mom.
Love you and miss you all a lot.
Elder Nissinen
For pictures this week, check out the shared google drive folder. I will be uploading pictures throughout the day.
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