Howdy from little Ole new bloomfield! This has been a long and busy week, but let me just say, I am soooooo grateful to not be in the MTC anymore! Haha. I love it here, and am so grateful to finally be out in the beautiful Penn State. On Monday afternoon, after a long, anxious plane ride, I made it to pennsylvania. Sister and President Johnson picked us up from the airport and let me just say I LOVE THEM.I stayed overnight at the mission home in Pittsburgh, and then Tuesday I met my trainer, and where we would be serving. My trainer is Sister Roper and I LOVE her. I have never met anyone so kind, loving, and selfless as she is, and I know I'm going to learn so much from her example. She has just barely finished the three month training, and now she is training me! It's really overwhelming for her, but she's handling it like a boss. Our Area is called New Bloomfield and it is a huge area. Not many people, but tons of farmland. It's quite the distance to get anywhere else in our area, which hurts our mileage, so we have to work really hard to get rides and lessons with members. It's so pretty here, not too cold, and for the most part the people are nice haha. I have been told by a multitude of people that this is the hardest area in the mission, and so far it really is proving to be haha. But we have hope. Wednesday was a rather good day. We went to District Meeting in Camp Hill, which was really awesome. Our district is great, the elders are really funny, but very in tune with the spirit. Later that day, we went to two less active lessons with a girl from the ward named Kayla. She is AWESOME. I have never met someone so prepared to go on a mission, and she's waiting to get her call right now. She goes out with us every Wednesday. Anyways, they were really good lessons, sadly neither of them came to church, but we are working on that. Around this area they have what they call boot leg icecream that farmers make from fresh milk and sell in local markets and its THE BEST. Ill never be able to eat any other icecream again haha. Thursday was a rough day for us. Sister Roper and her old companion had an investigator, Melissa, who they have been working with for a while. She said she wasn't coming to church because of money issues, so we worked it out to give some money to her to come to church. Well, that morning when we went to give it to her, she had shut the blinds, locked the doors, and taped a typed letter to the door saying really hateful things about the church, about us, and how she didn't want to see us ever again. I was mad, mostly because sister Roper was hurt. It took all my energy to not slam down the door and ask her what the deal was, but I knew that wasn't right. We left a note saying we were sorry for any miscommunication there was, and still left the money for her. Hopefully she will come to her senses. That put a damper in sister Ropers mood, and after that we had a lot of appointments drop on us. So, we decided to do service. The best medicine for worry, is work! First, we went to a horse sanctuary. It's this big plot of land, with lots of Corrals and pastures. Beautiful, beautiful land. We just picked a few horse pins and scooped manure. I don't think I have ever been more happy and content picking up poop in my entire life. It felt good to provide service, and helped pull us out of our rut. Last week a girl in our ward committed suicide. No one knows why, and no one expected it. It's taken a huge toll on not just the ward, but the town in general. The people are hurting. The family, the booths, are very good people and after picking up poop, we decided to stop by and see what we could do. We cleaned, talked, and just tried to be there for them. It's absolutely amazing to watch them turn to the Lord for help in this hard time, when it would be so easy to turn away. We went to help them, and they showed so much kindness and generosity towards us. I really look forward to helping them more, and we have made it a goal to go by every week. Friday and Saturday were pretty uneventful days. We had lots of appointments cancel, people drop us, weekly planning, and more service. Saturday we put together a list of less actives to visit in the nearby town of Duncannon, and did so,even tracking for a couple hours. We had a lot of doors slammed in our face, and a few people who aren't interested, but were sweet anyways. We did get to meet with one referral and she was so sweet, and asked us to come back this week. I actually bonded with her over lularoe, because she was decked out in all the clothes, so who would've known that's how I'd get my foot in the door? Someone has got to tell Kylie Anderson about that haha. Being a missionary is HARD. And it's not always fun. You don't always have baptisms, progressing investigators, or the kindest people, and we have been learning that the hard way this week. But the Lord ALWAYS provides and blesses us for our efforts. I am so thankful to be a missionary, in the hard and easy times. There are big things coming for New Bloomfield! I can feel it! I would absolutely love to hear from you guys, tell me how you're doing! Send corny jokes and movie quotes and I'll love you forever! Thanks for the love and prayers, they mean a lot! Sister Parry