Syracuse East

We received an email from Airica. It was her first one being out in the field. The area she is in is called Syracuse East. There are 2 sisters and 6 elders in this area. Airica calls it the "hood" and she says it can get pretty scary sometimes. This area was closed to the sisters serving in it and they just changed the rule to allow them back in. There are only 100 members in whole area and 20 of them are in the college branch. There is a college campus and Airica loves going to teach around campus because it gets them off the streets and feels like she is back in college!

Airica forgot to mention the name of her companion but so far they are getting along. The girl attended homeschool and she is younger than Airica. Since girls can leave on their mission at age 19 now, that makes sense because Airica is already 20. She sure misses sister Glenn (MTC companion) because they were so much alike. Hopefully sometime through out the mission they will get to be companions again.

Service, Service, Service! They are doing lots of it on the mission right now. Airica shared a funny little story about how she showed up to service in the best "work clothes" she had. She wore white pants and sparkly toms. haha. The lady they were helping thought she was from California and when she found out she was from Salt Lake she said, "your not in salt lake anymore sweetie." Trust Airica to be as girly as possible while working in the garden :)

Haha! White pants, sparkly shoes and up-do! This is how I do service- Airica

They also went to the food bank to do service and hand out food. All the people there would grab Airica's hair and say, "you are so pretty." If you know Airica, you know that she hates being touched. Even if you are super close to her and she likes you she wont let you touch her. I bet she wanted to run home and take an hour long shower to forget about all the germs. Overall she liked helping out at the food bank. And they even got to keep some food for themselves. I'm not saying they were too thrilled about the "mystery" food but at least it kept their bellies full for some time. Speaking of food... Airica says she has lost almost 12 pounds since she got to New York. Families like to feed the elders and since the elders and sisters aren't allowed to eat together, the sisters don't get fed as much. Airica is left to scramble for food and lots of it is questionable. Mom sent her a care package with crackers and other snacks that should help put more meat on her bones.

Airica as beautiful as ever!

This is Air after the food bank with her mystery food. How long have those eggs been sitting out? LOL

This is at a ward party. They got food there! And the members also bought them some cookies that were being auctioned! 

Airica knocked her first door and also placed her first Book of Mormon! I don't know if she had much success after that because she got so nervous, but its a start. There is no better way to learn and get over nerves faster than Just Doing It. I know Airica will build up the confidence the more she works at it. Overall, Airica is having a great time so far. She prays alot for the strength to keep going. She is in a city and loves it. She doesn't miss the mountains at all. But New York is nothing like she was expecting. The people are so nice and they are very willing to give what they have to the missionaries. Airica keeps taking bites of the "humble pie" that has been tossed her way and keeps treking on. Keep her in your prayers that she won't have to endure Syracuse East for much longer :)