New Area

Hello Family

The new area that I'm in is Paterson. We cover Paterson, Fair Lawn, Saddle Brook, Hawthorn, Elmwood Park and Haledon. It is definitely WAY different than Ledgewood, but I am loving it. My new address is 379 E 27th, 2nd floor, Paterson NJ, 07513. We spend most of our time in Paterson, and it's pretty ghetto. Almost every day we go visit someone over in the four 16-story project buildings. It's been quite an adjustment because we are working with a completely different type of people. My companion is Elder Turnbow, who has only been out one transfer. He's a really awesome elder though, and I've had a ton of fun with him. We had a baptism Sunday, which was really weird because I wasn't really apart of her conversion. Her name is Martha and it was so awesome to see her follow the example of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, now that she has been baptized, we have pretty much no investigators. Between going to a new area for the first time, being senior companion for the first time, being a district leader for the first time, the work in the area not going so well and having a companion that's only been out one transfer, I feel like I have a lot on my plate. The Elder who was here before me offended a lot of people too. I don't think I've heard one positive thing about him from anyone. I'm not quite sure what they were thinking when they decided to send me here with the current circumstances, but I guess there's a reason for it. For the first time I feel a lot of pressure to do well and succeed. I'm grateful for the challenge, I just hope I figure things out quickly.

Tomorrow I have to give my first training ever in District Meeting. I can't say that I'm looking forward to giving an hour and a half of training every week, but I know that I need it. There are eight elders in my district, which is very big, so it's hard to keep in touch with everyone and help them out. This week my companion and I are really going to focus on finding people to teach. I hope things start to look better here. This area has a lot of potential so things should be great in a few weeks.

I have had a good time getting to know some of the members here. We have two members, Shimaya and Keisha, who live right next to each other and they are awesome! They are really good at referring us to people to teach. Apparently Shimaya has been holding on to a few people until the missionary who was here before me left. Everyone here loves Elder Turnbow, so we shouldn't have any problems with gaining the members trust back. I really am SO EXCITED for this transfer! I'm really happy and loving missionary work. Sorry I can't write much because I have to take an elder to the hospital soon. I'll tell the details of that story next week. It's a funny one...

Love, Elder Tilley