Talk About Being in the Mission Field.

Well, hello!  I am living in Fredonia, a recently reopened area.  It is a really weird change from the middle of PA, where I have been my entire mission. I can't quite place it yet, New York is just... different.... than Pennsylvania.  We have a car (Jeep Compass) and cover a humongous amount of territory. That is really the biggest change, my "walk areas" were small and even Dover was remarkably small to be a full branch. But we have Silvercreek, Dunkirk, Fredonia, Stockton, Brockton, Cassedega, Westfield, and a couple of other towns that I can't even remember all in our area. We have to drive a lot! The church in Fredonia closed down a few years ago, so we go to Jamestown for church, a little less than an hour's drive. 

I really hated to leave Dover, but it was what the Lord needed I guess. This area has a lot of awesome potential, so I am really excited about it actually.  The ward is nice, but has some structural issues, namely-over 900 members on the rolls but only 160 at church on Sundays. Just last month, it absorbed the failed Warren ward, so now Jamestown is even more enormous geographically. It is very hard to coordinate with folks, or get fed, just because we live so far away from anyone or anything. We are trying to set up a way to correlate without ward mission leader via Skype actually, just because we live so far away.

I have also noticed a slight detachment between members and missionaries thus far. Really, it's almost ambivalence. With the exception of some awesome members, the vast majority did not even seem to notice I was new or care to know my name, much less introduce themselves. That's not good. And frankly, that is my goal to change. We are going to get these members pumped up about missionary work again.

Here's the good news though! We are reopening the Fredonia building in January and starting a group. Not a branch, a group. There are about 4 active families in our area and that will be about the core. So this is really a new experience, it's going to be super interesting but super cool! I feel like the presence of the church will help to drive many members out of inactivity. This is a really exciting time to be in Fredonia. Talk about being in the mission field, no one here even really knows what a Mormon is! 

So of course, you want to know my companion. Or should I say... companions? I am serving with Elder O and Elder S. I actually came out with O; we were in the same casa in the CCM. S is his trainee, they just finished training. So it's back to the tripanionship for Elder Wright. We are working really well together, they are good missionaries with sincere desires to work hard and serve. We’re going to do awesome together.

Yeah that's the such.

Love ya,

Elder Wright