Week One - Rotterdam

Tuesday we got up at 3:00 in the morning and headed to the Salt Lake airport. It was hard driving past all the places that I call home on my way to the airport. Our flight left for Detroit at 7:30 and landed at about 12. We had a 2 hour layover in Detroit. We then got on our flight to Syracuse at 2:30 and arrived at about 4 where we met President and Sister Rogers at the airport. We got our luggage and went to the mission home for the night.

The next morning we got up and went to the mission office where we did some orientation. We then went into the chapel to be assigned to our companion and area. I got paired with Elder Skouson. He is a great trainer. The area we are assigned to serve in is the Rotterdam area. It is a brand new area that Elder Skouson and I are opening up and is a suburb of Schnectady. It is located just northwest of Albany.

After the meeting we had lunch and I met the Armstrongs niece Sister Blomquist. After the lunch all the missionaries packed up and went to their new areas. When I arrived at the new Rotterdam apartment I unpaked and got to know Elder Skouson a bit more. We checked out the area in the next couple of days. We live right by the ghettos and it just seems like the people have little hope where we are. We are going to change that though.

During the rest of the week Elder Skouson and I have had the chance to get to know the members in the Schenectady ward we are in, watch general conference, and get to know our area better.

I've attached pictures of President and Sister Rogers and also my companion, Elder Skouson.