Well I survived my first week in the mission field and it was crazy!! I am serving in Pittsburgh! Everyone from the MTC wanted to go to Pittsburgh and I am the one who got it! I am right outside of Downtown so I see it quite a bit driving around. I just wanted to make sure Jeff knows that so he can be super Jealous haha. I am  the Pittsburgh 6th ward. And my address is

136 Oakville Drive

 Apartment 1-C

Green Tree, PA

15220

So on Monday we had to wake up at 2 in the morning to make our flight for Detroit. We had about an hour layover in Detroit and then about another hour to Pittsburgh. When we arrived at the mission home we just relaxed and ate pizza. It was fun to meet the Mission President. They are awesome. That night I actually got banished to sleep in the AP's apartment instead of the mission home. I slept on the floor. And I honestly slept better then I have in a long time.

On Tuesday we had our transfer meeting. I got called to serve in Pittsburgh and my companion is Elder Taylor. He is super cool and we pretty much have everything in common. That night we went to a dinner appointment with the Rossignoli's. There was a pretty awkward experience there, I'll have to tell you it when I get home.

Wednesday was my first full day out here. Elder Taylor and I are both brand new to the area so we have to start from scratch pretty much. We had to go around and visit people in the ward and find people to teach. It was fun to get to know everyone. Everyone is seriously so nice out here and they are so fun to talk to. It was cool, we had a goal to place a BOM and we went to a house at like 9:00 and no one was there. So we went next door to a lady sitting on her porch and talked to her and ended up giving her one and we were able to bear our testimonies to her. It was cool to see that heavenly father was aware of our goal and provided a way for us to accomplish it.

On Friday we visited a guy named Billy. He is pretty much the definition of a "Hill Billy" haha. He has gone less active and says he doesn't believe at all anymore. We just talked and we had a good conversation about everything and he said he would watch General Conference.

Saturday was so awesome. We went to a place called McKee's Rocks and it is pretty sketchy there but I love it. When we first got out of our car we were in an all black community kind of like you see on the movie Blind Side. There was just rap music blasting everywhere and the first person we met told us not to talk to him because he was to drunk to remember anything. I love it there. We saw these people trying to move in so we asked if we could help and they were so grateful for the offer. We helped them and they were so impressed that we would do something like that and they wanted our names so they could give us a shout out on facebook. But we just told them about the church and invited them to come. They said they definitely would have to some time. They were so fun to talk to and Im glad we got to talk to them.

Afterwards we were walking around and this lady was sitting on her porch and asked if we wanted a popsicle. So of course we said yes haha. We gave her a pass a long card and she looked at it and said "so what is the book of Mormon?" We told her and gave her a copy and she said she really was going to read it. We are going to set up a time to visit her again this week.

After we went to the Turners house for dinner and then we taught a part member family the Tar's. They are from Africa and are super awesome. We taught them about eternal family's and we watched a video on temples. The spirit was so strong and I know they felt something. We are going to visit the son again this week.

On sunday we went to dinner again. Afterwards I told them that this was so much better then the 1.00 hotdogs we have been living off all week. Elder Taylor was like "yeah he still misses his mom's cooking." (Which I really do.) But we were just joking around but they felt so sorry for me. They treated me like I was a poor little kid. The wife decided they were 0also asked what my mom usually made for me. So I wouldn't be surprised if they show up with tons of dinners for me now. And I can just see them in Relief Society saying "We need to team together and save Elder May from his microwaved hot dogs..." It was so weird, I think that they just feel bad for me because I am new.

I love this work and I love this gospel. I love my personal study time I have every morning. The scriptures bring me so much happiness!! The church is true! Be examples in everything you do!

Elder May