TUCSON!!

I'm here! I'm already in Tucson! How did this happen? First off....when you fly over Tucson it literally looks like you are flying over the moon. I have yet to see anything green besides a cactus. (I don't know why but they are sooo cute!) Who knew there are so many different kinds of cacti? There is one that spits out needles! That is so cool! Three Sisters and I stayed at a members house last night which was really fun! Sister Croutts was super nice and refused to let us help with anything. As soon as she left the room we would put away our dishes or make the bed. It was kinda a fun game to see what we could clean up before she got back into the room. She's awesome though. Let's back up a little bit. My last week in the MTC flew by. I learned a lot and really really enjoyed teaching our legit investigator. He accepted our invitation to get baptized but I think he was just saying that because he knew that was our last lesson with him. -__- My district was the greatest though. The new sisters didn't join our room so it was still just me and Sister Harrington. I started interviewing her every night until I was on the floor laughing. That girl can tell you anything about fantasy creatures and their ears. She told me if I was an element I would be fire. That was the one and only compliment she ever gave me and I'll take it! Apparently being a fire element is a good thing. WHATEVER! This week I started writing down quotes from Sister Harrington. You'll have to read them in my journal when I get home. She is one wise woman. Leaving the MTC was bitter sweet. It was sad to say goodbye to my teachers. They were the greatest. I got to see Hermana Frodsham Sunday night before I left! When we were walking away Sister Harrington looks at me and says, "You and that sister embrace a lot. I think she is a water element." Hahahaha one day I hope to find out what that means. Every time that I compliment Sister Harrington she looks around all confused and says, "Well...alright." Then I always just bust up laughing. I don't know if I have just grown some really dry humor or if it really would be funny to the average person but I really enjoyed witnessing some of Sister Harrington's quirks. As soon as we got to Tucson the A.P.'s led us in a half mile run up a hill in the middle of downtown. It was 105 degrees and everyone looked at us like we were crazy. Just picture 20 sweaty missionaries running up the streets. It was supposed to show us how we are hastening the work. YEAH WE ARE! Wow this place really is so hot but I'm willing to put in some sweat. It made us really grateful for the AC at the mission home where we did some training, ate dinner, and had a testimony walk. By 8:00 everyone was falling asleep all over the house. At the very end of the night we got to look off the balcony and see all of Tucson. It was awesome to look at the town where I get to serve the people for the next 18 months! I can't wait! That's when we all split up and wen to different member's houses. Today I met my companion! Her name is Hermana Smyth. That's right. She's a Hermana! I guess I might be picking up on a little bit of Spanish after all. She's 22 years old and I love her already. She is from Utah and had been going to UVU before the mission. I met her about 9 hours ago and am already learning so much. She loves talking to everyone and just has a passion for this mission. It's fun to watch people be so interested in her as soon as she starts speaking Spanish. They don't care about us and the she whips out that Spanish and suddenly they could talk for days. This is her last transfer so we'll have to make it a good one. We have been assigned to Safford which is in the Gila Valley on bikes! Whaoo!!!! We will be working with the third and fourth ward. I haven't really had a chance to do real missionary stuff yet. I'm so nervous to start teaching people. On the 2 and 1/2 hour ride to Safford we were talking about the first few weeks of a mission and what fears I had. It was awesome to know that She has the exact same fears and weaknesses that I feel like I have right now. Hermana Smyth seems to have everything figured out and I just can't wait to be as confident as she is. Everyone kept telling me that I lucked out with the best companion/trainer I could possible ask for. Heavenly Father clearly knows I need a good trainer in order to figure this whole missionary thing out. SAFFORD HERE WE COME! Our p-days are on Mondays usually but today is transfer week so I get to email you today :) It was awesome talking to you all yesterday. I was exhausted but it was so good to hear your voices! Ryan I still haven't seen your email. Are you sure you're sending it to the right place? The rest of today will be spent shopping, unpacking and fixing the bikes. The ones we were given have flat tires and broken brakes but I think the zone leaders are supposedly really good at fixing bikes so we'll somehow get the bikes to them. Funny story: Since we are biking sisters we didn't have a ride to Safford from the Tucson stake center. Sister Salazar and her companion offered us a ride. Sister Salazar is new as well so she had 3 huge suit cases and I had 2. We tried getting everything in the car and it just wasn't going to happen. Sister Salazar and her comp went inside to figure out another car. While they were in there we started playing tetrus. It was kinda fun to work together to somehow get everything into that car. We were laughing so hard at how sweaty we both were from taking those five 50 pound suit cases in and out of the car. After like 10 minutes we got them. K. The story isn't that funny but it was a good comp bonding moment! We just kept yelling. We can do hard things! Oh boy. I love you all! Thanks for all the love and support. Sorry if I'm bad at responding to individual emails. I don't have much time. Carrie and Megan thanks for the letters I'm sad I didn't get to talk to you at the airport yesterday! You guys rock though! -Sister Barton