Erika completes her 12 weeks of training tomorrow, July 31.  On Wednesday, she becomes the trainer!  She is honored to be trusted with that responsibility so soon.  It is a huge responsibility.  She didn't have much time as a "Junior Companion".  But she is excited and ready to go!  She had recently been made the "designated driver" in Tallahassee so she could find her way around without getting lost.  (For those of you who know Erika, this is quite the accomplishment!!!  She is, or I guess I should say was, extremely navigationally challenged!!) 

She loves the people she works with so much!  She is trying hard to incorporate more of their words ( like 'fixin' and 'reckon') into her vocabulary and she is able to understand what they're saying now.  She says she can sound pretty Southern!

Here's an excerpt from the letter we got from her today:

"Last week was a really great week. On Tuesday we went out to Lake Talquin for a Pioneer Day party. And the party was thrown by a Baptist man who loves missionaries. All the missionaries that could come came and so did President and Sister Jensen. Dan (the Baptist) is the nicest man ever! He built a duplex for missionaries and it has bold letters across the top that says "GODS ARMY: LDS" He's awesome. We had a good time at the party and I got to play football and we took pictures out on the deck. The sunset was BEAUTIFUL!!!! Apparantly sometimes alligators come up onto his lawn but we didnt' see any."

 

She loves the South!

 

And here's some great advice she left us with:

 

 

"Be good. Be happy. God is on our side.

Y'all are the best :)"

Erika says in a recent letter "I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!  Seriously, it's the best ever.  I cannot even express how great it is."

Here are some recent highlights from her life as a missionary:

She knows what it's like to get the door slammed in her face, repeatedly.

She knows what it's like to get thrown out because she's the devil  (Mormon).

She finds that in some areas near the swamps it's helpful to use the pamphlets she carries to cut through the mosquitos.

Some days are just NOT good days to be out on the streets!  A week ago last Saturday she and her companion were nearly hit by a car five times. 
She says " We were walking across the crosswalk (with permission from the little walking-guy signal) and I had a feeling to look back and see if anyone was turning left.  No one was.  But I looked again and a car was coming right at us.  I stopped my companion and it missed us by an inch."  Fortunately, they got the idea and went home! They ended up going to see someone who really needed help right at that time. 

Here's a quick story she shared in her last letter:
"One day we were tracting in a torrential downpour.  The pouring down rain made the air gray and dim and the trees hung over the pathway.  We knocked on a door and a lady cracked it open.  We told her who we were and that our message was about Jesus Christ and she opened the door wider, saying, "You are very brave going around saying that in these days...come in, come in."

Here's a final quote from her letter:  "It's so nice to be so worn out every night.  If I get into bed without feeling like I've earned it then I didn't work hard enought that day."