First Area--Bangor Maine

Ronnie arrived in New Hampshire on Feb. 9, 2009. He met with the Mission President, President Jensen, and the Assistants. They had a nice dinner made by Sister Jensen, "real food" as Ronnie says. They went out teaching with the Assistants that evening. He was nervous but it went well and he learned a lot from Elder McBride. They stayed the night in the Assistant's apartment and had fun getting to know them.

Here is what his letter said:
"Tuesday came along. We all met for transfer meeting and had a pretty good meeting. Then we got assigned to our areas. I was soooo nervous! haha! It was crazy! But I was excited :) I got assigned as Elder Bigler's Companion (and I'm sure you already have heard this from the mission office.) But yeah, he is my trainer and we are in the Bangor, Maine area :) I'm learning a lot from him, but he's made the comment that "it doesn't feel like he's teaching" he says I'm really good at talking to people and all that they needed to do was stick a name tag on me and I was a missionary haha! That made me feel good, but I still have a lot to learn. He's very nice, and I'm learning a lot from him...He's like walking talking scriptures/gospel doctrine. It's so cool! He's from Mesa, Arizona."

"So that's where I am :) Bangor, Maine! It's a beautiful area, but it's all pretty dead from winter...which by the way, it's FREEEZING!! I thing the high the other day was like 19. Crazy!! And the wind DEFINITELY does not make it fun either. I've used my thermals a couple times already. The crazy thing is that people are saying it's warming up and I just barely missed the negatives. I would've died! haha!"

On Feb. 23, Ronnie wrote and told us about the Noreaster Storm that passed through Bangor Maine. He says: "We got dumped on with snow last night and today... we had to literally dig our car out...it was like 3 feet of snow! I think they call it a Nor Easter. It was bad...yet awesome! haha!"

Ronnie has been able to teach many people in Bangor Maine. We aren't going to publish names on our blog for privacy issues. He loves the people there and says the area is beautiful. He has been able to bring a few people into the church and says its amazing. The members are great and he has been enjoying serving there very much.

Ronnie loves to try new things to eat and being in Maine opened the door to a few things to try. On of the first things he tried was a Soda called Moxie. It is a well known drink in the New England States. He says its kind of of good and kind of bad. Its a wierd taste.

He loves eating fluffer-nutters. It is a peanut butter and marshmellow fluff sandwich. For Braden's birthday, Ronnie sent him a jar of Marshmellow Fluff and Peter Pan peanut butter. Braden has them displayed in his bedroom, not wanting to eat them yet.

Ronnie also has been able to eat Maine Lobster. Here is what he has said about that:
"I got to experience something else this week for the first time too...it's called...LOBSTER :) haha! I finally ate lobster in Maine!! It was a pretty gnarly experience. This is how it went: We've been working with this one lady, Sister _____. Her husband is a member and he grew up in the church. They're just a young couple with a little 2 year old girl. He's in the army and he's just way cool! His middle name is Moroni, named after captain Moroni :) He's been kind of inactive, but they love having the missionaries over. She's been meeting with the missionaries off and on for a few years. But anyways, we've eaten at their house before, and they told me a few weeks ago that I had just barely missed out on the lobster experience before I came and that they would have to do it again. So Friday rolled around and they called us to make sure we were still going over that night. I said yes, and then sister ____ was like "well Adam is going to go buy some lobster for you and him, and I'll make pork chops for me and Elder Bigler." (Elder Bigler didn't like the whole lobster thing last time haha). So I was like Sweet!! So we got there, and he pulled these 2 large, creepy, bug looking lobsters out of boiling water. I was a little weirded out because they really look like bugs with their big eyes, antenaes, and legs. Then Bro. ____ told me that's exactly what they are...big bugs. So here I have this full lobster, eyes and all on my plate, looking at me, and it was alive just a while before that...AH!! But, we began eating...he showed me how :) you rip off one leg at a time, suck the juice and the meat out, then you rip the claws off, suck the juice out, crack it open, get the meat out, put it in butter...hahah!!! creepy huh!? then you rip the tail off the other half of the body and get the meat out of that. The whole process was pretty gnarly and gross, but the experience was awesome and didn't taste too bad :)Anyways...that was my lobster experience :)"

Ronnie loves the New England accent. He writes:
"So many New Englanders put R's at the end of words that end in A. It's so funny and some times hard NOT to laugh. I heard one lady say United States of Americer haha!...Bananer, Idear Haha! It's awesome!"
"New Englanders would say ... Wicked Weeid. These people love the word Wicked! Wicked this, wicked that...it's funny. If you're smart...you're "wicked smaat." They also say, "I'm all set, we’re all set, are you all set?" All set!? It drives me nuts sometimes! It's our main rejection at the door … "No thanks, I'm all set." ugh..."

Ronnie loves Zone Conferences and there he has been able to see his MTC companion, Elder Parkinson, and also Elder Schow (Ronnie's step cousin from Alpine UT) and also Elder Charlesworth, a cousin of Ronnie's friend Nic Cline, who Ronnie had met the day before he left for the MTC. It was fun for him to see a few Elders he knew from home.

Just when things get going good, things change. At the beginning of May, Ronnie knew transfers were coming. Was he going to a different place or was it Elder Bigler leaving? Hmmm...