1st week Okemos, MI-Aug 7, 2017

Sister Freeman's Address
4201 Southport Cir #1A
Okemos, MI  48864 (pronounced O-Kay-Mose)

Okemos is just west of Lansing.  It is a suburb of Lansing and has approximately 21,000 people.  
 
Hey mom! Thanks for all the pictures! It's good to know how everyone is doing at home. I just read another email by grandma Nielson and she said that they have smoke from the Canada fires there, too. That's pretty crazy. Do you know what area the fire is in? I had two friends who were mission companions (Sister Christensen and Sister McMullin) just go to Calgary, Canada last Tuesday. Hopefully it's not by them. 

Michigan is amazing. It's so beautiful here. Every way you look there's so many trees! It's awesome! I'm at the library right now and all the paintings that I've seen so far have trees in them! We went out finding (tracting) on Wednesday night and we met a potential investigator so that's pretty cool. I honestly love finding which is probably what you would never expect me to say! But it's cool to see what their reaction is going to be when you talk to them about the gospel. 

The ward here is pretty small. Wayyyyyyyyy smaller than Basin City. But that just means that we need to find lots of people to baptize and convert   It's pretty hard not talking to my district from the MTC everyday but it is fun to get to know more people. One of the Elders from my district at the MTC is now in my district for the area that I am in (Elder Petersen) so it's nice to have some inside jokes with him that he understands. It also kind of stinks because we aren't allowed to talk to any of the Elders from the MTC even if they are in a different area  But rules are rules so I'm gonna keep 'em! I'm actually gonna ask President if they can add you to their email list so that you can get the emails and then just let me know how they're all doing. I'll let you know later though since I haven't been able to talk to him yet. Elder Petersens companion is really cool. I actually wrote you a letter and I'll be sending it today. You'll be surprised to find out where he's from! 

But I also need to know what Jayson Blackburns address is cause I also wrote a letter to him. 

My companion is Sister Newby who has almost been out for 11 months. She's from Utah and she is awesome. We haven't had much time to take pictures this week but since it's P-day we'll probably take a bunch and I'll have to send them to you next week. We are trying to get a lot of people to come back to church as well. We also need to get the ward more involved in missionary work as well which is gonna be a little difficult but I know that it's gonna work out. I love you mom! Email me soon or else I can't send this letter to Jayson!

Love you!

-Sister Freeman

Lexi!!

My first week in Michigan has been awesome! There are so many trees here  I got here on Wednesday night and we stayed at the mission home. The next day we got up and ate breakfast at the Stake Center, had a meeting (Sisters with Sisters, Elders with Elders), met a lot of senior couples who help with cars, mail, etc., and before lunch our trainers came in and we got to meet them! My trainer is Sister Newby. She's really cool. 

I'm glad that you like the necklace I sent to you! It's been a little hard getting used to the time change since Michigan is three hours ahead of Washington (I think). I'm sending a letter home so I have way more that you will know about. But the ward is small. There's a lot of missionary work to be done here. I miss all of you so much. Every morning I wake up and expect to see you in the bed across the room before remembering that I'm in Michigan. It's hard getting up at 6:30 every morning haha (you know how much I love sleep  ). But it has been worth it. So far, we have been fed every single night but I don't feel like I'm gaining any weight! I probably am but I just don't know about it. I've never realized how much members have an effect with missionary work. But without members doing missionary work it's way harder to find investigators. I was listening to a talk the other day in the car and they said to invite a nonmember friend over for dinner and when they get there also let them know that the missionaries are also coming over for dinner, too. It's a little sneaky but in the talk they said that out of the 50 or 60 friends they invited to dinner/church about 30 of them got baptized. Help the missionaries in that area. It's way harder than you think to do missionary work without members help.

People in Michigan can talk a lot! It's hard to get a lesson in when all they wanna do is just talk all the time... I'm thinking Mom would fit right in  haha jk jk but it seriously is hard sometimes to get a lesson in most of the time. I might be sending you another necklace (mom too) but we'll see how much it costs first I guess. I love you tina! Tell bode and Brek that I miss them too! Write me lots of letters!!!!

I love you!

-Sister Summer Freeman (your favorite missionary)

Sister Freeman says these 2 Elders are serving in Idaho Falls, Idaho and wants all you Idahoities to keep an eye out for them.  They are Elder Gallow and Elder David.  These were taken in the MTC.