Hello readers of this letter!

Well, I made it to Cali! Now tell me honestly, who thought I wouldn't make it this far? No one? Good! ;)

This has got to be one of the crazy busiest weeks of my life. Let me tell you about the first day here yeah?  We arrived in what has to be the cutest little airport you ever did see. It had one baggage carousel that I could see and only a couple gates. But before I even go that far, let me back up to just getting onto the plane.

I got on the plane and found my seat fairly quickly. From ticket comparison, I learned that I would be sitting across the aisle from Elder Goodson but I didn't know who I would be sitting next to. "Yes! Here's my chance!" I thought, "Here is my opportunity to contact someone and give them a pass along card!" (I'm a super excited greenie yay! haha) I wait patiently for everyone else to board this tiny "puddle jumper". Suddenly I hear a voice asking me if I'm sitting in 9B. "This is it! My travel buddy!" I look up to say, "why yes I am. It says so right here on my ticket thinger." When what to my surprise I find Elder Gillenwater the one making the inquiry. (For those of you who don't know, Elder Gillenwater is from my same stake. His brother and my brother are pretty much best buds.)

...Alright! So I'm sandwiched between two elders. No big deal. They are both nice to talk to and there's always the people sitting in front of us right? So being the stalker that I am, I listen in on their conversation. "...and then after sacrament meeting we went to go talk to so-and-so to do..." Bummer. Members. So, I was surrounded. Not a nonmember in sight. In hindsight, I shouldn't have just stopped there...but we can't all be perfect the first day right? So Elder Goodson and I just chatted. Elder Goodson was in my district in the MTC. We liked to swap BYU stories and such.

When we arrived and everyone got off the plane, it occured to me how tall I was feeling. Out of the entire group of 14 missionaries, I was the third tallest. Now...ya'll know my height. I'm not that tall. But I sure was feeling pretty huge next to all these elders that came up to my shoulders. That feeling soon passed when we met the APs and other office elders. The world was set back to rights in my mind. President and Sister Bubert picked us up and took us to a place where you can see the whole mission! It's called...something cool that I can't remember. But it was REALLY cool!!! Something interesting I noticed about Long Beach itself, there are oil wells EVERYWHERE! Not even joking. Several people had them in their backyards! And they were all functioning too! We looked out on the ocean and saw a bunch of oil rigs and stuff. It was kinda cool. We could also see Catalina Island. They don't have missionaries proselyting there anymore but they used to! (not a whole lot of work was being done so they stopped.)

When I met my dear trainer, Sister Coleman, the first words she said as we got in the car was, "So sorry to do this to you, but we have straight appointments right now. We'll go drop off your stuff but then we need to go. Is that okay?" Well did I have a choice? Not really. Once an appointment is made, there isn't much to do about it. So we've had straight appointments pretty much all day every day. It's been pretty neat actually. I feel like I've learned so much just by watching and participating. It's hard....This week has been hard because I felt like poor Sister Coleman has been doing all the hard work and I'm just a burden. But that's okay because we talked about it and she said that the first week is generally your time to get the lay of the land anyway so she doesn't feel overburdened at all. (She's an angel by the way. If all of my companions end up being like Sister Coleman, we'll have NO problems.)

It's really funny to introduce myself here. People ask me where I'm from and you can tell by their eyes what state their expecting. I guess they get a lot of Utahns here. I guess with the tall, blonde figure I've got going on here, it's not surprising that's what they'd expect of me too. Not to mention my lack of Hoosier accent. (by the way, I was told by a nice elderly gentleman that I need to stop trying to hide that because it's cute. How sweet!) So when I say Indiana, I usually get a response of, "oh...not Utah?" The best reaction by far though has been, "What? Indiana? ...Where is that?" Hahahaha

So we are serving in two wards here. The Beach ward and the Goldenwest ward. Goldenwest is a young single adult ward and the Beach ward is a family ward. Both wards are positively a joy to work in. The people are very inviting and mostly willing to do what we ask them to do. The food is pretty good too. I haven't gone hungry yet. Even when we had to almost skip breakfast and dinner yesterday!

I can officially say I'm a real missionary. Wanna know why? Huh huh huh? Good cuz I'm gonna tell you. Because we're riding bikes!! (Mom, Dad, don't worry. We found two bikes for free that they are letting us
use. Mine is a little beach cruiser. It's kinda cute as far as bikes go.) I'm getting to have the buffest legs in the world! It's really fun to do. One lady actually mistook us for little kids one time. It was funny.

Alright, testimony building experience time! Are you ready for this? Good! Because this is what this letter is really all about. Sister Coleman discovered my shyness the first night we taught. When introducing myself, the gentleman asked if I was shy to which I responded, "Oh incredibly. But I'm working on getting over that
because otherwise, poor Sister Coleman over here will be pulling all the weight and that's not fair." She looked so worried. She said to them, "See what a bad companion I am? I haven't even checked in on her
to see if she's adjusting okay. Man!" They asked me to bear my testimony about what we had read in the Book of Mormon and so I did. I was terrified but I said a quick prayer before I spoke. When I did, the most amazing feeling came over me. I felt like I was just talking with one of you. (you meaning all you wonderful people who I know and love and hope that you are reading this religiously. ;) ) I spoke and joked a bit and it just felt natural. So this is my testimony to all of you, members and nonmembers alike. Speak to your friends. Speak to your acquaintences. Tell them about what you know of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Share experiences. It is through those talks that not only do we grow closer together as friends and family, but we also grow closer to our Father in Heaven. The principle of bearing your testimony to increase your testimony applies here. I heard it said in the baptism that if we do not bear our testimonies and share God's love, then it isn't real. (Now that might seem a little strange but let me explain what that means to me.) It's not that it isn't real per say, but that it isn't that real to us. We need to share what we know so we can know what we know...does that make sense? We don't just get up on Fast and Testimony meeting to tell everyone how smart we are and how knowledgable we have become since last time we shared. We get up to increase our testimonies, build our faith and increase the faith of those we share this message with. By increasing each other's faith, we grow together, closer to our Heavenly Father. How great a blessing that is!

sorry this letter is so long. I now have an hour to write everyone and since none of my family (except my aunt) emailed me, I have no one to respond to. (hint hint, nudge nudge, poke poke. ;) ) I want you all to
know that I know my Redeemer lives. I know He knows me and I know He knows you. He is my Savior and Friend. Through Him, I am able to do anything. Through Him, I can share this blessed message with complete strangers. By faith on His words, I know that I don't have to worry about my family and friends. Ya'll will be just fine. I greatly enjoyed your letters in the MTC. They really helped me remember how loved and supported I am here. Thank you.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church restored again upon this earth. The Book of Mormon contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the gospel. We have been blessed to have, in our day, a living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, to teach us the will of God concerning His church. I know,  without a shadow of a doubt, that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He did, in reality, see God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Through Him, the gospel was restored.

I love you all. Remember who you are. (You are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father) Heavenly Father wants to hear from you, just like you, hopefully, want to hear from me. Talk to Him and tell Him what's up. He loves you.

Hugs and warm handshakes (girls and guys respectively),

Sister Fielding

P.S. Here is my new address! Send me letters sometimes, yeah?

Sister Fielding
8791 Palos Verde Ave
Westminster, CA 92683

(The zip code might not be correct but I'm sure you technology buffs
can figure it out. ;) )