The Phone Rang at 6:30 a.m. . . And We Were More Than Okay With That!

 The alarm was set to go off at 7 a.m., but it never got the chance. A Facebook call woke us out of a sound sleep at about 6:30. Sam was on the other end. It was 8:30 in Georgia and Sam was up and dressed in his white shirt, tie, and name tag. 

It was Sam's first call home after leaving for Georgia a week earlier. We'd been anxiously waiting for him to call on his preparation day, but we weren't sure what day that was. We found out! 

Max and Emma are usually deep-sleepers and getting them up is a challenge. Not on this Monday. As soon as they heard Sam's voice they were in our room ready to chat. 

It was great to see Sam. He had lots of stories to tell about his first week in the field. Everything from mounds of meat for dinner at a member's house to knocking on a door of what turned out to be some sort of drug house. 

Georgia is like most of the country. Winter has brought more restrictions because of the uptick in Covid outbreaks. Sam's first Sunday was the first Sunday in months where wards didn't meet in person. They held meetings via Zoom. 

All first time contacting is done via Facebook and referrals. The missionaries can visit members and those they are teaching if they are invited.

Sam talked to us several times throughout the day. He gave us a tour of his apartment, introduced us to his companion, Elder Pike, and shared more stories of his first week in the field. 

Advent Calendar

Immaculate Bedroom

Desk

Sam, his companion and the other set of missionaries are all a bit OCD--at least they are all very organized and clean. They pool their money so they can be more efficient in the grocery shopping. They are very healthy eaters. Sam is okay with that, although he likes some treats and chocolate. Apparently, the others do like chocolate. They ate all of the treats from one advent calendar. They set up a schedule to ration out the chocolate from the second advent calendar.

Kitchen

The first week was a challenge and Sam is homesick. The missionaries are inside much of the day working on their cell phones making posts and following up on referrals.

Sam, his companion and the other companionship in the apartment went to the church to play some spikeball. They ended the evening at a dinner appointment. We'll be interested to hear how that went when we chat next Monday.