Hey everybody this is Elder Jaden Riding in case you couldn't tell by my very obvious email. Since I have 21 contacts I don't have time to send seperate emails to everyone unfortunatly. If you don't want me to send you an email every week just let me know:D Anyways I arrived in West Virginia about a week ago and am serving in the New Martinsville W.V. area. My area is the largest walking area in the whole mission and my trainer and I are an hour and a half drive away from the closest other Elders. New Martinsville is the far North part of West Virginia and we are bordering Ohio and walk by the Ohio river every day. Most of our area is actually in Ohio but we rarely ever go there because we have tons to do in New Martinsville.

The Ohio River is pretty cool but is very polluted. There are also thousands of hills and millions of trees, I've never seen so many trees in my life. I imagine its absolutly amazing in the fall.

The people here are amazing but very different than the people in Utah. Most people here own dogs and leash laws are never enforced. I have a fear of big dogs and Elder Pinner has to help me break that fear every single day. Lots of pitbull which is the dog I am most scared of haha. Everyone also owns and can fix a truck or atv and knows everything about them. I know nothing about engines or vehicles so I do alot of nodding to act like I know what people are talking about. Its the same thing with guns and hunting here. I have already had a guy show me his gun collection and he talked all this gun lingo that I don't understand. People eat everything they hunt as well including squirrels possums and raccons. Several missionaries have told me that they have had squirrel dinnrs over here, which doesn't surprise me because the squirrels here are absolutly giant. Roadkill is also legal to eat but I'm sure it's not common. People here are all very hard workers and are very nice to us (certainly not everyone though). Almost everyone is Christian and the big religion down here is the Church of Christ. There are also many Baptists but they are more common in Southern West Virginia.

So far everyday I''ve been out here we have found a new investigator which I hear in incommon to happen. Ihave already taught the first lesson (restoration) about 4 times to people we tracted to. We tract roughly 2-4 hours per day and the rest is teaching or walking (we walk 8 miles a day most days). The bishop of our ward tried to tet the members here as involved in missionary work here as possible. We get lots of rides and lots of members come teaching with us. Most of our ward are first generation church members so the lessons at church are very basic stuff. It turns out Elder Pinner and I switch off teaching the gospel doctrine class every Sunday an we have to teach VERY simply. We only have 60 active members in our whole area out of 350. I told my companion to never be afraid to make me do new things because I wanna learn fast. I already talk to everyone I see and I'm not scared to tract and talk to people anymore. I've only had a couple anti's so far so it's not to hard. I'm trying my best to teach well and when I mess up, Elder Pinner picks up so it all works out. I love my mission so fa but I still gotta lot to get used too.

Also, Brother Bradshw and Seter Vail thanks for beig such great MTC teachers. I learned alot from you two. I don't know if its possible for me (or anyone) to be as happy as you Sister Vail but I'm trying to smile and wave at every single car that drives by. And Brother Bradshaw thanks for being realistic in the way you taught it's helped me out here tons. I have bopth of you guys perfect scores on your evaluations so you should probably ask for a raise cause you both deserve one.

Sincerely,
Elder Jaden Riding