At the Mission Home!! Woot! Woot! Woot!

Dear families of missionaries in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission,

We are thrilled to have welcomed your missionary to our mission!  We received 11 new missionaries so it has been a very exciting time!

After they all arrived on Monday we took them to the mission home for dinner, interviews with President Cotterell, a testimony meeting and dessert.  After that everyone was ready for bed.  The Sister slept upstairs and the Elders slept in the basement here at the mission home.

After breakfast on Tuesday morning, all of the missionaries were taken to the mission office to meet the office staff and to be oriented in some of the things they need to know to be a missionary.  From there everyone returned to the mission home to meet their trainers.  This is a wonderful experience for them to meet the missionary who has been specially picked to train them and to set the course for them to have a successful mission.   Everyone had pictures taken with President Cotterell and I, and then with their trainer.  They had some practice role-playing and finally I served them lunch.  

After lunch everyone was loaded, once again, into the mission van and taken over to the Raleigh Stake Center for the transfer meeting, which began at 1:30.  At this meeting all of the missionaries in the mission who are being transferred come to find out where they are going.  They then leave for their new areas.  Many of our new missionaries asked me what they would be doing when they got to their area on Tuesday night.  I assured them that they would get right to work with either teaching appointments or contacting.

It is a pleasure to serve with your missionary.  We felt a great strength from each one of them and we look forward to getting to know them individually, working and learning with them.  

These are the missionaries, their companions and the area they are assigned to:

Sister Bateman is serving with Sister Tye of Costa Mesa, CA in Dunn

Elder Bingham is serving with Elder Dunn of Logan, UT in Knightdale

Elder Brown is serving with Elder Christensen of Burley, ID in Lumberton

Elder Chambers is serving with Elder Phillips of Linden, TN in Jacksonville

Elder Fowkes is serving with Elder Garrett of El Dorado Hills, UT in Fayetteville

Sister Johnson is serving with Sister Joseph of Hinckley, UT in Greenville

Elder McRae is serving with Elder Pace of Bicknell, UT in Hope Mills

Elder Nii is serving with Elder Loftin of Spanish Fork, UT in Fayetteville

Sister Oliverson is serving with Sister Felton of Vernal, UT in Fayetteville

Elder Pickett is serving with Elder Farrer of Lindon, UT in Morrisville

Elder Randall is serving with Elder Larson of Sacramento, CA in Pinehurst

Whew!

Your missionary will fill in more details in their next email to you.  Our preparation days are on Monday.  They will look forward to an email from you at that time.  They will use the same "myldsmail.net" address that they used in the MTC.  Emailing privileges are for family only.  Missionaries have a limited time to read and respond to emails.  Be aware that most use computers at the public libraries.  On holidays (like the Fourth of July!) those libraries are usually closed so the missionaries aren’t able to email until Tuesday of that week.  We encourage you to write uplifting and positive letters that will help them to keep focused on the important work they are doing here.

All other mail should come through the US Postal system and be mailed to the mission office using this address:  

Missionary’s Full Name  (we have several with the same last name)

North Carolina Raleigh Mission

6508 Falls of Neuse

Suite 100

Raleigh, NC 27615

The day the mail is received it is forwarded on to your missionary.  This can only be done if the mail is sent by First Class, Priority or Express mail.  If you choose to use UPS, Federal Express or parcel post mail it cannot be forwarded.  Those items will get to your missionary, but they must wait at the office until someone travels to your missionary, which could be 3-6 weeks.

Once again, it is a pleasure serving the Lord in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission with your missionary. 

With love,

Sister Cotterell

lcotterell@gmail.com

North Carolina Raleigh Mission