New Area

Transfers went well. I'm in Cathlamet now. Well, not right now. Right now I am in Longview. Lots of stuff going on. So Cathlamet is on the very west side of our mission. The edge of our area is about 30 miles from the coast. We are also about 30 minutes away from any other missionaries. We cover all of Wahkaikum County in Washington. That consists of Cathlamet, Skamokawa, Rosburg, Greys River and Deep River. Also, Puget Island (which is technically Cathlamet). The county has a population of about 4000 people. We mostly stay in Cathlamet but every once in awhile we will make a trip out to Skamokawa (pronounced skamokaway). Rosburg Greys River and Deep River are way out of the way and we don't really have the miles each month to drive there. Speaking of miles, I have a car now. That is just about the nicest thing ever. However, we have been walking a lot recently because we are essentially out of miles for the month of February. We get 1150 miles a month and we went over that limit yesterday. The Zone has some extra miles though but we wont be driving the next few days. Cathlamet is right on the Colombia River. We cross over part of the Colombia to get to Puget Island. But if you cross the whole river then you are in Oregon and out of our mission. There is a ferry at the end of Puget Island that you can either walk on or you can take your car on it and go into Oregon that way. The Elochoman river is also right next to us. There is one High School in the area - Wahkaikum High School - There is one convenient store in town and it's way overpriced so we don't shop there, we just wait until p-day when we come into Longview. There are some local restaurants though so we eat there sometimes.

There were about 50 people at church on Sunday. More than I thought. So, like Pamela was saying I found out quickly that Grandma and Grandpa Bingham served here. The morning I got into Cathlamet we were made aware that Brother Wishon had died. Elder Crowther worked with him a little bit and he helped out with missionaries a lot. We went to the funeral on Friday and Sister Wishon came up to me and told me about the Binghams. I had no idea! Almost everyone in the branch knew them. It was cool to find that out.

This Branch is way more involved in the missionary work than Yakima 3rd ward. It is so cool to see people working with us and actually devoting time to help us and go out of their way to do so.

We live with members. Sort of. The Dunn's have a home and disconnected from that they have a trailer. We stay in the single-wide trailer. Its actually way nice. We have queen sized beds, a leather couch, two lazy boys and our own bathrooms. And the Dunn's are a way nice older couple. Brother Dunn's first wife passed away a few years ago and then he and sister Dunn got married a year ago. So they are still kinda newlyweds. Which is weird...

Elder Crowther is awesome. He has been out 20 months. He has 3 transfers left. He is trunky... But not so bad that he wont work. He is definitely ready to go home but he is going to work hard until the end. He is a funny dude. I don't even really know how to describe it. I enjoy his company, we get along, that's all you need.

We do a lot of less-active work. That occupies most of our time. We have only a few investigators and it is really hard to just go and knock on people's doors in Cathlamet because its more of a place where people go to get away or retire or farm... Knocking doors doesn't work.

Well. That's all I can think of.... probably. Its way fun in Cathlamet. A lot different. Very very rainy. But I'm going to like it here. I should be with Elder Crowther for a few transfers.

Love,

Elder Paxman