Canandaigua is awesome! I love Sister White, we have a lot of investigators, and it's been a great week!
My favorite things about Canandaigua so far are the Algoods and the Ioccos.
Lisa and Matt Algood are coming back from inactivity. They have 7 kids and only one is baptized. Three more are getting baptized this Sunday! We had a date set with them for February but they just really wanted to be baptized and have a step-brother coming in from out of town with the Aaronic priesthood this week so they decided yesterday to move the date. We went with them to the sites this week and we sit with them in church to help with the kids (age 3-13). We love them so much! We will be seeing them a lot this week to teach them all the lessons before Sunday.
Christine Iocco is another amazing investigator. She tried to drop the sisters a couple of weeks ago so we went by to talk about some concerns this week and it's amazing to see how much she has progressed in the 5 days I've known her. She came to church with one of her sons on Sunday, and LOVED it. We went over to watch the CES broadcast at her house and it was awesome. Her other son has written up a bunch of questions, which was awesome because he hasn't been sitting in recently. They finally trusted us enough to let us know about some struggles they've been having, and we are going to the sites with them tomorrow.
Also. Had a tour of the Hill Cumorah from the forester this week and it was AWESOME! The Hill is so cool and there is one part that hasn't been touched since before Joseph Smith. Some of the trees are over 350 years old! It was so cool to think of Moroni and Joseph and all the people who had been there.
Also... A friend of a friend is working on a project and asked me to answer these questions... I thought you would enjoy hearing about it :)
1. What was the area like where you served- architecture, ethnic mix, language, landscape etc…
Upstate New York is a pretty good melting pot but I have mostly served in wards where there are like 2 families that aren't white. If you go downtown it's a lot more mixed though. There are a lot of rolling hills, lots of trees, and lots of farmland. It is exceedingly beautiful and the sunsets are often hot pink :)
2. What were some funny customs and traditions that you didn’t know existed where you went?
Everyone has these closed-in porches, but for the most part is really is okay to walk right in and knock on the real door
Upstate NY food includes garbage plates (french fries, mac salad, hamburger/hot dog/sausage, all topped with spicy, greasy meat sauce), white hots (like a hot dog), sausage and peppers, roast beef on kimmelweck (really good sandwich on a bun with caraway and salt), buffalo wings, and sponge candy (sugar with lots of little holes because of the humidity in the air here and covered with chocolate)
3. What things surprised you when you arrived at your mission?
How awesome the sites are
Missionaries actually have a personality, and are encouraged to use it :)
New York is NOT equivalent to NYC, I have seen like one skyscraper in over a year here
4. What were some good p-day activities?
Niagara Falls
Rochester Museum of Play
Letchworth ("The grand canyon of the east")
Playing soccer at the chapel with other missionaries
5. What should a new missionary to the area know?
It is cold and snowy here, but not as bad as everyone who wants to scare you makes it out to be.
6. What were some unique ism’s to your mission?
I hear these almost every day: "Have a blessed day" "Can I axe you a question?" "I'm all set", the plural form of you is "yous"
7. How developed was your mission? (1st world, 3rd world etc…)
Downtown Buffalo and especially Rochester is pretty ghetto, but I've only served in middle-upper class areas. Like mansion on a lake status, in a lot of cases.
8. Is there any interesting local history that would be worth mentioning?
The Erie Canal used to be a really big deal around here, and everyone still talks about when Kodak started and was big.
9. What was a typical area like?
Pretty rural. If you serve in the city you will be on bikes or foot, but a lot of it is pretty spread out.
10. What was some mission lingo that you used?
born-came out to the field
died- went home
had a baby- trained a greenie
You learn to talk in transfers rather than months
11. What kind of culture did you find in your mission?
This mission has a history of disobedience, but our mission president is awesome and in most cases people really want to be exactly obedient. The unity varies by zone, but for the most part everyone loves the mission and the other missionaries. Almost everyone is here to work hard.
Love you so much!
Sister Schank
