Being Trained in Ceres

My mission president and his wife are super nice. I was with them for about a day but with like 50 other missionaries. I was the only missionary that wasn't surprised with his companion because president told me Elder Jeffery was mine the day before. He said I was nothing like my companion, but my companion was on his last transfer, and president felt that I could help my companion have motivation to end his mission strong. My companion is Elder Jeffery, and is from Kearns, Utah. He is on his final 6 weeks and Fresno California was his original mission. I like Elder Jeffery, he's quite diligent with our schedule which I love, but he's super quiet. During finding time, he doesn't say much. I thought I was going to have a hard time taking the lead and I'm still a little hesitant to start talking, but I've gotten out of my comfort zone without being asked to because neither of us talking is too awkward for me. The first night with all the Elders was pretty fun. I'm really the only wrestler of the new people and those I met. We were split between 3 apartments and I stayed with the office Elders and 4 other new Elders. It was honestly the best night of sleep I've had in a month. Unfortunately I have not been sleeping well in my actual apartment though, I wake up like a million times a night, but I'm not sure why. I'm in Ceres which is just south of Modesto. We just have one ward and it's tiny. I saw two families with about 5 kids in total and a like 20 older members. There were probably only 30 members present, but we're told there are probably another 40 online. We've only had two lessons so far. One with Sarah and another with Carol. Both are very open and Sarah wants to be baptized, but she lives with her significant other and isn't very consistent in coming to church. Her significant other is actually a new convert and moved in with her after he was baptized, I guess he didn't know that wasn't something he should do, but he's going to sit in on our future lessons with her and hopefully they will get married pretty soon. Carol is super awesome. She is retired and often watches her only granddaugher. She's a very good woman who is prudent and has high standards. Carol is very accepting of everything we teach and feels like she already has most of the same views. I think she'll trust all we're teaching but she's very laid back and may not feel like she needs to be baptized, we'll see though. My first Sunday was nice. Like I said, the ward is very small and pretty old. We had dinner at the King's house that night and it was awesome gettting to know them. They went to church in Modesto during the time Dad lived there and they recognized the name Wardle, but weren't sure if they knew Dad's family. The day we were assigned companions, I used a little bit of Chinese with Sister Wallace. She's the only missionary in the Fresno mission other than me who was called mandarin speaking. She was supposed to go to Taiwan but has been out a year, so she likely won't go. It was really fun to use even if it was just for the one conversation. Sadly, she's not in my area, so that was short lived. One miracle was during the first night of finding time. We were going around knocking on doors and there was a woman heading into her house. We didn't even call out to her, but she turns around, sees us, and says "Are you meeting with me, right now?" It definitely wasn't the plan, but my thoughts were "We can be," so we said sure and had a conversation with her about the Book of Mormon. She took one and told us she'd read the chapter we'd given her and we could meet with her next week. Unfortunately we cancelled that meeting due to Covid concerns she had, but she had read the chapter and said she would continue reading until she feels like we can meet. Not sure if that will happen, given time, most people lose the desire and get busy with life after their initial interest, but we'll try our best. That was crazy long, but I blame you for all the questions 😂 Also, thank you so much for the package, I love it! Love you all! Elder Wardle