Elder John C. Blazzard: First Week in Tennessee Knoxville Mission

I'm back on board as a missionary again and am stationed out in good ol' Tennessee. Started off a little rocky as another elder and I missed our connecting flight and stayed the night in Detroit. We landed a little late and thought we had time to grab some Popeye's but got a call from an upset sister in our travel group telling us that they were boarding. So I sprinted through the whole airport with my box of delicious chicken only to find a shut gate with the plane sitting right outside. We got a nice stay in a hotel but little did I know this was foreshadowing. After making it to Knoxville with another load of reassigned missionaries the next day we met the mission President and his wife and had some tacos along with a great orientation. And then yet another night in a hotel before getting all situated on Wednesday. We filled out a bunch of papers and got some packets before being assigned a companion and heading out in our own cars! I am in Bristol TN/VA and am staying in a motel room which is getting pretty rough so that's what I get for enjoying those previous hotel stays a little too much.

We have only been finding people through Facebook and I am not the best at that stuff. So when we had a service opportunity helping a member move and I was super excited. The whole "southern hospitality" thing is no joke and everyone is crazy nice. Going from dirt dry Peru and torn up shoes to a car and a phone in lush Tennessee country has been crazy but an amazing experience. It has been insanely different and really hard to adjust to but know that I am putting forth all my efforts and trying to figure out Facebook as best I can. I am blessed to be serving relatively near to where my amazing grandmother Carol is from and where her older Sister Betty lives. I follow the man he was and hope to make them proud. All is well here no matter how slow it feels at times, using that "freight-train" attitude as best I can.