Hey family!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm alive and doing well in my new area with my new companion! I am currently in Metairie (pronounced Met-uh-ree) which is 5 miles west of New Orleans. It's a whole new world down here - I'm pretty much in the city, even though it's not actually downtown New Orleans. It's kind of like Wauwatosa - not actually part of Milwaukee but has some city stuff going on. And I'm with Sister Monk- she is from Highland Utah and has been out 3 months. She just finished training and she is awesome. We have lots of fun together :)

So my new address is 

2300 Edenborn Ave #2-136

Metairie, LA 70001

We live in a really nice apartment, not ghetto hooray! It's nice being in a residence with a solid foundation again haha. I loved that trailer in Denham but there's nothing like a good solid concrete foundation to help you feel secure lol. We cover one ward (whew! the whole two wards thing was wearin me out, lemme tell you somethin) and we have a car (yay!). The ward is awesome - its a lot of med/dental students but then there's those who were born and raised here and have been here forever and tell you crazy hurricane stories. Metairie didn't get devastated by Katrine but it definitely did some damage. People talk about living in FEMA trailers like it's no big deal haha. 

So yeah, life moves at a slower pace down here, which is something that I'm slowly getting used to. In Denham I felt like we were just running running running but down here it's more chill. It freaked me out at first but we get just as much good work done down here, just in a different way. I'm learning that just like there's a bunch of ways to make gumbo that are all delicious, there are lots of ways to do missionary that are all really good ways. 

I'm not a Sister Trainer Leader anymore but I learned a LOT while serving in that calling last transfer. I'm still learning, and I hope to be a better missionary and a better person as a result of what I've learned.

So I think the hardest thing about leaving Denham was that I was leaving my missionary friends and ward family. I'm in a new zone and a new district and it's a lot different. Elder Smith, who was my old district leader in Denham actually got transferred down here to Harahan, and we are in the same ward haha. Who'd have thought? So it was really a tender mercy that the Lord sent me down here with someone that I knew really well - Elder Smith and I served together for 6 months so we are pretty tight. But yeah I'm adjusting and we are going to do some volleyball madness down at the Stake Center later today. Nothing brings a district together like some good ol' volleyball! I love it! :)

Also, want to hear something weird about Metairie? Well, it's not actually weird, just different than what I'm used to. We are definitely in the city - Denham was pretty red neck, not a lot of roads or traffic. But down here, the streets are the most confusing thing ever - there are a plethora of overpasses. NOLA loves overpasses let me tell you - they even have an overpass round about - literally a round about in the sky. So crazy. I'm the designated driver, so I've had to get used to it pretty quick. But lets just say it'll be a while before I learn my way around haha.

The other different thing is that there are so many people here in the city. Which is cool because that means lots of people to talk to and share the gospel with. I've set a goal to hand out 20 Book of Mormons in 6 weeks. That's half a box of Book of Mormons that we get from the mission office. Hopefully by the end of my mission I can hand out a whole box in a transfer :) 

So basically I just love being a missionary right now - everything is new, and fresh, and I'm excited to see how we can help the people here progress in the gospel. Please pray for S and R - they are our most promising investigators and they are really cool women. Hopefully we can increase our teaching pool a little more each week. Please also pray for Brother D - he is a less active that the sisters have been working with intensively, and we are trying to find a way to help him over come his fears and throw himself wholeheartedly into the gospel. 

I love all of yall so much! Thanks for all you do to love and support me. I seriously couldn't ask for a better team!

-Love, Sister Chausow