Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission (September 1993 to September 1995)

The next set of blog posts on this page will be taken from the missionary journals I kept while serving in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission from 1993-1995. After a few weeks of classes and some field work in the MTC Telecenter, I left the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Wednesday, October 20, 1993, and departed from Salt Lake City to Philadelphia International Airport.

I was one of just two elders in my MTC district headed to Philadelphia. The others were going to Raleigh, North Carolina, Des Moines, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of the elders in my district never made it to his mission. Elder Williams decided midway through his time at the MTC to head home.

In any event, I was greeted in the City of Brotherly Love by my mission president Richard Morley and his wife, Diane. After arriving safe and sound at the mission home in Media, Pennsylvania, we spent the night there before meeting with our new companions. I was assigned first to labor in The Christmas City, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, alongside Elder John Jagerson. All 6 feet and 6 inches of John Jagerson.

After a few months in Bethlehem I was transferred to Pottstown. From Pottstown I was transferred to Allentown. I want to keep the blog posts concurrent with the date I wrote in my journal, so I am not going to start from day one of my time in the mission field. I will begin the first entry with my journal entry dated April 21. It happened to be a Thursday. So ..... here goes.

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Our apartment: 

230 N 10th Street, Allentown, PA, 18102.

4/21 Service for only a couple of hours this morning before we went to Eddie + Joanne's and taught a great first [discussion]. Joanne seems to be comfortable with everything so far.

Visited a phone contact Mrs. Durst on Liberty which ended up [to] be a good chat. Her daughter is LDS in Utah working single. Her husband recently died. She's lonely. We have dinner with her in May.

Visited and had a good chat about 'FF' [Family First] with Jean Graham/Denise. Then went to a long correlation.

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Things may pick up tomorrow. Or not. The everyday life of a full-time missionary isn't always incredibly exciting. But I look forward to posting my life experiences - to the day! - from 20 years ago while serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a 19-year old young man.

Thanks for reading!

Regards,

Alex