Hi From Yankton

Hello from Yankton, South Dakota!

Yep, that's right, I moved from one extreme corner of the mission to the other. I no longer even touch Iowa in my area, but I did move from one famous river to the next. The Missouri is not as exciting, but it means I get to see Lewis and Clark stuff all over the place. Brings back memories of Washington.... Transfer day was interesting. As always, I'm guessing. The van picked us up in the morning, 945ish, and we arrived in Yankton sometime after 7 that night. A long time to be on a Mormonmobile packed with missionaries. Yankton is an area that has been closed for a transfer and is a lead competitor for the largest area in the mission. Basically, for those who are able to see my mission map, it goes basically from just past a town called Gayville (poor place) to the edge, and way down south into Nebraska and up to the top of the mission. It can take over an hour to drive some places. There were no investigators when we arrived. The area is huge, one of the biggest in the mission, and yet there are only about 30 or so active members of the branch. A HUGE less-active pool. So we end up with all sorts of time tracting and attempting to contact old Potential and Former Investigators. The branch has some interesting quirks about it, but altogether not a bad place to be. The Branch President (I'm getting used to calling my church a branch. I keep saying "Bishop" and "Ward." Also, none of our Iowa jokes work anymore, and I also keep accidentally referring to Muscatine as "Home"....) is extremely helpful and so is the Branch Mission Leader. And the people are really excited to have us here, and we should be having meals about five times a week, something the president and branch mission leader are pushing for so we can get referrals and get to know the members. So we're stoked for that.

And it snowed last night and friday night. Friday night it didn't stick much, but it started while we were tracting, and last night it stuck on the grass pretty well and accumulated a little, but not on the roads. I'll be buying boots soon, but no real need yet. And yeah. It's a bad place to be for the winter. I'm already layering up a bunch.... Elder Nelson says this is a sign of trust from President Talbot, that he knows not only that we can basically restart missionary work here, but that he can be ok with us being hours and hours away from Des Moines. Elder Nelson had already told me that Prez was impressed with me last Zone Conference. Back then I thought it was a good thing....

Some facts about Yankton:
It is the cow capitol of South Dakota.
It is jam-packed with Catholics, as they like to inform us before closing the door....
It is home to a Federal Prison Camp.
It is home to a monastery.
It is home to a Psychiatric Hospital.
It has a population of, I believe, 20,000 or so, according to the sign.
It may just be one of the largest cities in South Dakota....

South Dakota, it seems, is the same state of the Nonexistent North Dakota, a fact brought to my attention by the Maps for South Dakota. You can't buy a map for just South Dakota, you have to get one with North Dakota included.

It's been hard not to get a little frustrated with my situation, as you can probably tell by my thick sarcasm in this email. I'm still working hard and doing fine, but it's not the best of situations, especially since I'm still green and learning. But if there's nothing else I haven't learned from The Elders Nelson, it's that you never stop learning.

Right now I'm actually emailing from the University of South Dakota in a "city" called Vermillion. It's the closest area, and the only other one in our district. They're also fancy because they have a ward building for their branch, while we're stuck with the equivalent of a large relief society room, half a gym, and a few other rooms as a building. Anyway, we're here because tomorrow is Zone Conference, and this time we have a seventy visiting us, Elder Lance B. Wickman. So there are only two zone conferences, one in Iowa City, and one in Des Moines. So we get the awesome opportunity to drive all the way to Des Moines! Woo. Tonight we're staying in a missionary apartment in Sioux City.

Speaking of apartments, we live in an actual one now. (mom, it's right next to the water tower that's west of the monastery. And yes, I would like letters from Brad and Tyler. And Tyler Russell if possible. Troy's the only one who's written me, besides Brad, and Brad only did it once while i was in the MTC.) We had to clean it up a bit when we moved in. It's not a bad apartment, I like it enough, but as all apartments do, it has its quirks.

Life is going well. We're doing all sorts of finding, but that's even going pretty well. We have set up five return appointments already, but one has also already been dropped. You'd think that if you say you want us to come back once you wouldn't say I'm not interested the second time around. But what do I know. Just keeping faith and hope up and I know all will work out. I know the Lord will bless me as I keep working hard.

Love,
Elder Gates