Never Fear Brooklyn is Here

Hello!

Guess what everyone...(drum roll, please....)
I'm in Midwood! Brooklyn! Still in the city. I was definitely secretly hoping that would be the case. :)

Things are...DIFFERENT out here. In all aspects. This area is a lot quieter, dirtier and well...a lot more Jewish. I've never seen so many Hasidic Jewish people in my life!

The look of all the architecture is super cool and very "Classic old-time New York City". I love it.

The Hispanics are quite scarce out here. Haha. It's been interesting...moving from an area very heavily populated by Hispanics to an area where you really have to search for 'em. We're the only Spanish Speaking district in the whole zone.

I now live in a big apartment complex. Our apartment is right next to the English Sisters...Just so happens that I get to hang out with THE Sister Blossil and my home girl Sister Freeze everyday!! I adore them both.

My new companion is AWESOME. I LOVE HER. Her name is Sister Jorgensen. She's a Hawaiian Bombshell from Alpine, UT with rockin' style. Get this...I actually kind of new her before we came out. She went to High School with my best friend Shelby Frampton! Small Mormon world. We communicated a few times via facebook before I left for the field...She's one transfer behind me. (Looks like I might end up being the Senior Comp for the rest of my missionary days. Haha.)  I can tell she's had it a little rough her first two transfers and I know this companionship was a GREAT change for both of us. Simply awesome. I can't say enough good things about her.

My new ward...Well...It's really struggling. It's nothing like my ward in Queens. We don't really even have a Bishop right now, there's NO ONE investigating and more than half our ward is completely inactive and/or completely forgotten. It's pretty sad. But I KNOW this area has a lot of potential. President talked a lot about the misconception of "tough areas". He told us that EVERY area is what YOU make it. And I truly believe that. I know I can't come in and expect to transform the ward in just one transfer... but I think Sister Jorgensen and I together this transfer are going to be able to make a HUGE difference. I'm so grateful for all I learned about "strengthening the stakes" in my last ward.

There are a lot of really solid, super strong members in this ward as well. They've all welcomed me in with OPEN ARMS. I've never been complimented on my Spanish or on my hair color so much in my entire life...Haha.

Anyway...We've got some big plans for this transfer. And I couldn't be more excited about it.

Just FYI... I live really close to Prospect Park. If you want to get an idea of what kind of area I live in Google Prospect Park. It's GORGEOUS. Queen's parks are a total dump compared to Brooklyn's. Haha.

Love you all! Stay tuned for more pictures and fun stuff next week!

Hermana Tara Franklin

 Back in Astoria with Hermana Laney