Well I guess pretty much all the excitement from this last week came
yesterday, on Sunday. In sacrament meeting, our top dog investigator,
Juan was confirmed a member of the Church. Our bishop, Bishop Flores did
the confirmation. It was pretty cool. We were nervous that Juan wasn't
going to be able to find a ride to church, but right before they blessed
the sacrament, he walked in the chapel, to which we promptly walked him
up to the front of the congregation. Talk about perfect timing. In the
testimony portion, all 4 of the missionaries in the ward bore their
testimonies. It was nerve-wracking to do it in Spanish, but I think I
did ok. I'm going to set a goal to do it every month in my mission.
Lately we have been getting a lot of headaches from one of our
investigators, Izaac. He is a stone cold metalhead. He has hair halfway
down his back, gages in both ears and one nostril, and always can be
found wearing black. But the thing is, he is a super gentle guy. He
loves meeting with us, he even watched some of General Conference with
us last week. He is married and has a 10 year old daughter named Mistik.
Lately, the problems that him and his wife Susana are having at home have become a lot more prevalent in our lessons.There is often a lot of tension when the 4 of us meet outside on theirporch. But last night, we invited Mistik to join us for the first time and that really cooled things down. We asked to Mistik to say the prayer at the end of the lesson, and after her cute little 10 year girl prayer, Izaac just started bawling. It was a very strong moment. After we sat there and let Izaac get it out for a minute, we invited the whole family
to be baptized and they all accepted. It was a great moment inmissionary work.
Questions and Answers:
I think my cousin Jennifer is going to California not this week, but the
next. Do you think you can wait until then for your jacket and I will
send it down with her? Anything else you might want me to send? Just
for the record, I am not going to replace all your pants.
Um ya I can probably wait. Some garments would also be nice. Fine.
What size rain jacket should I get?
Not sure. Just to let you have an idea of my size, I am 5'11" and weigh
170 pounds. So I am skinny and tallish.
I have put money in your account for a bike. How much do you think you
are going to spend?
Not sure. I'm scared to death to pay a lot for a bike because this is
the part of town where it could very easily get stolen. So maybe between
200-300
Grandma and Grandpa want to know if you are allowed to receive emails
from them.
Of course. Sammy too. I think the rule is family, mission president, and
other missionaries. So ya they can.
I would like to hear a little bit about the people that you spend time
with. Tell me about members that you have met, people that you are
teaching, etc.
Well they are switching up a lot of the ward missionary assignments
here, so I'm not really sure who the new guys are.
Do you feel like Spanish is getting any easier?
A little bit. I can understand probably about 60% of what is being said
most of the time.
I would like to know about your grocery shopping and what you eat when
you are at home. Are you still eating often at members'?
At home, PBJ, grilled cheese. There is a pizza place down the street
called La Pizza Loca that sells a 3 foot long pizza for like $10. So
sometimes we grab one of those for the both of us. Everyone feeds us.
Members, less active members, investigators, strangers. Everyone. Most
days we eat 2-3 dinners. Sorry I was writing my letter to the president.
Um, they feed us a lot of meats, beans, and rice. and torillas. We have
torillas every meal. On P-Day we usally play either dodgeball or indoor
soccer in the chapel against the Costa Mesa district. Since we have 3
Hispanics and one semi-athletic gringo, we usually beat the whiteys in
Costa Mesa in soccer.
Do you guys ever just laugh together or is it serious business all the
time?
We laugh all the time. Elder Z. is actally pretty funny and he is
pretty good at being funny in English. I know I should try to convey the
fun that we have more often in my letters. We really do have a lot of
fun.
Sorry sorry sorry. I was writing my letter to Pres. Bowen. I have to go.
Next week I'll write my letter to him first thing, so you and I can talk
afterward. Love you! Give my best to everyone. Talk to you soon.
Got to go! SO much love!!!
