Horrendous tan lines

9/29/08
work is going well still, had another miracle fall into our hands. there was a lady taking english classes from some other elders but she lived in our area, so they were teaching her and we didnt even nkow she existed. one day they called us and said they had a lady with a baptismal date that they were giving to us because she was in our area, so that puts one more in our teaching pool. her date is set for oct. 19, so were really excited, we needed a lot of help to bring this area to full potential. dont send my helmet if you havent already, it will be a pain to pack around transfer to transfer, and im fine with this nerdy one i have now. you guys wouldnt recognize me now, i wear a nerdy watch on my arm, given to me by a less active we went to visit named benjamin arteaga. he saw i was without one (the face of my old one fell off a month into los angeles) and gave me one of his. he is a watch collecter, so he had a ton of bling watches, and i think this one embarrased him so he unloaded it. the bike i ride puts my rear end at the same elevation as my elbows, so im not riding with any dignity, and its as low as it goes. my hair is short (im still the only elder who doesnt wear gel) and i have horrendous tan lines. i wonder how my picking up on girls will be affected when i get back. now i know what other people feel like! my butts not sore anymore, it was for about 2 days then i got over it. we went to a bike shop today and i saw the same bmx bike that i bought back in the day there and i started drooling and wishing i could ride it instead. we cover 3 branches here, 2 spanish and 1 english, although technically the english ward is a ward, its small enough to be a branch. the stake is divided into like 7 wards, but everyone is moving/has moved because there is nothing here. this neighborhood is a lot like a utah neighborhood, except theyre all mexicans instead of white people. its a fairly wealthy place, quiet, no ghettos :( spread out, but its all brown. most of the people here are pretty nice, which is something that is different for me. even the richer people are at least polite, but just like with any other place, there are the bad apples. last friday, we didnt have any appointments until dinner, so we left the apartment at 12 noon like normal and tracted for 6 straight hours to our dinner appointment. it wasnt too bad except it was ridunculously hot. that reminds me. this week downey shut down all the water for everything, they found e. coli in the water, so everything shut down. couldnt drink normal water, all the resteraunts were closed, all the produce and meats from stores were gone, everything. we have been without water since last tuesday, but elder espindola and i didnt find out til friday about it (no news, no radio) but were okay, not too broken up about it. everybody got a little taste of what a disastor would be like, no water, no food, prices of everything went sky high, so here is some wisdom you should take heed to. make sure your food storage is adequate and up to date. LA is predicting that some sort of natural disastor (earthquake i believe) will hit november 11 or around there. well see in a few months i guess. elder espindola and i got along well enough, were were fasting during some of that week so it wasnt a big deal not to drink water.

to answer your questions (for once) i was only in santa monica 1 transfer (6 weeks) and then they moved me, and every time i have moved, i have flushed (3 times) how weird is that. it hardly ever happens here and i have been the one to do it, but it starts to grow on you, i like it. i have had 4 different companions now (elder fennell, elder seaman, elder todd, and now elder espindola) all within a few months of going home, so im pretty trunky too. sounds like we have had a similar mission experience so far, i get the problem areas where there is no work being done. santa monica there was nothing all year and we got 2 baptismal dates there. i left before they were baptised, which was the only thing disappointing about leaving (i dont like white people any more...) and here the elders hadnt gone tracting or taught or anything in 5 months. the only time they would leave the apartment was for dinner appointments. our Dl is so happy to have new elders so he doesnt have to get on there backs every day.

Hard work and miracles

9/22/08
this week has been a long week, it feels like forever since ive emailed. i got transfered out of santa monica, into the downy first ward. this is a different transfer, now im on bike. im here with elder espindola, who is bolivian, but was made in canada and moved to utah at 7. we were flushed in, again, im 3/3 on transfer flushes. the elders before us werent doing anything, there has been no work here in 5 months. we got here with no appointments, just a lunch appt from a member. however, we have seen a lot of miracles already. our first day here, we didnt have a dinner appt, so when we got hungry, elder espindola wanted to bike back home. we were pretty far, and since im not the most energized person, i wanted to call a number from the phone and ask for an appt. so i called it, and the guy answered, and invited us to his house, so we ate with his family. they were disappointed in the last elders and were so excited to have new ones they gave us 5 referrals. that is unheard of, i dont think i have had 5 all my other transfers put together. we have a baptismal date with one, and will be setting one with another next week. thats why missionaries ask for referrals, it works. that was pretty cool, and the next night we got a call from the visitors center sisters with another referral, so we checked him the next day. we got to his house and no one answered the door after a couple of tries. we had been biking and knocking all day so we were way thirsty, so we knocked the rest of his coul-de-sac trying to find someone to let us in so we could ask for water. bunch of rich old people denied us, and we walked dejectedly to our bikes. i was hesitant to get on again because my butt had, gotten ridiculously... beautiful... from riding for 3 days, so as a stalling technique, i walked to his door to try again. i was half turned to elder espindola telling him that i was resting my behind when the guy opened the door. we told him we were talking about eternal families and he was quite interested. he told us that he wanted to know how to keep his son after he died, or if something happened, so we talked a little how the gospel can bless the family etc. we set up a return appt and he is solid. now here is the miracle. he gave us each 2 bottles of water! saved! we are having a lot of success, and the lady who we have a date with, her husband doesnt want to hear anything from us, but when we went to visit her, he hid in the kitchen and listened, and as she told us on sunday, he was impressed with us while we were there and he wants to start joining in on our lessons, while before he would just watch tv and turn it up really loud. the ward heard about our success already and they have made a 180 turn. its so awesome, we are having a great time. im using another elders bike while im here, but i need you to send me my motocross helmet, and the gloves if they are in it. ive cleared it with prez blackburn, as long as i dont wear goggles so people cant see my face, he is totally fine with it. hrmm, what else has happened...? elder espindola is pretty cool, as i said, his family is bolivian, but they were in canada when he was born, and when he was 7 they moved to clearfield utah. he goes home soon, so it makes yet another companion that is about to leave. all of my companions have been just about to go home, and so im just continuing the tradition. downey is a fairly wealthy area, not quite so like santa monica, it has more homes and is more spread than the closeness of everything else like my last 2 areas, all apartments and really crammed. thats about it, all is going well.

Gina + Owen = True Love Forever and Ever

9/3/08
... i need the info for the new bishopric, like names addresses and phone numbers so i can give it to the mission office. still havent gotten my pants cleaned yet, but thats ok, im wearing a different pair. theyre the big heavy ones that make my legs sweat just looking at them, but im used to it now. tell matt gratz on playing and getting announced for his tackle! ill send some pictures soon. i have everything but maria elenas baptism on there, so ill try to get them from elder seaman, i didnt have my camera with me... if i can get those soon ill put them and and ship it off, if not, you will have to wait for them. tell gina i have a leaf from the hedge that walls owen wilsons house for her. he is in our area, so we went and tried to talk to him. ive realized that missionary work in santa monica isnt real missionary work. we dont knock doors, we ring call boxes. the people are all jerks and dont let us in, they shoo us from the second story or from their mile long driveway. not at all like they make it out to be where people are just dying to meet with us in their dirt floored home and such. eh, thats ok, we have a car. brand new 09 corolla. got it for having the cleanest car at zone conference. thats how i roll. tonight were eating dinner with our resident billionaire. hes 32. im taking lots of pictures. hrmm. ok bye