We finally received a letter from Jordan. He left last Tuesday and for a waiting Mom that's a long time!
He's doing great, but that Mexican Mafia investigator worries me a little :(
So here it is:Date: October 11, 2010
Area: Houston 1 Northwest
Companion: Elder Bunch
Hola familia!
Wow i have so much to talk about I don't even know where to start! Well here I am in Texas! I'm in Houston 1 Northwest. So I'm a little northwest of downtown ha ha about ten minutes. So I'm in the GHETTO! But it's so awesome! I love every minute of it. I'm actually understanding most everything in spanish and can speak pretty well too. Oh and I baptized someone yesterday. Yup. Really. But I should be honest it wasn't my investigator it was the sisters' but it was still a really good experience!
I was nervous at first to talk to people but now I love it (unless their white, white people are jerks) Because you can go up to any hispanic and go "Hola Hermano como esta!" "Hello Brother how are you?" and they're always nice and willing to talk but unfortunately also always catholic. ha. But we have actually had a lot of appointments. We had 30 sit down lessons since I got here. and we had six investigators in church this week. hopefully we can get them all baptized this transfer. I just love riding around the ghetto around all these dumpy apartments and hearing they're mexican music and talking to people. That might sound like I was being sarcastic but I'm not! I really love doing this so much. Why didn't anyone tell me serving a mission was this fun? Well I'm telling you all now that serving is so much fun!
Too be honest the food has been a disappointment so far...Hopefully I get some good food soon. I'm not trying to be ungrateful but everyone just was telling me how I was going to get fat but I barely eat and I ride a bike and sweat all day so I don't know how that's going to happen...But I would still like some good food.
So just to prove how ghetto this place is...last night I set up an appointment with a guy who used to be in the Mexican Mafia. He just got out of jail and actually seems pretty nice. If you don't know what the Mexican Mafia is it's one of the worst gangs in the country, that guy used to be one bad dude. But i'm so excited for the appointment, hopefully he has some stories.
Oh ok duh! My companion's name is Elder Bunch. He's from California and he's awesome. He's an amazing teacher. He's so entertaining to watch teach and so convincing that sometimes I forget that I'm there to teach and not watching myself. It's pretty amazing becasue he's only be out since June and he's already a trainer. Oh and he's like six foot seven I think ha ha.
Ok and one thing I'm really learning is to have faith. We have like seven baptisms pending on whether or not the people recieve an answer about the book of mormon. So I just have to have faith that they will.
It's pretty crazy though. One thing our mission does is that we always ask on the first lesson if the people will be baptized. and everyone we asked said they would which is pretty cool. I was nervous to ask the first couple people but they've all said yes when i've asked. But like I said they said they would only if they receive a witness. But I have faith they will and so hopefully we have lots of baptisms!
Ha ha oh and one funny thing during the baptism, ok well two funny things. First, I totally forgot to bring another white shirt to change into. so i had a wet white shirt on the rest of the day. Dumb. and the other thing that was so funny is that Gelacio's (the guy getting baptized) family was all there. and the bishop, Bishop Rojas (aka: the Man) told him that he needed the baptism of fire next, so like receiving the Holy Ghost. And his little nephews were freaking out! Ha ha they took it literally like he was going to be put into a fire. I tried to explain to them it was only a figure of speech but they were like five so I don't know if it helped.
And that's really one thing I love her, are the kids. There's always a ton of little kids outside playing and i like going up to them and playing soccer with them for a second. The little kids always wave to us when we pass by. It's really fun.
Yeah so other than having the Fword said to me a few times, and having a couple gangsters tell me to come over to them (so they could beat me up) it's been the coolest thing ever! If it weren't for Ashlee and Mommy I'm not sure I'd ever come home to be honest. Ha ha. Oh and if you want to Google Earth where I live I live at 2121 Pech #95 Houston, TX and while you're at it send me a letter to that address :) Packages have to be sent to the mission office.
So the funniest situation I can think of is a couple named Rene and Ahorra. They are both way nice and way interested in the gosple. However there's one problem. They're both married to someone else in Paraguay and have two kids each there and have two kids together here. So in order to get baptized they have to get divorced and married here. I never thought I'd have to tell someone that they have to get divorced...Hopefully that works out...
I'm glad Brycen went to a BYu game! I'm glad they finally won!
It's good to hear Ben went to Homecoming, he sounds like he's having lots of fun this school year.
What are the rest of you up to? What's new?
I hope I put everything in here that I wanted...I think I did.
Ok well I have to email President Saylin (who is awesome) before I have to go shopping. I'm having lots of fun! I'm trying to do my best. Remeber that the "Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he hath commanded them."
I love you! Have a great week!
Con Amor,
Elder Soutas
