Harvesting corn and souls

Dear family,

Wow California sounds like a lot of fun! I wish I could have been there! Being with all that family sounds really nice.  I wish I could have been there for uncle Carlisle's talk, it sounds super interesting! I hope that I can dig as deep as he does into the gospel.

l already miss the mountains, and something to look at. Its Harvesting season so the air is pretty dirty here. The corn is harvested and now I have a better view of the nothing there is to look at. (click here for more)

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Look....nothing....

This week was pretty crazy. It went by super fast. On Saturday, I had my first interview with President Bell, and it went really well. It still Surprises me what a loving person he is! after our interview, we knelt and prayed, and after the prayer he kissed me on the cheek, and from what I hear, I should expect this more often. He just loves everyone so much, and he is always telling it to you, and how grateful he is for you. He can't keep any secrets. I went on splits with elder Allen, the zone leader that live right next to us, to pick up the president at the hotel, and he gets in the car and just starts telling us who and where all the missionaries will be transferred that next transfer. He is hilarious. And then he spoke yesterday in sacrament and I got to translate for him. At stake conference in two weeks, and member of the Seventy is coming to speak, and I think I will be translating that as well! I need to practice!

We are having a hard time getting all the Mexican people we teach to believe anything more that just the fact that God and Jesus exist. They keep on saying "Que Mas?" what we ask them what they believe in. They just think that they exist, and that if they read the bible once in a while and are nice to their neighbors they will be fine. They don't want to make any commitments.

This lady was riding a lawn mower across the  crosswalk in an intersection!

So your first question. My companion, Elder Barclay,  looks Mexican, and that is what everyone thinks. But hes not, so the next guess is that hes a Poly, because hes like 6 feet, but really strong. And that's not true either. He is half Taiwanese, at least he claims, but he is just to big to be Asian. We get along super well. He like to work out a lot, so I work out with him every morning, and I've been sore everyday for the past three weeks. But he played football for South Carolina, and apparently he is really good, because some guy stopped us on the street the other day and knew who he was. Apparently he got a really bad concussion the first season, so he didn't play for more than a year. He has 20 months here so he is going home soon.

 To be honest, the training, greenie thing doesn't really really exist. I mean of course it does, but in our companionship, we do a really good job of supporting each other in everything we do. I have extended all the baptism invitations so far. Missionary work is a lot different now I think. We invite people to be baptized at the end of the first lesson. We already have one guy on date. His name is Enrique, but he just had a serious surgery, so we have to wait till all the stitches are out of his leg before we baptize him.

The creeeeeeeeepy basement

Here are the stairs to the creepy basement, and that is the foundation of our house that is totally about to cave in.

Yes we eat in members homes. Half the time they are the English members, because there aren't that many Spanish members. But we eat pretty normal food. and its all really good. The Mexicans always serve tortillas rice, and some kind of "Carne". They never specify. 

But the weird thing is that they almost never eat with us. They prepare the meal and then sit with us and watch us eat. then we share a message and leave. I enjoy it a lot. Last night, we visited these people, and they had eight kids in this tiny house. The kids were all over the place, but their mother kept them disciplined a lot better that some of the families I've seen. She kept on yelling at them telling them she was going to get out the "belt" .

I got to play soccer in the MTC with David Warren for 5 weeks

I am in the zone right next to Mark McKellar, unfortunately. Everyone in my zone is new to me, no one from Mexico, and no one that I already know, but I enjoy meeting all the new people.

Thanks for you constant letters. Sometimes my companion does not get a letter for six weeks at a time, and I know its hard for him.

I am definitely praying all the time! don't feel bad for asking God for too many things, He wants to bless us and will as long as we remember Him!