Hey Everyone!
Sorry I'm not able to get pictures on because the SD card is just dumb but I'm working on it! So this was a very interesting week... (seems like I start every letter like that, but it's true) first off thank you all for those who have sent a letter. and thanks for all the love and support from everyone. Sorry I haven't written individual letters back to the ones I've received I've just been busy, But from all the little cousins I love your letters! Thanks for telling me about your lives! I'll try to answer most everyone's questions on this. But I am receiving your letters so thank you all. So I get questions from you all about the election and all that here in Ohio. And it sucks we can't watch what's going on but we talk with the members about all that. But people do ask us about that because of Romney and the church because of him. (actually just today in the library a man came and talked to me and he first asked what our churches' standpoint on the elections were (Like we're all told to vote for Romney cause he's a Mormon type thing) so we started on that and we talked and I shared answers and all that to try and clear his mind, gave him a card for mormon.org and all that. He had other questions and I tried to answer the best I could. I wasn't able to get on a computer there so I just wrote letters waiting for my companions to finish but I wasn't able to get any letter written because I talked with this guy. But whatever. So Chad (and whoever is wondering) I see a lot of signs for Obama around some of the ghetto parts around here. (and there's a lot) but that's probably cause their all on welfare. But who knows if they'll even vote too. We share a mailbox with our neighbors (whose house is connected to ours) and they get a ton of mail bashing on Romney and supporting Obama. (All just really dumb slander) like Romney in a nice boat and a quote saying "Romney's boat is bigger than mine" shows a dinky little fishing boat and a guy holding his wallet showing like two bucks in it. and just a ton of crap like that. But there is hope. I hear Ohio is pretty tied up. but in the Ghetto parts there are a lot of Obama signs. But there are Romney signs around and a lot of them aren't Mormon! Crazy! The ward I'm assigned to is pretty dang small... Like a fourth of the size in St. George. Just super tiny, But the people are awesome. I really like the Sylvesters. Adam was a member and just recently has been reactivate and his wife Colleen was baptized a week ago. They have two cute little girls and she's about to pop with another one very soon. But their young and super fun. Adam plays the drums (yeah you better believe I was all over that! :P) but he has an electric drum kit which is totally different than anything I'm used to but it was still way fun! We got a video of me messing around and it actually sounded way cool!! I haven't had a smile that big in a long time. I've definitely have missed my drums. But that was last Monday. It's weird though because the drum "heads" (more like rock band pads) were really small. only like 8 inches. (my smallest cymbal was that big...) but still way fun. The setting I played and recorded was some weird techno thing but it turned out a lot better than I expected. So I will try and get that loaded on. So here are some of the weird things that's happened this week. Tuesday: was a hard day, I was freaking out inside and had a ton on my mind, and we went tracting and I was like "what the heck am I doing... I'm a freaking salesman.. and other thoughts were clouding my head and I'm pretty sure I had a panic attack in the car that day. Nothing too extreme but I was ready to crack it felt like. I've never had one before so that was new (Dad, it's your fault.. Just kidding. I still Love you :D, thanks for that letter again though, I printed it off today so I can read it.) But we went and talked to this Latino and there is no hope in trying to convert him. He is a stubborn Catholic but studies all religions, it was really weird. But after that I was able to calm down a bit after that. Wednesday.. I don't remember much of except all of our appointments fell through. Except Donescha {Don-ee-SHA} (one of our investigators) we talked with her and she's having a hard time accepting the need for prophets and apostles and the priesthood when the basic doctrine between out two churches is similar. but we're working on it and I invited her to be baptized (I've invited like 4 people [part of training]) but we're required to try and invite to baptism on the first visit, which is kinda weird but whatever. We do it when it's best. Donescha also came to church this Sunday too! Thursday was a good but interesting day. We went to this one house to was a previous investigator or something and no one answered went across the street and talked to this guy who just joined the Church of Christ and apparently they have set "boundaries" of what they can do with other religions. so we kept walking around the corner instead of going back to the car. Knocked on two other houses and no answer. Kept walking (now this is a decent neighborhood. not too ghetto but not extremely nice, all black people though) so we see this guy walking around in confusion, we asked if we could stop and help, and he said no but he got a call saying someone tried breaking into his house. then he asked if we were packing. (carrying a gun) and we said no, then he goes on to say that it'd be smart to in this town, especially in the neighborhood we were in. He said he preferred a 9mm but a .45 or a .38 caliber work just fine but a 357 just goes right through people... that's always a comforting thing to hear.. haha but whatever, we kept walking and we got an investigator just 4 houses down! her name is Margaret and she's probably in her early 70's. Her and her granddaughter were standing outside and we stopped and asked if we could say a prayer with them and they let us in (which is rare...) so we talked and said the prayer and after that she asked "now what is it you guys teach??" ummm sweet! this rarely happens. so we taught her and her granddaughter, Raeyon (Ray-on) and it went well. We went back the next day. taught again. (now there is more details to this than I'm writing but this is good enough haha) She has Bronchitis (probably from smoking) and we planned to meet with her again yesterday (Sunday) but we found out she got fluids in her heart and was admitted to the hospital the night before, so we went over and said hi. Super nice lady and surprisingly sharp. But back to the story. we continued walking around and talked with like four other people that day trying to find our way back to the car. now I'm running out of time for today but I'll just tell you some funny things people have said to us this past week during tracting and talking with people.
-"Gator game is on can't talk" (football and tracting... big no-no)
-"You guys look like the Men in Black and you're scaring the F*** out of me" (should have known that was trouble by the zombie hunting permit on her car and other weird bumper stickers)
-This guy we talked to named Pat Taylor (lives by Ken Bowman) told us some interesting things. He hated his wife. But I don't blame him. they got married (got a girl prego) and 5 days after he wanted out cause he found out how she really was.. but he couldn't leave cause he would be a disgrace etc etc. But this chick had problems.. She committed suicide a few years back and he was like that was the smartest thing she's ever done. She would call him up at work just to argue. Her justification was that married people are supposed to fight (soap operas influenced that one) she told him to quit his job and they can just live on welfare (dumb) and that married people only find happiness by sex. like she thought that if they laid in bed all day naked then they're happy. (so dumb) he was telling us "And I'm like dang women! I can't go 14 times a day and I have bills to pay and all this other crap" he's had a hard life. And it was really interesting talking to him. but it was also sad. (sorry for the story on the little ones behalf) but yeah just a bunch of stuff.
There are more stories and stuff. There are a lot of interesting people. and I'm scared I'm going to get shot one of these days. Especially wearing a suit in the hood... But at the same time.. maybe people are intimidated by three guys walking around in suits. They probably think we're CIA or FBI or something, I don't know. The apartment is also scary at night.. Just sketchy. But during the day it's nice! the view is awesome (we have a ton of turtles that sun bathe in the river behind us and apparently there are snapping turtles and one missionary who is already home caught one and chopped it's head off and cooked it. the jaw bone is in our apartment and he took home the shell. Big ol' Polynesian guy. but I want to catch one... It's cold here. some days are really nice. but it is so bitter. I miss the heat. ha or the dryness.. but whatever. it's going to be a cold winter.. I love you all and miss all of you. Thank you for the love and support. I really do appreciate it. I try not to sound dramatic or anything. I just say things how they are to me. The days are long and the weeks are short. looking forward makes things seem like forever away. but it's coming along and I have great companions. Elder Wheadon and I have now picked up talking in a Mexican accent for some weird reason. (probably because we taught a hispanic and we kinda talked like that, except he originally was called Spanish speaking) but we've been doing that the last couple of days! haha it's pretty funny and it pisses Elder Brooks off but it's still funny. Like I said before there is a Piano in our house and I have started to tink around on it and have come up with like a cool little song! and also Elder Brooks has a Uke so I play that too haha! Anyways. There is a lot of work going on here and it is pretty freaking crazy! and I'm trying to keep up but yeah. just within these last two days our mission has gone from 171 Investigators to 225... yeah that's nuts. one zone alone got 45. It's just crazy. Ok I'm done now. Until next week!! Love ya all!!
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