Week 4

Hello everyone, This week has mostly just been the same old, aside from the fact that the end seems to be in sight now. Tomorrow most of the elders in my district will be taking the train to Salt Lake for our visas, which we're pretty excited about. I guess I haven't talked a lot about other members of my district yet and I recall a couple people were asking about them. First there's my companion, Elder Bryce, he's really into lifting weights and he plays electric guitar, he's mostly into metal though so we don't really talk about music. He's from (I don't know how to spell it but it sounds like "Preskit"), Arizona, and he went to NAU last year. Elder Garret is from Syracuse (in Utah) and just graduated from high school this year. He played football at his school and he's also really into history and political science sort of topics. His companion is Elder Scott, from Rigby, Idaho (or somewhere in the outskirts of it), he also went to USU last year, he's into math and science and was also in marching band at some point and he's majoring in some kind of engineering related field. He's our new district leader as of this week. The last companionship is a trio due to one of their companions not showing up. We've obviously come up with all sorts of theories regarding what happened to him. Anyway, the first is Elder Olds, who was our first district leader. He's from St. George, graduated this year, and was on his school's football team, and he's also into a lot of the same music as I am. Elder Hammond is from California, I don't remember what part, I think it's near LA. He went to BYU this last year and I think is going into mechanical engineering. Elder Esplin is from Orderville, Utah and graduated this year. He doesn't talk about his past much and he gets multiple letters from his mom and sisters every time we get mail, so we've concluded among our district that he's a secret agent. We pretty much just play basketball together during gym time and we've all gotten pretty good, I think I'm far better at it now than I ever was before. This week Elder Bryce and I were given the assignment of sacrament coordinators, and Elders Olds, Hammond and Esplin are the new zone leaders. Our teachers are Hermana Pinto and Hermano Zuzunaga, believe they're from Bolivia and Peru. They've always talked mostly in spanish, and as of late Hermano Zuzunaga pretty much never speaks in english and also expects us to always speak in spanish, which we've decided as a district to try to do as much as we can. The investigators they act as for Elder Bryce and me are Antonia, an old woman in a wheelchair who is almost blind and has trouble believing that god cares about her, and Alan, a man who's family has converted to the church but despises the idea of quitting coffee and not working on sunday. We've gotten as far as a baptismal commitment with Antonia but have not yet managed to get through the door with Alan. They've told us that Hermano Zuzunaga has the hardest investigators of all the MTC teachers, which I think is a great opportunity for us. I've heard multiple times from random people in our zone that they've heard our district has learned spanish very quickly. Thanks again to everyone for the letters. For Grandma and Grandpa, thank you very much for the Mexico City guide. I've looked through it a little bit, but I think my area is mostly on the more "suburban" part of the city along with the outskirts. But I have learned a bit about South American culture in my spanish classes and also from people in my ward who have gone there. For Mom and Dad, thanks for your stories and advice, and no the cafeteria isn't finished yet, the original date was July 15th and now it's sometime next month after we leave, meaning that its probable date of completion is next year maybe if they feel like it. and here's a copy of the list you made dad: -Testimony of savior Jesus Christ & fullness of the gospel -Loving family & friends -Healthy body & sharp mind, courtesy of beautiful, intelligent parents -Superb musical talent (and taste) -Opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ -Large box of unhealthy snacks -Blessing of being raised in a country with the rule of law -Can change light bulbs without a chair -Wonderful sense of humor -Guitar string used by Jeff Mangum safely tucked away in his father's gun safe -Name absent from daily chore chart Ryan, I'm glad you're enjoying your work, my managers were pretty cool, one of them had a short temper but I usually managed to stay on his good side, but one of my coworkers and one of the inspectors were loud mouthed hicks who were super obnoxious and I hated them. In my past I usually solved my problems with people by ignoring them as much as possible, but now that I can't usually do that anymore I have to be nice to people to avoid conflict. If someone has the desire to fight with you then the most you can do is not give them anything to work with, be nice to him and make him feel guilty. Love you bro. (also, I'd appreciate if you could give my email to Austin (my friend Austin not our cousin), he seemed like he was taking my departure pretty hard) Emily, I'm running short on time, but I'm going to need to hear more about this person of interest. I couldn't feel right about picking on a flute player, maybe if he played tuba or something. Also congrats on your commissions and on your driver's permit. Tyler, thanks again for your words of wisdom. Also don't worry about the guitar string, dad got it. Speaking of which I'll be expecting you to be better than me at guitar when I come back :D Love you all Elder Jones