Dear Family and Friends,
It was fun to Skype home yesterday! Especially being
able to talk to you guys back home and having Mark skyped on a laptop
at the same time...never done that before!
So I guess the big news is that .01% of the time I'm wrong and am not
staying in Queen Creek. I was 99.99% sure I was staying haha.
Chandler
is a lot different than anywhere I have ever served. Yuma and Queen
Creek had more farm fields than people it seemed. Our address is 1287 N Alma School Rd #174, Chandler, AZ, 85224
On Sunday night we were awaiting our transfer calls
and as I wrote last week, they never came. Monday afternoon before the
calls Elder Lanier and Sawyer called to say goodbye and told me I would
enjoy this next few transfers, whatever that meant. That night as we
were waiting around the house waiting for transfer calls President Howes
called and asked me to be trainer among some other assignments. I was
pretty nervous. Later that night the Zone Leaders called and said I was
leaving (President Howes doesn't tell us if we're staying or leaving)
which meant that I would whitewash train - just like how I started my
mission down in Yuma. Whew I was pretty stressed out for that!
At transfer meeting we found out that five visa
waiter Elders came in. Elder Myler was there as well as some other
people I've gotten to know. "the Argentine" was slated to come in for 3
or 4 transfers but never came in due to visa problems. Everyone was
fighting to get to train him since he is a native speaker haha. Anyway,
long story short, I am training Elder Diaz, "the Argentine," and am
having a great time. He is super energetic and very prepared to be a
missionary. Already I've learned lots from him. I also realized that
Elder Diaz is the first 18 year old spanish missionary here! Also the
first one to come in for 3-4 transfers.
The rest of the transfer meeting was crazy.
President Howes chose this past meeting to make all the changes for the
mission split. All the missionaries in the valley/phoenix area were
invited and told to bring all area books. They then changed just about
everyone's wards, moved apartments, split zones and moved districts.
Cars were swapped and taken away for some and weird changes were made to
boundaries. They've moved districts from one zone to another zone now. I
can't imagine prepping a mission for a split haha. I guess that's an
accomplishment though, eh?
When
we first got to our apartment, I walked in the door but was very very
confused when I saw a TV that was on and a computer. I looked around a
bit then realized I had walked into someone else's apartment! I quickly
ran out of the apartment and opened the door next door (?) and walked
into ours. Unlike in Yuma, it was clean and everything was put away.
Lots of food too!
So far we have been speaking tons of Spanish. I talk
to him purely in spanish and he talks to me in English. I help him with
his English and he helps me with my Spanish, kind of like with Elder
Valdez but I'm trying not to be as lazy and am speaking
more Spanish this time. I've already seen tons of improvement in just
six days!
We cover the Spanish ward here. It was probably the
most energetic ward I've ever been in! The Bishop is from Bar(th)elona
Spain and has the very unique accent. He is an awesome guy and very very
energetic with a young family. The ward had us stand up in sacrament
meeting to introduce us, in Sunday school, and gospel principles. Never
had that happen before! There hasn't been a baptism in the ward since
September (when Elder Myler was here) but we're going to change that.
Having a native speaker in a Spanish ward makes a HUGE difference. Not
to mention there are seven 'Diaz' families in the Spanish ward haha
I was flipping through the Ensign and saw a picture of someone familiar ..Jim Kabbani!? Ensign from Oct 2008. Cool story!
Finding
our way around Chandler has been an adventure. Someone in a ward that
we don't cover offered to give us a ride around Chandler to show us all
the streets and whatnot so we did that our first night. We drove over 30
miles and it was super super helpful. The roads are relatively easy to
understand.
We found out that we're getting moved into a bigger
apartment next month. It seems like every time I unpack I get told I'm
moving.
We've been biking a lot. In Yuma I had
1,000 miles per month, in Queen Creek I had 1,100 per month and here we
get 650. The area is a lot smaller but the Elders before used a lot of
miles at the start so we bike 15 or so miles every day. It's hot, too...
The chapel for our ward is nine miles away which doesn't help too much. 18 mile round trip before lunch time on Sundays.
Elders
quorum on Sunday was pretty funny. The lesson was all about being a
good husband - we sat there awkwardly. It felt like a marriage prep
class.
We have one investigator in our area that was on
date before that fell off. She was supposed to get baptized on the 11th
but called the Elders and told her that she didn't want to on the 5th.
We went by and visited her and found out that the problem is that she
works a lot and rarely gets to see her kids. Her kids don't want to go
to church and she won't go unless they go. So we're working with the
Young Women's leaders to get the daughter interested and involved. The
woman is very prepared and has a strong testimony but won't commit
without the daughter. Usually the kids aren't the set back.
Our district goes down to the Native American
reservation. I'll be doing like 6 baptismal interviews down there on
Wednesday and Thursday haha. In our district is a senior couple of who
cover the reservation. They're on fire! Really nice senior couple, lots
of energy, and a good sense of humor. Our district has no other Elders,
just two Spanish sisters, the senior couple, and us.
The Spanish work in Chandler is "legendary." I've
heard about this ward and area my whole mission. We see
more Hispanics in one day than I did in 3 months in Queen Creek. We have
been busy talking with people and orienting ourselves. Chandler is full
of apartment complexes (not vertical ones) and trailer parks. Perfect!
Driving down the main street is a pretty nice
experience, visually, but as soon as you turn off of it things change
pretty rapidly. Imagine my surprise when I saw this Ferrari!
I
had almost the worst OYM of my mission but luckily saved myself. We
went up to talk to someone on the street and asked her algunas
questions. She responded that she wasn't interested. I offered to give
her a card and she said, "I wouldn't be able to read it anyway!" I
assumed she was blind and started to say, "Well if you see us and need
anything..." but stopped myself at, "if you s-" Whew. To my defense, her
guide dog didn't have one of the typical leashes and she didn't have a
cane and was out with her kids. Disaster avoided!
Anyway, we're in a good place doing good work in a good ward. Life is good.
Con mucho amor,
EJ
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