Week 3? I think. Hopefully.

Already losing track of time here! That's a good thing. I think. I'm just getting lost in the work. So, I've gotten the question whether all of my investigators are spanish speaking. No, but about 4/5 of them are. Of course, some speak spanish and english, such as with Dalia. Dalia only speaks spanish, but her children speak both, but they tend to prefer english, so some of our lessons are bilingual. Other times, someone can speak both, but the member we have speaks spanish, so me and Elder Kelly speak english, and our member speaks spanish, and our investigator does both. A little confusing at times. :)

Something about sundays is interesting. We greet people for the English ward, but don't attend it because PEC for the branch is during sacrament for the ward. Then, because the kids all speak english, and the branch's adults can all fit in one larger classroom, the ward and the branch share class time. Then we go to the Spanish sacrament meeting. Sometimes there are english speakers from the stake though at the branch, so we have these headsets that the spanish speakers put on, and then my companion Elder Kelly had the headset that all the other headsets hear, so that he can translate. Pretty cool stuff.

I got asked if I have dinner every night, and I can't remember if I answered this already, but basically what happens is we are always allowed to have dinner appointments on Saturday on Sunday. Monday through Friday however, you need to have a non-member present to be allowed dinner appointments. It's a motivator to help missionaries try and get members more involved with investigators. I think we're allowed to get lunch from a member any day, but most people work. So that's never happened. :) Maybe one day!

Today, me and Elder Kelly don't have miles, so we're not going to Othello. We will be watching doctrinal movies in the seminary building and writing letters! And getting the car an oil change! Fun stuff. :) On Christmas, I will get to skype of course. Ma, Pa, be ready around 4-7 most likely? Actually I really have no idea. We're are going over to the Christensens to skype, but they told us just come over whenever for it. And we're not sure what our schedule will be. So um.... Be ready all christmas day! :D On a side note, sister christensen is actually the sister of brother fritzler, who used to be in Peccole Ranch Ward. Small world! Well, not sure what else to say this week. Love you all, and thanks for the support!

Elder Grant

Week 2 in the field

First of all, I would like to thank my brother Cameron for giving me things to talk about in this email. I was kind of clueless as to what to say, til he gave me tons of questions. :D

My trainer, Elder Kelly, kind of reminds me of Dad. He's kinda quiet, but he just has moments of quietness I realized. He's actually a lot more talkative in spanish. :) He's from North Salt Lake, and he's been out for about 9 months. He's teaching me the day to day stuff obviously (I've mostly got a hang of that now), he also has a guide to teach me stuff called the first 12 weeks, and he's making me lead sometimes, even though I hate it. :) It's scary taking the lead! He is my Dad, and my second companion is my Mom apparently. I am his first trainee, so I got the birthright. :) A really ugly pink, ugly tie. One day, I will hand that down to the first person I train.

The branch is really small. I guess it used to be quite a bit bigger, but its been having some problems. They have maybe 30 people each sacrament meeting? And I would say 15 of those only attend because they're trying to support the branch, but would go to the ward if the branch wasn't so small. We did have 5 investigators at church this sunday though. :) Dalia is a woman in her early 30's (at first I thought she was in her late 30's, but then I remembered most people don't look as young as my mom did when she was 38!). She has three kids, I think one is 14ish one is 12ish and the other is 7? She's not sure if she wants to commit to baptism though.  And then a man named Erasto came, and he has been attending church. But he needs to get a divorce, which we're working on, so he doesn't have a baptism date. 

Monday is my P-day, hopefully you can figure that out. :P  We go to Walmart in Othello (tell President Teshima I'm in the Othello stake!) and then play sports with the other members in the zone. All twelve of us haha. Small zone. :) There's four Elder comps, two sister comps. We played soccer last week, not sure what we're gonna do after emails today. :) So, we meet at the Stake center, and then leave at like 5 back for Mattawa. Except today I'm going to Royal City (which is really a bunch of farms, not a city) on exchanges after this with Elder Villa today. I will return to Mattawa tomorrow. I also spent a day with Elder Mitchell in Othello on Zone exchanges Friday, and received a super delicious breakfast. :) Not sure what I was gonna say next... Oh, but for the record, in the MTC, my zone once reached the size of 35 people. Just to compare.

Not sure what else to say this week. Give me more stuff to talk about. :)

With love,

-Elder Grant

First week, First transfer!

Hey, so time to start talking. I've got a bit to say. Let me start off though with saying, I love the mission. :) And if it seems like I'm complaining anything, I'm definitely not. You'll see why I say that in a sec though.

 

So, to start off. My first area. It's a little town called Mattawa, (aka Wahluke) Washington. There are farms everywhere, and there's an English ward, and a Spanish branch here. There's a lot more spanish speakers than english speakers in town though (excluding children. All the children learn english at school). The church building is in the middle of a bunch of fields. Not sure why. It's like a ten minute drive from town, with nothing in between. It's about a ten minute drive from town in one direction, and a ten minute drive the other direction to where me and Elder Kelley live. I think there's probably 3,000 people here. I think that might be less people than Peccole Ranch. :) Me and my trainer, Elder Kelley, live in the Bishop's Mom's basement, who's on a mission herself. We receive letters once a week from the Bishop, but I'm able to write in any personal time I have. Luckily, with so many spanish speakers most of our lessons are in spanish. They talk funny, and I don't understand a word they say. :) I'm starting to catch on though. I'm able to talk pretty well if I actually understand what's going on. We have lots of investigators on our list, something like 16? But it can be difficult because most of the latinos aren't good at making commitments. At all. Cough. But yeah. I'm learning so much, and I'm loving it here. As missionaries, you get the best and the worst, because you're involved in the most important work of all. Saving souls! I love it. :) So, that's all this week. I'll try and write more next week! Love you all! Keep writing me!

 

Elder Grant