Hello!
So I FINALLY have access to some type of communication. I have so much to say, but not that much time to say it. Because this is the very first week and so much has gone on, I will talk about the most important things and then catch up on the second most important things next week, when there's not as much new things going on.
Most importantly, I am currently serving in Aurora. It's the southern-most part of the mission, directly east of downtown Denver (by the way, we'll never be in downtown Denver because all of it is in the South mission). It's a coincidence that Aurora is to the east of the city, because I would classify it as the East LA of Denver. Very poor and very Hispanic, which is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately though, for now, I'm serving in an English ward, the Peoria Ward. There are about
6 or 7 wards in the Aurora Stake, one of which is a singles ward and the other is a Spanish ward (not branch, ward!), the Denver 3rd Ward. There are 3 sets of missionaries in the Denver 3rd since they cover all the Spanish speakers in the stake. 2 of the 6 missionaries in Denver 3rd are Elder Robinson and Elder Bolo. I'd say about half of us in the Aurora Zone (about 10 out of 20 or so) are Spanish-speaking, but only 6 of them are in the Spanish ward. Hopefully I'll get a chance to serve there at some point, but I'm still using my Spanish a lot. I'm doing lots of contacting and tracting in Spanish, but all the Spanish lessons are taught by those in Denver 3rd. I feel bad for Elder Shaw though, he got sent to Cheyenne. I wonder how many Hispanics are there, haha. But anyway, I'm not sure how many zones there are, but the ones I know of are Aurora, Denver North, Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, Cheyenne, Laramie, Longmont, and Loveland. Some of those might be combined, I can't remember.
My companion is Elder Carrazco from Chihuahua, Mexico. His English is OK, but sometimes he has a hard time communicating. He's a really nice guy and I like him a lot. But now I turn to my frustration, not with him, but with the situation. He's been out 3 months, so he's the youngest trainer in the mission. We are both new to the area (he's been serving in Aurora, but in other areas), so we are both starting from scratch in getting to know the members and investigators. We are English-speaking for the moment and he has trouble expressing himself. We don't have a car even though our area is huge. We just barely got some bikes (we borrowed them from members) so yesterday was our first day using them. And all of this on my first transfer. It seems to me like like we'd be just fine if we just had ONE of these conditions reversed: If it was my second transfer instead of my first, or if he had already known the area, or if he had been out longer, or if we had a car, or if he knew English better, or if we were Spanish speaking. It seems like after describing all this that I'm miserable, but I'm really not. I'm having a good time, but it just gets frustrating sometimes. And again, I'm not blaming Elder Carrazco because it's not his fault, but I thought my trainer would be a crutch I could lean on, but it turns out that's not really the case here. I'm sure it will all improve as we get more accustomed to things here.
Wow, so many things to say, I don't even know what to start with. We've had dinner at a member's home every night, except one when they didn't call us back. But it was more than okay because we went to place called Las Tortugas and I got a concoction called the Super Cubana with EVERY kind of meat possible (and I'm not exaggerating), cheese, avocado, tomatoes...Dad would love it. So far, my breakfast and lunch has been one and the same, cereal and bread (oh and OJ), haha. But we're going to go the store and get some more variety today. The members are VERY humble. I was really noticing that I sat in church yesterday. There are a lot of big families who don't have a lot, but they're very caring and happy. There are some great people. As for the people waiting to be harvested, it is VERY apparent that Hispanics are much more open and willing to listen. They're so much nicer than white people, haha. We went tracting on Saturday (in a more white area than Hispanic) and out of the 70 or so houses, we had 2 houses who were open to another visit and they were the only 2 Hispanic houses that we knocked on.
I am becoming slightly more accustomed to contacting and tracting, but it's still very hard for me. It really is the one thing that's holding me back, and I hope that with time, the fear will die down. My very first lesson was while I was on a split with one of the zone leaders Elder Ferreira, from Paraguay. He's serving in the singles ward (English speaking). The guy we taught has been taking the lessons for like 5 months and he's ready, but he needs to quit smoking. Anyway, I had the easy part and Elder Ferreira had the hard part: I taught the 10 Commandments, he taught the Law of Chastity. It went well though. And then, later on in the week, Elder Carrazco and I went to teach a couple (probably in their 40's) who had got in touch with the bishop. I guess the guy had some experience with the church while living in Utah and he knew that the Mormons were the nicest people around. They just got to Aurora and don't know anybody and are trying to look for work, and in the meantime are staying in a motel. So that was my very first experience teaching the first lesson on the Restoration and I think it went really well. I really felt the Spirit and I think they did too. They were at church yesterday and we have another lesson scheduled (this time with a member) on Thursday. One thing I noticed though was that I was definitely doing most of the talking and it kind of annoyed me, but then Elder Carrazco later told me that he just has trouble with the English. And that's exactly how I would be if it was in Spanish, so I understood completely. He's a really good companion, diligent and obedient.
(In response to my telling him about the Prop. 8 rulings last week...) What else...I didn't hear about any of the Prop 8 stuff, very interesting. We'll have to see what happens. Luckily I'm not in Boulder, haha. But I do want to go there, it'll probably be very familiar. Anytime anyone here describes it, it sounds like they're describing Berkeley, haha.
So I FINALLY have access to some type of communication. I have so much to say, but not that much time to say it. Because this is the very first week and so much has gone on, I will talk about the most important things and then catch up on the second most important things next week, when there's not as much new things going on.
Most importantly, I am currently serving in Aurora. It's the southern-most part of the mission, directly east of downtown Denver (by the way, we'll never be in downtown Denver because all of it is in the South mission). It's a coincidence that Aurora is to the east of the city, because I would classify it as the East LA of Denver. Very poor and very Hispanic, which is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately though, for now, I'm serving in an English ward, the Peoria Ward. There are about
6 or 7 wards in the Aurora Stake, one of which is a singles ward and the other is a Spanish ward (not branch, ward!), the Denver 3rd Ward. There are 3 sets of missionaries in the Denver 3rd since they cover all the Spanish speakers in the stake. 2 of the 6 missionaries in Denver 3rd are Elder Robinson and Elder Bolo. I'd say about half of us in the Aurora Zone (about 10 out of 20 or so) are Spanish-speaking, but only 6 of them are in the Spanish ward. Hopefully I'll get a chance to serve there at some point, but I'm still using my Spanish a lot. I'm doing lots of contacting and tracting in Spanish, but all the Spanish lessons are taught by those in Denver 3rd. I feel bad for Elder Shaw though, he got sent to Cheyenne. I wonder how many Hispanics are there, haha. But anyway, I'm not sure how many zones there are, but the ones I know of are Aurora, Denver North, Boulder, Fort Collins, Greeley, Cheyenne, Laramie, Longmont, and Loveland. Some of those might be combined, I can't remember.
My companion is Elder Carrazco from Chihuahua, Mexico. His English is OK, but sometimes he has a hard time communicating. He's a really nice guy and I like him a lot. But now I turn to my frustration, not with him, but with the situation. He's been out 3 months, so he's the youngest trainer in the mission. We are both new to the area (he's been serving in Aurora, but in other areas), so we are both starting from scratch in getting to know the members and investigators. We are English-speaking for the moment and he has trouble expressing himself. We don't have a car even though our area is huge. We just barely got some bikes (we borrowed them from members) so yesterday was our first day using them. And all of this on my first transfer. It seems to me like like we'd be just fine if we just had ONE of these conditions reversed: If it was my second transfer instead of my first, or if he had already known the area, or if he had been out longer, or if we had a car, or if he knew English better, or if we were Spanish speaking. It seems like after describing all this that I'm miserable, but I'm really not. I'm having a good time, but it just gets frustrating sometimes. And again, I'm not blaming Elder Carrazco because it's not his fault, but I thought my trainer would be a crutch I could lean on, but it turns out that's not really the case here. I'm sure it will all improve as we get more accustomed to things here.
Wow, so many things to say, I don't even know what to start with. We've had dinner at a member's home every night, except one when they didn't call us back. But it was more than okay because we went to place called Las Tortugas and I got a concoction called the Super Cubana with EVERY kind of meat possible (and I'm not exaggerating), cheese, avocado, tomatoes...Dad would love it. So far, my breakfast and lunch has been one and the same, cereal and bread (oh and OJ), haha. But we're going to go the store and get some more variety today. The members are VERY humble. I was really noticing that I sat in church yesterday. There are a lot of big families who don't have a lot, but they're very caring and happy. There are some great people. As for the people waiting to be harvested, it is VERY apparent that Hispanics are much more open and willing to listen. They're so much nicer than white people, haha. We went tracting on Saturday (in a more white area than Hispanic) and out of the 70 or so houses, we had 2 houses who were open to another visit and they were the only 2 Hispanic houses that we knocked on.
I am becoming slightly more accustomed to contacting and tracting, but it's still very hard for me. It really is the one thing that's holding me back, and I hope that with time, the fear will die down. My very first lesson was while I was on a split with one of the zone leaders Elder Ferreira, from Paraguay. He's serving in the singles ward (English speaking). The guy we taught has been taking the lessons for like 5 months and he's ready, but he needs to quit smoking. Anyway, I had the easy part and Elder Ferreira had the hard part: I taught the 10 Commandments, he taught the Law of Chastity. It went well though. And then, later on in the week, Elder Carrazco and I went to teach a couple (probably in their 40's) who had got in touch with the bishop. I guess the guy had some experience with the church while living in Utah and he knew that the Mormons were the nicest people around. They just got to Aurora and don't know anybody and are trying to look for work, and in the meantime are staying in a motel. So that was my very first experience teaching the first lesson on the Restoration and I think it went really well. I really felt the Spirit and I think they did too. They were at church yesterday and we have another lesson scheduled (this time with a member) on Thursday. One thing I noticed though was that I was definitely doing most of the talking and it kind of annoyed me, but then Elder Carrazco later told me that he just has trouble with the English. And that's exactly how I would be if it was in Spanish, so I understood completely. He's a really good companion, diligent and obedient.
(In response to my telling him about the Prop. 8 rulings last week...) What else...I didn't hear about any of the Prop 8 stuff, very interesting. We'll have to see what happens. Luckily I'm not in Boulder, haha. But I do want to go there, it'll probably be very familiar. Anytime anyone here describes it, it sounds like they're describing Berkeley, haha.
Anyway, I'm doing good and I hope everything is going well. Oh by the way, the weather is CRAZY. It was high 70's and sunny when I got here, for about 3 days, and then the next day it was snowing! Then that same day it was snowing AND sunny at the same time, and then the next day it was high 70's again! Crazy.
Well this is going to be a very hectic P-day, I'll probably be more tired after it than before. Oh well. Some guys are playing basketball at 2 so I'm excited for that. Until next week!
Love,
David
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