John's Weekly letter for the week of Aug 08/19/10

Well It's my first week in the field.  On Tuesday when we got to the mission home we ate philly cheese steaks.  They would've been better if the peppers were warmed up but they were cold.  We didn't get them from a legit place though.  They just ordered them from some bakery.  They were good but Vito's in Bountiful was better.  After that we had some training and took pictures with the mission president and his wife and all the newbie missionaries.  Then on Wednesday we got our trainers, my trainers name is Elder Roberts, he's from California.  He likes basketball which is good because I haven't been able to for almost a month because the MTC gym was closed. URGH. But I probably get to play later today.  He so far is a good trainer but I've only known him for about a day now.

The area I'm serving in is Susquehanna Pennsylvania. I'm in the are that has the tiny bit of New York in it. This is the place where Joseph Smith was baptized and recieved the Aaronic preisthood.  They have a big monument that I haven't seen yet.  Also my trainer tells me that there are a lot of rumors around here that Joseph Smith walked on water across the river.  On our first day we had dinner at a less active members house, his name is Brother Wentjin (went- jen) he says he is less active because of his knees. The area is apparently kind of hickish (lots of hicks) and redneckish (lots of rednecks), I think those words are synonomus but whatever.   We talked to a lady named Mary and her son's girlfriend Maira,  they sounded like they liked the church.  We were buying corn and she started talking to us.  She already follows most of the churches standards, like she doesn't believe in drinking, smoking or anything like that.  She really liked the idea of eternal families.  I gave her that strength of youth wallet thing that you gave me because she wanted to see what a temple was.  She started reading the pamphlet and she seemed really interested.  We'll definitely be going back to talk to her.  After we had dinner we went and visited a lady who is getting baptized this sunday.  She's getting baptized in the river.  That's pretty legit I think.  I think it'd be awesome to say that I was baptized in the same river that Joseph Smith was.  She'd been living in her parents house and their house was FILTHY!  Lets just say Grandma Twitchell would've passed out and died at least 6 times over (possibly more).  Either that or died cleaning it because it was super dirty.  But they were good people who didn't have any direction in life.  They just had 3 family members die bang bang bang, all within like a week and a half.  I hope the concept of eternal families will bring them to listening to us.
Well I'm rather nervous about all this.  It's all really new and I have that feeling that you often do when you go somewhere new all by yourself (that nervous feeling but it's kind of despairish but not a lot, if you know what I mean), except times that by a lot.  I hope that will start to go away once i start to know the people and the area, cause if it never goes away it's going to be a LONG 2 years.
My mission president is awesome.  He's a really nice guy and is tune with the spirit.  I got the blanket package.  Thank you, even though I don't need the blankets too much right now I'm sure I will in the future.  Also thank you for the candy.  Thank you for your letters.  Letters are great.  The address to my place is 303 first avenue Susquehanna Pennsylvania 18847.  This is just for this area.  If I get transfered and I'm not there to get my mail it could take a while before I end up getting it.  The address to the mission home is 1974 Sproul road suite 206 broomall Pennsylvania 19008.  Send any packages you have to the mission home because that's safer so none of the stuff gets stolen.  Well that's pretty much all I have to say.  So I'll email you again on Monday.  Their switching p-days to monday from now on so we get a p-day today and again on monday so if there's anything I forgot to say I'll say it then.
 

I also am sending my pictures.  Apparently I can put them on the computer here and email them home so I don't have to send my card home everytime I fill it up. It'll take more than one email to send all the pictures because I have about 110 pictures and I can only attach around 11.  If you want me to send it anyway just tell me.  I'll try to give an explanation of most of the pictures.

pictures 1&2- 1- Me and the other 3 going to Philly pointing at the big map.  From left to right it's me, Elder Gillies, Elder Bowden (my companion), and Elder Davis. 2 pretty self explanatory.

Pictures 3-31 are on the first temple walk.  3- the provo temple 4- Elder Bowden (my companion) and me  5- same as 4 6-temple 7- my face, that picture was an accident. I was swinging the camera toward my self and I accidentaly took a picture and that was what showed up. 8- my district.  left to right.  top row- Elders Gillies, Bagley, Davis, Alba, Me.  bottom row- Elders Peterson, Olive', Bowden, and Propst. 9- same as 8.  10-22 various scenery at the temple. 23- Me and Elders Bowden, Propst, Alba, Olive', and Bagley. 24- a mushroom growing under a pine tree. 25- left to right, me, Elder Bowden, Elder Davis, Elder Gillies. 26- same as 25.  27 left to right me bowden, davis and gillies 28-31 more scenery.  32- Me mid flight, I just forgot my cape.  Just kidding. I was laying on an ironing board. 33 & 34 temple 35- left to right Davis, Bowden, Gillies, Me.  36- Elder Gillies's living space. 37&38- an easy cheese face an elder drew on our door. 39-43- lightsaber pictures- we just held lead to a highlighter pencil close to the camera and the flash made it like that. 44-51- when someone pulled the fire alarm.  You know you have a boring and repetative life when the most exciting thing to happen to you is when you see a fire truck. 52-54- a giant slingshot we made out of our exercise bands.  It worked pretty well. 55- elder gillies. 56- eating in the hall 57-60- welts from an exercise band fight I had with Elder Propst.  There were only 3 bad ones.  One on my belly, one on my back and one on my arm that I didn't get a picture of. 61-64- more pictures when I was watching the fire trucks. 65-67- I was trying to see my new haircut because the lady pretty much shaved my head naked. 68- Elder Propst 69- everyone videoing elder propst because he was being funny. 70-72- I promise I'm not gay.  from left to right Elder Gillies, Elder Bachyinski, and Elder Olive'.  73&74- what 70-72 were trying to recreate.  75- my district with brother wall ( on the far right)  77- I picture I took and my head looked big.  78&79- Brother wall crouching down to look short.  80- Brother Wall at real height. 81- my district with Brother Bott (far right) 82- me with brother bott.  83- Me with Elder Bachyinski (he's the 7 footer I talked about 84- Elder Peterson. 85&86 lightsaber pictures. 87- Elder Davis and me.  88 Me and elder alba 89-100- more lightsaber pictures, (Elder Peterson couldn't hold his hand still, that's why there's so many) 101- me and elder alba 102&103- me and elder propst, (people say with his glasses he looked like Clark Kent so he bought a CTR shirt and called himself CTR man. 104 & 105- Me and elder bagley 106 Me and elder peterson 107-109- Me and elder Olive', (he is super cool) that's sparkling cider not beer. 110&111- my roommates