9/8/08

Hey,

Holy cow it is hot here! Seriously you have no idea. Yesterday we were tracting and the thermometer in someones yard said it was 111. When we got to the car later i was like wow its cooled down so much it feels great! We got in the car and temperature said it was 106.

I forgot to tell you last week that I'm not supposed to give you my direct address and any mail you would like to send me should go through the mission office. Also, when i got here the mission president and assistants already knew that Blake was living in San Luis Obispo in fact it was one of the first things they said. I guess some of the elders who served in SLO recognized the last name. Anyway president murri said that as long as hes living there i can't serve in that zone. oh well! Bakersfield baptizes more than the rest of the mission combined! Speaking of which we did have a baptism on saturday and it was awesome! Tons of people from the ward showed up to support it which was fabulous. Most of the older members of the ward only speak spanish but most of the kids speak both. There is a large grroup of youth though that are new to teh US and so don't speak spanish so we speak only spanish basically. We had asked one of the recen converts to give the talk on baptism but she ended up being late because she locked her keys in her car so i had to give the talk with no preparation. it was interesting... I also accompanied my companion while she sang the sally deford arrangement of oh my father set to come thou fount. It went pretty well.

The ward members are great about feeding us. Everyone tries to give us food. Most of the ward members and most of our investigators work in "el campo" meaning they're all fruit pickers. Most of them aren't migrant because in bakersfield there are crops all year round. Everytime we visit members or investigators we always leave with grapes or oranges or peaches. Mostly grapes though. They are sooooooo good. we have tons of fresh fruit in our apartment. More than we will ever be able to eat. THey all live in extremely humble homes so its hard to accept anything from them but they insist and we dont' want to be rude by not accepting it.

My first week we had a dinner appointment everyday which my companion said is pretty usual. This week we only had 2 dinner appointments because the hermana who is in charge of the dinner schedule was hospitalized and so the schedule didn't get passed around. On saturday one of our recent converts who owns a construction company and is one of the most wealthy people in our ward took us out to olive garden. It was soooo good. I got the seafood fettucini. Should try it. its amazing. Mexican food is SOOOooo good! Its always some combination of rice, beans, and some kind of meat in spicy sauce and tortillas. No forks. Its hard to get used to. Your hands get really messy. haha its fun though. We have a few members from el salvador who invited us to dinner. There food will take a little getting used to... I don't know what kind of seasoning they use but its... interesting... No matter where you're from though, Mexico, El Salvador, or Colombia they all have one thing in common. All there food is incredibly spicy! Even there candy is spicy! Its really good though. I love mexican candy. I'll have to send you some. Last PDay we went to the mercado latino which is a huge market in Bakersfield where there a bunch of venders sell totally random stuff from soccer jerseys to souvenirs from mexico to candy. We bought some mexican candy to try and now I'm hooked. Its amazing how many hispanic people live here! Everyone speaks spanish. We do at least 15 street contacts a day and we hardly ever talk to anyone that speaks english.

I'm out of time but things are going great! We just set two more people to baptism we'll see though, One of them has to wait awhile because he is on probation and so has to get special permission to be baptized and the other just told us today that shes not sure now that shes thought about it that she believes joseph smith was a prophet so we might have to move that baptismal date back awhile... oh well its still exciting! THere are so many other stories I want to tell you but don't have time! Thats ok, maybe i'll write you a letter. Tell emily to email me if she has a minute, tell rachel hi! Ask blake if he got my letter. Oh also the 66$ was for the second Hep A shot i had to get. Ya i know. THere might be away to get reimbursed through insurance. YOu should call the mtc and ask. Keep me updated on Grandpa. Tell him and grandma i said hi and that I love them. Also, the knee highs grandma gave me are the best thing ever! Seriously they are amazing. OH dad, hows missionary workin the ward going? any promising investigators?

Love you all!!
bye