February 19, 2013

Good to hear from you guys. We just finished transfer meeting. So Elder Slade's new Companion is the new District Leader and he's been out about 6 months. But on Thursday all the new greens come in and this guy is training. So they'll be in a trio for the rest of the transfer, which means we'll be a foursome until I leave (for Adelaide) on Monday. Should be interesting…

It’s good to hear you guys are doing alright, thanks for the meteor news mom. Also I ordered a San Jose Mission hoodie but it won’t get here in time so they're sending it to you guys first so you can get it to me. 

It sounds like you have some great Elders there in Fort Worth, I’m glad you guys might get some good work done there. I'm in the same area, and technically, I haven't started my in field training yet. I'll do all that down under. It can't be too important though I do just fine here. And the stuttering and stammering was definitely there when I talked (in Church).  I would've stayed up longer but my face started twitching so I had to sit down. I'm pretty sure no one noticed though. 

And I haven't really taken any pictures at all. I'll start working on that this last week. Thanks for the email, I'll probably be able to email again next week right before I leave. I always feel like there are things I want during the week, I'm just forgetting them by the time I start emailing. Thanks so much for the package, the jeans were much needed. Take care, excited to hear for everyone again next week. 

Colin will be leaving the San Jose California Mission on Monday, February 25th for the Adelaide Australia Mission.

February 12, 2013

Great to hear from all you guys, good to know everything is still going well back home. President Watkins got my itinerary this past week, my flight leaves LA (I think) on the 25th of February. So two weeks from yesterday. Transfers are this next Wednesday so I'll probably be in a trio with whomever my companion is going to train next transfer for a few days. I think I will be able to have plenty of time to call from airports but I'll talk to President about that and see.  Other than that not too much is going on other than the usual. We stay busy. We're trying to get the Ward to get us more referrals but it'll probably take some time before we get any really good ones. 

For P-day yesterday we went down to Santa Cruz at the boardwalk and played volleyball all day. President is pretty lenient with being near the water so we walked right next to the waves for a couple hours too. It was about 65 degrees so good weather too. And the drive down there through the hills is almost better than the beach itself. 

This Sunday the speakers didn't finish all the time so Bishop invited me up to impromptu for a bit. I only took about 5 minutes I think, felt like I should have gone a little longer. It was good though.

School sounds great man (Kiefer), glad to know you're staying busy and enjoying classes. And I told you with Corey, he's a lot of fun. You're lucky though I think he only sang once for us. Great guy. And Chemistry is going to lacerate your forehead, decant the fluid into a calorimeter, and test it (in multiple trial runs) to make sure it has enough chemistry power to soak in the insane amount of information they beat you with both in and out of class. But hey if you enjoy that... really though it’s not impossible. Stick with and don't fall behind and you'll come out on top. Spring and Summer should be great, I definitely enjoyed the terms way more than the full semesters; except with my roommates. Take care and keep warm, it’s great to hear from you.

Thanks for the emails. I'll update everyone again next week.

Connections

forwarded to me on January 31, 2012:

Hi Buck and Claire,


Guess who Declan and I just met.  Elder Colin Hatch from Fort Worth Texas!  He and his companion came over for dinner tonight.  They had to take their dinner to go and share a message with me on the porch because Johnny has been working a ton lately and wasn't home.  Elder Hatch immediately asked if I was related to any Mckeons in Texas.  And at first I only remembered that Dave and Hali had lived there for a bit recently and Elder Hatch said he didn't think the dads name was Dave.  And then he said I think his name is Buck :).  Anyway, he went on and on about how he thinks your family is the coolest and that his family loves you guys.  He says to especially say hi to Joseph and Tim.  He's in San Jose serving for a bit waiting for his visa so that he can go to Australia.   He shared a great message with us and seems like a sharp Elder.  If you still talk to his family, tell them that you heard through the grapevine that their son is an excellent missionary already and that members in San Jose are impressed with him.  Made me miss you guys and your cute kids when we were talking about you! Love you guys.

Eliza 

February 3, 2013

Everything's pretty much the same here.  It’s kind of dry, we don't have any progressing investigators and we can't contact very easily since there aren't any crowded areas. We go to the park a lot but the majority of the people there don't speak English. So most of our day is just visiting less actives, and even the ones who are nice don't really come to Church just because we came by.

We had a baptism this weekend into our Ward, but she was having sisters teach her so it wasn't even really from the Elders I replaced. We have one planned for another woman this Saturday but she's cancelled our last appointment and we're having trouble getting to her so we might have to cancel. Other than that there isn't a whole lot going on.

Oh but I did teach a lesson to a Mckeon family. He's Buck’s little brother.  (Buck McKeon and family used to live in our Ward in Fort Worth...we miss their sweet family). So that was kind of cool. I should be heading out of San Jose on the 20th of February. That’s when the transfer ends. The Church doesn't tell my President when they get the Visa, they'll just send me an itinerary a week or so before if I do and I won't get one if I don't. I'm almost positive they'll have it by now, apparently the only reason the New Zealand Elder got to go was his Mission President made a big deal about not getting any missionaries so they just went ahead and pulled him out before the transfer. 

January 29, 2013

The Mission has been great so far, we just keep getting busier and busier. I was with Sunnyvale and Woodland Park Wards, now I'm with Santa Clara and Lawrence Station Wards.  If everything works out we should have at least one baptism every week here for the next month or so. We'll see how it goes. I'm sleeping in a real bed for the first time since I got here; it’s nowhere near as comfortable as the couches.

We run every morning and lift at night. I really need to get back into it I'm not doing too great right now, and with the members shoving shovelfuls of food down our throats I know I need to work harder to take care of it. We do a ton of service. Soup kitchens, help set up dinner for a nursing home, we're helping a museum to update its storage areas, moving people in and out (like always), yard work at parks, and then helping members however they need us to. 

We are just about to start teaching a guy who works security for a member of the Ward. He told us his life story (not an easy life).  He tried to explain every part of his full body tattoo; we didn't have time since it would probably take an entire day. Great guy, I can't wait to meet him again. I think he's coming to church with us this weekend.

A girl I talked to yesterday said that J.J. Abrams was spearheading the new Disney Star Wars? Not sure how I feel about that but it has potential. I'm going to have a lot to catch up on when I'm home. 

Good luck this week, good to hear from you guys, I'm sure I'll have more next week. 

January 24, 2013

Alright so another update, I'm getting emergency in-zone transferred.  I just found out last night. Apparently the Mission President is cleaning house and taking care of some obedience issues the Mission is having. They're sending 3 or 4 Elders home and I'm taking one of their spots. I'm still over two Wards and like I said same Zone and same District, just a new companion. The guy whose place I'm taking isn't even going home though, he's getting released as a missionary by his new San Jose Stake President today, and he's just going to hang out in the area for about a year until he can start where he left off and finish up his mission. Or something like that, I'm not really sure how its working and I don't really want to know any more than I already do. It’s a messed up situation.

My new companion seems pretty solid though, the ZLs were going to be at our apartment at 10 this morning to pick me up, but they pushed it back to 12 so we came here to update in the meantime.  I don't really know how well it'll go. At least now I won't be in a trio and they'll give me my own phone (I think) so I can really push myself to get some work done. That’s all I really have for now, I'll keep everyone posted. The President told me the New Zealand kid that came with us got his visa, but the Australians still haven’t come in. Hopefully I won’t be here longer than another 4 weeks. Take care, keep me posted on current events, I appreciate the Algerian thing. I'll email next Monday (I think) with some news. 

January 22, 2013

January 20^th was a sad day for the Patriots. They should have made it. Too bad. Anyway my birthday was just fine.  We're over two different Wards so on Sunday I had church from 7am to a little after 4, then two dinners that night. We stay busy, but most of it is doing service and visiting people more than teaching a lot of lessons. People feed us like crazy. The other two guys don't really get up on time, and our mornings have been pretty open, so I've really been getting into personal study and taking a whole lot of notes. It’s a good experience. I mostly just feel like I'm on constant splits with the Elders as a Priest again though, the Missionaries I'm with had been companions since a few months ago and they know each other really well.  They were both serving in one of the Wards that we're over before I came and they were combined, so everything is either Faiese's Ward and investigators or Roberts' Ward and investigators and I'm pretty much just along for the ride. So they have the phones for each Ward and make most of the calls and appointments. Plus I can't drive since that takes some extra paperwork at the Mission Office. So I just follow directions and go where they tell me to.

I've only ran once since I've been here but I didn't time it or anything, I think I'll do that next time. Hopefully I can get it down to every morning. With as much as we eat here I'll need to if I'm going to stay even close to in shape.

I don't think I'll ever get to do any work in the temple, I think they're pretty strict about Missionaries only doing a session twice every year or so. I think we're headed up there later this week (maybe even today) just to walk around the grounds with an investigator. I'm not really sure. And the no tracting thing is just something the Church is trying out and they happened to pick this mission to do it. People just aren't too happy anymore with us knocking on doors and most of the neighborhoods around here have pretty strict no soliciting rules. Since just about everyone is loaded. Except for the 25% or so of the population that’s homeless. 

The house we're living in is probably 30 or 40 years old, maybe more, and its easily multi-million in value. Everything is insanely expensive here. Pendleton (the guy who lives there) used to work at Lockheed and did work on the nuclear submarines. He actually worked on the missiles themselves and making sure they fire right and everything. It’s pretty crazy stuff. His wife died a while ago though and nothing has changed in the house since then and pretty much everything in there is pictures of her. It’s pretty sad.

Anyway I need to go, talk to you guys again next week.