Monday, November 21, 2011

How did things go this past week?

Things have been slow this past week. I've been a bit sick, just coffing mainly. Then two days ago Elder Rima got sick.

I forgot to mention that Gladys Knight came to town. She did this fireside type thing this last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was in Tucker so it was out of the mission. We haven't gotten any referrals yet from it. It was pretty upsetting to begin with. At the beginning I think only Lilburn, Roswell and Atlanta Stakes were invited maybe another stake was invited too I don't remember. The Conyers stake was not invited and the Conyers stake has a higher percentage of black people. The Gladys Knight fireside was mainly for black people. The Conyers stake was invited to go at the last minute which is the upsetting part because there was like no time to invite people. Even though members did invite people I don't think we're going to get referrals.

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

We're having dinner with these members, apparently it's going to be super delicious. They're going to have us and the two senior couples. Dinner's at two. We're going to have a turkey bowl with the Jonesboro ward. Our ward is too old to play.

No lemon meringue pie? I don't think the South knows how to make lemon meringue pie...oh yeah, doesn't Scott or Charlie not like it? (I always made lemon meringue pie especially for my mom...and Scott doesn't like that kind.)

Gladys Knight was just outside our mission boundry too. It's just outside of Lilburn.

Monday, November 28, 2011

So how was your Thanksgiving? Did you have anything different?

Do the members in GA fix the same things we do in CA, or UT?
Thanksgiving was pretty good. No, nothing was different. The Cranberry sauce had orange flavor in it and that was pretty good. I think the only different thing I've seen was Sweet Potatoe Pie. Sister Watson, the Georgia Archive missionary made lemon meringue pie. It still wasn' vct good like yours, I'm disappointed. We played soccer for the turkey bowl, I don't remember if I told you that. The spanish branch, of course, wanted to play soccer. After the turkey bowl the Jonesboro ward or at least a member and her family had the bounce house type things. They had the slide and an obstacle course and the missionaries got to go on them.

I said that we might not get referrals from Gladys Knight but we did. Our mission got like less then 1,000 referrals and the Atlanta mission got more than 1,000. Guess where most of the referrals went for our mission. The Conyers Stake! and we were invited at the last minute. We got 12 referrals but we're spliting them with the Christiansens the senior couple. What had happened was that the computer was down so the referrals didn't get out till it was fixed and then the computer sent all the referrals out at the same time. So everybody was bombarded with referrals. I also learned that the Conyers zone is the highest baptizing zone in the mission. Maybe that's why I'm probably going to be in this zone for 14 months...just kidding.

Things are good, we have two top investigators. One is getting baptized on the 10th. The other one had a date this weekend but they haven't come to church. We get rides for them but when we call the night before or the morning of they don't answer. We only saw one Gladys Knight referral but that's about it so far.

It hasn't really gotten cold yet. It's raining right now and we were told that it's going to snow tomorrow but it's not going to stick. It's still pretty warm though. The mission christmas party is on the 23rd and they sent out letters or something to the families about it I guess, but I forgot to tell them that I don't live in California anymore, oops. I'm going to send stuff home too, mostly nothing important, I don't want to leave it or throw it away.

That's funny about the pie...I never make mine from scratch like other people. I always use the jello recipe that's on the box! So since you were invited at the last minute you couldn't go?! So you are still under Conyers? It doesn't sound like that one guy wants to get baptized after all unless he's out of town. You need to catch him in the middle of the week. I was wondering why I haven't heard from them! It'll go to Kaleen's before I'll see it. So that will take even longer for me to get it. So which do you like better football or soccer?

Probably soccer, I never touch the football. You never really know where the ball will end up in soccer besides I was the goalie.

The first pie I had didn't stay together so it was mush. The last one there was too little, it was thin.

Gladys Knight was out of the mission. I'm still in the Conyers Stake.

He does and he wants to come to church and get baptized but we can't wake him up, especially on Sunday morning. We see him every week.

Also, since next monday is the 5th I'll say this now. 6 months left!

The Stakes out here are huge! Except for the Roswell and Lilburn Stakes. Haha yeah it's almost impossible to get your bearings out here. There are members who'ved lived here a long time and they still don't know where they're going!

The economy is rough out here. The road we take to get to the church there's three abandoned cars, my last area there was like five. Last week three people came up to us asking for money, a guy walked into our district meeting asking for food all in the same day. It was twice as worse in my last area, a guy even cussed us out for not helping him. People come up to us all the time asking for money or food, it's sad. That has nothing to do with the guy who wants to get baptized. He's cool though, he got kicked out of a library for preaching the gospel.

I don't really know how I feel. I have mixed emotions about how much time I have left.

I don't even know if I'll be able to skype.

-Elder Garcia

Well, I just had to start out with this, the Utes, BYU, 49ers... everyone had a great weekend...Utes beat UCLA 31 to 6, BYU beat Idaho 42 to 7, and the 49ers beat NY Giants 27 to 20. 49ers are now 8 and 1. If they can keep this up we may see them in the super bowl again!
Now that I got that out, how was your week? How is Flint River?

I'm glad the Utes beat UCLA...even though I'm not a fan of either. I just really don't like UCLA. That's awesome about the 49ers! The Jonesboro ward mission leader is from like south LA and he's a huge Raiders fan and he asked me which sports teams I like, he was a little upset when I told him I don't like the Raiders.

We've done mostly service this past week. Flint River is awesome. We're like a 5 minute drive south of the airport. So we're in the airport district and it's pretty ghetto but it's awesome. The ward is tiny (active wise) somewhere around 50. The comps are cool, I have no problems with them. Elder Rima and I are co-seniors I think, that's what an AP said. Elder Rima is the District Leader. I'm the "designated" driver because Elder Rima can't drive but Elder Famas and I take turns so nobody gets hurt.

Oh a week ago the Broncos beat the Raiders good! I can't remember the score, but it was awesome.

Wow. The ward sounds like Ceres! I think we had around 65 before everyone started leaving. I hear 3 new families moved in but I don't know how big they were.

Are you at the library in Jonesboro?

We're in the family history center. Oh yeah also, there's a senior couple (missionaries), well actually two. One senior couple is directly under [the direction of] Salt Lake. They're in the Georgia Archives Preservation.

That's good that the Broncos beat the Raiders.

Everybody's moving out of Ceres eh? That's good that families are moving in at least.

I'm not sure I understand.

They are serving here. The Georgia Archives is in our area and they are perserving them or something. Taking tons of pictures. They are from Idaho somewhere around Boise I think. Elder and Sister Watson. Elder Watson looked familiar to me and I thought he used to be a 70
but I don't know. He probably looks like Elder Hilbig? of the 70.
They are assigned under Salt Lake not President Wolfert, they don't need to report to him.

-Elder Garcia

I am getting transferred and so is Elder Youd. So it's very likely I will die in my next area. I am sad to say that I am not going to Canton. I'm going down to Flint River which is south of Atlanta. I'm in another threesome [with] Elder Rima and Elder Famas. I don't think I'll need anything for the winter. I don't know what the weather's like south of Atlanta, I think it might be a little warmer than when I was further north.

It snowed a lot in Utah this year I hear.

He came to church again. Our fellowshipper member is awesome. He helps kids get into college and what not so it was perfect. The fellowshipper had him go to his house after church and I think that went well. So it's been going good for him. Though I won't be able to teach him again.

Replying from the letter you sent:

That's cool that Father reads our blogs. I knew what White Washing is I just didn't know what Pink washing was. But that's pretty funny, we just call all if it white washing. That's really weird that Daniel has interviews inside his apartment. I don't remember if it's every mission rule or ours but I thought that nobody was supposed to enter a missionaries apartment except for other missionaries. That reminds me about the Utah SLC South mission. There's an elder from the Webb Bridge Ward that is serving his mission there. So if you ever see an Elder Reid...I know him.

I took my picture [for mormon.org] the Monday before last transfer because Elder Asher was going to cut it.

[I hope someone will let you know if/when your investigator gets baptized.]
[What do you mean by "cut it"?]

Yeah, someone will probably tell me if he gets baptized or not.
Elder Asher was going to cut my hair.

[Are you excited about going to Flint River?]

I'm not too sure. I'm pretty excited to be closer to the recent convert I baptized. Elder Rima seems like a cool kid. Elder Famas seems a little awkward/weird type of kid. I don't know, we'll see how everything turns out. At least I'll finally be in a car. Oh yeah, about being in a car in Coal Mountain and I officially know why we had a car and I don't remember if I told you this, when you asked why we were in a car, but it's because I was with Zone Leaders. They are all in a car. Also the new area's we took from Atlanta get cars so that's why I'm in a car.

The Flint River, Jonesboro, Stockbridge ward, and Jackson Branch are new to the Conyers stake. They used to be in the Atlanta Mission but since the Macon mission got dissolved we took part of the Atlanta Mission and the Atlanta Mission took part of the Macon Mission.
I've been down to Jonesboro for Stake conference. The Jonesboro building used to be the stake center for the old Jonesboro stake and is now the only building big enough in the Conyers stake to hold stake conference. I'll also be closer to the recent convert I baptized, he moved down to McDonough, which is pretty neat.

I don't know where he lives [the mission doctor]. Our old mission doctor [was from] Idaho. No, the mission president travels to church buildings and we go there for interviews. We've only done it over the phone once or twice. One was because of the snow.

Is Daniel getting transferred? or is he emailing tomorrow because of his companion?

-Elder Garcia