Fire Obsessed Missionaries and Street Spanish

Dear family and friends,

 

          Like I mentioned in my last e-mail I've been transferred half way through the transfer to South Phoenix, a.k.a the ghetto. This area is seriously the polar opposite of my last area. In my last area everyone had huge multi-story houses, nice lawns, and man-made waterfalls. Here most people don't even live in houses and if they do they're extremely run-down. I have plenty of opportunities to speak Spanish to people out on the streets and I rarely see a white person. I, however, am PSYCHED! This area rules! Seriously we get so many referrals that we don't even have enough to visit them all! Plus we have so much work that we don't even have to bother tracting. Yeah I love this place already! We only contact people on the streets. We currently have 7 investigators with baptismal dates and we have a baptism coming up this Saturday. We also have 2 of our investigators getting baptized on the following Saturday, the 19th. Elder Snook said this week was rough, given the emergency transfer and the leadership meeting that lasted all day on Wednesday. However, a rough week in this area means 7 with a date. Granted, none of them showed up to church yesterday but a rough week here is still a hundred million times better than a good week in my last area. DID I MENTION THAT I LOVE THIS PLACE? IT'S COOL! 

 

         Speaking of Wednesday while Elder Snook, my new companion, was in a meeting that lasted all day long I went out and worked with two elders: Elder Peterson and Elder Dye. I took three pictures of us together because I think they're pretty cool missionaries. Elder Dye's the one on the far right with the red tie and I of course am on the far left. Elder Peterson, obviously is in the middle. Something I should bring up is that before I left my last area Elder Ware and I exchanged ties. I got his really nice purple one, and he took a tie I received from Brother Wayne Bob in Cottonwood. He's wearing the purple tie in the pictures I took with him. I am wearing his tie in my pictures with Elder Peterson and Elder Dye.  Elder Dye is the missionary I currently replaced. He was in this area for ten months and because of the unexpected transfer everybody in the ward's in shock over him leaving. In addition to the transition from Elder Dye to myself President Taylor split the area and gave the South Mountain ward an extra set of missionaries. The new set of missionaries are sisters too, who of course are worshipped by everyone except for me. All the members are super excited for the sisters to come in which kind of dwarfs my appearance into the area. Be that as it may though I know that with the Lord's strength I can overcome these challenges and gain the trust of the members and continue to build on the hard work that Elder Dye and Elder Snook began. Bishop Osbourne, the bishop of the ward I work in, is an amazing man who's ON FIRE with misisonary work. The goal of the South Mountain ward is to become a "Zion people". That's pretty cool in my opinion. I should also mention that my new ward mission leader is also pretty cool too. He gets the job done and gets the job done right.  

   

            Right now I live in a huge basement underneath a member's home. This basement is far bigger than anything else I've ever lived in while on my mission. I live with another set of missionaries, Elder McCauley and Elder Larsen. They're Spanish missionaries and they goof off a lot. Also in my basement is a bench press and weights. Exercises are vastly superior now that I can actually work out. My current area, though three times as big as my last area, is still a big area so I should be losing weight and getting in shape. Speaking of that everybody here's been telling me that I've lost weight. That's pretty weird seeing as how I don't feel any different but when I checked my weight on the scale I realized that they were right! I've lost about ten pounds, probably more, since the last time I was on a scale! This is definitely an encouraging thought! 

 

            Before I finish I should mention a thing or two about Elder Snook. He's from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has three weeks left on his mission and he's been here for eight months. He looks Asian but he's actually Native American. He's the strangest companion I've ever had and he talks even less than Elder Ware. Elder Snook is also very laidback but also gets easily distracted. The other missionaries that I live with, including Elder Snook, have a strange fascination with fire since Elder Snook plays with a torch all the time and the Spanish elders frequently play with a lighter.

 

I love you all very much and I need prayers right now that I'll be able to learn my area quickly because I've only got three weeks left.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

 

(P.S. Congratulations on the wedding Garit and Lorena)