Transferred to a Graveyard

Dear family and friends,

 

         As of Wednesday I am now serving on the border between two cities known as Tolleson and Avondale. This area, like my third area, is a big geographical mess. I live in Tolleson but do most of my work in Avondale. The city of Phoenix is close to where I work but not close enough. I got transferred to a car area so now I have AC. YAY! However, I do hope that I don't gain weight now that I'm not on a bike as much. When I was in South Phoenix I heard from all the other missionaries that the scale we used wasn't accurate. I weighed myself on a different scale here and it said I weigh 183 pounds! BOOO! Guess I haven't lost as much weight as I thought I did. I live in consecrated housing which is nice. Get this: I live with the Archuleta's! Sadly enough they are not related to David. Yes that was the first question I asked them when I found out that was their name. Brother Archuleta's cool though! He does our laundry, if we don't do it and he's currently a stay-at-home dad since he lost his job. His wife works all-day as a nurse. He don't see her often. They have an older son living with them who reminds me of a quiet Kevin Escobar. For those of you who know Kevin Escobar use your imagination on what this guy is like. It will be a very accurate picture. 

 

         For the first time in my mission I'm the senior companion! My companion has only been out for 5 months. His name is Elder Wood. He's from Logan, Utah just like Elder Buttars, except Elder Wood does not know who Elder Buttars is. I am his second companion. He just got done "killing off" his trainer. I'm his second companion. We have very little in common. This could be a very long transfer. This area has a bunch of potential, especially since there's a lot of part-member families. Those have traditionally been a reliable source of baptisms for me. Hee Hee Hee! 

 

          The members here are PHENOMENAL! Yesterday this one sister gave us a giant cooler full of food. We have a very small space to put our food in the Archuleta fridge so space is an actual issue in this area. This sister  gave us enough food to last us the entire transfer! That's amazing! Plus when we had dinner with another member family they gave us a big portion of the left overs of the 5 Cosco pizzas that they fed us. HOLY COW! I never remember Cosco pizza tasting so good before. WOW! The stake president in the West Maricopa stake (I am in the West Maricopa zone) decided to buck the dinner policy so we eat in members homes almost every day. This provides lots of opportunities to build trust with members. It also means that I won't have to shop for food for a while. YAY! I now have to get used to having two wards to serve in again. Being in the South Mountain ward threw me out of the loop. Now I'm getting back to having 5 hours of church on Sunday again. 

 

            I'm glad to hear that all is well with you. 

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

 

P.S. One of the bishops told me that this area is a "missionary graveyard" meaning that this area is usually the last area for most missionaries before they go home. Oh joy. I wonder if I'll keep that trend going.