Transfers, Burned Church, New Comp

Dear family and friends,

       Right after I finished my last e-mail I received transfer news: ELDER WOOD GOT TRANSFERRED! After one transfer (6 weeks) of staying in this area I get to take it over! I didn't see that coming but I figured Elder Wood wouldn't be my last companion. He and I didn't really get along which was a bummer. My new companion is Elder Hebert. His name is pronounced "a-bear" (a as in plate). The way he explains it to people is "there's a bear over there". So far I'm one of the few people who can actually pronounce it right. Elder Hebert is from Highpoint North Carolina and he's been out for almost a year now. The funny thing is that I remember seeing him when he was a brand new missionary. I was in my third area, North Glendale, when he came in. Elder Hebert is the oldest of three boys (and his first name is Ryan which I thought was pretty cool) and he likes music. He can play the piano, the guitar and the cello. We listen to his iPod either in the car or on his iPod base which I think is uber-sweet! I'm impressed with his taste of music! We both like the same kinds of music so I think life is going to be awesome! This is Elder Hebert's fourth area already and I'm his fifth companion, he's my eighth. I was so glad to learn that he wasn't from Utah. Half of my companions came from Utah. I also realized that half of my companions have been with me for 1 transfer or less. I get the feeling that Elder Hebert's going to be my last companion.

           It's official. Our area's dead. We have no investigators. Right now we're spending all our time finding. We both have been through a brain-storming session on how to get investigators. To make matters worse the previous missionaries did a pathetic job of keeping records. They drop investigators without telling us why. We tried stopping by a former investigator last night and the person didn't live at the listed address. Instead it was a member of the church who told us that the dropped investigator legitimately had mental issues. That would've been good to know. The member told us that the bishop's specifically said that nobody should visit this person. Hooray for unkept records!

           Our ward mission leader gave us a call Friday morning asking us if we'd heard the news. We don't watch the news so naturally we don't know what's going on. He told the news: OUR CHURCH BUILDING BURNED DOWN!  

                Literally! The fire started in the chapel and two of the three bishop's offices in that building burned down. There were cops everywhere fencing everything around and there were news stations and reporters there. The roof collapsed and the insides were destroyed. There were investigators there (the first time I heard the word investigator and it didn't mean a person that the missionaries were teaching) and guys from the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms) squad were there too! There's speculation that it was a hate crime or that it was arsonry. However the investigation just started and the stake presidency asked us not to speculate. We're earning a lot of sympathy points from the neighbors around the community which is good. Our two wards yesterday met at two different buildings at the same time so me and Elder Hebert had to split off. We only did sacrament meeting in both wards. It felt strange. The burned building was mentioned in most of the testimonies borne. That building was dedicated by Spencer W. Kimball back in 1965. We received our new meeting times and both of our wards are meeting at different buildings at different times. We'll be at church from 11:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. Basically all day at church plus since we get dinners with members you can guarantee that little work will be done on Sunday.

Well that's life from my end. I love you all very much and I am grateful for your love and support!

Love,

Elder Boothe

I tried to get a picture of the rubble. The cops fenced the building off and put tape around. They were very serious about not moving underneath that tape.

 The church building burned down. The roof collapsed and the inside's completely destroyed.

 Here's a picture of our zone. Again I am amazed at how thin I look. It's quite scary!

 Me and Elder Bartlett, the missionary I told everyone about in my last e-mail. I forgot to send this last week.

Me, Elder Bartlett and Elder Burrows all goofing around in their apartment.

Me and my MTC comp, Elder Pearson were both at transfer meeting. I recently acquired a pair of shades from one of my zone leaders who went home. Every time I look at a picture I'm shocked at how thin I look.

Isn't Elder Pearson so awesome?

Me and my new companion: Elder Hebert.