New Companion, New Crib, Doing Good.

Hola familia!

Como estas??   Sounds like a plan mom, I will be expecting your emails in total Spanish next time then, ha! I’m so glad you got the package I sent.  It was just full of some cool stuff from Mexico and I thought it would look good hanging somewhere in the house.   Well, thank you so much for the advice and for your example to me and for supporting me through my struggles. How did you guys like conference?? I really enjoyed that food spitting talk too because it is so true.  We have seen people do all kinds of crazy in front of us, such as going to the bathroom all over the road, chasing you down on your bikes because they are drunk, or just trying to purposely make you mad to see how we will react to their remarks.  So yeah, missionary life is hard, haha.

Last week was a very hard week for me that’s for sure, but I will tell you this week was better. What are the plans for Easter?  I can’t believe Brad is engaged!!   That is so crazy! Tell him and Jessica congrats!  That's so awesome.  This week was long for sure, the days seemed like years sometimes, but having conference this week was literally a holiday for us, haha. We just sit back and watch it at the church all day and go and eat at members houses after so it’s sweet!   Yesterday, a little girl made me a yellow and purple elastic bracelet looking thing cause she knows I’m a big Lakers fan, so I was super excited about that! We had T (one of our investigators) come to conference on Saturday and Sunday morning sessions so we were super happy to see him there! It was in English of course and he speaks both, so I was so grateful I could hear what the Brethren had to say.  Oh, good news BTW…T accepted our invitation to be baptized on the 20th!! Super stoked for him even though I have only helped teach him like 3 times, it's still pretty cool to have a baptism coming up in 2 weeks!   Our other investigators are J and G.  They aren't progressing as much and they just don’t want to follow the commitments we set for them which is understandable.  I understand addictions.  Life is hard and it’s not easy to change, so I completely know what they are going through. We aren't having any real success besides that though.  A lot of people do not like seeing us walking around.  Last night we had 4 older guys try to stop us and they offered us beer and said we got girls in the garage for you guys and then some other explicit language was said to mock us, but it was funny and I just laughed at them.  They were just lame drunk guys trying to push our buttons, haha.

Elder H and I.

My companion Elder H and I are getting along better, he is from AZ and actually served his first year in Colorado, but then got sent home and came back out here in January.  He speaks super good Spanish which is good.   He is like me personality wise, so it’s funny at times, but then again also difficult in some ways.  We are having struggles finding people and are often discouraged, but that is just the mission life in a nut shell, haha. It is super hot here in Whittier; high 90s this week and we hear the summers get boiling here, so it’s gonna be a hot summer for sure! We want to go mountain biking next Monday for p-day, but we just need to find a ride, ha, because we don’t have a car.  I can see downtown LA from some of the busier roads and I want to go there so bad, mostly just to go to the Staples Center, haha.  But, we are going to the temple on the 22nd so we can go downtown which I’m pumped for!

The language sucks, haha. I get picked on at dinners for my lack of speaking and everybody speaks in slang and in Spanish just to annoy me, haha. I am getting better at reading in Spanish and pronunciation of the words, but speaking and understanding is a totally different matter and is super difficult, haha.

I found out we are not allowed to have protein and or work out in our mission! I am devastated, ha. We are only allowed to run in the mornings which is awful, and they don’t want us to buy protein because they don’t want elders to gain muscle mass which is totally foreign to me, haha. So yeah, I’m pretty shocked by this news. So Brooke you might actually win our bet after all... ha.

Better Homes & Gardens it ain't, but it's home.

Our new apartment is good. It’s big, but was super dirty.  We spent so much time last week cleaning it because the elders before us destroyed it.  It had nasty trash everywhere and dirty dishes, carpet stains etc.  Plus, we have like 4 couches which we have no need for, so we just stacked two on top of each other to save space, haha.

Can you guess which bed is mine?

The pans and dishes look like death and are all warped so cooking is a nightmare, haha.

Yes, I am still cooking pancakes and eggs almost every morning mom just like back home, haha. I’m excited to be getting your package this week!! Cant wait!

SO, question, did you not meet Hermano Trejo?? Just curious. Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and miss you, but stay safe!

Love,
Elder Woffinden