Hola Familia Como Esta?

Well first thing is first, we went to the consulate this week on thursday and signed for our visas, so we are officially going on monday. We meet down at the travel office at 5 am and i assume they try to get us there by 6 and the flight takes off at like 810 in the morning, so ill be calling home somewhere around 6 or 7. Should be pretty exciting though, and the best part is, everyone going to mexico leaves at 3 am and elder Tucker and I are the only ones leaving at 5 am so itll be pretty weird.

So on monday this week we had Richard G Scott come and talk to us about feeling the spirit and revelation. Its kinda funny though, everyone who talks to us says if your not searching for an eternal companion right after you get home, you missed part of the point of your mission. He also said the worst thing you can do is ¨hang out¨. He coined hanging out as ¨idleness in flocks¨. The spirit was amazing when he came and spoke though and afterwards we had a great testimony meeting that was really powerful and just all around great.

Today will be our last day seeing our favorite teacher Hno Redfern. He really is a great guy and he´s taught us soooo much. Our other teacher Hna Barker was alright. But anyways i´´ll take some pictures with Redfern and when I ever do get the chance to put them online I will. I´ll also make sure to take lots of pictures of Mexico too when i get there. I´m way excited to just get rolling.

This week I had a pretty funny experience though. We hosted the new missionaries that come in and boy did I get lucky. A blonde haired kid stepped out of the car crying and his parents basically dropped him off at the curb and took off within like a minute. I helped him with the bags and he was still crying and I tried cheering him up by saying stuff like this place is awesome and youre going to love it, and he just didn´t respond. I introduced myself and started asking him questions and he didn´t respond to anything, he just kept looking at the ground crying. Finally out of nowhere he looks up and looks at me and asks ´´guess my name!´´... Uhhh elder Johnson? ´´No, Elder Visser!´´.... he got mad at me for not getting it right, but at least now he was talking. He told me, guess what, my brother went to Sierra Leon, which is like the poorest country on the planet and i´m going to San Diego, the richest place on earth! I was like... umm congratulations im sure you´ll love it and I have a friend there right now. Then he asked, where are you going again? I responded Guadalajara, Mexico.... He then proceeded to tell me how much he hated mexico and how much he hated mexicans... Anyways i´m trying to show him around the mtc and there he is cussing and crying because he left his scriptures in the car, everything i did the kid just kept crying. Finally i was like, ´´Elder Visser, you know one day you´re going to have to host and its not going to be easy. You might have someone thats a little sad and is missing home and you´re going to have to be the tough one and tell them everything is going to be alright´´ and he nodded his head and just kept crying. ´´I was like... ummm why dont we practice right now´´.... didnt work....

Anyways, i dropped him off at class and of course the first thing he asks his companion is ´´guess my name´´... except this time he was wearing a name tag and didn´t realize it, and his companion just read it, and he was like ´´wow your the first one to get it all day´´ and then he gave me a dirty look. I felt so bad for him though. He seemed like a nice guy, just... somethin was a little off.... But hopefully jordan gets to be companions with him, i´m sure he´d love it. And everyday since then, elder tucker and i have seen him and he just comes up to me really happy and says hi. Then he proceedes to ´´speak jiberish´´ which he just makes noises and moves his mouth and Elder Tucker just has to stare at the ground and try not to laugh. But anyways, he was sad to hear i was leaving, so i hugged him goodbye, and told him to watch for Elder McGee...

So thats the story of Elder Visser. Also, while i´m thinking about it, thanks for sending me the ipod back. Bad news though, somewhere along the lines of shipping it back, ode to joy must have not gotten on there, along with the lord of the rings soundtrack, so if you want to send me a flashdrive with the stuff on it, I can get a way to get it on there. But I´m glad you did get amazing grace on there. That song is so beautiful and I just love listening to it and come thou font of every blessing.

Oh Also yesterday we had infield orientation where they talked to us about different ways to tract and find new investigators. And I got to meet all the people from those videos i was watching before i left, ´´the district´´, and they were pretty cool people. Elder christensen was a really nice guy though and we talked just one on one for a while.

If you want to tell everyone thanks for all the letters and packages I´ve gotten that´d be great, especially grandma.

Also, thanks for the picture of Bella.

Alright well i´m going to go, and I´ll call you monday morning. Sorry my letters aren´t as detailed as Mark Novakavich´s son, haha but honestly from day to day nothing changes and you just do the same old routine over and over and over and over again.

Antonces, nos vemos familia, y tambien si ustedes necesitan mi a escribir nuestro ward, diga me y yo escribira. Adios todos!

Elder Smitheram