So That's My First Week!

Hey well, I finally got to California. I am up in a small town called Patterson. It is about 2 hours north of Fresno. Lots of people here commute to the bay area so I guess I am close to San Francisco. But I really don’t know. The city is small for my liking. But it is great here. There is a whole English ward that I am in, along with a Spanish branch. They are both great!! I am really excited to be here. O and Grandpa knows the bishop here, Bishop Hass. He used to live in Eureka. Kinda funny the connections here. My companion’s name is Elder Roestenburg. He is cool. He is also a district leader, so it is interesting to see what a district leader does first hand. He is from Salt Lake City. I have got to know a lot of the Spanish Branch already. The Branch President is way cool; he speaks both English and Spanish, so that is nice. O and guess what? I have already had my first baptism. How funny is that!! I was excited even though I barely know the sister. I still don’t know very many names. 

Here is what has happened the past week. I left the MTC on Wednesday. I was way excited! They then we flew to Fresno on a little puddle jumper plane. Kinda fun. We all got to Fresno and we met President and Sister Gelwix.  They drove us to the Mission office where we then got companioned with elders there. There were 20 of us coming in; so that was cool. We went out with our temporary companion and went tracting. I talked to a few people. One was a drunk Mexican. I did not understand his Spanish at all. But he was mumbling because he was drunk. I then went to go meet with President Gelwix and fill out paper work stuff. We then went out tracting some more. That night we ate at the Gelwix house. It was an etiquette dinner. I am so glad Mom has taught me good manners. We then, all 19 of us Elders, slept at the assistant’s apartment. That was a bit crowded but good.

The next morning we had a meeting, then we got our new companions. We finally drove out to our area about 2 and got to Patterson about 4. I went on splits with the bishop that night. It was fun. We went to visit an elderly member, then we picked peaches with one of his friends who is not a member. It was fun to get to know Bishop Hass better. The next day we went to his house in the morning to have breakfast and a meeting. It was good. We also went to interview the lady getting baptized. Then we went to visit a few investigators. I can understand Spanish, at least what is happening in the conversation, just I don’t know what to say back in Spanish. It is kinda frustrating but o'well. Saturday was a great day. We were out visiting investigators and I was like, “we should know these houses”. So we did. Once we locked up our bikes, the guy with tattoos everywhere said we needed to come talk to his friend. So we did. We have an appointment tonight to come back and talk to him. We also ended up knocking all the doors. All 4 houses want us to come back. One lady, Maria Rivera, said the missionaries had taught her 4 years ago and she said, “how do I get baptized”. That was a miracle. Sunday was good. I understood most of the things in Spanish. I had to give a talk my first Sunday there, in Spanish; that was scary. But it worked out. I was last and because of the baptism there was not much time so I just introduced myself and said my testimony. During the baptism, the Elders, there were 5 of us, had a lesson about families. I had to talk quite a bit in Spanish. It was good. My Spanish is coming along. Today a guy in the store came up to me and said he had been looking for us. So we are going to see him sometime. His work is crazy, so we don’t know exactly when. Ya, so that is my first week.