Transfer :)

3 March, 2014

Well, I'm being transferred down south (finally) to Citrus Heights, CA. That's the only Spanish Ward in the whole mission, so I'm really excited.   Being with my new companion might be an interesting experience.   He’s autistic.  But I'll probably learn a lot from it! I'm just excited to be in a new area and meet new people, and a little bit nervous too. So keep me in your prayers.

If you want my guess about the credit card, it was those granola-munching hippies! That's how they do it you know. One distracts you by waving a Schnozzle bag around in the air and the other sneaks up behind you and pinches your wallet. Predatory tactics learned by watching many hours of National Geographic, I'm sure.

Anyways, I'm happy to hear that he resorts are finally getting some snowfall. Out here it's basically already becoming summer again. I'm not looking forward to 120 degree weather. But oh well. At least we have a car.

Tell the Bensons I said ¡Hola!

I'm looking forward to doing some fun stuff like skiing and going to movies with everyone when I get home. Right now the time is flying by - and I'm sure it'll only go faster now that I'm being sent to a new area. I'll be excited to send you the report of my first week there.

My week was so-so. I was starting to get really tired of Chico, so pushing through that and getting all of our work done was hard. But it reinforced the fact that this work isn't really about individual missionaries, in spite of what I've been learning and how my testimony has grown. I realized that I needed to help prepare this area for missionaries in the future to have more success. So I think that experience helped me prepare to be transferred to Citrus Heights.

Nothing else is really new. A family we’ve been teaching came to church yesterday but could only stay for sacrament meeting. I'll have to get their email address so I can see what happens. It would be great to see them get baptized in the future. We also taught a first lesson to a lady from Puerto Rico. She's the mother of a member. Really nice lady in spite of the fact that she's had a HARD life. My Spanish is getting better than ever. When I have the spirit helping me, it doesn't even hinder my teaching anymore. So that's great. I've decided that the worst part about stateside missions is catching movie commercials on people's TVs. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. Being taunted by everything from Godzilla to Captain America is the worst.

I enjoyed a microwave-heated maple bar for breakfast this morning to celebrate my exit from Chico. It was pretty good. I'd send you a picture but I already ate it.

I'm going to go get a haircut today. Probably play some soccer. It'll be fun.

Love you all!

Jake