September 18, 2012

I got the package [from the Fullers] and am working on the letter part. We got someone with a baptismal date on saturday and then another who won't commit to a date but said he was going to make it to the temple before he dies.  He is almost 80 and in really poor health.  We had a carne asada for the Mexican independence day but no investigators, even the two who live across the street, came.  They haven't even gotten one to church in like 4 months.  We had a really cool experience blessing a premature baby and his father who are from Tijuana and had to take an ambulance across the border to get him to the Ronald McDonald children's hospital here.  He was baptized in 1999 and then went on a mission within a year but has been inactive for a long time, he is starting to come to church again though.  We always offer that kind of help [clearing plates/ helping with the dishes] but they either never accept it or we never have time because we are only supposed to be there for an hour.  Not that we get fed very often anyway though.
My branch has problems.  There are a few good people, but with rare exception nobody does anything but complain.  We aren't supposed to take over the jobs of auxiliary leaders, but we are forced to help just because we need to get more than 25 people to church a week.  It has been extremely difficult but we are starting to see success.  We got one with a date on Saturday, now we need to see if he can keep it.  We are starting to get some referrals as the members grow in their trust in us, but still not much is happening.  It is also hard because most of the people we teach work 2-3 jobs and are never home.  On the rare occasions they are home, they are tired enough that it's hard to convince them to listen to us.  Also, nobody comes to church because they all work on Sundays.  It's not a case of they work on Sundays to have a nicer car or anything like that either.  They have to work 14 hour days 7 days a week to survive.  A large number of the people we teach only rent a room or have 10-15 people living in a tiny apartment or house.  We are starting to see more success, but it is very difficult to get them to keep commitments.  Also, my companion's family got sealed on Saturday and some relatives flew all the way out from Australia to see it.  The mission president told him on Wednesday that they were doing it in San Diego instead of Salt Lake and gave us permission to go to the ceremony and for him to be a witness.  (It was his mom with his stepdad, he was born under the covenant but then his parents were divorced and remarried, in case you're wondering why he had to get permission and why he was a witness).  It was a really cool experience though.

September 11, 2012

I went out and had some "piksa" [that's how they say pizza in CR] for lunch.  And I know you won't be happy, but I wasn't actually able to get the shot....the medical sister in the mission says it doesn't make a difference so I'm gonna try to get it today, hopefully.  Also I can't look at your e-cards so sorry...the Peruvian dinner was good, he picked out lomo saltado for me.  I like lomo saltado, but I swear 70% of the plate was onions and I had to eat them so as not to be rude....it sucked.  Nobody here plays soccer and it's lame.  A kind of funny story was that one day we were getting out of the car to go to an appointment and a guy who looked like he was in a gang pulled up next to us and was like"are you guys mormons?" I rolled my eyes and told him that we were, and then he said "cool, my dad's a latter day saint.  He lives in utah.  vernal." And then he drove off.  I'm still a little confused, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles.  One of the counselors in the branch presidency works for either the CIA or Naval intelligence (the Navy's Pacific command is close by).  He is always in some crazy place for work without any kind of notice.  In the last month, he has been to China and Korea.  He called us from Kuwait at about 12:30 our time (or 3ish AM their time) to ask us if we could take out his recycling.

Letter to Brynne

My address is 7404 Armstrong Place San Diego, California 92111.  They send all of the mail to the mission office and then give it to the missionaries all at once so it'll be that address the whole mission.  I'm in San Diego now and my companion in the MTC also came here.  The people in my area here don't actually keep any of the commitments they make so it's really hard.  We have only had people actually keep even just appointments twice.  One time his wife made him and the other time his sister did.  We have given tons of blessings to people because school is starting and people like to get sick here.  In the past 3-4 days we gave 9 blessings.  5 were for school, 2 were for sick people, one was for someone trying to find a job, and then one was because someone thought a demon/ghost/not good thing was in his house.  My apartment is actually really nice and has a cool view.  It is pretty close to sea world so we see and hear their fireworks every night and that's not so fun.  My companion is from Utah but his parents are from Mexico and Puerto Rico and his step parents are from Peru and Ecuador so he's actually pretty cool. 

First Letter from the Field

Thanks for the birthday wishes and the package! I am in the Linda Vista 3rd branch, which covers the whole San Diego North Stake because it is the only Spanish unit in the stake.  Our area therefore includes Linda Vista, La Jolla (where the temple is), Pacific Beach, and Clairemont. Feel free to look on google maps.  There were a grand total of 0 progressing investigators in the branch and not even any who had come to church in about 2 months.  The work was going slow enough in the area that they took out the other Spanish companionship in our zone.  We are not allowed to tract because the mission president wants people to have a different idea of who missionaries are, so we are only allowed to contact referrals and people in the street/on their porch, etc.  I guess that since missions are supposed to be hard that the Lord figured I didn't need to ease into it.  We have had 2 people keep appointments since I arrived, and I would be inclined to believe that they only reason that they kept them was because they had a wife and a sister, respectively, that was forcing them to keep it.  We will have to see.  Almost everybody is super paisa but there are two Peruvians, a Bolivian, an Ecuadorian, and a Colombian in our branch.  One owns a Peruvian restaurant and invited us to eat there on Thursday, and the others are....characters.  Two of the other four are under church discipline, and then one teaches the gospel principles class a la Mitchell family, except that person might even have them beat in the false doctrine category.  The remaining one of the four is one of five people in the branch who actually attempts to help with the missionary work. It looks like I'm in for a fun time.
Thanks again for the birthday presents and wishes!  Also let me know how Barca is doing!

Elder Keaton

PS The alarm clock you bought me caught fire.  I put the battery in it that you bought for me to put in and then it caught fire about 30 seconds later.  Could you maybe send another clock? It was nice having one clock in the room and another in the living room.