2 Abril 2001
Dear Family,
Hi! How's everyone doing? Well, I hope. Everything's all right out here. Really hot, but doing good. Drinking lots of water. Right now I'm just waiting for Elder Gleed to return, then I'm going with him to Valencia :( Bah but no one else will go with him - I was the only one that didn't say the word "no" when he asked them. He got a new comp last changes. Elder "C" Josiah Hughes from Mission Viego. We think that they've got the only 2 Elders in the mission from L.A. in the same house. But it's pretty cool talking about California stuff, and it also turns out that the sister missionary who sat next to me on the plane from UT to TX who also had to wait for her visa is from his ward. BTW, she goes home in about 4 months . . . weird! His attitude reminds me of that of Greg . . . oh great . . . :P
You might wonder why I'm writing on this, [the letter is written on the back of a poster advertising a movie about Christ.] and exactly what it is. Basically it's an ad for a free viewing of this movie that one of the evangelist chruches around here was showing in the streets with a big screen. One of our investigators had it taped to their house and one night we passed and we saw them showing it, so our investigators gave us each one. It was kind of funny, the reaction of the church leaders when they saw 2 Mormon Missionaires show up all of a sudden. That night they approached us and invited us to watch and to make friends with us. And coincidentally in another part of town far away from the previous night we saw them again in front of another investigator's house, and again they sent out a "peace party" to welcome us. I'm sure they thought that we were following them, and my comp tells me that while I was talking with our investigator, he saw like 5 or 7 of the church leaders gathered talking about us, because apparently they were all huddled together all talking and looking at us. The "evangelicos" here are really known for their being fanatics and lots of people are kind of scared of them because they fling themselves to the ground in convulsions and speak jibberish as a sign of "feeling the Spirit." I'm sure they feel "a" spirit . . . But they're really good people with a love for the Savior.
Last Wednesday we had interviews with the President. He's such an awesome guy. He's really working miracles in the mission, and he's really striving to reach Pres. Hinkley's goal this year of doubling the total from last year's baptisms - 300,000 to 600,000. As a result, he's raising the goals of the mission, teaching us how to be more efficient and seeing the results. For example, this last week we had new goals set for every companionship: 40 charlas, 75 contacts, 4 splits, 4 investigators in church, 10 references, and 1 convert (baptism and confirmation), but we're not allowed to knock doors (tract) - too inefficient.
Jennifer's been such a great help! She has a blast being able to be the gossip relay between me and you guys. Apparently she called Saturday and spoke (or tried to speak) with Dad but because she was doing it via internet, the connection was bad. She did feel pretty bad for being the bearer of bad news referring to Opa but I told her that if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have known, and then the other day one of the other sisters in the church who talked with Jennifer often came up to me and asked me what Opa's name was and baffled, I answered "Opa". She nodded and smiled then walked off, saying that she'd pray for him. Jennifer also told me that she'd fast for him. Such loving people! It's great to have such good friends.
Another cool thing happened the other night . . . we were on a bus on the way home and some old dirty guy got on the bus, obviously drunk. He started to talk to the driver but soon saw me and recognized me as a missionary, so started to talk (better said, yell) with me. Rather, at me. He stood up and started talking about "life on the street," then pulled aside his jean jacket and pulled out his gun, then waved it in front of me He had no intention to rob or attack me or anything, he just wanted to . . . show it to me. It was actually hilarious!
Well, I forgot what I was going to write so now I'll do the Q&A section. Yesterday (at this moment it's Tuesday) I got 2 letters from you, one dated 3 of March and an e-mail dated March 14, so I'll answer questions that I haven't already answered in letters that you have yet to receive that are enroute. Elder Hatch? I know of one, who was a zone leader that I saw in my zone conferences in Puerto, but I didn't know that he was from Cali, but he did recently [return home] so it may well be him. But the name Hatch might be familiar because one of my teachers in the MTC was Bro. Hatch. As for beeswax here, the few times I've been able to find it, it is really expensive. Oh well :) Yesterday I did receive a package with cheesecake! Thank you! I also got the cards you sent me, the valentines package, mouth care, etc. I could use more face soap and my face medicine. But don't worry, my face isn't too bad. Normal, I guess. I assume that by the time you get this letter you'll have read about the district activity. The didjeridoo's doing great! I've got everyone in the house hooked - muahahaha - and about the mail, I don't know what's going on. To get the mail from Venezuela to the States is only 1 package sent - not a big deal at all. And Carnaval isn't a holiday that would have anything to do with the delay . . . now maybe Semana Santa which is coming up might, but I don't know. Well, I'm running out of paper. I love you all!
Atentamente,
Elder Onken