Week 1 of Cali

hola de california! como estan? That’s just a sample of the hardcore Spanish that’s taking place down here in Arcadia haha. I arrived Tuesday- met President Pike, cool guy, suuuuper quiet- I didnt hear everything he said but he is very pleasant. There were 6 of us that arrived this transfer, apparently that is a very little group as most groups come in 16 or 20. We sat around for a lot of the day in orientation stuff where the APs sucked the life out of me. My interview went well and he said I was the first whitey in the mission that already spoke Spanish and he seemed really impressed. I was really stoked to meet my trainer, hahah, shes so nice BUT she does not speak Spanish very well as she is from Korea. Her name is Sis Kang, and even though she was called Spanish speaking, she just recently got put into a Spanish ward for the first time, soooo this has been the source of frustration. Its good though, I need to learn patience, we all know that is an attribute in which I am extremely lacking, so cool. We live in a members apartment, we have a car and a cell phone, I am in the Covina Spanish ward and they are great. Bore my testimony on Sunday and sang in church so Im basically a celebrity around these parts haha, just kidding, but for real, the members are great, we have quite a lot of progressing investigators which is the source of my happiness right now, I LOVE teaching, everything else is alright, but those are the moments where I really feel like this was the right choice to be here. They are wonderful people, even contacting we meet the coolest people, I havn’t really had a bad experience yet, oh except for this one lady that said “I I believe in Jesus because the letter J hadn’t even been invented then” and I was like “maam, they didnt speak English in Jerusalem back then, they spoke Hebrew so it is just a translation...” she closed the door. We have a max # of miles we are allowed to drive and I guess we were close to the max so we have been biking for the past 2 days BAHAHA, its been interesting. I feel like a tool wearing a helmet but whateverrr, I already feel weird in a skirt all the time so whats an extra piece of plastic on top of my head. Pix attached. We had a zone activity and I met some elders... everyone is nice enough. Its weird with sister/elder relationships though, I feel weird talking to them because I feel like they feel weird... in one word its just weird. Sister Kang and I are starting to become friends though so thats good, I am going to try harder this week to understand and get to know her. My mission is weird in that we cant count something as a lesson unless its taught at the church... so I feel like that makes something hard (getting into peoples houses) even harder because now we have to get them to the church building, A lot of ppl work all day because they are Latinos and many do not have cars or phones... so it makes it a lot trickier. I am learning the ways though, Sis Kang does not contact people (like talk to ppl on the street or whatever) so I have started doing it just to see how it goes and Im a natural bahah, not really, its hard because I still feel weird talking about religion 24 7, but its really cool, Im learning a lot and instead of calling mom and complaining, I have to turn to my Heavenly Father, should have done that before but I must admit it is a lot easier when you have no one else to turn to.

Thanks for your constant support and letters etc, I LOVE THEM! I LOVE YOU!

-Laura. (but my friends call me Hermana Christian)