DAY 363: NOVEMBER 28

TURKEY DAY/TRANSFERS!

Hey Everyone!

This week was great, I didnt even mention that last week was transfers! Lemme explain real quick how transfers happen here. So normally, during the week, our preparation day is monday. On transfer week, we have it on Tuesday, because on Monday night we have transfer calls, where we have to be in at a certain time to come take a phone call from president if we are getting transferred. Then on Wednesday, if we are transferred, we go to the stake center in Baton Rouge, have a big meeting where everyone finds out where they are going, then go back to your area. So, we came in at the appointed time Monday evening, the time passed, and no call, which we were kind of expecting. We had our p-day on Tuesday and I didnt even mention that it was transfer week in my email because nothing was happening, then continued on with normal life. Then, on Friday, during our district meeting, we got a call from President, informing us that two of the missionaries in our ward, serving in Baton Rouge north, were going to leave, and be double transferred into another area. So, the East Baton Rouge elders and us, the South Elders, would be taking over their area. So we got out a map, decided on some boundaries and went to just north and south Baton Rouge. Other cool part, one of the elders leaving was the district leader, and president asked me to be the new district leader! How exciting!

So thats the big news of the week. Part of this was switching us around, because Elder Sorensen and I are the only ones who have driving priveledges (the other elders were previously on bikes) so I am now with an Elder Cornejo, and Elder Sorensen went to North BR with Elder Aguilar. Him and I are getting along well. He brought a chess board, and is a chess genius, so we've been playing it quite a bit here in our apartment, with the english elders as well. I told the story last week about committing that family to church- Unfortunately, they listened to Satan. Some lame excuse of we "had" to go do something that potentially compromised our eternal salvation.

Oh yeah, thanksgiving was this week! On thanksgiving morning, we had a little "turkey bowl", we went to the church and played some soccer and volleyball. We had a few members and a few investigators there and all the missionaries, and it went pretty well! We did our weekly planning, and the english Elders got a entire cooked turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy from a member, so we put some of it in a tupperware, and brought it over to our romanian friend Drago, and he was really touched that someone had thought about him, because he doesn't have any family here. We also brought him another Romanian book of Mormon, and left him with some to read.

We went to a members house for dinner, and it was excellent! There were some other ward members there, and some of their extended family. The food was excellent! One of the members who was there asked me to give him the recipe for the thing I cooked before. Awhile ago, for the baptism and later for a break of the fast thing after church, I made a tres leches cake, and everyone loved it. So, I of course thought he was reffering to that. I said sure I'd get it to him. He than said to a couple other people at the table "Elder Cardon is going to give us the recipe!" I was a little confused about why he was so excited and decided to share it with everyone, but I said "sure, you can all have it if you want." Then after a little bit of me still being confused, he said "no not the tres leches- your little music thing!" Then it all came together, about the Beatbox chef thing I did a while ago at the ward talent show, he wanted me to do that! Then it kind of came to everyone looking at me and waiting for something to happen, and me wondering if it was proper manners to beatbox at the table, even though we were all done. So, I got a couple little dishes, and did the act. Everyone loved it. So much, that they said "let us get our phones so we can record it!" So, with about 6 people filming, I did it again. I asked someone to email my family the video, so hopefully that will get through to someone over there.

Well, thats about it for the week, hope everyone else had a great thanksgiving!!

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 357: NOVEMBER 22

Hey everyone!

Well, this week was pretty good, we FINALLY had someone at church. Everyone for the past few weeks has been shanking us at the last second, and will come up with any excuse under the sun to not be able to go. Although the top excuse of all would be "I prayed and asked if I should get baptized then my fish died, so thats a sign that I shouldnt do it" "well its probably not, so we'd invite you to pray again" "well I dont want any of my other fish to die". Lame. Really it just comes down to desire. Theres this one family that apparently was taught alot before and was pretty close to baptism, we had a lesson with them last night and committed them for church and they said they would let us know on Saturday if they would be able to. We talked a little about it and basically explained it like this: God really wants you to go to church. Satan does not, and he will try to throw anything and everything he can in that time slot to make you not go to church. If you say today that you will reserve that time for church, he might try to get you to go do laundry or go shopping or go somewhere with a friend, but you will already have something more important in that time slot, and will be able to go to church, and will be able to do those other things another time. If you say you will wait for Saturday, that gives plenty of time for him to come up with something to throw in the path, and if you are not comitted to come to church, then that other activity will fall right into place and Satan will win. So will you commit right now to come to church with us on Sunday?

 

From what I could tell, I think it worked. We'll let you know for next week if they came or not. So anyways, our guy that came was Rolando, hes been doing pretty well, we taught him the word of wisdom last night and found he smokes, and drinks alot of coffee. Oh boy. I know with some faith and hard work, he can still be ready for baptism on the 9th. We had a really sweet lesson with a part member family the other night, she is less active and is going to some other church here with the rest of her family. They are totally awesome, they have 4 kids from 8-12 years of age and are a ton of fun. We had a really fun visit with them the other night, we had a short lesson with them, we taught them about nephi building the boat, and with faith and Gods help we can always keep the commandments. Then we just kind of hung out with them, I did a little juggling act for the kids, they showed us a bunch of pictures from their family vacation over the summer, and we got the kids to like us alot. First step to getting them away from this bogus church to which they go. :)

This last week we also had a zone conference in which we really focused on our planning and kind of overhauled the way we do it. Without going into unnecessary depth that would be uninteresting to anyone whos not a missionary, they are going for the "less is more" approach. So instead of in your weekly planning having a whiteboard, an extra notebook and your planner and area book, to just keep everything in the area book and have all your plans in one place. But, I sort of feel like its taking a step backwards. Because, they have us plan out every day we are going to teach certain principles and extend certain invitations, which I've seen, doesnt always work out on the appointed day. So it really just seems like a waste of eraser to me, because what we would do before is say take each person, say we want to teach these certain concepts and invitations, and then see them when we could see them and plan day by day. So I thought what we are doing now is the "higher law" that left behind what we just started doing again. But, well see how it works out.

Other exciting news: we have a christmas tree in our apartment! I made it. How, you ask? When Elder Sorensen got into the mission, his bike came in a box. I decided we would do something exciting with said box, so its been kicking around our apartment for a month or so. Then, the revelation came! I drew and cut out a shape of a christmas tree on both sides, and then did the think where you cut a slit halfway on each one so they slide together, and boom! christmas tree! (see attached picture if that didnt make sense) We might invest in some green spray paint to make it really authentic.

So, thats about it. I think I mentioned I would talk about the crazy romanian guy. His name is Tiberius Dragos. We just call him Drago. Hes drunk most of the time, but always wants to talk to us. He's brought up something about the Sabbath being saturday, and also asking why we dont like other churches. He says the book of Mormon isnt true because it says Christ came to the americas, and he has a book that says that Christ didnt. We've still yet to see this book and apparently its in Romanian anyway. So we try to communicate and ask why Jesus couldnt have come here and he says with a thick accent and poor grammar that the united states wasnt discovered yet. Well, yes, Drago, but there was still people here, were they children of God as well? "NO!!" "really Drago?" "Ok, well yes, but Jesus no come here!". So the other day we printed out a conference talk in Romanian and gave it to him, he said he liked it. Slowly but surely, we'll get him there. Apparently some missionaries in the past gave him a BOM in Romanian, and we've asked him to find it but he still hasnt looked. When he does hell have some good reading to do.

Hope everyone has a great day, and write back!

 

Love,

Cam

 

Pictures too!!

1. Me, elder Heredia and Elder winters. Elder Heredia went home on saturday, Im gonna miss him a bunch!

2. Elder Francis, Me, Elder Anderson. Elder Francis just went home as well.

3. Elder Huffines and me. I had no idea what was going on next to me until I looked at the camera later.

4. Our living room! complete with foosball table, nappy couch, our bikes, and the christmas tree I made!

DAY 349: NOVEMBER 14

So, I think last week I mentioned I would have all kinds of exciting stories to tell. Not so sure its going to happen. Like I've said, obviously we do stuff, and obviously stuff happens, but none of it seems to come to mind or to be interesting enough to mention in my email to yall. But, Elder Sorensen next to me is writing paragraphs upon paragraphs of stuff that happened, so clearly something did. I guess I'll pull some insights from him.

 

 

Church: Probably one of the most frustrating things in all of missionary work. One of the hardest key indicators to get. We go to peoples houses and teach them, they will sometimes read a chapter we left with them, or whatever, but when they have to go really far and go to church for longer than they likely ever have before, it takes some serious faith. We have a guy named Rolando, who lives in the same apartment that Eduardo used to live in. Did I ever talk about Eduardo? Seems like I didnt.

 

 

Tangent on Eduardo: Really funny guy. About 21, and has probably the jumpiest attention span of anyone I have ever met. He would usually pay attention when we taught, but would usually sit down and stand up in random intervals, and throw in random references and stories that didnt have anything to do with the current theme, often to Lady Gaga songs. One time we were literally comitting him to baptism, and he stands up while were talking and says "well yeah I think I will- but let me show you some of the drawings I've been doing." then proceeded to show us some of his drawings of random people and one of Christ that he copied from one of the pamphlets, and I think he still ended up accepted the commitment. Then one time, we were heading back from visiting someone else in the same apartment complex, and saw him out on his porch. He came out and talked to us, and asked what we were doing, we said heading back for dinner. He asked is maybe we wanted to play soccer, but he didnt have a soccer ball. We could pretend the little grassy area in the apartment complex was the field and that we were in a big stadium. He then proceeded to suggest some other activites, such as throwing a rope over the branch of that tall tree, and making a swing and pushing eachother on it. Or, building a campfire outside, and inviting our friends and he would bring his guitar and we could sing and roast marshmallows. And then we would accidentally burn the whole apartment complex down and the firemen would have to come and they would save him, but not us. So thats Eduardo. Unfortunately, he moved to houston, but really wants the missionaries over there to visit him, so we talked to him on the phone after he moved and we got his address, and will get that to the mission there.

 

 

End tangent. Rolando: So he had sat in on one lesson with us and eduardo, and he came to our english class as well. He really likes what we teach, always asks great questions and is really humble, well prepared for the gospel. He was excited to come to church with us. He had his own car, and was just going to follow us. We ended up getting a ride with a member, and we decided perfect, well just all go together. Then we went to visit him on Saturday night, to follow up, and a member who lives in his same complex,, named miguel, answered the door! how random! They are actually friends. He said they had talked about church and he was going to bring him the next day. Even better! So we left it at that. Sunday, as church was starting, they werent there. Maybe just runing a little late? we tried calling after the first hour (we have sacrament meeting last) and they didnt answer. We tried calling again right before sacrament meeting and he answered, and said he got called into work, so couldnt take him. Ya coulda let us know!!!!!! Real bummer.

 

 

Raul is doing great, he took us to a chinese buffet on saturday, he got the priesthood on Sunday, and also invited us to teach one of his neighbors! We went over on sunday night and had a great lesson with both of them. His name is Hector, I see some potential in him.

 

 

Well, theres a few stories. Next week I'll have some more, including some details about this crazy romanian guy we talk to sometimes.

 

 

Love,

Cam

 

 

P.S. Still waiting for requests on christmas presents!

DAY 342: NOVEMBER 7

Hey Everyone,

This week went pretty well! We had the baptism of Jose Raul, all went smoothly. I attached a picture. He bore his testimony in sacrament meeting, it was great! Hes thinking about moving back to Honduras very soon to be with his family, so it will be a bummer to see him leave, but it would be alot better for him to be there and with his family than here.

So last week I said I would come up with some stories to tell you, but guess what, I'm not sure I have any. Ok I guess I have one. So we went on exchanges last week, and I went with Elder Salazar to North Baton Rouge (I am serving in south) and it was pretty fun. We visited a guy who is one of those guys who while you are teaching, will pick out some detail and try to find a fault in it, then we'll explain it and hell realize it was kind of a dumb question, then we'll keep going and he'll pull out some un-related biblical scripture and try to tell us about it, but he'll again realize it doesnt make sense. It seriously took like half an hour just to read the intro to the Book of Mormon. But, I've realized getting mad and pwning them biblically doesnt really help, and it wasnt my investigator, so we just left him with a chapter to read. Another story from that exchange, we were talking to someone outside and they had their dog running aroun their front yard, and it was really hyper. It was jumping up on E. Salazar and sometimes on me. I'm certainly ok with dogs, and normally dont mind them jumping on me, but when im in missionary clothes, and not really in the mood to play with a dog I just ignore it. But, this dog certainly wanted the attention, so when it jumped up, I just pushed it away with my knee. Well, that made it fall right on its back. But luckily it just rolled over and then jumped back up on Elder Salazar. The lady we were talking to thought it was funny, so its all good.

Other exciting news- I think I may have mentioned it, but last week we found a foosball table. May have been next to a dumpster. May have been pretty gross. But, we brought it home and cleaned it up, and have had it in our living room all week. Its been quite the hit with other missionaries over, we've had alot of fun with it. We double checked the white handbook, looked like theres no regulations on foosbal tables in apartments.

Well, this week for p-day we are heading down to the World War Two muesem in New Orleans, Ive heard its really cool, I'm excited. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and not get shot. Thanks for the emails this week, and let me know if anyone wants anything for christmas!!

 

-Elder Cardon

P.S. Heres a picture of the baptism!! its Me, Elder Sorensen, Raul, Sister and Elder Powell, the wonderful senior couple we have with us.

 

DAY 335: OCTOBER 31

Hey Everyone!

So the big news this week is that Raul is going to get baptized this friday! He was supposed to be baptized a few weeks ago, but because of his family not really being in agreement, he decided not to do it. But, we had a great lesson with a member after church on Sunday, and we decided that him getting baptized and recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost was the best thing he could do for him to know how to work with the problems in his family. It was a really cool experience, he even asked in the lesson if he could do it that day! In my head I thought "well, it takes an hour or two to fill the font, but its only a ten minute drive down to the river!" But, we'll do a whole baptismal service and everything on friday. I'm really excited for him.

Last p-day, we went to the park and played ultimate frisbee and flag football! it was pretty fun. We dont get to go out and play very much, so its nice when you can. On Wednesday, we had the wonderful oppourtunity to go the the Temple! We went with the spanish missionaries and the Powells, the senior couple here, who are wonderful people, incase I havent commented about them. Its just like having another set of grandparents here with us! I really learned alot, I wish we could go more often!

Even though I'm sure something did, it doesnt fell like alot else happened this week. I always tell myself I'll have all kinds of stuff to write about, but then it comes to email time and all the stories seem to leave. But, I'll have something to tell you about next week, promise!

Love,

Elder Cardon

 

P.S. What does everyone want for Christmas?

DAY 328: OCTOBER 24

Hey family! We had a pretty good week last week, we have met some new people and have a little bit more of a teaching pool. We had the cool experience last week of going to the rural life museum, which I wrote about, but nobody commented on, so apparently you didnt think it was cool, but I thought it was! Elder Sorensen and I are getting along pretty well, we have taught some good lessons and his spanish is improving (but he still has a ways to go) :). Last week we had a member of the LSU singles ward come out with us, who served his mission in Mexico a few years ago, which was pretty cool. Always nice to have a little extra testimony there.

So I've been better about writing in little things that happen each day, so I have a few stories to tell! We had a district meeting last Tuesday and we did an "object lesson" of trying to walk across the gym blindfolded, but having the example of having the missionaries help, then the members help, etc. I was the one blindfolded, and I failed. But, its because the members didnt help me find the otherside, which was the celestial kingdom! So, to all members everywhere- help out the recent converts. On wednesday we went and helped a member who recently had a baby translate at the office for WIC, whatever that stands for. Its some program where they give you milk for your baby or something. But anyway, there was a whole lot of posters promoting breastfeeding. Little bit weird as a missionary. Or anybody, really.

Last Thursday and Friday we had a cool specialized training with our mission president, President Wall. It got us super motivated and on a new focus, which is really about teaching the Doctrine of Christ. That is, the simple things- Faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. Thats what its all about. And thats what was really restored in this restoration of the gospel. Its all over the place in the Book of Mormon. Its of course in the New testament, but without the base guide given to us by the BOM and modern revelation, its is very easily misinterpreted. So, thats kind of our new mission focus, is really working in the doctrine of Christ into every lesson we teach, and inviting them to partake of the atonement through it. Of course we still share the Joseph Smith first vision, the plan of salvation, the word of wisdom and everything- but really putting it all through the "filter" of the doctrine of Christ.

 

Yesterday we had five, yes, FIVE people committed to come to church. They all shanked us, and we had a whole whopping zero people. Its cool. Didnt wanna bring you eternal salvation anyway!

Well, hope everyone is doing well, and hope to hear from you all soon!

 

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 321: OCTOBER 17

Well, this week was pretty good, we had transfers, and I got a new missionary to train! His name is Elder Sorensen, from Cash Valley, Utah. We have been doing pretty well. Its really made me have to think hard about what to do and who to visit, because Elder Terry had been here a long time, so I didnt have to really be in charge of much, but now its all up to me. Elder Sorensen is the driver, due to my exemplary driving record before the mission, so I've been directing him everywhere to go. We've found some cool new investigators already, but unfortunately didnt have anybody at church.

So this morning we went to a place called the "Rural Life Museum" its like an old plantation that has alot of the stuff restored. Thinking of my mother, I attached some pictures of some of the old furniture. :) Also some pictures of other random things around there. They had an indoor part with a bunch of old horse buggies, an old pump organ that you could actually play, and some other old time relic stuff. There were a bunch of old cabins from different plantations around the state that they had brought in, it was pretty much all outdoors, where you'd walk around to all these different spots, they had a thing where they boiled the sugar cane to make molasses, a sugar cane press, and other tools they used to harvest and produce sugar. It was really interesting, we went with the senior couple that serves in our branch, the Powells, who are wonderful people, and a bunch of other missionaries, pictured here with some scarecrows, trying to blend in. My companion, Elder Sorensen, is on the far right. Overall a cool experience. We went and got some fried chicken afterwards. Another P-day adventure we went on that I dont think I shared was that we went mountain biking! There was this cool place that has some trails, which I was very impressed with, and we had a ton of fun. I sure miss riding some good old singletrack. Theres a shot of me and Elder Terry, and Elder Robbins who came with us. Also an action shot of me on my bike.

We have found a couple new people like I said, but really just dont have much of a teaching pool. There are just alot more spanish people in Metarie. Its been tough, but, with faith its all possible. While knocking doors, we met this white guy who said after reading this book his perpective of God totally changed. Basically he decided that God didnt have a body, or even a humanly form, but that he IS the entire universe. So there is a higher power, he likes the idea of God, but has a little bit different ideas. Yesterday in church I was supposed to give a talk on the atonement, but we ran out of time, so the branch president said hed have me speak on the 30th. I'll have plenty of time to make my talk nice and well written. I actually wrote part of it in a chaism just for fun, maybe I'll throw in a few more. I think I mentioned before about sometimes we can get ourselves confused studying deep doctrine, but when we look at it, the only doctrine that matters is the atonement. Becuase without that, we couldnt do anything else.

 

Funny drunk guy story: We talked to a couple of guys outside their apartment and he kept asking me if I spoke spanish, and I would answer yes, then he would try to talk to me in english and say "I need twenty dollars. You have twenty dollars?" I told him no. He asked me two or three more times, then I finally just said, "You know what, I need twenty dollars!" he said ok, and proceeded to hand me his entire wallet. I thought about just grabbing it and walking away, but figured that might be a bad idea. So, thats about it for the week, hope everyone else is doing great, and hope China treats you well!

 

Love,

Elder Cardon

 

 

DAY 315: OCTOBER 11

TRANSFERS!

Well, this week was pretty normal I guess. We were supposed to have 2 baptisms last weekend buuuut..... Didnt work out. Cruz says he just wants to wait a little longer. Raul is totally ready, passed the interview and everything, but hadnt told his wife in Honduras that he was meeting with us, and when he told her he was going to get baptized she felt uncomfortable and they still need to figure it out. So, we'll keep workin hard with them, and I know they'll come soon.

Last friday we had a ward talent show, it was pretty cool. As missionaries, we sang The armies of Heleman in spanish, with me playing the guitar a member lended me, and I did my own little thing and did the beatbox chef. For those of you who dont know what that is, basically you get a mixing bowl and a bunch of other little bowls, and then start with just a little "shuffle" sound going, and then in each of the little dishes you have a snare, clap, kick and some bass, and then add in the "ingredients" one by one, making a more complex beat as you go along. You can check out the original think by searching "beatbox chef" on youtube. It turned out pretty well, I had an apron on and a mixing bowl with a bunch of other little dishes. Some of the members thought it was really cool, but I think some of the little old spanish ladies didnt really see the humor.

In other news, this week is transfers! Elder Terry is going and opening a new area, and I am staying here and training a new missionary! I hope its not someone weird. We'll see what goes down. The only thing is, I am still "red dotted" because I had one too many speeding tickets before my mission, so my companion will be the driver until I hit 9 months in the field. I shall refer to him as my chauffer. Well, thats probably it, hope everyone is well!

 

-Cam

DAY 307: OCTOBER 3

THE LOUISIANA CHRONICLES

Well hello everyone!

This week was pretty good, we of course had the wonderful oppourtunity to go to general conference, which was excellent this year. We watched it at the stake center just here close by, on saturday it was just Elder Terry and I watching it in spanish, and on Sunday there was a few members, and Raul and Cruz both came, and we're fairly sure they'll get baptized this weekend, if not the next. Priesthood session was excellent, nothing like a Jeffery R. Holland wake up call to get some young men moving. There was some great talks on Sunday as well, I loved the ones about the Book of Mormon, its something really cool. The weather here has been great, its cooling off and starting to feel like fall.

On Sunday morning we also had another cool oppourtunity. I guess it starts a few weeks ago, we met a guy in Wal-mart, and he said he had a few questions for us. He said he had been studying our doctrine, because in their church they had been doing a world religions class, and he was going to teach the one about the doctrine of them Mormons. He was asking us some super deep doctrine questions, we answered the best we could, though reffering him to the Kolob Theorom might have been a better solution with his kind of questions. But anyways, we offered to come to his church and teach the class. He said that would probably be alright. A couple days later, he called us back and asked us if we were available to come and teach it on the given day. We agreed, asked permission from our mission president, President Wall, and invited him to come as well. So us and the english missionaries we live with went out to their church, accompanied by President Wall, and we taught the message of the restoration. I taught the first half of the restoration, talking about Prophets, Christs ministry and atonement, and about the apostasy. The concept of apostasy is hard for some people to understand, but I think most of them at least kind of did. One of the english missionaries, Elder Toll, shared the rest, and there was a very strong spirit during the first vision. He explained the book of Mormon, and then we had some time for questions. Most of the questions were things like "Do you still have these gold plates?" and "so where does it talk about this in the Bible?" and "are there any other evidences of the Book of Mormon?" We answered them simply, and of course always reffered that studying it and asking God is the best way to know if its true. One question we were asked was by a fairly sincere guy, who told us that he was raised to believe that Joseph Smith was terrible person, a raging drunk, was in and out of jail and that all the mormons were terrible people for following a guy like him. But as he got older he saw the great examples of Donnie and Marie Osmand, and other mormons that he met, and figured they werent so bad after all. His question was: how do you know that Joseph Smith was the kind of man that could be a prophet? President Wall had an excellent answer to this question, which was that his great-great-grandfather was a personal close friend of Joseph Smith, and that his journal had been preserved in his family. So he didnt have to listen to other outside stories that had been twisted and some of the outright lies that are floating around out there, he had his own family record of the young prophet. Overall, I think the people were pretty receptive, and there might be potential to go and teach a few of them personally.

So, those two things were basically the highlights of our week, and I dont remember a whole lot else. Though I realized I sitll hadnt sent a picture of me and my new companion, who now isnt really new, since weve been together 5 weeks, so heres one attached. His name is Elder Terry. He is from Provo. We actually figured out he knows my cousin Rick! They used to live in the same neighboorhood. Small world. Hes pretty cool, he does photography and some other art stuff, and skates and bikes. Were actually going to go biking out on some trails today! So anyways, thats about it until next week!

-Elder Cardon

Elder Cardon and Elder Terry

DAY 300: SEPTEMBER 26

Hello! China sure sounds like fun! Wish I could be there! Me and somebody in the family are going back when I get home. I have some big travel plans for when I get back! Yes, I have recieved a bunch of dearelder letters from you! Most of them were emails I had already read, but now that they are coming I guess I dont have to read the super long emails here at the library. We had a pretty cool week, I guess fairly average, but I know you all dont like when I just say "it was normal" so I'll try to think of a few stories.

Since Elder Taylor and Freestone left, there was no english missionaries in the area, but they just got two in there. So one of them was with us for 4 days, and then his companion came. While we were in the trio we went to go visit a few of the english investigators he had, and we visited this super cool guy named Bo. He saw a commercial about the church, visited the website, wanted to learn more, so requestied misionaries, then downloaded the scriptures on his Ipad. He read most of the BOM, prayed about it, and has no doubt that it is divine scripture. He then bought himself a quad, has read the entire BOM and Pearl of Great Price, and most of the Doctrine and convenants. He also got a subscription to the ensign and the friend and the living scriptures cartoon movies for his little daughter to watch. He's supposed to be baptized in two weeks. Talk about golden!

 

But, our investigators are cooler. Cruz is doing pretty well, I really hope he will get baptized on the 8th. Raul is also progressing nicely, he is a really intelligent guy, and understands the gospel pretty well, but still hasnt recieved that spiritual confirmation. This last weekend we went on exchanges. I went up to North Baton Rouge with Elder Christensen, who I was with down in metarie a few transfers ago. Last time we didnt get along super well, but the whole two days we were together we got along really well, and were able to do some good work. We also had a fun super deep doctrine discussion with the other missionaries in that apartment, which somehow just got us all more confused about the resurection and the millenium. There is alot of doctrine of the church that is hard to understand, but when it all comes down to it, there is only one doctrine that matters: The atonement.

 

So the spanish unit here is just a branch, definitely less people than in New Orleans, but still plenty of strong members. We have been doing alot of less active and recent convert work here, to keep hold of the work already done. It certainly isnt easy, this whole missionary work thing. It seems like there is just a whole lot of opposition, satan is pretty darn mad that all these people are finding the truth. Anyways, on sunday, they had two people from the stake come to speak, and I ended up translating. Basically I just stood at the pulpit with them and repeated what they said sentence by sentence in spanish. It was a little easier than how they did in New Orleans, where you literally have to listen, translate in your head and repeat it all at the same, but it still is a humbling experience when you think you are getting good with the language.

 

I do miss being on the bike, unfortunately, being in a car and not eating very well has put on all the weight I lost being on the bike! Bummer! But, today when we go shopping I'll buy lots of healthy food. Oops I already used all my money for the month on Chinese buffets. Ah well. Although, when we do go out to chinese places I have something to talk about with the chinese people! My family lives in China! How cool is that?

One last little story, because we gots to go. We had just a had a good lesson with cruz, he lives in kind of a sketchy neighboorhood (like all the people we teach) and there was some guys outside drinking. They asked us to come over and "teach them about the right way". we said maybe another day when they werent drunk, so the could understand. We talked to them for a little bit about where they were from and stuff. They lived right closeby, and I asked his name. He said "my name is.... uh..." then paused for a second, then turned to his friend and said "whats my name?" "Rigoberto" his friend replied. "oh yeah, my names Rigoberto"

Well, thats it, hope everyone is doing great!

Love,

Cam

 

P.S. Thanks so much for attaching those pictures! I loved them!

P.P.S. I guess I cant think of anything I want right now, but I'll let you know!

P.P.S. Tell any of those AWESOME girls that theres a missionary in Louisiana who would totally write them back if they wrote. Especially the musician one. :)

DAY 293: SEPTEMBER 19

THE WEEK

Well, It was about the same as any other. Sorry, it doesnt seem that anything really exciting has happened, at least not anything I've decided was eventful enough to write about. We had some cool lessons, had a cool experience with Raul, and ate some really good Pupusas. Raul is one of our investigators who is from Honduras, and he's having some troubles with his family in Honduras. We had a good lesson on the plan of salvation, and talked about faith and that everything is in the hands of the Lord, but we can do our part to make it happen. I do like the city of Baton Rouge, it reminds me of washington, theres alot more trees and the roads are really spread out.

Ok, I though of a story. Its possible I already told it to you, but we were riding down the street and these two guys stopped us and asked if they could tell us about something. He then proceeded with some false history facts about ethiopian people inhabiting Jerusalem at the time of Christ, grossly misinterpreted a few scriptures from the Bible, and then tried to convince us that Jesus was black. Elder Rawlings answered best when he said "well I dont care if he was black, white, green, purple, or orange, hes still our savior and still did what he did." The guy you could tell wanted to have a little more of a dicussion than that, but we had to get to appointment. Then everytime we rode by there and the guy was outside we'd say "Hey whats up?" and he'd put his arms in the air and say "Black Jesus! Thats whats up!". So here, the other day we stopped and talked to two black ladys on their porch, and they asked us what color our church believed Jesus was. They said something about "his hair was like wool- that means it was nappy!" but they didn't have a strong opinion on it like that other guy.

Well, times up, but I hope everything is goig well in China!

-Cam

Pictures from Aug 8, 2011

Some more pictures...

Fancy house in NO

Riding to NO in the back of a truck

Pictures end of June / early July 2011

Here are some more pictures from Cam

Heavy rainstorm

Mission President's wife before leaving at the end of the month

Picnic by the lake where there were gators

Pictures from May 2, 2011

Here are some picture Cam sent last May.

Metarie District

A car from Utah

New Orleans French Market

Baptism of Juan Carlos

Some pictures from March 7, 2011

These were attached to an email from last March.  Three of them show the heavy rains causing flooding in his area.  The next is from his first baptism -- Eujenio.  The last one is one of the member kids on his bike.

DAY 286: September 12

Well hey everyone!

 

    This week might be a little bit of some "same old same old", cuz thats what if felt like. But, we have some cool people we are working with. The guy I told you about before, Cruz, is still progressing, slowly but surely, and I know he will do very well. We only had 1 person at church, a guy named Raul, who will hopefully get progressing soon, he is really cool. Today is Elder Terrys birthday, and we are going out to a place called Voodoo barbeque, then maybe going golfing. One of the elders we live with i s a visa-waiter for Brazil, and he just got his visa, and is leaving on wednesday, so we'll miss him. Sorry this is so short today, but I love hearing about china and from anyone and everyone else who would like to write me!

 

-Elder Cardon

 

P.S. New address! 1343 Jade Ave, Baton Rouge, LA, 70810

 

Pictures, Next Five

Pictures

Hey, I keep thinking and trying to remember to send pictures, but then I never do! So heres a few. I still havent taken one with my companion, which is weird, so I'll get one of those next week. Today, the english Elders left, because one got his Visa and is going to Brazil, and the other one they moved to another area. So now we have a nice spacious apaartment to ourselves!

 

1. Me with E. Woodings and Heredia

2. Me with one of my favorite members, Ponciano

3. So the "cool thing" to do is make covers for your planner. These are all covers that I made for me and other missionaries.

4. The burger I ate when we went out to lunch for elder terrys birthday. MMMMMM sooo good. I didnt do it all in one sitting, though.

5. Me attempting to fit said burger in my mouth. Didnt work.

6. LSU's mascot is the tiger. That's mike the tiger, just chillin in his cage. Wish we saw him eat a zebra or something.

7. Me and E. Freestone, he just got his visa and is on his way to Brazil!

8. Me and Elder Taylor. He's pretty cool.

9. The masterpiece I painted during the storm lockdown. Its called "psychadelic pipes" Dont ask for the deeper interpretation, im not sure that there is one.

10. Our room! The english Elders moved out, so we have two rooms, and two sets of bunkbeds to ourselves. So we combined them, and now we each have our ouwn giant bed. It is likely I will get hit in the head by the fan.

 

-Elder Cardon

 

P.S. Write me a letter! 1343 Jade ave, Baton Rouge, LA 70810

DAY 280: September 6

Well Hello everyone!! This last week has been quite exciting. It involves a new area, new companion, a hurricane, and a skateboard without wheels.

Well, it was sad to leave my old area, but I am excited to work hard here in South Baton Rouge. One cool thing about this area is that we have a car! Its kind of cool, but a little different. In my last area we could have done all kinds of work with a car, but being that this area is pretty big, its pretty necessary and we drive around quite a bit. It is really nice to not have to ride your bike to get groceries! My new companions name is Elder Terry. He is a pretty cool guy from Provo, and we like a lot of the same things. We live in an apartment with the english Elders, Elder Taylor and Elder Freestone, from Utah and Oregon, respectively, and they are both super cool as well, and its alot of fun. Elder Terry is into drawing and painting, and he has a bunch of paint supplies and has made some really cool paintings.

So this last weekend there was a tropical storm out in the gulf, which was reported to be moving inland, so president decided to go on the safe side and New orleans and surrounding areas were evacuated. Several missionaries stayed at the mission home, and at apartments of missionaries in Baton Rouge. So we hosted some "refugees" and had 8 of us in our cozy apartment. I kept everyone well fed with lots of home-cooked food, which they were grateful for. After a little while, president said our area as well was on storm lockdown, and that we were supposed to stay in. We were a little confused, because there was some rain, but not a whole lot of wind. But, we went in, and hung out with the other Elders, made some porkchops on the BBQ, I painted a masterpiece with Elder Terrys paints, we watched the testaments and many other church videos, and we had a good time. There was a couple breaks where we went out and worked a bit, to try to beat the cabin fever, and ended up still having a relatively productive weekend. Overall a pretty good weekend. I am a little bummed that 2 days after I leave New Orleans theres a storm and they get evacuated! Come on! Though the city apparently didnt take much damage, just plenty of flooding.

This last p-day we went to a skate shop, of which the owner is actually mormon, and he bought himself an early birthday present: a skateboard with rubber trucks. Its the deck of a normal skateboard, but has 2 pieces of heavy rubber instead of weels, shaped so that it feels like you really are on a skateboard, to practice doing tricks and stuff. We all messed around on it for a good bit yesterday, and my legs are actually a bit sore from doing it. I stll cant to anything cool, but, this will be an exciting new twist on our morning excercise!

We have some pretty cool investigators in this area as well. Theres a guy named Cruz, who is a super cool, really nice and really funny guy with lots of tatoos. We have found 2 neat families since I've been here, and this area definitely has alot of potential to have some miracles happen.

I love hearing from all of you, family, I was just thinking about how I have family on 3 continents right now, and yet we are connected both by simple e-mails and of course, by the loving ties of the gospel and our heavenly fathers love. Thats about it for the week, hope everyone is doing well. Write me letters!!

-Cam

DAY 273: August 30

Hey Mom! I'm afraid my email will be short too, y'all sent me so much stuff! I'm going to print most of it and read it later. I'm so glad your doing well! I actually know someone who knows someone whos in that ward- I'm assuming theres only one ward there. I dont remember her name, but shes around my age, and she knows somebody in this mission named Elder Zach Pope, she's from Utah. I might think of her name later.

Well, the big news is- I'm getting transferred! Elder Rawlings is staying here and training, and I'm going up to Baton Rouge. President Wall has changed the way we do transfers, now we just get a call that says, "youre staying, youre going" and then everybody comes to Baton Rouge, finds out where, then goes back to their new area. I can only guess where I'm going because president said I'm going "up" to see a "different part" of the mission, so I'm not sure where, but well see. I guess just send this weeks dear elder to the mission home address, 12025 Justice ave, Baton Rouge, LA, 70816

This week was pretty good, pretty average. We have worked hard with alot of people, but are having trouble getting alot of them progressing! This mission thing is tough. We do have a super cool guy named Guillermo, who is Garifuna, and he basically just needs to get married with his girlfriend who is a member and then he'll get baptized. They are a super cool couple, I'm really excited for them to be members. They said they plan on moving back to honduras in the next year or two, and Elder Rawlings and I already have plans to go visit them down there.

Well, I guess next week I'll have some exciting news of my new area and companion and everything, but for now, have a great week, and enjoy all the chinese adventures!

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 266: August 22

Hey Family! Where are you all? in CHINA?!?!?! WOW!

I hope everything is going well over there, and that you can all adjust to the time change and culture change! We had a pretty good week, and taught lots of people about the gospel! I still haven't got an email from anyone in China, I want to know what its like. Email me! Oh and you might want to call the mission office and let them know about the few extra digits on your phone number.

So let me tell you about one of our investigators, Jorge. He is a super cool guy. He is a little older, probably around 60, is from Cuba, and carries a gun with him just about always, possibly even at church yesterday. He met with missionaries over a year ago, but one thing or another happened and they stopped coming by. But since then he has read the entire book of Mormon, and LOVES it. He came to church yesterday and really liked it as well, and had some great questions and contributed well to the classes. The other day after we had a lesson with him, he asked us if we were busy, if we had somewhere to go, and we said we were just going to try a few people we had talked to in the area, and he said, "alright come with me". We walked around and he totally contacted people with us! He would see a guy out working on his car and say "hey, you need more peace in your life, these guys can help you find peace" and then we would take over from there. We went and knocked on the door of one of his friends, and totally taught a lesson right then and there, and Jorge bore a sweet testimony about the veracity of the Book of Mormon! I'm really excited for this guy, he could (will) be an awesome member.

So we went on exchanges last week, and I went with E. Southwick in his area, and we taught a guy who was a DJ. He said he was going to leave soon, so didn't have time, but I asked to see his setup, and he let us in. I saw his setup (it was pretty sweet) and played with it for a bit, but after feeling guilty for listening to worldly music that I miss so terribly, we sat down and had a short 10 min lesson. No time my foot, DJ 1ACO!

Alot of time, we go play basketball at the church, but last week we went and played Frisbee! it was pretty fun, we're planning on going again today.

Well, thats about all the news for this week, but, let me know about China ASAP!

Love,

Cam

DAY 259: August 15

Hey everyone,

Good luck with your China trip! It sounds so exciting! Wish I could go with. Can I? Its fun to hear about the adventures going on with everyone in the house. If Jason is looking for a place to live, why doesn't he just live at our house? It doesn't seem like you'll be living in it for awhile. :p And if Kya and Tosh really want, they can each have one thing from my Lego collection, or as many "things" as you deem necessary.

So a few exciting things from the week: Last night, we were on our way back, and there was totally an apartment building on fire. Its where the sisters live, but luckily there apartment was undamaged and they are fine. We have been having a few less run-ins with bible bashers and crazy guys, but we met probably one of the worst bible-bashers ever. "Worse" meaning he really had no idea what he was talking about. Some of them will pick some doctrinal point to go at that you might be able to have some discussion about, but this guy decided on probably the silliest thing ever to determine that we are in the wrong.

We stopped and talked to him on the street, and after talking for a little bit he said "You know I've studied your church, and I've figured out that you're in the wrong". So we asked what it was that he had heard that we are doing wrong. He asked us if we believed in the Virgin Mary, we explained of course we believed she was real, and God had a special role for her, but we dont pray to her or worship her, thats silly. He kept beating around the bush saying "you guys are in the wrong" and told us he had studied the bible more so he knows more than us, we said "you still havent told us anything were doing wrong..." He finally asks "do you have a band in your church?" we answered no, but explained about hymns and how we worship. So he decided to go at that. That was his whole basis of why we aren't the true church. He showed us some scripture in Hebrews about singing praises to God, and praising his name. We explained that through the Hymns, we do that. He was insistent that you had to have a guitar and drums and everything to praise the lord. So I asked him if that's how Christ and his apostles did it, Peter on guitar, James on drums, and John on bass? Any one? He than said that my companion said that we dont worship Christ, which he clearly never said. He said "no, you did", E. Rawlings said, "No, I didn't" and I said "No, he didn't" and that went on for a bit, and I decided this guy was too dumb to be worth talking to, so I just stood up and said lets go. We told him to have a great day, and he kept following us. I was walking a little ahead, and he was following my companion, and he said " Maybe we dont have a band, but does your church have a living prophet and twelve apostles? and a quorum of seventy?" the guy was silent for just a second, clearly feeling dumb, and came back with "well, Christ had twelve apostles, and you just said you only had 11!" We corrected him quickly. He then said "Did you know that Christ called a quorom of seventy?" and I said "Yeah, we have one too" and he laughed "After I mentioned it to you, all the sudden you have one!" I tell you, had there not been other people around on that street, that guy would have gotten a square punch to the face.

Well, writing that took a significant portion of my email time, so I'll probably have to wrap it up. But, I'll be sure to come up with something exciting for next week about "an average missionary day"

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 252: August 8

Hey Mom!

Thanks so much for the email! I hope everyone is doing great. I sure do miss Daniel! thanks so much for all the pictures of him and all of you that you sent. And for all the stuff in the package, it was awesome! I put my new speedometer on, and since last Monday we have ridden 72 miles. We will be turning ours in at the end of the month like all the Elders with cars. So last monday We went to the french market again, I tried an alligator po-boy, it was really good! I got myself a stylish white watch as well. To get there, we couldnt find a ride, and all 4 of us in the apartment wanted to go, so we just had 2 of us sit in back of a truck, because thats legal down here! it was fun! I attached a picture of that and a sweet house we always ride by.

So Tuesday was my birthday, and it was a great day. We have our district meeting every tuesday, and so all 4 of us from the apartment have to ride our bikes together to the church. along a quieter neighborhood road where we can all ride in the street instead of the sidewalk, weve established the tradition that on it, we grab on to eachothers backpacks, and let one person pull all 4 of us in a chain. One week Elder Pope did it, next week I did, next week elder southwick did, so this week, I coasted up to the side of Elder Rawlings and grabbed his backpack, and rode with no hands next to him for a second. He stopped pedaling and said "I'm not pulling you". I said it was his turn to pull all of us. He still denied, and tapped his brakes to slow down a bit. I was still going no-hands, and because he slowed down, my handlebar ran into his, which made my front wheel turn sideways, which sent me very quickly onto the pavement. Thanks for the birthday present Elder Rawlings.

After the district meeting, we went out to lunch at a place called copelands cheesecake bistro. It is a pretty high-class place, but they have some lunch specials that arent too pricy. It ended up being over a 2-hour affair, but the food was excellent. On tuesday we have a meeting at the church with our ward mission leader, and we also teach an English class. afterward, some of the ladies in the ward made some food and had a little party for us in the kitchen, with of course some excellent food made by Sister Martinez. It was nice of them.

Well, time is short, but thanks s much for the package, and the continued love and support from you all!

Adios,
Elder Cardon

DAY 245: August 1

Well hey everyone!

Thanks for the letter. I did get the package, but have not gotten yet. Let me explain: The package didn't fit in the mailbox, so they just leave a note in the mailbox that says you can pick it up at the post office, so we're planning on going down there today. Its not very close to the apartment :)

This week, we absolutely KILLED it with numbers. Honestly probably the best I've seen in my whole mission. With a little hard work and dedication, you can get some serious work done, and its been pretty cool to see. So last week I told myself that I would write some stuff down that happened during the week, but then I didn't. But, I do remember a few highlights that maybe you'll enjoy.

Last Monday, after we emailed we went shopping. At Walmart they had a big box of watermelons, that were priced by the melon, not the pound. So Elder Rawlings and I dug through and found a HUGE watermelon (luckily we had somebody to drive us that week), and took it home, and still aren't done with it. We weighed it: 35 lbs.

While we were in a lesson, they had this little dog, and it was running around being a little noisy. It came to elder Rawlings and sniffed him a little, then turned around and peed on him. The lady for some reason tried to blame it on him, not the dog. We went home afterward so Elder Rawlings could change his socks. Not sure how soon we're going to visit her again.

Like I said before, its been raining ALOT. Thursday it rained like crazy, luckily thats our planning day, so we were in the apartment most of the day. But the streets looked like they did that one time when I sent you the pictures. The same thing happened the next day, but luckily we saw the storm coming and took refuge in a members apartment and waited it out. Afterwards I popped my tire by riding through a puddle with half of a broken bottle in it, so we spent the rest of the day taking "la wawa de San Fernando"*

Church was good, last week, another elder and I were asked to teach primary because another teacher wasn't there, so we got to teach the 4 year olds class. Definitely a shorter attention span than most people we teach, but I think they probably learned something.

Thanks so much for the birthday package, I'm sure its full of wonderfully exciting things. Good luck getting everything ready for China!

Love,

Elder Cardon

DAY 238: July 25

Hey Family! Well here we are, another week! This last week was great, we again achieved the "standard of excellence"! I dont know how many other companionships in the mission got it, but we were one of them! Elder Rawlings and I have the gnarly goal of getting the standard of excellence every week of the transfer. I know we can do it!

So one of the families we have been teaching has this 8 year old girl who is probably the coolest investigator we have. Her name is Catherine, and she knows more about the gospel than your average 8 year old member. She has come to primary several times, and retains an amazing amount of what she learns. She remembered everything they taught about temples, she knew the whole song "I am a child of God" in Spanish, knows the page numbers of a few of her favorite hymns, and reads the book of mormon every day. Why cant all of them do that!? The other day we were teaching them a lesson, my companion was talking, and she was sitting next to me and leaned over and whispered "Quiero decir algo sobre El Libro de Mormon" (I want to say something about the book of mormon). So I stopped Elder Rawlings and we let her talk and she said "Cuando leo El Libro de Mormon, me siento feliz" (when I read the book of Mormon, I feel happy". It was the cutest thing ever! Her and her mom have a baptismal date for the 20th, and I'm pretty confident they will make it.

We are overall doing very well, but alot of our other investigators have a hard time just showing some faith and praying! This other lady we have been teaching, Irma, I think I may have told you about, has some reservations just because this is "something new", and it doesnt say the name "Joseph Smith" in the Bible. Well, it doesn't say the names of any of the apostles in the old testament, neither does it say the name "Jesus Christ". Well, doesn't they werent who they said they were. Just pray about it, then you'll know! But I dont get how people have such a hard time with it.

Our apartment of 4 is still nice and tight quarters, but we get along fine. Elder Pope got transferred up to Baton Rouge, and now the other elders are Elder Guerra and Elder Southwick. They are both going home at the end of this transfer, which means someones going to have to get double transferred in and training. Heres why: at the end of this transfer, 10 spanish missionaries are leaving, and 10 more are coming in. There are 13 spanish companionships it the mission, so 10 of them will have to train, and one of those areas will have to be south metarie, the area I was in before this one. Theres a small, but existing possibiltiy that I will go back there, meaning that I wold spend the first year of my mission in 2 areas. Wow! But it would be cool, I liked that area. So well see what happens!

Anyways, hope you all are doing great, and that you send me lots of birthday cards!

Love,
Cam (Elder Cardon)

DAY 231: July 18

Hey Everyone!

Well, this was a pretty normal week on the mission front. We unfortunately didn't have anybody at church, which is always a bummer. Just come to church! If anybody wants to help the missionaries, don't feed them dinner, offer to bring an investigator to church. (or you could do both)

So the summer here is HOT, and humid, but this past week it has been raining, like nobodies bidness! When it rains, it does it for real, alot of water for a decent amount of time. I sent some pictures a few months ago of when it floods, and it still does that. Its really cool.

So this week is transfers... And I am going to... Stay here! With my same companion! I'm really excited. We have people with good potential, and I will be excited to keep it going. Elder Rawlings and I work together pretty well, so I think we will do great this transfer. Man... I am just really drawing a blank for stories this week. I know something must have happened... but I cant think of what. We didnt go fishing, there were no brawls before sacrament meeting... And we had but a few run-ins with drunk guys. Looks like another "same old" email. But, that shouldnt bother any of my family because they are all in San Diego! So have fun over there everyone!


P.S. Birthday wish list:

some movies!
The Testaments
Doctrine and covenants (spanish)
The living scriptures, maybe just the first book of mormon one, and the ammon one. (did we ever get those on DVD?)

Theres never been a missionary with too many ties. Especially polyester ones.

Whatever else your heart tells you.

DAY 224: July 11

Hey Mom! Thanks so much for your super long letter!! Thats cool to read about your adventures with saving people and hiring hispanics from home depot. We've gone by the local lowe's hardware store a few times and contacted the Hispanics waiting to be picked up.  Happens all over the place!

  So, everyones going to San Diego? Too bad you cant bring me too! I hope you all have lots of fun. This week was pretty normal, same type of "missionary stuff" that we always do. We almost got the standard of excellence again, so darn close! We'll for sure get it this week.

  Since you said last week was such a great email, maybe I'll try not to be so exciting in this one, so that it really stands out. Also, because theres not really a whole lot of stuff to write about. EXCEPT: We got a new mission president!! His name is President Wall, and they are going to do very well, I can see. We had a zone conference with them, and they both gave wonderful talks, and both have great senses of humor. They are originally form Everett, and so I have a little bit of an "in" with being from the same area. He seems pretty by the book, but it just goes to show that you can have fun and work hard AND go by the book, all at the same time.

  Well, things with our investigators are going ok, its amazing to me how hard it is for people to just exercise some faith and pray! I know you can do it! We've been having a tough time getting out some doubts with people, they say they're kind of like an iceberg, only a little bit shows, and you have to go a little deeper to get to the real problem. A couple of them said that its just hard to believe something that they have never heard about their whole life. But, thats why we pray. And thats why we came to your door, to tell you about it!

But, I hope everyone is doing well, and that you send me lots of letters and packages for my birthday!

Love,
Cam

DAY 218: July 5

Hey Mom!

   Thanks for the update, its great to hear about everyone. Thats so cool about China! I wish I could come visit you! Well all have to go back someday. I also wish I could go with to Hawaii, and also to Chile. I also wouldn't mind going to San Diego. We can re-create any of these trips when I'm back from my mission. :)

  So, this was a fairly normal week, but with a few exciting things, and some big news. The big news was announced to us when two people came to our door at our apartment and told us they were from a church and invited us to their Bible study. They told us a little about their church, and told us that Christ has already come for the second time. He was born again in 1948, and has been teaching in Jerusalem for quite some time now. Also, our heavenly mother has appeared in the flesh, her name is New Jerusalem. The lady we talked to has met her twice. Well, thats kind of a big deal. Not sure what I'm doing out here preparing the world for the second coming if its already happened. Wish I had found out earlier. :)

  So in our mission, and I guess all missions, the president will establish whats called a "standard of excellence". It involves having a certain number of member present lessons, people with a date, people at church, and new investigators. We were one of only four companionships in the mission to attain it this last week! I hope we can keep it up for this week. We have this really nice older couple, named Marta and Marcos, that are progressing very well, and I have high hopes for. This other guy, Javier, is pretty cool, but is incredibly set on the fact that the sabbath should be Saturday. We've showed him in the scriptures why it was changed, but he still says "you havent answered my question, the ten commandments says the seventh day". We asked him to just pray about it, but I think he wants a answer from the scriptures. Plus, we asked which day he was keeping holy now, and he said none of them, but he didn't see why that mattered.

  Yesterday, we went fishing! We went with a member, Ponciano, out to this cool spot on the lake, where they go fishing fairly often. It was a fairly secluded spot, we had to hop over a levy, walk on a little path through the forest, which led to a nice sandy beach on the lake. Him and his brother and a couple of their roomates went out and we had a barbeque with some carne asada, some watermelon and soda and stuff. We went fishing out on the rocks, but unfortunately caught nothing. We had plenty of bites, but I think all the fish were too small to get around the larger hooks we were using. Two of ponciano's little Guatemalan friends went out wading with a net, and brought in about 8 fish. Maybe well try that way next time. There was also plenty of little crabs around that we tried catching. It made me miss being able to go out and swim, it would have been pretty fun. Although there's also gators in that lake, so you gotta be careful. A guy drove by in a boat and told a couple of spanish guys there was an alligator, but they didnt understand. The guy in the boat tried to do hand motions and stuff, but they just looked at him funny. I could hear what was going on from shore, so I yelled in spanish "Hermano!! Hay un cocodrio por alla!" and they started running in shore. A little while later we saw a few out there, so maybe its good I wasn't out swimming. It was a pretty fun day, super hot, I got a ton of sun, and also a ton of sunburn. After we got back I just wanted to go back and chill for the evening, we were pretty tired, but, we had to shower and change and get right back to work!

  So another crazy story: First off, I love this ward. There are some awesome people in it and they are always willing to help us out. But, nobodys perfect, and we saw a bit of that. On Sunday before church, we were out in the foyer shaking hands and welcoming people, and a member comes in with his family, not looking very happy. He goes over to another brother in the foyer and starts talking to him, a little heatedly, and they decide to take it into the gym. It gets a little more heated, and ends up turning into an all out fist fight. The bishop and a few other members were there, and a whole bunch more came into to separate them, which was quite a task, they were pretty into it. One of the guys in the fight brother came in, and so it turned into an almost 3-person brawl, but there was plenty of people to pull them apart. Someone ended up calling the cops, so I'm sure that didn't look good for the church, but luckily, both of the men in the fight got up and bore their testimony and apologized for their behavior. I totally would never expect something like that out of them, just imagine in our ward if Dad and Brother Maier or somebody came in a few minutes before sacrament meeting and started going at it. About the equivalent.

Well, Thats probably it for the week. I'll attach some pictures in another email in just a second.

Love,
Cam

P.S. So with my chase account, whenever I have less than 500 dollars in it, they charge a monthly fee. Do you think you could transfer some of my money back into it, just to avoid that fee?

P.P.S. Have you sold my bike yet? If so, sweet. If not, do you think you could take off the speedometer and send it to me when you send me my giant birthday package? I think it would be cool to keep a running total of how far I've gone in my mission!

P.P.P.S Another thing for my birthday wishlist: An electronic Spanish translator. My companion has one, and its sweet. Miriam webster makes some cool ones that have conjugation drills and stuff and you can make your own study lists and everything. that'd sure be cool.