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.