"Well, I'm sure you are all dying to hear from me. Well you did. See ya."
That's it. That's all we got. Then...an HOUR later...he wrote the real letter. Stinker! The nice thing, is I didn't check email until about 9:30, so thankfully, I got them both at the same time! Still...it's nice to see he hasn't lost his sense of humor. Here's the real letter:
That first letter was just a joke. I hope you got a kick out of it. Well, anyways, I am still sure you guys are all waiting to hear from me. Well, a lot of things have happened this past week, I don't know if I will be able to tell everything, but I'll do the best I can. Well lets start with the flight last week. So it was a 4 and a half hour flight, it was really nice, no turbulence, just nice and smooth. Then we landed. I was with Gas so I was happy to be with him and not be by myself. Even though he drives me nuts sometimes, I still love him a lot.
Anyways, so we landed and we met President Hall and went to his house. Me and Elder Gas were the only 2 new ones on that day, we actually came a weeks early than all the other new ones. Today we get 13 new Elders I think. So we got a week start ahead of all the other new ones. But so we had dinner at president Hall's house and then he just talked with us. Then he assigned us to our new companions. My companion is Elder K. He is awesome. He actually played soccer for BYU before he came out here. and like I said before, he has only been out here 9 weeks. He was actually in the group right before me in the MTC and I actually saw a picture of him that was in our classroom in the MTC. So ya, he is pretty much a greeny too. He actually hasn't finished his training either, the only reason he has been assigned to train me, is because there are only 4 Haitian Creole speakers, including me and Elder Gassant. So ya, that is why he is my trainer. He speaks the language good though and he understands a lot of what people are saying. Yesterday though, he had to translate for a lady in church during sacrament meeting, and he struggled, he kept looking at me and just shaking his head saying stuff like, man this is hard. It was funny. But he is great. he actually reminds me a lot of Cole Baxter. It is cool. But ya, we get along great so far and we will be with each other for the next 12 weeks. I was actually told, that in 12 weeks, I will probably be a trainer myself too. So I need to do a lot of work to get there. Oh and mom, to answer your question, that picture we took was the backyard of President Hall's house. ya, it is super green here. Everywhere here looks like that. super green and lakes everywhere. There are too many lakes to count. They are just everywhere.
Well, president hall is cool. He is super, super, super strict on being obedient though. He played football for Utah state and coached football at BYU. He is funny, but I am terrified of him. haha. He is nice and all, but I would not want to get on his bad side. He is the time of guy where once he loses your trust, it is hard for him to gain it back. So ya, I don't want to get on his bad side. In a year though, we are actually getting a new Mission President, so we'll see how that goes. Well, Elder Gas went with a trainer who comes home in 3 months, so he is an expert and me and K are here still trying to figure things out. We share a car with a couple of English speakers. We just switch off every day. We don't have the same apartment as them, but they live close and we share the same area so we spend a lot of time with them. They are both cool. One is Elder Mun who is from Brazil and the other is Elder Ren from Utah. They are really cool. Oh, and K is from Las Vegas. Well, my area covers like, well, i don't know exactly, I'm still trying to learn the area, but we cover a small area just a few miles away from the Temple. This place reminds me of 2 places. Its like Mesa and Ventura decided to have a baby, and the baby decided to go ghetto. That is the best way I can describe it. It is super green but no mountains. It is all flat. which is tough because I've always used mountains to kind of help me know where I am and which directions are which, but here its tough, it is all just flat. But, its fine. Like I said, this place is super super ghetto, I feel nervous going to some neighborhoods. There are some pretty freaky stories that I won't tell you, because I don't want you to get worried, but ya, it is super ghetto. umm, I already experienced my first encounter of me thinking I was going to get beat up or shot at. haha. It was actually a funny story, but it would take me forever to explain it. maybe I'll write it in a hand written letter. I also experienced my first baptism, and wedding this past week. So that is cool. K baptized him.
Oh, the language is crazy. I thought I would be alright with the language and be ok. but i am not, it is super crazy, in the mtc white people are talking the language so its easy to understand them, but here, they are natives of the language and they speak really fast so I can hardly understand them. I pretty much just nod my head and let K do all the talking. So I will have to work on that. and yesterday was a cool experience. So me and K, Gas and Rich (gas's trainer) went to a Haitian church last night. It was so freaking cool. It was a chapel a little bit bigger than ours back home, and it was full of black people who speak creole. Here come 3 white kids in white shirts and ties with 1 half black guy, but looks white because he's with us and we go walking in there. so many eyes were staring at us. All they did really though was just sing songs, they said the same line like for 30 minutes. it was funny. Then when they finished they asked all the visitors to introduce themselves. One guy came up with a microphone to me and I was terrified. There were about 300 people in there too. So I handed it to K and he said " nou se misyone yo soti legliz jezikri pou sen denye jou yo e nou kontan pou visite legliz nou" which is, we are missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and we are happy to visit your church. When he started speaking Creole every one's heads and ears purked up and we hear ooh and ahhs and it was cool. Then everyone started clapping and laughing because white people never speak creole. So ya, that was awesome. Then we stayed for like another 20 min. and left. It was definitely the highlight of the week.
Well, its super humid and hot here. I don't even need to work hard and I'm sweating, but its good. well, sounds like you guys are doing good. Can't wait to hear from you guys later. See ya later.
Love, A.J.
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