San Bernardino. The one and only.

I'm not sure if my dear mother told all of you or not, but just like I guessed I am in the San Bernardino 1st ward. This place is pretty different from any other area I've served it. First off, it is obviously super ghetto. I mean, tons of poverty here and things like that. There are always people outside, more than I've seen in my whole life. There are just always people walking on the streets and things. By the way, I'm in a car. Also, this ward is comprised of mostly senior citizens. There are probably 4 young families that are active. It is super different for me.

 

Here's a little bit about my week.

 

On Tuesday I spent from 7:30 am to 2 pm sitting in meetings and things like that. It was great. I met my new companion, Elder Alba. He's a pretty cool kid from Oregon. This is just his 2nd transfer, so I'm finishing up his training. He wasn't trained that well by his previous companion, so I'm trying to help him learn how to actually be a missionary. The cool thing is that Elder Alba will be going to Brazil once his visa comes through. I might be with him only a few more days, but probably at least this whole transfer.

 

Studying is a very long process each day. Because Elder Alba is being trained, we have 2 hours of companion study each day. So it starts at 8:00am and we have personal study for 1 hour, the companion study for 2, then, because my companion is learning Portuguese, he studies for an additional hour, then we have lunch. So when that is all over it is 1:00pm. Kinda different for me.

 

What we did for most of Wednesday and Thursday is just meet our investigators. Elder Alba couldn't tell me too much about them, so we tried to meet them. I met Terry and Arty, an older black couple. We were actually going to go in to drop them because they just were not progressing. The cool thing, though, was that right then and there they told us that they would quit smoking and they even gave us their cigarettes to take away. We've even called them a couple of times and seen them, and they told us they only smoked a nubb of a cigarette each, and since then, nothing. They are a pretty cool couple.

 

We have some Spanish missionaries who cover the same area as us, but for the Spanish ward, and so they give us people to go see all the time. The weird thing is that when we try to contact them, they are never home! So we actually didn't find any new investigators this week. We tried, though. Contacting people here is totally different from any area I've been in, because a lot of the time people are willing to at least give us chance. Unlike Rancho Cucamonga which they would just shut us down as quickly as possible.

 

Yesterday at church was different as well. There aren't very many active ward members, so sacrament meeting was kinda sparse. They asked me to bear my testimony as well. A good way for people to know who I am. Most of the priesthood holders in this ward are High Priests, so other than my companion and me, there were 5 people in Elder's Quorum. What I do like about our Gospel Principles class is that nearly everyone there is a recent convert. That is cool.

 

So far I've liked everyone that I have met in the ward. They are all super nice. Our ward mission leader is a different kind of guy. He's very in your face. Not in a bad way, but he's not afraid to tell you how things are. For example, when it comes to telling people what they need to do to help us missionaries out, he calls everyone out and says they aren't doing there job very well. Kinda funny.

 

I'm still trying to get used to the whole being senior companion thing. I just want to stay junior companion! It was so much easier back then.

 

I've got to go. Almost dinner time and all. Thanks for being so great, all of you!

 

Now go, and be Golden,

Elder R. Sage Taylor