Week 14

 It was a slow week. We honestly didn't get a lot done, I wasn't in the proper mindset for a lot of it. But I'm in a better place now and I'm ready to get back to work.


A lot of our success has been among the Hispanic residents of the city. More than half of the people we're meeting with now are Latino, and the places we frequent while tracting tend to have a lot of Spanish speakers. My favorite place to go so far is this public park in the southwest of our area, Los Olivos. The name is very fitting because it's actually a large grove of olive trees, with real olives on them and everything. The olives aren't in season right now so they're all light green, but honestly it wouldn't matter either way because I hate olives. Still, I can appreciate the beauty of the park. We often so around sunset, and if there's one thing Phoenix is known for, it's spectacular sunsets (something about how all the smog filters the sunlight at dusk). Seeing the orange and pink sky lit up behind the silhouettes of the olive trees is actually very beautiful. And it often makes me think of another, rather more important olive grove.

Since we've been talking to so many Spanish speakers, I've been expanding my vocabulary. Along with "JesuChristo le ama,"(Jesus loves you) and "Solo en los martes" (only on Tuesdays), I can now say "Yo se que JesuChristo vive" (I know Jesus Christ lives) and "Este un libro de JesuChristo"(this is a book about Jesus Christ). Elder Cook carries around a little English-to-Spanish booklet for missionaries which we stole from some Spanish Elders. He thinks he should have been a Spanish missionary, and he has a Duolingo streak that's close to 220 days long. Which means it's always really funny when he has to stop and flip through his little booklet, saying "Mi Espanol es moy pequeño" and awkwardly stammering through the suggested phrases. Meanwhile I get to stand silently by, understanding about 0.1% of the conversation. We always end up referring the Spanish speakers to the other missionaries, but it's kind of funny that we can't talk to so many of the interested people we meet. We honestly referred more people to the Spanish missionaries this week than we found for ourselves. 

We were in Los Olivos street contacting one evening and this one shirtless guy shouted out a hello to us and waved from across the park. We met in the middle and he introduced himself. He claimed to be a member of the Church- turns out he was baptized when he was 12 but hasn't been to church "in a while." He had a bunch of tattoos over his chest and back, which he showed off and explained the symbolism of. Turns out he is a devout Christian, and wants to emulate the example of his Savior. The way to do that, of course, being to cover his entire body in ink. Bleeding at every pore, get it? I'm not quite sure how Christ would feel about a man covering himself in Playboy logos and flaming skulls as a form of worship, but hey, Article of Faith 11 and all that. The name the man gave us, somewhat appropriately, was "Hood." He was a nice guy, honestly the friendliest person we talked to that night. We explained some things about missionary work, exchanged pleasantries. I wanted to compliment him on his nipple rings but wasn't quite brave enough to do so. 

Exchange
I went on another exchange with the Osborne Elders- aka the chumps on bike. The district leader Elder Thorne went to my area, and I got to work over there with his trainee Elder Bain. So I got to be one of the chumps on bike. My my, how the turn tables...

It was a fun day. It was a lot cooler than the last time I was on bike, a chilly 100⁰ (after so much time above 110 I think people were about ready to break out the sweaters). We talked to a couple of people, including one really weird guy over the phone. I learned that being a biking missionary doesn't have to always be terrible. Elder Bain was a lot more patient than Elder Thorne and didn't keep zooming far ahead and circling back. The bike I was using was better than the first one as well. Elder Bain and I had a lot of fun joking around and had a great time. 

I appreciate all your emails, please keep sending them. 

Faithfully Yours,
Elder C. Calder









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