THE WORK IS GOING FORTH!

Hello hello hello!!!!

Thank you soooooo much for the letters! That made my week!!!!! They were really uplifting and really funny too!! It's really nice to get letters from friends and family!!!! I love you all sooo much!!!!!! And I heard from Alesha too!!! It's good to hear from everybody.

First item of business: I'm really excited for some delicious homemade rhubarb jam!!! I told my companion about it awhile back, and now we get some!!! Thanks mom! Second item of business: I really miss doughnuts. Third item of business: THE WORK IS GOING FORTH!!!!

Elder Hopoate and I got transfered to a new area called Jefferson Park. It is southwest of downtown. I can't see the Hollywood sign anymore, or downtown. We are still on bike, and our area is quite a bit bigger than my last area, so we get a workout riding all over the place. We have a bunch of new people that we are trying to visit. And as of right now we have two investigators,She is planning on baptism for later this month! The only problem is getting her to church. She has been there once with her son, but she works a lot of sundays. Her son, is a little different story.... Bryan and his little sister are being raised without a father, so life is not the same for him as it was for me. A kind man in the ward picks him up for church each week, and he goes to mutual too. He is a very nice kid, but he has some serious problems that need to be resolved before we can baptize him. It is very sad. I went to class with him at church yesterday, and we really want to help him out, but it is a very difficult case. We will keep trying hard to help him out though.

Tomorrow I'm teaching a piano lesson to a little 3 or 4 year old girl. She is a really smart cute little girl, and she wants to learn how to play. I believe her grandma is a recent convert, and she has been stuck at home because of surgery, so my companion will visit with her while I sit there and teach piano! It should be pretty fun. I am still playing the piano for the Spanish ward too.

Mom, I think it was you that asked me about the food I eat, so I'll answer your question-- LOTS OF LATINO FOOD. haha most of it is really good too. The most common thing we eat is chicken, rice, beans, and tortillas. They make their chicken in lots of different ways, and it's really tasty. The Latinos love tortillas. They eat lots of them. I love tortillas! Sometimes they make their tortillas too. They don't eat them like we do though. Lots of people tear the tortilla up and use the pieces as a scoop, or they put the food on the little piece and eat it. The Mexican style is to roll the tortilla up like a scroll, and they take a bite out of it after they put the chicken, rice, or beans in their mouth. That is my favorite way to eat them. Also, there is a really good food called pupusas. Pupusas are an El Salvadorian food. They are tasty! It is kind of like a thick tortilla filled with cheese, or beans, or meat, or whatever. My companion loves them! Mom, you should learn how to make them. It would definitely be the hit meal for the next ward pot-luck haha. There is another food that is super good. I've only had it once, but it is called Yuca Soup. MMMMMmmmm! They put big pieces of meat, corn cob, lettuce, and yuca in water and they cook it up. Yuca is a root, and the texture is kind of like a potato. It is almost as good as mom's Chicken Pinwheels, but not quite. The Latinos make really good food. But the food I make at the apartment is a little less than impresive. I won't even go into that.

Story time: We went to church yesterday, and there was a return missionary who was speaking in the ward. He served his mission in Mexico, and his mom wasn't a member. He was asked to perform a baptism that afternoon. He wasn't told who he would be baptizing, but he went anyway. Even right before the baptism he didn't know who he would be baptizing. He didn't know until he stepped into the water, and he saw his mom standing in the baptismal water. It turns out that she had been taking the missionary lessons while he was gone serving his mission. He walked into the water, and they hugged each other for a long time. He then baptized his mother, and they both walked out of the water as members of the Lord's Church. It was a very cool experience.

It is starting to get very hot here. The mixture of hot weather, humidity, dark pants, and bicycle riding is the recipe for a yucky missionary haha. But it's not too bad. Our area is pretty flat, so we don't have to climb many hills on our bikes, which is a good thing.

Lindsey, good luck with all your soccer stuff! You are going to be super good when I get home!

Emily, it sounds like you are having a nice summer. GET A JOB! Sincerely, your brother.

Alesha, thank you for the letters! Oh yeah, congratulations! I'm excited to hear I'm going to have a little niece or nephew!

Andrew, thanks for the advice, it was really helpful. I wrote down that quote by Gordon B. Hickley!

Dad, it sounds like you are still being awesome. I hope you survived with everybody gone at girl's camp.

Mom, Hi. I love you!I'm really excited for the jam too!!!!!!

Family, I love you all so much!!!!! It's really good to hear from you! The Lord has blessed our family so much! I never realized how much we are blessed until I came out here. Thanks to the Lord we are able to have a tightly woven quilt of love to fall on when times get hard. I know our Savior lives. We are so blessed to have His gospel today. We are able to walk in the light of the Lord and receive guidance through the Spirit, and live happy lives. The path is narrow, but all is possible if we stay close to what we know is true, and come back when we swerve off the path. I love you all! Keep smiling!!!!!!

With love,

Elder Ross Watkins