Finally...I'm in the Field!

Well, I'm finally in the field. My companion's name is Elder Pearl. He's from South Africa. Before he came on his mission he was a High school teacher, he's 27. He's a pretty good companion. He was originally english speaking and had to learn Spanish out in the field. He speaks Dutch too. He's got the type of humor that most British influenced people have. Yesterday, the first day, We went to temple square and learned how to use that as a tool with our converts. I'm in an area called West Valley. I'm living in a member's home in the basement. They don't really talk to us that much, but it's a decent living place. After we got settled in we went and visited with a person that was supposed to be baptized he's 10, and both his parents are members but went inactive... I think. I'm not really sure. I'm able to follow some Spanish but not everything. Anyways after that we had a meeting with our branch mission leader. I didn't get too much out of it. But I couldn't really talk, because I lost my voice. It's a little better now but it's still a little messed up. After we met with them we went and tracted a little bit. First person we talked to was smoking a cigarette on his porch and grew up in SLC. He accepted the book of Mormon and an appointment for Friday. We also tracted into a Latino guy who accepted the Book of Mormon and said he'd let us come teach him and his family and would think about being baptized. We also gave a LDM to a kid who was interested in what we were doing. And was interested in the church. Then, we talked to this lady who has members in her family and been around the church but didn't feel it was for her. And she said she was willing to hear what we had to say. So we got about 4 appointments in about an hours work. The week before I got here they had 82 baptisms. The President said this isn't a seed planiting mission it's a baptizing mission. And they said to expect a baptism this weekend. They had something like 176 last month. It's crazy how fast the missionary work is going here. This morning I woke up at 5 and we went to the English Elders apartment and then went to the Temple with a member. It was a way neat experience going through the Salt Lake Temple. My companion said we're going every week which is good. Our p-days are usually on wedneday by the way. But and then today we went grocery shopping bought some stuff, went to get a copy of the key to the house and while we were leaving a member came up to us and gave us some money for lunch. So us 4, Elder Moors, Beck, Pearl, and I went to Cafe Rio. It was good.