The Gates of Hell

Hola familia,

Don't let the title of my email alarm you. I wish you could get the pictures immediately, but the Gates of Hell is the name of a bronze sculpture on Stanfords campus that we got pictures in front of. It's about twenty feet tall and very intimidating. We couldn't help but get some pictures there as missionaries.

This week has been amazing. The weather has decided to be sunny for the first time since I've gotten here. We even got into the eighties on thursday. The citrus trees have fruit and the whole world is perfect. We have been very busy this week with trying to get our investigators to keep commitments. This has been the first real test of their level of commitment. Some have proven to be less committed than others.

I go on exchange tommorrow with the District Leader, Elder Pitcher. He's in the two Stanford singles wards. This will give me a chance to practice some of my rusty English skills. I'm always amazed at how long we can go without speaking English. Sometimes it is a little tricky to guess which language to use at certain times. I'm beggining to read the body language of peoples responses and begginging to be better at making the guess. For the most part, people under the age of eighteen all speak English and are much more comfortable reading and speaking English, however, they understand Spanish perfectly. This sometimes makes for weird family relationships where parent and child speak their respective languages and both understand the other enough to communicate.

Once again,

Love,

Elder Badger