I've Been Whitewashed!!!

Hola,

It feels like forever since I last wrote home. I have been whitewashed to Redwood City, CA. FIrst off, let me say that I love it here. It is amazing.

The first day after arriving in California was very long. It involved a lot of meetings and training at the mission office in San Jose. It was nice to finally leave Provo. I could tell when I got off the plane and saw the grey clouds and felt the humidity that I was in the right place. After all of the training on my first day we were then shipped off to Redwood City. It's a fairly urban city way up on the penninsula. I'm about as far north as you can go in my mission. If we go any farther north, we enter the Oakland mission. My companion is Elder Tidwell from Colorado. He's amazing and has some of the best Spanish I've ever heard. The investigators and contacts constantly comment on it which helps us to set return appointments.

Now, about being whitewashed. Let me say, it is a very interesting experience. I realize how important it is to have a well kept area book and how wonderful referrals are. Please give referrals to the missionaries. I know its scary, but people are much more accepting of the gospel than you would expect. Also please feed the missionaries we love it. On that note, I'm so glad I'm in California because we get to experience a wide variety of Latin culture. Our ward has many members from El Salvador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala, and a few from Brazil. This leads to a varied experience at every appointment. So far we have had Mole from Mexico, Papusas from El Salvador, and PB and J for the night we didn't have an appointment. Because we have been whitewashed into an area we have almost no investigators in our books. As such, we have been doing alomost all finding. It is beggining to pay off because we already have thirteen return appointments set for this week. That's the potential for thirteen new investigators.

About my Spanish. I'm amazed, I understand almost all of the Spanish that I have heard. My speaking still has a long way to go, but I have many opportunites to practice. It's amazing how much Heavenly Father blesses missionaries when they need to communicate with people.

About the area. I'm in a very diverse city near Palo Alto. The trick is finding the pockets with all of the Latinos. This can be tricky at times, but we manage. I had the opportunity to go on exchange with the English speaking elders on Stanford. I makes me realize how grateful I am to work with Latinos.

I love you all. I'm so grateful to be here. I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. Good luck back home. I'll let you know more next week.

Love,

Elder Badger