First email from the actual mission field!

 

     so yeah, it's my first P-day in the actual mission field. I've been here since Wednesday. So far I'm loving it. We're in a tiny area that's like a mile and a half by half a mile. it's straight-up ghetto, and I'm loving it! I mean, it's Utah ghetto, but still. It's like a weird mixture between Compton and West Virginia. I guess it's kinda like a really big Kent street. It's mainly a poor, ethnic neighborhood that's pretty quiet except for the occasional mariachi music or thug rap, sirens, and (I've been told to keep my ears open for it) gunshots. I'm positive it's nowhere near as rough as where the guys in my MTC district are serving in Detroit, but it definitely shatters your perception of Salt Lake City. 

  being in an area so small means that even if though we don't have our bikes yet, we can still walk everywhere in a reasonable amount of time. the great thing about walking is that since you're in the ghetto where a lot of people also don't have cars, and there's plenty of people home in the afternoon, there's always people to talk to. There's a lot of people who are laid-back and willing to listen to you. Everybody's got their excuses for why they aren't ready to/don't want to change, but at least they're not too stuck up to talk to you. And in areas like this, only about 30-40 percent are LDS, and of those, only about half are active, and even then, a lot of those who are active come from part member families. The parts of the mission that are the Mormon stereotypes are more to the north, like Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington, Layton, areas like that. I think they're all in Davis County and some in Utah County. Most of those are where they send the sisters because they're not going to send them out to ghetto places like this. places up there are closer to 80-90 percent Mormon, and they're mostly rich, white, active members. But out here...haha it's awesome. so much diversity. and so many characters. Just in less than a week my companion and I have met so many characters it's crazy. One of the guys we're teaching is on probation for killing a guy back in the 90s . We've talked to plenty of people who'll be in the streets smoking a cigarette (or a blunt) and claim that they're Mormon. there's people who we ask if they're LDS, and they truly have no idea if they are or not. it's pretty wild.

   yeah, the work out here's pretty crazy but i'm loving it. I want to bear my testimony that doing this work is the best possible thing anyone can do at my age, and that it changes and blesses your life so much. I know this church is true and that people lives can be made so much better if they truly turn their hearts to following god. 

   Love everyone!