Elder Flaco Blanco: So I'm in CA Now!

So I'm in California now! My first area is San Francisco 6A, which is apparently really lucky! it's right in the middle of the crazy active city, and lots of missionaries actually never get to serve there the entire mission. So that's cool. My trainer's name is Elder Castleberry, he's cool. We get along fine, but I don't know, it's hard to compare him to Elder Otto just cause we got along super super well. But Elder Castleberry is from Urtah and plays the banjo and the harmonica. I've seen pictures of his massive neckbeard before the mission, and he's just an interesting guy. haha but in all seriousness, he knows his doctrine really well, and his Spanish is quite a bit better than mine. The one big thing is that I'm a lot more out going than he is, he has kind of a hard time talking to strangers, and he always compliments me on how I'm doing with stuff like that.

Elder Castleberry and I are "shotgunning" the area, which means we are both new to San Fran, so we don't know the area, or have any investigators... So we haven't gotten to teach anyone yet, but we set up some appointments with people we met on the streets.

I get so many weird reactions when people are like "Sorry, I don't speak English!" and then I (being super white) start a conversation in Spanish. Some people are like: dang it, I was hoping I could walk away now... but most people (especially the native Mexicans) are super friendly and will have a super friendly/normal conversation with us and will take our cards and invitations and stuff. Actually, no joke, Mexicans are so nice. It's hard to talk to the white people because about 50% of the ones I've met are super rude. But only about 5% of the Latinos I talk to have been difficult. Honestly. They are so nice. And I get to speak Spanish quite a bit.

My apartment is about as big as my bedroom back home. and it's got a loft (where I sleep) above our desks, another bed for my companion, a kitchen in the corner, and a bathroom that doubles as our closets. There's not a lot of walking room, but we're not usually there during the day, so it's all good. But we live on Mission street and 22nd street if anyone wants to look that up. (Dad)

Our area is a "walking/public transport" area, so I get to ride the "bart" (subway) basically everyday. But normally we just walk everywhere.

I might email a bit later, because my comp wants to go eat... haha more later!

Elder Webster

So there's this one lady, Hermana Betty. She's from Guatamala I think, and she's this little ball of energy. She's about 40, and has a couple kids, and she LOVES the missionaries. She only speaks spanish, but I can understand quite a bit of it. Anyway, She feeds us every Thursday, and I just love her already. I showed her son, (age 6) , a coin magic trick, and he totally freaked out. He's pretty funny too. I can tell we're gunna get pretty tight in this area.

Today, I went and checked out pier 39 and "Fisherman's Warf" and Alcatraz and all those tourist spots, because they're right here in our area. It was so crowded, and we usually get a couple honks and handshakes and stuff in crowds. I think if there's one thing I've learned about this culture is that the latino population just loves the missionaries. they're so welcoming and friendly. Even if they aren't interested in lessons or the church, it's always nice to talk to them. I just love the people here.

Oh, I saw a lady get mugged the other day. That was scary. She's alright now, and her boy friend got her purse back, but it was sketch.

I realize most of this hasn't been spiritual, we haven't gotten to teach anyone yet, so I don't have many spiritual stories. But If there's one thing, it's that the gift of tongues is real. I'm not fluent. Not even close. But whenever I'm talking to someone about the gospel, it all just comes out. So for reals, no joke, the gift of tongues. so good.

I'll send some pictures in a second. I didn't get to take any of the graffiti, but I'll get some for next week. the street art looks so cool.