Dear Family!
So it has been another great week, but first I'll address some of your questions. The thing without a battery was an atomic clock with a thermometer, we don't have a thermostat downstairs, but Tuesday night we asked a member who gave us a fan, so that is good. We have a 2012 Corolla; missionary vehicles are all later than 2010, and there are Focuses, Malibus, Corollas, and a few trucks and mini vans. The church recently declined a deal with BMW, so we won't be getting those. So Monday after I emailed we went to a store called Cardenas for some Horchata. It's a Mexican grocery store, the size of Walmart, with loud music, and really cool murals and all. I really liked the atmosphere, there was a lot of stuff that looked good and they had cheap fruits and all. I ended up getting a big thing of some Aloe Vera Strawberry drink, mostly I really wanted the 1.5 liter bottle it came in. It was good, but it's like drinking Jello. There's a lot of Aloe Vera out here. Outside places like Home Depot, groups of Mexicans gather, and charge $10 an hour..and basically customers can bring them home to do what ever job they visited home depot to get supplies for. They're not like Home Depot employees or anything, but it's kind of neat, I wonder how much work they get.
I keep a note pad that I try to list points I want to hit in my email, but I'm not perfect.. so yeah. So today is transfers, and we are both staying. However, someone's car is in the shop, and we are losing our car tonight, and will be on bikes for a week, so I guess I'll finally see how that goes. I finished the Book of Mormon the other day! I could have never guessed how much enjoyment I could get from it, and I am started on the New Testament, which I hope to finish by the end of this transfer. It's a lot different, and I'm still kind of adapting to effective marking for it and all. Did you get my letter to James? I will send my SD card tomorrow, I do apologize for the lack of stuff on it though. I did like 3 quick videos to tour my stuff and desk. And then there's some/a lot of pictures I took that have no meaning besides I was having fun with the camera, but I deleted a lot of those (they still might be the majority though). Keep sending me pictures, I love 'em.. but could I get some more from the beach, and maybe some from childhood? It's weird, I haven't been homesick at all, but at random times, I get real caught up in my childhood, and I get really nostalgic about Legos, Star Wars, Pokemon, reptiles, baseball and just about everything. The feelings are what I miss most...like me and James having the upstairs to ourselves on a rainy day and playing legos and talking, and when I used to have alone time where I would "work" on legos, reptile binders/drawings, Pokemon card decks, and going through my baseball cards. Mostly all early in the morning when it's still dark, or if it's rainy. I guess they're feelings there's no point in trying to describe, not to mention this letter is kind of inappropriate time for all of that. Anyways, so today there's no Pday activity (because of transfers), so we kinda shopped and toured a little. So this week we had another lesson with Art, we talked a lot about Ether 12:27 and the whole chapter really. He sounds more committed about the October 20th baptism, so that's exciting. We taught a recently baptized lady the last new member lesson at her home, and it went really well, she really likes having us and having gospel talk. We picked up a referral who has had the first lesson... but she is 10, has no member family members, and no one in her family wants the lessons, her mom just thinks she's old enough to be independent so we will see how that goes. We haven't met her yet. We spent a lot of time this week visiting all the inactives in the "Pirate's Cove" apartments. All of the members describe Pirate's Cove, at least two sections of it, as a drug haven. We have members and investigators who live in 1 of the 4 sections, but they are in the best one. We didn't get a whole lot of success, mostly drug addicts, and one lady that works in the strip doing show stuff for the Chippendales. I met one lady from DC who is a legless 60 some year old black women, who was baptized 9 years ago. She put us on the phone with her husband who I guess she is trying to convert, but he is currently on the run from the police and hiding out in another state. He seemed nice though. She had all these cuts on her wrists and neck it looked like she inflicted her self, it's pretty sad. She was really nice, but I don't know how to describe it, I don't think the description I just gave really captures it. I also knocked on one door in the area which is by far the worst... when I knocked we heard this really just mean sounding scream "who is it?!" and then there was silence for a while and then the door kind of cracked open. The kid that answered was this black kid who was about 15, had tattoos all up his body, and black teeth, and he asked what we wanted. I saw there were a bunch of people in the kitchen/ living room all staring at the door, and I asked if P lived there. It was one of the creepiest things I've experienced I guess. It was the middle of the day, but it was VERY dark in there, and there was a table with about 7 people all huddled around, and they were all just blankly staring at the door. Our encounter there was really brief, but the image in there just locked in my mind. I don't think I'll forget it. It was really scary. It just felt awful.. they were all black and looked older, but with the lighting in there it was like mostly silhouette. I wasn't scared in the way someone might by just being around potentially dangerous people, it just felt creepy. Like what goes on in there, they looked so like scared, and they were just huddled in the dark. What's that teenage kid that lives there's life like? It just was a nasty place and feeling. Anyways, we had another good lesson with A and C. The grandparents teach the grandkids a ton, really know the gospel, and are doing a lot to teach the kids those things. We are working with the Bishop on that one.
Oh, not sure what it was, but the other day we saw a dentist office that stood alone, and they had barriers blocking both entrances, and there were at least 10 police cars surrounding it, and no one else was in there, except there was an SUV and a mustang. It was just odd, it didn't look like an emergency situation by any means, and I only saw like one actual police officer, I guess they were searching inside. Oh, probably 3 times we've seen cars and houses with a bunch of cops, and then police with gloves searching. But we never see anyone actual getting arrested. Oh, and at a dinner the other day we had Orange Julius's which I had had before, but they are AMAZING, mom you should try making them. I forgot, C came to church Sunday, and we taught him Thursday, and we are again on Thursday. We just need to get them on the right track again. But anyways, let me know how things are going in Richmond, and in the news and all, and of course with the family life. I love you all so much,
Elder Pyron
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