Dear family,
So things again of course are well… Sorry I haven’t sent that SD card or written, I’m working on it. But things are good, we just have Cimarron Ward now, so that’s a lot different. C was baptized Friday with special permission for font side confirmation because her nonmember dad is going out of town for sometime to look for a job. They also had a special hula dance thing, but we didn't go to the baptism. But things are changing a ton with Cimarron, the members are really latching on, there’s been a ton of promotion and all with the changes. I love the ward more than I ever have. I’m glad I’ll probably be here for 7.5 months. Bishop has a solid less active list we have all graphed by neighborhood. We've been meeting and getting close with a lot of families. I’m really excited.
Our district is cool too. First district meeting is tomorrow, it's Elder C, who is actually training as well, and then another 2 missionaries, we now have 3 districts of 6.
But we've met quite a few less active families we're real excited to work with. A few families with kids ages like 8-22 have mentioned this one part member family where the mom has kind of fallen inactive, the husband's not a member, one kid is kind of inactive after a year at BYU and no mission, and their 17 year old son isn't really going to seminary any more, and is falling away from his decision to serve. We spent 45 minutes talking to her and her husband while they were planting flowers yesterday, they are really nice, and when her husband went in she started kind of pouring out her heart talking about her inactivity and why it's so hard,having to have other friends do the kids' baptisms, and ward temple nights and all, which surprised us based on what some other families had said about the way they handle it. It was really cool,and the 17 year old son talked to us for a bit, he and his mom talked about those struggles some together, he clearly was kind of split vs LDS and mission and that life, or a more science/agnostic view, he asked about dinosaurs, but in a very nice curious way, not at all an attack or anything,but it just made it clear what his thoughts were and why he’s not sure if he wants to serve a mission. He’s busy with volleyball but they actually said we could come by tonight and do a missionary lesson just because neither of them have ever heard them, and it’ll help him decide, and hopefully the "Catholic" father will sit in. The son and the mom are both real excited, and so am I. A lot of the big LDS families in the ward with that type of age group have been close to them for sometime,including the father, but the S's reception went way against what I was expecting. (they’re all in a strange looking geographical part of the ward map, where the ward extends to grab a few wealthy neighborhoods with some awesome families) and it's been two years since she’s been to church about, but she’s had periods of their life where they were very active.
But anyways we’ve also met quite a few other families, and all we should start working with, and it's making it easier to connect with the ward because it's people so many of the members really care about. We also had a referral for someone just across the street from our ward boundaries, and it was a Hawaiian lady with her husband, he’s 84, and nonmember, but she’s been active I believe for her whole life, and he recently came to Vegas because he has some brain fluid in his head or something, recently received a blessing, had a great spiritual experience,believes God has brought him to Las Vegas for a reason, for the first time has noticed that his being Catholic was sheerly tradition and not his choice, and for the first time in their marriage has accepted discussions. He’s Portuguese but lived his whole life in Hawaii. He talks a lot and has good and interesting philosophies but gets off track, not like way off track, but just way too much time barely off the point. But that was Elder R's first lesson which was cool. Oh, and so in Sunday school, correlation and Priesthood we were asked to share our testimonies and give words of encouragement and all and what we expect from the ward in missionary work and so we got a whole lot of publicity there, and then this Hawaiian women bore her testimony, and in it pointed us out and talked about how great we are so the whole ward turned their heads to us. She was crying and all, then brought up her experience the day before with us teaching, and pointed to us and said "right there they are" and so things are changing here. This is their 2nd week in Vegas so no one knew them, and they’ll be going to the other ward but it was coolish.
We also got to sit next to a new investigator who just showed at church, apparently had met with missionaries in San Diego and loved it, but lost touch, and came here and found everything on his own. His name was A, looked Egyptian almost from like the 3 I’ve known, and the non-Caucasian guy with jeans on is always easy to find at church as missionaries, but he to is barely outside of our area.
Well anyways, so Elder R (my new companion that I am training) is from Fort Worth, Texas his whole life. His parents have been divorced his whole life and he bounced around weekly between them, his dad active, his mom now Baptist. He’s the oldest of them and his half siblings, and the only active one. He’s a neat kid. He ran track and loves basketball and football, he looks fit too. He has a lot for me to learn, and I’m real excited. He’s kind of got a Texas accent. He has a strong testimony and likes to try and share it. He’s always very happy, I don’t think he’s capable of not smiling, I’ve known a few kids that were similar in high school. He goes with the flow, real easy to lead, and doesn’t hinder things in any other ways, so it's fun, and it’ll be good. Lessons and all more much more enjoyable, now after the fact.
I’m looking forward to this transfer for sure. Elder C’s companion Elder R is pretty cool, he’s from St. Louis, likes sports, kind of quiet, smart... he reminds me kind of of Jerry Fiala.
Well, anyways I’m running out of time but, thanks for all the letters, pictures and articles are still great. So when I sprained my ankle, I hit my hip pretty good, which wasn’t much of a bother, but now my ankles 90%, but my hip really hasn’t gotten any better, it’s really frustrating. Usually it’s fine, but random certain ways I move it sends this extreme sharp pain. I don’t know what to do for it. It was an injury caused by impact, but there was never any bruising or anything, and the pain doesn’t at all match a usual impact injury. But anyways, I love you all,
Elder Pyron
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