Samuel's Mission e-mail July 30, 2007

Everyone:

Well, as you've probably guessed from the subject line, I've been transferred East in the mission to a little area called Watts. If you don't know what Watts is, it's known for being the starting place of some of the race riots in LA, I believe. Suffice it to say that it's a little bit different from Westchester. However, oddly enough, I don't really feel at all afraid to be here--I enjoy it, actually. The demographics of our area are about half Latinos and half African-Americans, so I've been having more opprotunity to practice my Spanish. Anyways, on to the week report:

Monday afternoon of last week was pretty standard. Tuesday we did some tracting and such, and in the evening we got our transfer calls and I packed up to head to Watts. On Wednesday, I came over here to Watts, after having a bit of difficulty getting Elder Escobedo's companion to our apartment so that he wouldn't be alone, and I met my new companion, Elder Allred. Elder Allred is from South Dakota, from a town of about 24,000, so his hometown isn't too much different from Madison. Sort of. Anyways, Wednesday evening we went out and I met some of the less-active families we're working on bringing to church.

On Thursday we did some service for one of the less-actives in our area, taught a family called the Williams family who we got as a referral on Wednesday, planned, visited a member who's in a convalescent (spelling?) hospital named Norman, had dinner with one of the members of the South Gate 2nd Ward (the Spanish-speaking ward for our area--the other ward we work with is the Southwest LA Branch), and tried to have correlation with the South Gate 2nd Ward only to find that it had been cancelled without our notification.

On Friday we tracted for a while--an experience that's a little bit different in Watts than in Westchester, due to the much larger number of dogs, fences, and locks here, as well as the demographic differences--and then I got to meet Sherri Thompson, our top investigator. Sherri is one of those people that you only get once on your mission because she's been so prepared. She's getting baptized next week. After meeting her, we visited another less-active family.

On Saturday, we met with Sherri again, tracted a bit, contacted a referral, had a meeting with the South Gate Ward, and then had Sherri's baptismal interview.

On Sunday, I attended the Southwest LA Branch with our district leader's companion while our district leader attended the South Gate 2nd Ward with Elder Allred. The Southwest LA Branch actually has four companionships working in its area, and South Gate 2nd has eight, so we actually see other missionaries quite a bit on Sundays. After church, we went around and invited some of the less-active families in our area to a baptism one of the other companionships that attends the South Gate 2nd Ward was having, and then went to the baptism. Afterwards we visited another less-active hermana.

Today has been a fairly standard Preparation Day. We had Zone Dodgeball, washed our car, and bought some dish soap and other such things.
Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever. --D&C 122: