Samuel's Mission E-mail May 30, 2008

Everyone:
Well, due to Memorial Day, we couldn't e-mail on Monday, and for reasons I'm about to explain, today is the first day of the week we've had time to get to a library. So, now, to get to that reason: I am now in a trio. I'll explain more in a bit.
Tuesday of last week, we did some tracting, checking less-actives, refs, and former investigators, etc. In the evening, we were put in a trio. I am now with Elder Gathro from Florida in addition to Elder Chadwick. Elder Gathro's companion had to go home for some reason, so our areas have been put together for the rest of the transfer, which has caused some interesting scheduling fun. So, I'm now in both Downey and Bell Gardens. Bell Gardens is a much more Spanish-speaking area, so I've been speaking Spanish again.
So, on Wednesday, we had our first day of working as a trio. We did a bit of tracting, did our service at the care home, and then we tried to visit several appointments that Elder Gathro had. None of them were home, though, but we did visit some other people in his area. In the evening, we had Downey ward correlation meeting and talked about Rosie's baptism, and we visited the Aguilar family (yes, another Aguilar family), who are a part-member family where the wife and a son are working towards baptism.
On Thursday, we had weekly planning in the early part of the day. In the afternoon, we visited Jose Cabrera, who is the non-member in another part-member family. In the evening we visited Manette, who is one of the less-actives here in Downey, as well as Maira, a recent convert in Bell Gardens, and Luis Magana (the n has a ~), who is an investigator in Bell Gardens.
On Friday, we had our district meeting, in which we talked a bit about the elder who went home and how important it is to stay with your companion. In the afternoon, we tracted, we taught Rosie the last couple of things she needed to know before her baptism, we visited the familia Soliz who are another family in Bell Gardens that were having some trouble coming to church recently (we found out the brother didn't know how to tie a tie), and we visited the Aguilar family.
On Saturday, we did a bit of contacting in a park, had lunch with the familia Garcia, and we worked on getting to know some of the members of the Bell Gardens ward.
On Sunday, I went with Elder Gathro to the Bell Gardens ward while Elder Chadwick stayed with a member in the Downey 1st ward. In the afternoon, we did a bit of tracting with some youth in the ward, did a bit more getting to know members, and tried to visit some of the Bell Gardens investigators who didn't come to church.
On Monday we had a crazy preparation day. We did our purchases and cleaning, and then Elder Gathro had a painting project he had to do for the mission which took most of the day and some of the next day. In the evening we visited Maira again and the familia Aguilar.
I think I'll leave the rest for telling next week. This whole trio thing has been very interesting, and I'm glad we've got a lot of work going on in Bell Gardens. I'm just a bit worried that we're getting pulled away from Downey too much. But, Rosie's baptism is this Sunday, so I'm pretty happy in general.
Elder Samuel Stephens