Dear mom,

 

To answer the question about the hispanic people learning English. A lot of them don't need to learn English. They usually stick to one area.  They're not spread out. So in a particular area, they will have hispanic restaurants and stores where everyone speaks Spanish. Some people speak English. They also speak Spanish in their jobs. They have no need to speak English. They can easily survive on just Spanish. Some people really want to learn English because of better job opportunities. Also, English is hard for them to learn. They always bring up how English is harder to learn than Spanish because the way it is written is the way it is said. You can learn to pronounce it easily and English is so completely random at spelling. We always come back and say that Spanish changes the verb a million times. It's kind of weird to explain, but they both have their ups and downs. It's fun though.

 

I don't know about the Les Mis thing. I just heard that the new movie wasn't that great. I guess they can't say if it's bad or not if they haven't seen it though! Talking about movies, I just remembered the other day that a new Saints and Soldiers movie is coming out. It's called Saints and Soldiers Airbourne. I saw it in a Desert Book magazine. Put that on the list! haha.

 

I remember Mrs. Lee being a nice teacher but I think she would get a little frustrated sometimes. I remember I was playing with my glasses and she told me to stop. Other than that she was a good teacher. I don't remember much else from that class. That was Brandon Walker's last year at Aspen Elementary, I remember. I remember Mr. Taylor. I can't believe he's still teaching! I had Mr. Rigby though in 5th grade. I want to hear Kelsie and Kyle's schedule for this year. Kelsie's anthropology class sounds really fun. You should tell her to write me about it.

 

I miss those good hamburger places. JCW's, Carls Jr., Apollo Burger. They don't have anything like that that I've seen. Only Burger King and McDonalds. Bleh.. I'll keep looking for a good hamburger place though. I guess hispanics aren't big american food fans. And all the black people are all about the fried chicken.

 

I can't believe Kyle found a book to read! It's kind of a crazy book with lots of violence and some swearing. And even for me it was a little difficult to follow sometimes because there is always a lot going on at the same time. I guess as long as he's reading and enjoying doing it, it should be good. Maybe he'll move on to something else after. Good for him!

 

The last book in that series was the craziest book! I couldn't put it down! That's a really cool quote from Bono. It's totally true. I really love how the author puts all that stuff about the Church in there. I remember when I was reading, there was a lot of signs of the second coming in there. I'm sure you've read about the red moon now, right? I remember a couple others, but I don't want to give anything away. But, what other things have you seen in there so far??

 

So here's a funny story that happened to me just yesterday after Church. The English Elders had a baptism in the Scotch Plains 1 Ward right after church. We went over there to watch. (I ended up playing the piano.) So they did the baptism and it was really good. Afterwards, all of us were in the hallway eating. The English Elders had an investigator that came to church that day and also came to watch the baptism. He was from Ecuador, but since he spoke perfect English, they had been teaching him. There's also a lady in their ward from Ecuador. For whatever reason, she likes church in English better, so she was there too. She saw him and started speaking in Spanish to this 18 year old kid from Ecuador in Spanish. I was standing off to the side just listening in on their Spanish conversation. She asked him if his family was meeting with the missionaries. He said no because they're very Catholic. She then told him "that if there's something better you have to switch to it. For exampe, if there's a better job opportunity, you have to take it to survive. The same goes with the Gospel." He knodded. I then asked him in Spanish, "Does your family speak English or only Spanish?" He looked at me kind of puzzled. Then he said, "No. Only Spanish." I tried to explain that we could teach them in Spanish, but he cut me off and asked me in English, "Where are you from??? Are you from Portugal?? Where??" It was so funny! Apparently he's never seen an American speak Spanish before! I told him that I'm from here, the United States. He asked me in Spanish, "You learned Spanish??" I say, "Si." He went on to say how everyone here thinks that hispanics have to learn English if they want to live here. I told him that we believe that everyone will learn about the Gospel in their own language. I said there are missionaries here that learn Spanish. Missionaries go to Central and South America and learn Spanish. They also go to Europe and learn German, France, Italian, Russian, whatever it is. This guy thought it was pretty cool. I told him that if he wants us to teach his family in Spanish, that my companion and I both speak Spanish. Hopefullly we can teach him in the future!

 

Well, that's the cool story for the week! Transfers are here. My companion is being transfered. I'm staying here in Plainfield. Tomorrow, we will go to Short Hills, NJ for transfer conference and to pick up my new companion. Should be fun!

 

Just a few minutes ago, it was raining like crazy! New Jersery gets some crazy rain storms. Like completely drenched in seconds crazy! Super fun.

 

Q of the W:

1.  What would you like or need for your birthday? :) 

 

I haven't really thought about that. I'll let you know next week.

2.  Does your branch have 3 hours of church like us?  Do they have the same classes and auxillaries like we do?  Probably a dumb question but I was wondering...

 

Pretty much the same thing. Just minature sized. Elders quorum has like 8 or 9. Relief Society - 8 or 9. Primary, haha - 3, nursey, I think 3 as well. No young men, like 2 or 3 young women. And they all go to their classes after Sacrament and do their thing

3.  How often do you have personal interviews with President Jeppson?

 

I think they're about every four months. The next one's should be Christmas time or January.

Hi mom,

So this last week was interviews. They were great! President Jeppson is still recovering. He's usually in a normal chair with us, but his doctor told him that he has to be in a recliner for the interviews and they can only be 15 minutes. It was great! I love talking to President Jeppson, especially one on one.

 

I don't know if I've told you, but every Wednesday and Saturday we teach English class. It's really fun. The Church made their own English program that we go by. Teaching English is so fun. Sometimes you just go on talking to them and you can just see it in their face that they don't understand you. It's so funny. Then I realized that's probably how I looked for the first 7 months of my mission! It's still fun to teach them and say stuff they don't understand. We don't have too many students though. Probably about 7 students total, but they don't always come every day. Sometimes we'll get people to teach from that too. This last Wednesday we missed English class because of the interviews. The interviews were at the Mission Home in Morristown. It's about 35 minutes away. We were about 50 minutes late to English class. Yikes. We're going to make a Tres Leches cake for them this Wednesday. Tres Leches cake is this really good cake made with three different types of milk.

 

Diego did not come on Sunday. He says that he really wants to get baptized but he sleeps in every Sunday morning. That makes me wonder how badly he really does want to be baptized. His mom came though! She reallys wants to learn more about the church. It'll be good teaching her more.

 

I do hate playing the piano in front of people. I did alright this past Sunday. There's another girl in the Branch who plays the piano. She hasn't come to Church in a while because she hates playing in front of people. She got really excited when she found out that I play piano. I told her that we should take turns. She agreed and now is coming back to church! She'll play next week for Sacrament meeting. Hopefully she doesn't go less active again when I leave.

 

This last Friday I think, we went over to a members house from the English ward. We watched President Monson's birthday thing. It was good. I think we only liked it because it's the only form of TV we are allowed to watch. They had a few special singers there that I've never heard of. One of them sung Bring Him Home from Les Mis. It brought back some memories. I also heard that the new Les Mis wasn't all that great though.

 

Well, I forgot to bring my planner to emails this week, so hopefully I didn't forget anything interesting that happened.

 

Love you mom,

-Justin

 Q of the W:

1.  Have you had thunder and lightning storms?  

 

It rains almost every day at least a little. Lately there have been pretty good 30 minute storms with lots of lightning. I think the hurricane season is coming up :)

2.  Does New Jersey get fires?  Utah has had a lot of fires this year.  Another one just recently started.

 

I haven't heard of any fires. It's way too humid here for fires I think.

3.  How are your clothes and shoes holding up?  Have you bought any new clothes?

 

I haven't bought really any new clothes. My one pair of Rockports, the rubber soles on the bottom are starting to wear away a little. I've heard that Rockports do that more than other shoes. I might have to eventually buy another pair. I had to buy a new pair of jeans a couple weeks ago. The ones I brought out with me got a huge tear in the knee. I'm also going to have to buy new running shoes really soon. Mine are terrible.

Mom,

 

I'm so happy that Kyle got the card. I was really pleased with it when I found it. That sounds like an awesome birthday. I heard that there is a Six Flags down in southern New Jersey. I heard it's home to the fastest rollercoaster in the nation. Not sure, but sounds like fun.

 

I finally got my package. The raspberry jam is AMAZING! However, it did somehow leak during the mailing process. There was a little bit of a mess in the plastic bag and on some newspaper. Nothing on the candy or backpack. One container of jam was about half full, haha! It was thicker jam but it was still awesome. I haven't gotten to the other thing yet. That one is a little more full. It didn't leak quite as much.

 

I heard that Matt Damon doesn't play Bourne in the Bourne Legacy. I heard about that movie, but I had no idea it already came out! Wow. What's that movie about?

 

So the FHE went pretty well. We played a really fun game. We gave all the members a slip of paper. We told them to write their names on it, then to write down what they want the person next to them to do. It could be anything. Sumersault, jumping jacks, singing, whatever. Then we gathered all the papers and told them that whatever they wrote on the paper is what they have to do. It was a great game, but nothing was very creative. They were laughing a lot. Before the FHE, we were setting up the room and trying to figure out to turn off the heat in the building. I started playing around on the piano. Then the Branch President walked in. He saw me playing piano... I'm now the pianist for the Branch. Should be interesting.

 

A few days ago, we were teaching this 12 year old named Diego. He's been taught for some time now. His problem is that he never comes to church. We went to his house after about a month. We were teaching him about church and the importance of church. It was a pretty spiritual lesson. He said that he's a little sad because his parents are both Catholic and they're not really up for him getting baptized. We promised him that if he came to church every Sunday for the next two months, his parents would change their minds and let him be baptized on September 30th. He said okay and that he would come to church. I was really excited to see him at church this Sunday. I know that his parents can change their minds. I saw it when I was in Dover. Sunday came, and Diego never showed up. I don't know if this kid is actually ready to be baptized.  We're going to have to go over there this week and ask him why. Pretty sad.

 

But, the Branch President and his wife brought a lady named Carina and her son to church for the second time. She's really interested in learning more. We've already taught her about the Restoration. President Rojas told us that she's reading the Book of Mormon everyday and that she's enjoying it. Hopefully she'll be getting baptized soon. She'll definately be baptized sometime in the future. She's a really solid investigator!

 

Those are the highlights of the week. Eating at Casanova's still. Amazing pizza!

 

Q of the W:

1. I think about those books you bought before you left. The ones that tell you what the scriptures are saying? How are they working out for you? Do you use them often?

 

I don't use them super often. But they do come in handy sometimes and they're very interesting. I just want to make sure I'm spending most of my time in the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, and the New Testament sometimes.

2. Do you still give eachother haircuts?

 

Sometimes. In my last area, there was a member in the English Branch that owned a hair salon. She gave us haircuts.

3. How often do you eat at other peoples houses?

 

At least once a week. Often twice a week. There's one amazing family. It's the Medina Family. They're super nice. I love them! They want us to come over every Tuesday at 6. They're pretty famous. It's called a Medina Meal. It's famous because she feeds us a ridiculous amount. :) I've been able to finish all of them so far! I feel accomplished. They're going through a rough time right now and last week we gave both Brother and Sister Medina Priesthood Blessings. That was really awesome!

 

Love you mom!

 

-Justin
 

Dear Mom,

 

I still haven't gotten the package yet. I actually live a little ways away from the Mission Office and the other missionaries that live close to us don't go there that very often. I hope it's there. I called Sister Suzuki the other day and asked her if that she sees my package to put it in the fridge, haha! Hopefully that'll work. I'm craving that raspberry jam! I'm really glad that they all got the letters at the same time. I was hoping that would happen so no one would feel left out. Speaking of letters. I sent a birthday card to Kyle. Apparently it was too big and they sent it back to me Friday saying that I need to put another stamp on it. I forgot to put it in the mailbox this morning. I know his birthday is tomorrow and he'll get the card late. But it's a good card! I was proud of it when I found it! You'll like it too!

 

I actually don't remember anything about that story from Scott Anderson. I haven't heard anything about President Jeppson's dad either. I do remember hearing something about his brother going missing when he was younger. Really sad. It just makes President Jeppson sound that much cooler! I do remember Mike Schlappi though! Great experience at Freedom Academy! I really hope Kelsie enjoyed it a lot! I can't wait to hear about her experiences there.

 

By the way, if Batman dies, don't tell me. I have to find out for myself, haha.

 

Nothing else much happening this week. We're picking up on all the lessons we're teaching this week. We're not finding too many new investigators, but we did have a really cool lesson last Saturday. The Branch President and his wife have a friend that they invited to their house. She was really open to our message which was really good. She came to church really easily and enjoyed it. Her 9 year old son was in that lesson too. He also came to church and enjoyed it. I'm sure they're going to get baptized! Her name is Carina and the sons name is Nikolai. Awesome! Can't wait to teach them again! 

 

I'm really enjoying it right now. Great area! Awesome members. Things happen with the members sometimes, but they work hard. They're setting up a Family Home Evening this next Sunday night as a Branch. In Spanish it's called a Noche de Hogar (Home Night). They are also setting up a Branch Activity for the end of the month. Should be sweet! I can't wait. One thing I don't like about our Branch right now is that they don't really have a youth program. There's no young men, and just like 2 young women. Other than that, it's great! 

 

Not much more time. Love you! 

 

-Justin