Dear Mom,

I stayed! I'm still in Union City! And I'm still District Leader!

This week was a good week. It was pretty busy too. On Tuesday and Thursday we had English class. We've started English Class at the chapel. Antonio Gonzalez has offered to come and teach it every Tuesday and Thursday. The missionaries take turns coming to help out every week. This last week was our turn. Basically all we do there is pronounce the things that they're learning so they can hear a native voice. It's actually pretty funny to hear them try to pronounce things sometimes! English is such a hard language. I keep telling myself that I was that way with Spanish about a year ago. Plus, English is a harder language to learn.

This last weekend, there was a returned missionary that served in New Jersey that came back to visit some members. He came to church on Sunday here too. He was actually a very well-known missionary. He served in Plainfield too and is well-known there too. He baptized somebody there that ended up becoming the second councilor in the Branch Presidency in the Plainfield Branch. When he came here to Union City this last weekend, he asked about some of the members that he used to visit. There are some members that have slipped through the cracks over the years. He served in Union City just about two years ago. He gave us some people that we could try that would be good potentials. He goes back to Utah this next week to continue studying at BYU. After seeing him visit the mission, it made me really want to make sure I come back after my mission to visit!

This last Sunday, we ended up eating quite a bit again. We went to a members house right after church to eat some lunch. It filled us up. One of the sons is named Ovidio. He's like 15, but he seems a lot older than that. It's funny because he reminds me a LOT of William. I told him that I wanted to start calling him William. He has the same personality as William and everything. He doesn't really look like him though. We had a good time there. (Side story: The other week, I saw his dad at church. He's really cool too, but doesn't like to come to church for some reason. I noticed that he had a pretty nice watch on and I asked if I could see it. It was a Rolex. I told him that my dad has a Rolex too and talked to him about how my dad explained to me how you can tell if it's a fake Rolex or not by how the second hand works. He said that I was the first Elder to know that! Haha! I don't know why I wanted to share that with you, but I thought it was funny. They're a way cool family.) After we visited that family, we went to a birthday party that we were invited to by some other members. They fed us as well, even though I wasn't hungry. I ate, because she told us that Elders who don't eat her food don't come back to see her again. She was half joking, but I ate anyway. She got upset at us when we told her that we had already eaten and that we were probably going to eat some more. It wasn't a serious upset, but it was one of those 'mom' upset, where she still loves us just as much, but she doesn't know why we're setting up so many eating appointments. Then after that, we drove out to Secaucus to some more members. We were also meeting some of our investigators there. It was a dinner appointment. We got there kind of late, and they had already eaten. They saved some for us and had us eat. I was really full, but I was also surprised with how much I could stuff down! It was probably because it was all pretty good food! Pretty crazy day!

I sent a letter to grandpa Lee the other week asking him a little bit about Patriarchal blessings, because I teach about those every once in a while. Grandpa gave me some great insight to them. I've used it, but now I have more questions! Haha! We taught Jennifer, the girl who just got baptized, about them and she really wants to start working towards getting one. It's so cool, because about 3 months ago, she hardly knew anything about the Church. Now she's reading the Book of Mormon on a regular basis, preparing to go to baptisms in the temple, and starting to want her friends to come to church. How the Gospel changes lives!

I've heard a little bit more about the bombings. I heard that too that it wasn't Al Queda. That was a relief for me. It was just two crazy kids instead of a real enemy. Still just as sad.. I didn't hear about the NYC part though. That would have been really scary. The town just north to us is called West New York. There are a few parts in West New York that you can drive basically right next to the Hudson front. You can see into Times Square from there. That was cool! You can see those giant monitors going and all the flashing lights. I'm sure that if those kids would have been able to make it to NYC, our trips to the temple might have been cancelled. We get to go next month in June!

I do remember going to Deer Valley. That would be way cool to go see him sing. I can't imagine him singing either. When we go to Disneyland, we are for sure going to that restaurant.

That reminds me, is there an estimated finish date on the Meridian, Idaho temple?

That's great to hear about Kyle! I'm glad he's trying to keep up now! Is he getting A's now? I hope that he can keep that up during high school.

Q of the W:

1.  Do you hear big city noises where you live (or lived) in Union City?

Yes. There are sirens almost constantly. I like to sleep with the window open to get fresh air in. When I first got to Union City, I was woken up almost every night by an ambulance driving by with sirens going on full blast. I think I'm getting used to it, and I usually just sleep through the whole night.

2.  How have you been on teaching children lately?

We're not teaching as much recently. There are a couple children that we like to teach, but not very often.

3. Have you made plans yet on where you will skype us on Mother's Day?  We plan to be in Bountiful.

We've been thinking about a few members that we could ask. Union City shouldn't be too hard to find a place.


So that's it for this week! Love you mom! Talk to you soon!

-Justin


PS: Spencer told me about Jesse Rackiewicz. He quit his job and is leaving in his parents basement playing video games and watching movies. He says that he feels lonely. Pretty sad.. We're going to try and talk to him more.