I made it! I made it to the California Fresno Mission, and life could not be better.
Wednesday
I had an opportunity to go do some Proscelyting in an activity they
call "Open Your Mouth" here in the CFM. Myself and Elder Peterson
contacted a lot of people, and I had expected most of them to speak
Spanish, so I'd start in Spanish and they'd stop me and say "I speak
English, I don't know what you're saying." It was pretty funny. That was
a great welcome to the mission. We all spent the night at the
Assistant's house, and had a great time. There were 19 missionaries, 16
Elders and 3 Sisters that came in to the CFM on Wednesday. Four of us
were Spanish-speaking missionaries, and two of the Sisters were, too. We
had a lot of fun at the mission home, getting to know each other, and
Pres and Sister Gelwix. They are a riot, and a Spiritual Bulldozer. They
know how to get the Spirit in the room, and know how to make everyone
feel edified and uplifted. It's crazy.
Thursday morning was what the CFM calls the Parting of
the Sea. Every Elder in the CFM has a part in their hair. Every Elder.
So, at the assistant's house, everyone was brought into the tradition
and made us a part of the real deal. They had a gigantic drawer full of
gel for us to use and other stuff. The Assistants claim they can put a
part in anything, including a tennis ball. That whole experience was
just great. Then we had a lot of training, meetings, a little snack in
between, and met our Trainers. MY Trainer and companion is Elder
Worthen. He's so great! It's funny when you finally meet someone you've
been praying about for so long. We played musical cars for a while
because Elder Worthen can't drive, and we finally made it to my area
about 2 hours after our meal appointment.
I'm in the Kingsburg, CA area, which includes Kingsburg
and a town called Parlier, and we're in the Selma Ward. Parlier is
where we do most of our proscelyting, and we have many investigators
there.
The Ward is great, and I spoke in church on Sunday. I
spoke on Missionary Work and how much I hope for this area, and how much
faith I have in us Missionaries and in the ward members.
We have a baptism scheduled this Saturday with this lovely woman named
Juana. She's such a great lady and is a great example to her daughter,
who also is planning on getting baptised.
Kingsburg/Parlier
is going to be full of faithful members soon, and I'm so very grateful
to be here. I have faith that through the help of the Lord and through
some hard, smart work by Elder Worthen and I, that we will baptise
weekly here, and bring many souls back to the Savior.
All is well.
Also, friends, I'm
sorry if I told you to e-mail me and I would write you back. I was
wrong. Please don't e-mail me, but send me letters! Thanks!!
Love you all,
Elder Bolton
