This is a translation of William’s letter 4/5/2011
I didn’t have time to write last p day so today is the day; my senior comp name is Elder Barney. He is nice, he is a good teacher, and he likes some of the same things I do.
My first week's been great. First day they took us tracting in some random place in Ogden. On the first door I knocked on, they people said, through the door, “come in”, so we did( I wanted to knock because they were listening to Dark Night True Light which is a really good song, it’s Japanese) any way we came into to the apartment and this fat chick and was hanging out in all over the place, a skinny girl and a crazy dude were standing in front of the glass door, they were like “We've been baptized”, the skinny girl had been baptized, the fat chick was baptized but then we asked them their religion and she said well, “It’s weikien, and the sapnyard” (yes I me that literally) I asked “What is that?” She said “its witchcraft”, and the crazy dude said some crap about ducks. Then the conversation progressed and they asked the crazy guy a question, and he was talking about God but his words were crazy insane. And I quote to the best of my obscene ability, "Man, all these people don't believe in God, but they believe in plastic phones and lead bullets. I mean you can sit and punch a phone and ask it for a ride but no matter how hard you punch, that ride’s not coming. You can’t pray to a phone, I know I tried, you try, take a bat and beat a pay phone, see if you can break it." Then we walked outside and found out the fat chick was pregnant, she ran back inside the skinny dude says he used to want to be a deacon but, when I shook his hand, I saw fresh injection scars, or maybe it was a scratch from the cat, but it looked too deep to me. He seemed sorry but not real sorry.
Later, we tracted into nice members, one was inactive, she felt very bad about it, she lived above the witches. As it turns out this family has had a tradition of young pregnancies, Grandma 9, Mom 12, sister 10 and the other sister some other time. (This was from the Elder as we were walking back.) When he was teaching a family there he challenged them and they tried to curse him, but it didn't work, he said “It's not nice.” So later we went back to the Mission Home and had to dinner, it was very good pasta, Oh yeah, before all this what not, I met elder Clark, (the mistaken letter guy) yeah, he really needed the stuff we sent him, he kept the manila envelope too. It's funny, we told the Mission President, and he just said, “I’m sorry.” Then we went down stairs, and had training. The Zone Leader bore a testimony about losing a right arm as trial, jokingly, but there was lady in the congregation that had lost her arm, so the Mission president’s wife brought it up, then we all laughed for a while. We went to bed; I got to sleep on a memory foam mattress, everyone else slept on a navy bunk. In the morning we had waffles for breakfast. We then went to the mission office; I can get my driver’s license here. President says it is OK. We were then assigned a new companion. I got some ties too, they were sweet! Then we took the drive up here, to Richmond Utah, above Logan in Cache Valley. It’s been fun. We ran into some less actives tracting and we made some appointments with them, their difficulty is that they are smokers, He’s dying from it, when we went back yesterday he had bled all over the kitchen. Nasty! Then I went and met Tracy!! This dude is covered in tats but is super smart when it comes to the bible, but he needs to read the Book of Mormon. He has two daughters, was a skin-head, in a couple of days he is going to court to save his life, he got in an accident on his bullet bike a few years back, destroyed his left side and has only recently been able to walk. He has good heart, he cried a little during conference when we watched on his High Definition TV (bigger then Jordan’s TV). We met a few elders in the district, sorry I didn’t bring my journal or I’d have had more to write. Oh yeah, this is just a small thing but I think you may find it somewhat important to heighten your sense of exited surprise after the manner of surprised excitement that it is so , or getting to the point then, I GOT TO GO TO GENERAL CONFERENCE IN THE CONFERENCE CENTER ON SUNDAY! I sat in the last section on the far right, near the back I smiled at the camera but I don't know if it was on. We brought an investigator. She was flipping out when we saw some protestor’s gay flag flying behind a car, with comic say some craziness that confused the heck out of me cause I didn’t know what the words meant, and all of them just stood there holding their sign so it was a peaceful display, I almost got on Utah news, but I did not. Maybe I should buy a recording device and fill up an SD card about 2 gigs with my voice that you could listen!! Might make more sense, or maybe not. I met a guy that is into motorcycles and is less active a part family. He is cool.
Get the message from conference Return Missionaries? I was sighing; phew … I just got out here.
I miss Elder Schwartzberg.
This library is super small. I met some of our investigators yesterday, they were nice but they are not married. They are working on it, but they aren’t yet. And well they are less active i guess? I don't understand the whole bit. I need to send some written letters. Oh yeah, the mission office address has changed!
It is now.
4380 S. ORCHARD AVE.
S. Ogden, UT, 84403.
Write more next week bye!
(If you want a copy of the original, just let me know)
