Tuesday, April 17, 2012

First report from L.A.!


Hey Everyone

           There's so much I want to say, but I just say Los Angeles is a blast! Yeah it was an eye opening experience just seeing the crazy and different atmosphere here. However all the people here are awesome and super nice! And I've already witnessed 2 baptisms! It's a great start. I'll to cover everything you all need to know. Well the plane ride here to LA was great. I was talking to a Hawaiian man named Brother Hugo who lives in San Fernando, the mission north of LA. We had a great gospel conversation and he helped me get pumped for the mission. So there was Sister Snyder, from my district, Elder Baich, from Argentina, Elder Rodriguez from Mexico, and 4 other Elders who didn't get their visas to Mexico came out to LA with us. President Baker, his wife, and the APs came and found us by the baggage pick up and we drove off to a ward building right behind the LA temple. OH MY GOSH, the temple here is huge! I can't wait to go inside it. Anyway. The president is a very stern, bold guy, but he shows his passion for the mission work. Basically is a business man, and wants to get things done. I enjoyed the interview I had with him, and I hope to get closer to him. His wife is very serious and quiet, but has the same attitude, business is business. But yeah I loved the first day. They broke us off into our "temporary companions" (even though ended up being my companion) and we when off to do work, so I was in my first apartment the first night. My companion's name is Elder Ditton. It's funny to hear that you got to see Elder Ditto again, but he's different than Elder Ditton. He's from Logan, Utah and he's been here for about 8 months. His Spanish is really good and I'm looking forward to speaking like him. He's one of the friendliest people I've met, he's a great singer and plays the guitar very well. I'm in the South Bay Zone and serving in the Centinella area. It's in Lawndale and it's probably in the center between Torrance and Inglewood. The area, as my companion would say, is ranked a 6 out of 10 on how nice it is for LA. We have a pretty nice apartment on the very north border of our area. So don't worry Mom, I'm pretty safe where I am. Elder Ditton has told me some funny stories of some places in our area where there are drug deals and stuff like that. It's funny that the ice cream man is one of the "dealers" here and here he came down our street at 9:00 at night with the jingle playing. It's just so funny down here. I love it. About the mail, just send everything to the mission office and they will give me all the mail on Fridays and I will read them on Mondays. The Spanish here is common, but I still hear English everywhere too. It was hard picking it up at first, but I can get a jist of what is being said most of the time now. I'm not speaking as much as I should as I'm trying my hardest just to listen, but it I though it was going to be a lot difficult than it is. But starting this week we are going to try to find more people to teach other than just visiting investigators, potentials, and members. The first lesson I actually was involved in was with a 15 year old boy named Alexis and he's totally ready to be baptized but he just doesn't feel "religous" enough. We are not to concerned about him, and he's going to get baptized hopefully pretty soon. I was just awesome to actually be in that situation in an amazing lesson where the Spirit was there and he was actually seeing and understanding everything. Anyway, the Hermosa Liahona ward here are just amazing and as converted as can be and its a fairly big ward. Sunday was great. We went to a stake priesthood meeting at 7 in the morning, had chuch at 9 and had a baptism at 4:30 of a 9 year old boy Micheal. His family just started to be active again and I was awesome to see. We also had a baptism on Saturday for a little girl from a family that started to be active again too. But yeah the people here are great. Today was Beach P day, and we got to go play on the beach with volleyball and soccer. I was just awesome to play outside again after a really long time. Anyway I have to go, things are great here I love it, and keep up the prayers and hope that the Spanish comes faster haha. Thanks for everything
LA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Os amo tanto!

Elder Marrott

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