Tempe Arizona Week 1

Hello from Tempe!

Ciao!!!

This week has been really good. We had a lot of fun with the new Italian Zone. Wednesday we all went to the temple together and hung out. Friday morning we watched Elder L. Tom Perry's funeral. It was really good.

That evening at about six we got called to the travel office. They had been looking for us all day, but had not been able to get a hold of us. When we got there they handed us three pieces of paper. The first one said that we were going to be temporarily reassigned to Tempe Arizona!!! We were super excited. Then we look down a few lines and see that we would be leaving at six in the morning the next day. We were really grateful that we were already mostly packed. It was sad to say good-bye to all of the friends we had made. Sorella Sharp and I were really excited that we would be going to the same place.

When we got to Arizona on Friday we were meet by two sisters and three elders. They were all super nice and really excited. The mission president had been at a funeral and that is why he was unable to meet us at the airport. We finally did meet him about two hours later. He is seven feet tall and really funny. His wife is super short. She is only about five five so it is amusing. We all talked for a while and then we went out to lunch. We went to Olive Garden. When we got back he told us that we would both be serving in Gela Bend and Ajo. This is in the Maricopa Stake. They are two really small towns about an hour apart from each other. They are both right next to the Mexican border but it is an English speaking area.

We were told that there would be a few detours before we got to our area. The Casa Grande Stake was having stake conference. So we spent the night there and went to that. I got to meet Al Fox, aka the Tattooed Mormon. She just recently moved down here. It was really exciting! If you don't know who she is, go to YouTube and look her up*. Her story is absolutely amazing.

After church we finished our trek to Ajo where we would meet our trainers. Our trainers are Hermana Doty and Hermana Day. They are both super nice. Hermana Day is technically my companion, but we are all companions. It is a little confusing. We sometimes split into two and sometimes do everything together.

We got to work fairly quickly after we got there. We went and did some contacting at the Indian reservation. That was a lot of fun. We then went and visited a less active family that only speaks Spanish. That was fun. I could actually tell what was going on!! It was really exciting. Sorella Sharp and I have come to realize that if we speak in Italian they can understand most of what we are saying. We had dinner with a  member. She fed us flautas (taquitos). They were really good and I was really full. After dinner we split up. Hermana day and I went to a little street right out side of town. We were trying to contact some less actives and potential investigators. We got invited into one house. Again the family only spoke Spanish. They also fed us carne asadas. They were so good!!! I was so Full!!!! Then we went and visited a member who was right across the freeway from where we were. The were super nice. They fed us watermelon. I was SO Full.

Everyone here is super nice. We then went and met back up with Hermana Doty and Sorella Sharp. They needed to sync their iPads at the church. The church is so cute. It is a very small branch and there building is super small and cute! There are about four or five rows of pews. It is super cute. Then we went home and went to bed. The weather here is actually really nice. I like it here. The people are wonderful and kind. They are all so humble. It is amazing.

*The link Al Fox takes you to an interview of her by Mormon Times on YouTube. She talks about her conversion story at the beginning of the video. Please be cautious about watching any of the videos YouTube suggests as similar, many of the ones I saw were anti-Mormon material, which is hurtful and poisonous. -RCP

Other places to find Al Fox: Al Fox YouTube, Al Fox Facebook, Al Fox Twitter, Al Fox Blog

Letter date: June 8, 2015