Week 61

Dear family-

So I guess the best way to start off is by my last few days in
Woodland! It's been a great place, a great three transfers. It's been
fun, and without a doubt the biggest challenge on my mission so far. When you guys come to the mission to pick me up/ for the sealing, these are the people I want to visit from woodland. Marylyn is an awesome member, we got really close and I loved being with her and her family. She doesn't get too much support from the branch, but we love her and help her as much as we can. Joel is the best member missionary ever. He's getting married in June, and says the funniest things. The C. family is why Elder Sabin and I were together. They are awesome, I've seen Hugo progress from not even having faith in God or Jesus, to praying, doing family home evenings without us, and they're even trying to work out their marriage. So good things. Another accomplishment I am proud of was the guy we gave the BOM to that got baptized. Cool things there. And now onto Vallejo!

While I've never played it, I imagine Vallejo is a lot like Grand
Theft Auto. Or an NWA music video. Just kidding, it's not even that bad. I guess I can't really describe it. It's like bad... But not
really bad. I don't feel like it's anything worse than I've seen in
SLC or anything. It's probably the most dangerous part of our mission, gang wise. Willits and Miranda are bad as far as marijuana. We have a probably the most dangerous area, but don't worry. I haven't seen anything too scary. My initiation was we had this feeling to hide behind this Astro van, and then all of the sudden we hear tire screeching and a fox body Mustang, and 80s Camaro, and a Firebird were doing doughnuts in this intersection near us. Then they would drive past us, turn around and do it again. So we booked it to our bikes, unlocked all 3 of our locks (better safe than sorry. 2 U locks and a thick cable) and ran out of there. Crazy. The Vallejo anthem is a siren. I'll keep you updated on the cool things I see.

Easter was good! Nothing too special. It wasn't like at the MTC where we had the presiding bishop of the church speak to us, but it was nice and I enjoyed it. Just a day to focus on the savior. During the week I've been studying in Jesus the Christ and in the bible the stuff that happened from Jesus coming into Jerusalem on the donkey to his resurrection. The studies have been good! We ate dinner with this guy called Hermano Sigui. It wasn't really an Easter dinner though, and it was just him. It was cool though we contacted a lady from New Zealand playing with some cats, and her niece and nephew served missions, so she knows a lot about the church. She gave us 2 big bags of chips, 2 Gatorades, 2 Cadbury caramel eggs, a box of cookies, and Bid Red gum.
So I guess we had a good Easter candy wise as well! I got a package from Chloe.... In Woodland. On Wednesday after I left. I'm ticked that the mission home took so long to forward it, especially when they knew I was being transferred, but they're forwarding it to me. So I'll get it soon!

Elder Minkler is sweet. 20 years old, from Cedar City. He played
trombone, like Pokemon, Super Smash Bros., Zelda, Starfox, Fire
Emblem, Hayao Miyuzaki movies, and Lord of the Rings. So pretty much just like me! We get along well, and we're having fun. We had 2 investigators in church. I'm still learning the area. We cover a lot of ground for bike missionaries, and I don't even have to go to 6
Flags, the hills on bikes are fun enough! So it's good here. Don't
worry, I don't feel in danger. Our apartment is super super nice. And I heard 8 gunshots in Fairfield (combined from 2 separate occasions), so once I hear 9 I'll start to be worried. Just kidding. Kind of.


Love
you guys!!!

Elder Foster