Nov 25, 2009

Hey there.
Wow what a week. Virginia Beach is awesome! I spent all of Wednesday packing and then Elder Washburn and I went to say goodbye to Pancho and Juan and Lulu. Thursday, we were supposed to be in Richmond by 9:40 for the transfer meeting, but that didn't happen. The guy who was going to give us a ride caled us at 9:00 and said he couldn't make it, so we threw everything in the van and hauled down to richmond in the remnant of a hurricane :) it was pretty sweet! But we got down there and I talked with Elder Gleave and Bishop and Elder Bishop had been telling all of the members here about me and how they could expect great things out of me, so I have to live up to the reputation he started for me now! haha But the drive down here from Richmond was like, 3 hours, but we got here and I met Elder Darbro and we went back to the apartment which is right down the streeet from the Library. My new address is 4633 Soho Court. Virginia Beach, VA 23455. It's a really nice apartment, and only me and Elder Darbro are living in it, so it's nice to be able to take a 10 minute shower if I want! So our area here is huge! I mean biggest area in the entire mission! We cover 4 cities here- Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and then we also have suffolk in our area and we even have part of North Carolina in here. It's insane. But we only end up going to the 4 cities. We've been spending a lot of time in Norfolk to find investigators, because we need a lot of new investigators. But norfolk is GHETTO! I mean straight up morenosville! It's SO GHETTO! But its sweet! We were walking through this apartment complex yesterday and we asked this black guy if he knew if any of his neighbors were hispanic and he ignored us for a little bit, but we asked again and he just said "You better get out of here before something bad happens to you." It was sweet. But yeah, we spend a lot of time in Norfolk. There are hispanics dispersed throughout the entire area, so we use a TON of miles everyday, but we haven't gotten any new investigators since I've been here. But that'll change fast. This area is about to explode! I know it!

So we were involved in an accident on Friday on the freeway. The cars in front of us slammed on their brakes so we had to brake abruptly, and we come to a stop and we just hear SCREEEEAACHHHHCH behind us and I say 'OH FREAK!" and elder Darbro just says "HOLD ON!" and the mujer behind us slams into us. We were alright, but there was a ton of paperwork to fill out because it's a church vehicle, so that sucked. But yeah, now I've been involved in knocking out a bear with a car and getting rear ended on my mission! I told you this mission was going to be sweet!
Dad, you're going to love this. On Thursday when I got here, the first thing Elder Darbro asks me is "How many talks have you given in spanish before?" So I had to prepare a 15 minute talk in 2 days to give on Sunday in Sacrament. And I got it done. It was so nerve wracking. I was ready to vomit up on the stand, but I got it done and everyone was amazed that I only have 5 months out on the mission. The members here are really nice and yes, they feed us plenty. The branch president's wife asked us on Sunday if we had an appointment for thanksgiving and Elder Darbro told her no, so she just goes "Now you do. Be at our house at 7." So yeah, we're having a mexican thanksgiving.
We get hooked up so much in this area. The branch president owns a hair cut place, so they cut our hair every 3 weeks. This less active lady works at these dry cleaners across the street, so she dry cleans our suits and even repairs them for free. THe members feed us a ton. Every Sunday afternoon, monday afternoon and evening, Thursday lunch and Saturday dinnner we have fixed appointments with members, and then investigators give us stuff all the time. SO yeah, we get taken care of. It's awesome.

I do need a huge favor though. We're navigating the biggest area in the mission with a map right now, because the elder before me took his GPS with him. So we're very limited in where we can go and we've gotten lost a ton this last week. So if you could get the GPS out to me ASAP that would be a life saver. Like, you don't even know! SO yeah, as soon as you could do that, the better. Thanks.
So, what's new with the family this week? Any good news, bad news? On the flipside, Elder Darbro and I have already been planning our seperate trips to spain to find wives after the mission, so that's nice. I actually have it all figured out already, but you'll have to wait 19 months to hear about it. Maybe actually only like 16 or something, but still. SO yeah, that was definitely an effective use of our 45 minutes of freetime after nightly planning. Anyway.
Mom- Could you tell the feldmans I'm really sorry I haven't written them back? I got their letter a long time ago but I accidentally threw it out, so I don't have their address. So I would really appreciate that. How's the calling going still? Have you gone out with the sisters? I can't wait til you do, you're going to LOVE IT! The sisters have some magical power that the Elders don't or something, I don't know. People just seem to do what sister missionaries tell them to do! It's crazy! Elder Ghelfy, the spanish elder here before me, is a convert. He was telling us his conversion story and he said "The sister missionary just pulled out a calendar and told me I was being baptized on this date. She didn't even give me a choice. And I did it. I don't know why." So yeah, I hve a feeling the sisters in Reno are going to be getting some people wet, if you know what I mean!
Ok, well I think that's about all. I don't really know what else to write about this week.
Oh, actually, I DO! Dad, there's this Hermana here named Sis. Lagos here from Chile and she's from Santiago, and she left Santiago in 1978 or 79 I think. I just thought that was pretty cool. She's wayyyyyyy old and talks a TON but she's really sweet. And I had some lady from Peru tell me that I talked like a German because my pronunciation is really strong I guess. I didn't know what to make of that, but whatever. Then this Catracha (Hondurian) told me that Campbell is a name (apellido) in Nicaragua and Honduras. I thought that was weird. SO hey, we might have some central american family members! How sweet would that be? hhahaha yeah right
But now I've met people from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. It's like I'm touring the world in Virginia, right? Just thought that was pretty sweet. But yeah, that's all now.
SO if you could please remember the GPS, that would be fantastic. Love you all. Have a great week. Talk to you in 30 days!  Can you believe Christmas is only 30 days away? Thats crazy!

Skyler
PS- I'm going back to Top Gun on teh 19th of December. Lucky me! NOT! haha