July 21, 2009

Sorry, with everything going on last week, I forgot to post the letter from July 21st, so here it is...

Dear Family,
....No one let me know Kellie was speaking at graduation-- until yesterday when I got Kellie's letter and today when I read mom's email! Congrats!
Mom sent me a list of questions, so here's the answers: (BTW, I do like q's. If you have any, send 'em to me)
How big of a zone do you cover? That depends on what you mean by big. It's the 4th largest Zone as far as the amount of ground we cover, so it's pretty big in that regard. As far as missionaries, though, we only have 16 in the Zone (8 companionships).
What areas do you cover? Our Zone covers part of East Mesa and I think all of Apache Junction. Elder Gomez and I cover one ward in Mesa and two in Apache Junction.
We live right on the boarder of Mesa and Apache Junction on a street called Meridian (Meridian and University are the major cross roads, if you want to look it up on a map).
Any indian reservations in your zone? Nope.
How's your comp? He's a great missionary. It's so nice to not be with a greenie! lol. I've spent my whole mission thus far with greenies (except my trainer), until now! lol. He works really hard, is really obedient to the rules, and is a great example. He's great.
Where is he from? South Jordan, Utah. The same place as my trainer Elder Williamson.
What's the area like? Desert. lol. It's the first area I've been in that really shows what Arizona is-- a desert. lol. It's actually a lot nicer than I thought it would be-- probably a good size step up from my area in Phoenix. The people aren't as humble, though. But they also don't have as many problems.
Is it a downtown area again? No. It's again more like Seabrook than Houston.
Is it getting really hot yet? YES. I told you in my last few emails it's hot! lol. It got to somewhere around 115-117 this past week. But it rained this morning, so it's a freezing cold 106 today. *shiver*
How do you like being a ZL? It's interesting. lol. It's good so far. Interesting, but good. I realized that I definately don't want to be an AP. lol. Elder Diaz, one of the AP's, was with us yesterday and his phone rang all day yesterday with missionaries calling him for this or that. It was crazy. At least we are never THAT busy. lol.
Any news from those in your last area? No.
Isn't Apache Junc. next to your Mesa area? Close, but not quite. Mesa is actually bigger than I thought. It goes WAY out to the east.
Is it in the same zone? No, my old area was in the Pueblo Zone, which is right next to this one, I think.
Hopefully that answers all of those.

So I did my first baptismal interview the second day of being a Zone Leader. It was for a 13 year old girl named LeAnn. I was more nervous doing the interview than she was, no doubt. It turned out alright, but it was hard just because I had no idea what I was doing. Elder Gomez practiced with me that morning, so that was good, but still. :-P Anyway, it all went well.
Our Zone has some struggles-- our numbers are below the mission average, so we're trying to figure out how we can help our zone do better. One of the assistants came with us on Exchanges yesterday to see how we're doing and give us some feed back. Elder Diaz-- the assistant that came with us for the day-- was in my district in Mesa. He's a great guy, and REALLY good at street contacts. It made me realize how much I need to work on that.
We have a bunch of baptismal dates set, including a baptism for this Saturday, so that's really exciting. It's for a 9 year old girl named Roxanne. We're trying to convince her non-member father to get baptized on the same day. Her mom is a member. They're a great family, so I'm looking forward to the baptism.

Well, I've got to go. Catch you again next week. Hopefully dad will be at home. :-) I'm still praying for you. Tell everyone hi for me.

Love you,
Jason