Hey Family.

Well lets start with some questions:

1) We get our mail from the zone leaders. They pick it up at the mission office and then they bring it to a meeting place wherever they choose.

2) We get dinner appts, just not very many. We have a standing dinner appt with a family every Sunday, but other than that we take it how we can get it. We eat a lot at home. Turkey sandwiches, mac and cheese, and last night I had a can of corn hahah. Since we are new we are still trying to get to know the members but we will start getting more appt soon.

3) Church starts at 1. I like it because I get a full study time before ward coordination. Then I am at church from 10-430, then we go work for an hour, go eat, and then go back out and work till 9 or so. I'm getting better on the bike, no more wrecks (I just knocked on wood) and I've actually lost like 10 pounds so far riding around. We usually ride between 5-10 miles a day, its good exercise.

Well lets go to the week now. Let's start with Carlos. Carlos is doing pretty well. We had an appt with him at Carl's Jr. on Tuesday and that went really well. We talked about the importance of hearing God's word and talked to him about church. We asked him if he wanted to come on a church tour and he said that he would love to. We left, and he called like an hour later and said that he had found the church and that he was excited to go inside. We were stoked, because he went to find the church meant he really wanted to go. We took him on the church tour the next day, Wednesday, and he really liked it. We explained the sacrament to him and he asked about the wine and we told him we used water. He said, "It doesn't matter what you use I guess, what really matters is the symbolism of it and the importance." WOW. Then we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him that this is a gift from his Heavenly Father and that it could answer any questions that he has. He said that he would read it. We are a little discouraged, because he didn't come to church (he went to LA to see his mom) and he hasn't been answering his phone, but we will keep trying.

Yesterday at church was great. We had talked to a lot of new people this week (we picked up 12 new investigators this week) but we didn't ask any of them to come to church. We weren't expecting anyone to come, but it turns out that we had 3 people walk off the street. One came with his mom and his mom said that he wants to get baptized so he can baptize his son. ( SCORE) and then another one came with his wife. His wife is a member and he hadn't come in 2 years before yesterday, we went and talked to him last night and he said that he would love for us to come by again.

One more thing. This week, me and Elder Nelson decided that we wanted to spice contacting up a little bit. We decided that it would be a good idea to do a Book of Mormon drop. So, I went to the upstairs apartment and Nelson stayed downstairs. He was going to knock on the door and when he said, "Tengo un regalo de Dios para usted" I was going to drop the L de M down to him like it was coming from God. Everything was in place, and I was about to drop it, but the door I was standing in front of (the upstairs apartment) opened. I turned around and they were looking at me. All I said was, "hey how are yall today?" Turns out, the guy I talked to was baptized a long time ago and that his wife was catholic, but they didn't go a lot. He wants his kids in the church and we have an appt to talk to him and his wife on Wednesday night. And, by the way, we did the BOM drop for real and it worked. We have an appt with them tonight hahaha.

This is all the good stuff that I am telling you, but we do have our struggles. Every weekend, most of our investigators go to Tijuana for the weekend and that makes it tough to work. Also, we are still trying to get members to work with us, but they won't. We are at a loss as to what to do. Dad, if you have any suggestions, send them our way. The work is tough out here, it's not all success, but, every time we leave our apartment, we pray the Lord will help us find those people who are prepared and willing to listen to our message and we do find those people. It's all about praying. I say at least 5 prayers everyday before we leave our apartment at 1130 and then throughout the day, I'm praying all day. The Lord has blessed me so much with safety. The other day I was riding at it was raining. I was cold and just wanted to give up and to top it off, We were about to hit the biggest hill in IB to climb. So I said a prayer and just asked Heavenly Father to help me get home and give me the strength to get up this hill. All of the sudden, I could hear your voice mom. Like at football games and pep rallys. "Go Ross! You can do it!" that's all I could hear. So I put my head down, and away I went. I soon passed my comp who was way ahead of me and before I knew it I was home. I thank the Lord everyday for the help he gives me and I can definitely see his hand in all things.

My Spanish is coming along well. I'm starting to understand the gist of converstations. And our ward mission leader, he is from TJ, told E. Nelson that he was impressed with my spanish. He said it in spanish to him right in front of me so when I laughed, he knew I understood him.

Well everything is going great here. We are just trying to get that first baptism to really get the area going. If yall could send me the address to the Duke Athletic Office that would be great. Nelson sent coach K a letter and he got a reply back with a signed picture. So I am going to try. I am going to tell him that im a missionary for my churcha and that i got a lot of my work ethic from reading his book. Its worth a shot. I hope everyone is doing good. Tell them that i am fine, and ill try to write some today and this week

les amo

Elder Little