First letter from Cali!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Below is Ross's first letter home from California. In case you didn't hear on the news, the Earthquake in Mexico was felt in the San Diego area so Ross got his first earthquake experience! He is in Imperial Beach, CA which is in the top 10 of best climates in America...nice weather pretty much all day, every day, year round. Must be nice!

Mom and Dad -

Well...you guessed right. I am in Imperial Beach CA and loving every minute of it. It is right down by the boarder, probably a 15 minute drive and yeah, i did feel the earthquake. It was crazy i was sitting in some other elders car and it started to shake and i thought they weere jumping on it and when i got out they were yellin and the ground was moving. It was CRAZY!!! CA is awesome. The weather is great and everything is going awesome.

I am on a bike and i've only crashed 4 times, so you'll pronbably be getting a hospital bill soon....haha just kidding, no wrecks yet (knock on wood). In fact, me and my comp are "whitewashing" an area. They took the old elders out and put me and my comp in. So we are still trying to get used to the area and everything. We didn't have an area book but we have been riding around like crazy and we are having success. We decided that the best way to do things was to reactivate members of the branch there and get them to help us with missionary work. So far, so good. We are working with one member who has 11 other people living with him hahaha its great. The people are way nice here. As we ride around town, people wave and honk and ask us how we are doing. Well, atleast i think thats what they are saying. The language is still a big barrier. I'm trying hard to speak, but i cant understand what they are saying haha but it is getting better.

My companions name is Elder Nelson. He's from idaho falls, idaho and he is a great guy. He is way nice and he is a DUKE fan, which just makes things better. He like Texas A&M and thinks its awesome that i went there before i came out. He is a way hard worker and loves the people. If i can love the people half as much as he does, ill be fine.

How about Conference? I felt every talk in preisthood session was directed at me. I went in with the question of, "what can i do to be a better missionary and learn the language?" yeah, uchtdorf answered all of them haha. But, i felt all the rest of the conference was directed toward the families. It was wierd not watching it without yall, but it was still good. I dont have a lot of time, but i wrote a 4 page letter and am putting in the mail today.

The mission president told us to only give the mission address as our "address" so keep sending it to the office. Hope yall are doing great. Les Amo

Elder Little
IMperial Beach Otay Rio Branch