Hola!
President Gelwix is amazing!!! He is even better than they make him seem like on the movie!!! He really sets the standards high for our misison.
California is great! I have two companions, Elder Powers and Elder Matagi (pronounced maw-taw-knee). They are both from Utah. They are pretty awesome. Our area is a little town called Lindsay, California! (It's kind of hard to not think about a certain someone when her name is on everything!) Some people call it mini Mexico. We are Spanish and English missionaries. So it's probably half and half. We are the only missionarys in this town, so we have a lot of work to do. The people here are so ready! It is pretty stressful. We talk to everyone on the streets and invite most of them to be baptized! Most of them say yes. SO it is really hard to keep track of everybody. It is hard to be able to visit and teach them all.
We are a walking/biking mission. The mission has given me a bike to borrow, so that's cool. But Elder Matagi's bike keeps having problems so we just walk everywhere and get rides from members.
I prefer talking to the hispanic people they are a lot nicer and more open to our message than a lot of the white people.
The address to send me stuff is that mission address. Send everything there, and they will forward it to my apartment! like 1814 N Echo ave, Fresno, CA or something like that.
We are about an hour south of Fresno. I love Lindsay California!!! It is a great place to be. There are dogs like everywhere, my Dazzer has come in handy!!! hahaha. We are so busy! We are going on splits with the members a lot this week because we have to many people to visit.
So on sundays we have a English sacrament meeting then English/Spanish mixed classes then after that we have Spanish sacrament meeting. So on saturday night they asked all three of us to speak in the English sacrament meeting. It went well, and then during priesthood they told us that we needed to speak in Spanish sacrament meeting. I spoke in two sacrament meetings my first week here. It was pretty good. I like speaking!
I'm working on being more obedient. One rule in our mission is we can only email family members. So to my friends, If i don't respond to your emails it doesn't mean i don't love you, it just means that I am obeying the rule! But i'll still read it, if i have time.
Another thing, In this mission is once a general authority told our mission if we comb our hair with a part in it, we would double success. So everyday, we get some gel and set a part in our hair. To symbolize setting ourselves apart from the world! I look like a goof, but i really like the reminder!
We are surrounded by orange trees! so many oranges!!! The water here is "not safe". I didn't know that for the first couple of days but I got told!!! Ha haha. SO we just have bottled water and other drinks. We are well taken care of. I've gained like 5 6 7 8ish pounds? I don't know.
Yesterday was our Preparation day, but we email on tuesdays. So yesterday we went to McDermont here in Lindsay with a bunch of the youth in our ward. Its a HUGE indoor place. Soccer fields, basketball courts, laser tag, rock wall, flow rider, skate park, and more!!! So we played a bunch of basketball, football, and soccer.
We hardly have time to study here. SO GET SOME STUDYING DONE BEFORE YOUR MISSION!!!
I love you all!!! So much! I appreciate the prayers!!!
Every member is a misisonary. Remember that!
Les quiero Muchisimo!
-Elder Ferney
