Paul, Round 2

I'm still here in Paul, everyone! But you already knew that. Not much of a surprise, is it? I'll probably be staying in Paul until the end of my mission, 'cause it just seems that's how my mission's going right now. BUT WHATEVER CUZ I LOVE IT.

This week has been pretty swell! The transfers have been all lined out and I am now serving here with my new greenie, Elder Hansen! He's from Apple Valley, CA, so the two Californian missionaries get no end of crap here in Paul. They don't like Californians here. But like, sarcastically. It's weird.

Elder Hansen is probably whiter than I am, so this should be an interesting transfer considering most of our investigators are Mexican and don't expect us to know any Spanish. That's probably one of the most fun things about being a Spanish Elder - we freak people out completely when they're like "Oh so sorry, no english," and I'm like "Oh, no importa hermana - sabemos espanol! Que pasa calabaza?"

Elder Hansen's a good dude. He got a 35 on the ACT so he's like way smarter than me. He's way skinny, be he can pack food like no other. His Spanish is pretty dang good considering he's been out like 5 days. Just lots of good stuff. I'm excited to hit the ground running, be obedient, and do some good solid work!

We had an insane lesson with one of our investigators, Mario Corona, this week. He's engaged (or something like that) to a member, so she's pushing him to be baptized. Apparently they're married legally, but not "through the church", whatever that means. So they're under the impression that Mario needs to be baptized to get married through the LDS church (which is not the case - we made that clear), and asked us to give them ALL the lessons in one single visit. Holy guacamole that lesson! It was like 3 1/2 hours long, and Elder Hansen and I were just puddles on the floor once it'd wrapped up. Flipping Spanish is exhausting sometimes. But good news! We have Mario set up for baptism on the 20th of this month, so long as all gets organized and set up by then! We're excited for him! Pray that he'll keep moving in this direction!

Anyway, it's been a great week. Life is still good. Never easy, but certainly good! I hope you all have a wonderful week, and until next time, this is FRESH TO DEATH signing off! Paz.

Elder Slavens