January 4, 2012

Hello Fam and Friends,
My camera is in my backpack which happens to be in the Zone Leaders car...and so no pictures but i really don't know how to do it with these library computers we have so maybe we could just keep doing the switcharu with them haha then you can put them in a folder on a computer or that hard drive and save them all under mission in each a separate folder send pics home when i get the chance to take them. Cheese means that they are not a solid investigator here in the city we go thru investigators alot. Contact them on the street and then they dog us, which means ditch us, very few times we actually get a good one.

between sex and drugs it can really mess people up and there is alot of people here that are cu co for it. It is really sad to be walking along the streets here which happen to be really trashy anyways and see used condoms along the side of the road it is really sick but it is the culture here. We are in one of the sketchiest places of the mission tho but all the gangs we know we are just the missionaries and are harmless. haha New years Eve was crazy haha had a dinner with our ward mission leader after a normal day and then came home after playing games with there family and just hanging out on base cause it is safe haha i was super super exhausted so we go to bed a little later cause we were talkin and lost track of time and i was out like a rock the whole night and didn't hear any gun shots but everyone else in the apartment woke up to them.

They started at 11:55 and didn't stop till 1 in the morning and it was constant gun fire! they took a video that i heard and it was crazy glad i slept thru it but i dreamed about someone shooting me haha but the gun fire did not stop...so the biggest prize that an Anacostia missionary can get is gun shells...hehe so we were searchin like crazy the day after cause mostly everyone had a hangover anyways so just the drunks were out walking the streets and we only talk with them if we want a laugh, this one we talked to and our phone went off and told him to show us some dance moves so he did some kinda drunkin routine it was hilarious haha,

but we walked over to the best member ever sis garvin who is doing missionary work and we go and role play with her to helpe her and to also help us and it is good to see her service in the work she is talking to almost more people than we are haha good way to get people to teach too. but in the parking lot by our apartment my comp found the led out the bullet and i found 11 penny's haha bank and later that day we found to gun shells, then later found 8 more then the next day i found 6 haha got a lot of gun shells so i will send some home maybe for you guy's haha

It makes me laugh as i am living in the hood right now to back to high school and all the people who tried to be thugs cause they have no clue how to be one haha we make fun of it between missionaries and we sound ridiculous but when the black people use it here it sounds cool and normal. Had one older guy speakin ibonics yell at us that jesus was in hell and we just smiled at him and told him that we know he did because he was teaching the people there haha it is funny to see corliss try and fight us on some topics and we win everytime when we explain stuff too her but she is still progressing and hopefully will be baptized on her date the 22.

she tried to pull out that no man has seen god because it says it in the bible and both places are just talking how they rejected jesus and did not see him as a god and other stuff that we can explain to her to just let her know we really have the facts. the visitors center is a really good tool and she is hooked on the temple it is cool to see her feel the spirit so strong and she zoned out at the temple three or four times when the spirit was way strong and she is starting to feel like that may be her answer but zack who was supposed to go with us there too dogged us and we are hopefully going there tonight so cross our fingers.

We have eated at some people's names who are the Forson's, called you from there house on christmas, really generous family who are just pretty sweet and cooks real good food and have done it for twenty years think we go there once a month. :] need to start working out in the morning so i don't get fat cause people feed us real good. had one lady call us after we ate dinner one night told us to come get food (lives across the street) less active named Crutchfields and they have a new years resolution to get more involved in the church so hopefully that works. so we had two dinners that night which was a blessing cause i was starving that night and it was fried fish and cole slaw and corn bread tis good. other than that we didn't really do much it seems cause every one we talked to was busy so we have a bunch of appointments this week.

Today we rode the metro and the station closest to my house is Congress heights like a five minute walk here is my address to my apartment cause Sarah Taylor send me a letter so i got my address 1905 Savannah Terrace #102 Washington D.C. 20020 but please just send all my mail to the mission home and they can forward it too me it helps because i don't know how long i will be in each area. I hope i am here for a while beacue the ward is pretty much like home. except for the fact that the members don't seem to have a lot of knowledge on how to work a ward haha it is different but the spirit there is so strong and everyone has a bond it is strange. Black people just are friendly and welcoming for the most part and always have a openness to smile at the elder's or the jesus people haha ESPECIALLY DON'T SEND PACKAGES TO MY APARTMENT CAUSE THEY WILL GET STOLEN HAHA

but i am doing good having fun and this last week went by super super super fast it was crazy how fast it went by days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days nobody can understand that until they serve a mission haha Tell Chris Banks i heard of the J.S. guy to all the missionaries that served around him he buy's them a tie from Brooks Brothers which is a really really expensive suit store ties are like 80$ and that is why we rode the metro it is my trainer's dieing tie haha, it was crazy to see white people today cause i don't get much of them anymore we laugh because all the white girls we see seem to be really pretty for some reason and my comp is worried every one of them is going to be that way when he gets home haha

and most likely in those pictures on facebook he prolly seems real big but he has lost 95 lbs. since coming out and is trying to lose more i think but not sure name is Darrin Trask Fawcett to clarify the facebook stalking lol. Sorry about the no pictures thing but i don't know how and to my sisters you need to tell me what santa brought you geeze, and also have you moved me out and re arranged the rooms yet if so send me pics of those you guy's know how and i will just send all my pics home thru mail cause when i do get them here i most likely won't know how to put them on. but i like mail and the emails so keep them coming getting mail is just a god feeling haha loving it here and the weather has been nice till today and yesterday has been super cold but not unbearable and no snow still seen four flakes yesterday but that was it dunno what you guy's want out of my emails so if i am not doing it just ask and i will

the dates and times should be on there haha we have a zone activity next p-day glow in the dark dodgeball, then first zone conferance on thursday so in two weeks i will go take sunrise pictures at the mall with everyone so that should be cool especially since it will be my first time there but i have to go right now so i will talk to you all next week.

Happy New Years can't believe how much my life has changed since a year ago to now grateful for this gospel and the happyness it brings to people! talk to ya next week glad you all are having fun and that sucks on being sick but happy to know that you are all getting better.

Love Elder Stoor