Sent Monday, December 2
Hey everyone!
Hope everybody had a happy thanksgiving!
First order of business: Transfers! Again!
I'm FINALLY STAYING MORE THAN 6 WEEKS!
Yes you read that right, after almost a year of being a vagabond missionary, never staying anywhere for more than 6 weeks, I finally don’t have to pack! YAY!
I still don't know who my new companion is. I don’t find out until tomorrow, but ill figure some way to get his name to you for the Christmas gifts you are sending him. That’s so nice of you :)
I got all the pictures you sent. Way cool! Did Sarah show off her scarf? She has been raving about it ever since I made it for her. I think I need to be knitting up a storm if imp going to finish everyone's Christmas presents in time. I have 5 done, but I need 13 before the 20-21 so I can get it out there.
Speaking of which, where should I send them? Is everyone going to open presents at Uncle Dennis's house? Should I send everything there? I hope you don’t mind me putting everything in one box for everyone with tags as to whose is whose since both shipping and wrapping paper are rather expensive..... So I think I’ll just pile them all up in a giant box for everyone to open all at once: P
Nothing much new for this area. We dropped almost all of our investigators for one reason or another and Maria isn’t doing so great anymore... we are still working with her and are meeting with her tonight but she has slowed herself down a lot. Which is a big bummer?
We moved apartments this week. We went from living in squalor in a place that'll give you tetanus just by looking at it, into a brand new apartment. And I mean BRAND NEW... like they had to finish construction before we could move in: P
It’s a really nice place with hardwood floors and all new appliances. It’s a little smaller total SQFT than the last one, but it’s much better laid out. Smallish kitchen (but really how much kitchen does a missionary need?) and a medium size living room (about the size of the office at home) but really nice sized bedrooms (mom and dad's room minus the hallway and bathroom) so we are really comfortable there. We are right across the street from the chapel so we can walk to church. This is a really cool thing since we still, as yet, don’t have a car.
Thanksgiving was really cool. We were invited to spend dinner with the Vasquez Family, who just had 2 of their sons come back from their missions, Danny from Argentina, and Alejandro from the Philippines. It was really nice afternoon with them. I taught their mom how to knit while I tried not to watch the Titans/Lions football game. (Titans win 47-10 with multiple interceptions thrown by the Lions QB...: P)
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What? It's Thanksgiving, it was on, and I was in the room..... STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!!!!!
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So a anyway that’s all to write this week so TTFN
Ta ta for now!
Love,
Jared
Sent Monday, November 24
Wassup everybody!
Happy thanksgiving!
Things are moving busily along here in the Miami YSA although the current lack of a car kind of shoots our ability to teach our investigators in the foot. Our area covers half the mission and we live in the upper corner of the area. It’s really hard to see our investigators in Key Bicayne (22 Miles), Opa-Locka (18 Miles) and downtown Miami (15 miles) when we don’t have a car and the buses are prohibitively expensive... it’s kinda rough but we manage. We get rides from members to appointments and we street contact a lot. I even used my knitting to contact on the bus once. I was working on a pair of socks for myself for Christmas when I had the idea to pull it out on the bus. I immediately had multiple people talking to me about my knitting, me, what I do as a missionary, and I even thought them a short first lesson right there over my knitting! it was kind of fun really :) who knew that something I do to keep my hands busy while waiting or listening could be used to teach? ROCK!
So anyway back to business. Transfers are on December 3rd so I should know whether or not imp going to stay with Elder Villlaseñor when I email on the 2nd. Unfortunately that means you won’t know WHO my companion is until the following Monday... sorry. But then again, as we always tell our investigators, "Just put 'Elder'... all of us respond to that one..."
:)
thanks for all the gifts they were really cool. We only have played dreidels in our apartment so far. I LOST to my companion.... shin really hurts when you spin it 7 times in a row.... rag...
so anyway things are going quite well for me. Alas I can’t say as much for a member of my MTC district. Elder McMullin, an ASL missionary I was in the MTC with was sent home this week. I don’t know why and I don’t want to know why. But it still is really sad for me. Please keep him in your prayers as he works through whatever he needs to get back out here.
And on that note I’m going to end this letter. I love y'all and have a happy thanksgiving! Enjoy the massive party and eat some turkey for me!
Love,
Elder Jared Tritsch
Sent Monday, Nov 17
Hey everyone!
Thanks for all the great gifts! I got the dreidels :-] they are a hit in our apartment, although to be honest the candy corn didn’t make it all the way to the game... i ate it to fast :P
We used m&ms instead. there was a sale at publix for 1 lb. for $2 so we got several :P
We played a little too far into the night, but hey, its dreydel :P
So we got in another car accident this week.... the second in 3 days. but of course you already knew about that :) we have been utilizing the bus and good ol' shoe power to get around lately. the branch has really stepped up to help us get around to appointments and we get pretty much as many rides as we need. President Southerland, the branch president even brought it up in PEC about having members help us out with "necessary transportation" to things like grocery stores and such. We don’t have a need there since we do all that with the zone leaders anyway but it was a nice gesture.
Maria is progressing well. Her grandfather has just passed away and we have been using this tender time to try and get in with her parents. They are more interesting in hearing what we have to say, even if it’s just to satisfy them enough to let Maria get baptized.
In zone conference we talked about mighty prayer to help the work, and president established a mission-wide prayer every morning at 9:00 AM EST. we have begun a "drop everything and pray" program in our apartment. as soon as 9 hits, no matter what we are doing, we stop and have a prayer as an apartmentship. It’s nice.
It’s interesting how not even one day after we have committed ourselves to it, we have seen fruits. We were waiting at the chapel the other night, waiting for our exchange to pick us up when these 2 people started knocking on the chapel door. Turns out is this woman neither of us knew bringing a non-member here to show him the chapel. He’s just YSA age, in just the right place, at just the right time to meet the YSA missionaries, and is interested in learning more about our church. we are meeting with him later this week.
I have been thinking about this event. I have been praying to find more people to teach. All of our contacting efforts to find people have so far been fruitless. we barely teach a lesson in a day of trying to talk to people, let alone finding somebody interested. We implemented the mighty prayer aspect in praying with the mission, and all of a sudden a freak, off-the-wall, strange coincidence (not really I know the lord did it), put one right in our lap! I mean, who thinks, "I’ll take him to the church, maybe the missionaries are there after dark?" it boggles the mind, but the one time we were there, they showed up.
i still have no idea who the woman was. i assume she is a member because she talked to him and taught him about the church before we even got there. President Hale was talking in zone conference that, "angels seen and unseen are waiting to assist you..." I don’t know if she was an angel, but it was a real testimony building experience. that’s for sure.
TTFN: ta ta for now!
love,
Elder Jared Tritsch
Sent Monday, Nov 10 at 6:00pm
I have bad news. You know how I said my companion got in a car accident? Well... I just got in one too.
I was driving on the freeway and the car in front of me slammed in it's brakes in response to the car in front of her. I slammed on my brakes to avoid an accident but I couldn't slow down fast enough and rear ended them in the trailer hitch.
The damage to the truck was nonexistent but the damage to our car was moderate. We have a leaking radiator and a trashed bumper.
No one was hurt though which is an amazing blessing since it was a freeway accident. We are fine if a little shaken up about it.
The police officer came ad reviewed the accident and I was placed at fault. He cited me for following too closely and I got a $154.00 fine... Argh...
Well, it looks like we will be taking the bus for a while.
Sent Monday, Nov 10 at 10:02 am
Wow this week eventful....
Well Elder Villasenor got in a wreck this week. Nothing serious and no one was hurt, thank goodness... but we were placed at fault, so Elder Villasenor was dropped from driver status and I'm FINALLY driving! I wish it was under better circumstances, but hey, I can’t complain.
I'm really out of practice driving, I have come to realize. Its okay though. I only nearly got us killed twice yesterday, that in improvement on the days previous.... :P
aaanyway things are still chugging along. All those people that we were going to set with baptism dates didn’t work out but we are still working on setting them up with dates and bringing them into the fold.
What else.... oh yeah, you'll notice a withdrawal of 30 bucks in the account. i broke the toaster and had to replace it... oops.
NOTE: when you want a toasted bagel and the slots aren't quite wide enough, DON'T try and squeeze it in. the bread expands onto the coils and starts a small fire.... :P
TTFN: ta ta for now!
love,
