First p-day phone call

This is the first week that the missionaries were able to call home on p-day.  Our call was actually very productive as we were able to talk about Jackson's plans for school and take care of a couple of other things.  Much easier than trying to do it through email. 

Jackson reported that they had to drop all but two of their investigators because they aren’t progressing.  The two left are Ronnie, who is deaf and Destiny who is getting baptized this Saturday.  They had to move Ronnie's baptism back because they can’t teach him often enough. There is someone who knows sign language in another ward, but she can’t help them more than about once a week.  Jackson said he can have small conversations with him and then he just guesses what he is saying.

He is in an English ward with only about 25 hispanics.  Only 3 don’t speak English, so he isn’t speaking much Spanish right now.  They are there to try to find more Spanish speaking investigators.  

He also said he is no longer driving - Elder Powell has taken over.  He said he’s been driving for a long time and he needs a break, because the roads and drivers are crazy.  He said there is a sign in Columbia that keeps track of auto fatalities for the year and at the end of last year there were 1,0006.  

That about covers it.  

You speak 3 languages?

Well this week was really great. We had transfers on Thursday which was crazy as usual. Me and 3 other missionaries were left at the church while everyone else went down to Irmo. We had a huge transfer this time around where 97 missionaries were transfered. So the whole mission was whitewashed. When elder Powell finally came up to Irmo we went on to our area and stopped by the apartment and unpacked. Our first night we went to a recent convert couple who speaks Spanish. We then went to the Bishops house so we could get a little start and get some names on who to visit. We also saw the Bishops neighbor who is a member.

Friday was a huge getting to know the area and members day. We have one of the largest areas in the mission. Our boundaries stretch from Simpsonville to Joanna. On Friday we met with our ward mission leader Hermano torres who is just super great. Then we later drove down to Lauren and walked around downtown Lauren which was really cool. We ate dinner at this 50s diner place that had a great atmosphere and food. Super weird place because it was also a movie theater, if you walk through the diner, there's a hallway that takes you to the movie theater. So it was quite an experience. Later we went to some different members houses all around laurens. And at night we had a lesson with a deaf guy named Ronnie. We actually had a member from the Greenville 1st ward translating for us. And so elder Powell and I have commited to learn sign language and I think I have found my calling. I learn this stuff so fast. When we saw Ronnie at church I was able to have conversations with Ronnie and understand what he was saying and respond a little bit.  Super cool, maybe getting a study guide for sign language would be cool? Anyway we taught him the plan of salvation. He is the son of a recent convert so he comes to church every week and really wants to get baptized. He is on date but we'll have to push it back a bit.

Saturday was our big member day. We met just about every member in the Simpsonville area. Except for those on ward council everyone except the relief society president and the ward clerk said no to our texts. So we stopped sending texts and just started showing up to people's doors. So we met a bunch of members and by the time we had dinner with the relief society president she was very impressed that we had already met with half the ward. By the time we were finished with dinner and left she sent us a text saying that her kids both said that we were the best missionaries that they had met. So that felt pretty good. We replaced the sisters in the ward and the ward hasn't had elders for over 3 years, so we are having to work hard to be accepted. After dinner we went to our assistant ward mission leaders house and got to know him and his wife. They just moved form Colombia 9 months ago and don't speak much English so they were very excited that we had come.

Sunday was church day. We went to ward council in the morning and everyone commented on how sorry they were that they wouldn't let us go to their house. Then after ward council we met everyone else in the ward. Super weird thing though is that someone's parents were visiting in the ward and apparently they are from Highlands Ranch as well. They are one of the 50 Jackman in our stake. I'm pretty sure they said they were in the Southridge ward. But the senior Jackmans are his parents. So I have their granddaughter in my new ward. She is the primary president here. After meeting everyone I was asked to give a talk the first 2 hours I was in the area so I gave that, which went well if I do say so myself. Then we had elders quorom and met more people after church. Then we went to fountain inn and met members and investigators around there. Afterwards we had dinner with bishop, bishop has 10 kids and we took the challenge to know all the kids names and we nailed it. We shared a good spiritual thought and afterwards we went to the Payans and they had another family over as well and we got to know them and shared a though there as well.

Today we will be going to gravitopia and having fun. We also have a dinner with the Martinez family tonight as well.

Elder Bertoch 

Coolest Thing Ever

So the big news this week was we found out transfer information and you will never believe what happened. The like best thing in the world that could have happened has happened. I am going back with elder Powell again for the third time. IN SIMPSONVILLE!! We are doing English and Spanish and the sisters apparently have left us 5 people on date and like 50 investigations. So super duper cool. Plus I'M WITH ELDER POWELL AGAIN, FOR THE THIRD TIME. Miracles do exist. I did tell President in my last email that he might as well send me to Simpsonville with elder Powell or else I'll just be super depressed, and he apparently believed me. I feel like he was kinda hinting at it in interviews because he kept bringing elder Powell up, and then I had a dream about going back with him in Simpsonville and I told elder Harris and Barrus about it and now they are convinced I am a seer. Simpsonville is the area just south of Greenville 1st and has a lot of active Hispanic members, like around 40. And the former branch president is in the ward and he is now the stake high councilor over missionary work. So it is all really cool and I am super excited. 

We had the fiesta last week and we invited 55 people to go and 4 of them showed up. But it was fun and we played soccer with an 8 year old girl the majority of the night. I also gave a long spiel to this 14 year old girl without realizing she was 14 on her doorstop. She also barely spoke Spanish and she was super confused the whole time, and I was confused because I thought I was speaking really good and clear Spanish. I finally asked her if we could meet sometime and she was like "well I have to ask my parents" and I was like "oh you're young, do you speak Spanish or English" "I speak English and a little Spanish". Oh well have a good day... 

We've been finding people like crazy here this last week. We found 8 people yesterday, 2 people on Sunday, and 4 others during the rest of the week last week. And they all seem really cool and as if they will have a bunch of potential. 

That's kinda all for this week. Next week will be a party yet again... Wait I remembered something else that technically didn't happen to me, but Bibiana, the (now) wife of sixto and mother of Vidiriana got baptized this past week. So that was super cool and hopefully me and elder Powell can see them again because we won't be to far from them. And I think that that is it. Hope that you have a great week and that work and life isn't too crazy. Love ya.