Elder Jordan DeFreese: Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2012

Well hello there everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and possibly made some sweet black Friday purchases? I remember we aren't usually too big on going to those black Friday things. Too crazy! Haha, but from what I hear everyone is doing great! I think I'll comment on what Mom said about thanksgiving first, then I'll share my experience. Sounds like it was super quiet for you guys! Bet you're really missin' me and my craziness now! Hahaha, just a few people and way too much food! Haha, sweet!

So my experience was... changed at the last minute! The way it works is in church we pass around a sign up sheet for the members to feed us missionaries, and the Samoan family that had signed up to feed us, only meant to sign up for the Sisters, so they didn't know they were feeding us too! They had only made stuff for the sisters because they were headed to a big family gathering somewhere more south. But that's ok! We ended up eating at the Mendoza's another member family, and they are, as you can probably guess, Hispanic! So we had a Hispanic Thanksgiving! Maybe it was close to what Don eats? I have no idea. Probably not, I actually liked the food a ton! There were these things... i don't know how to spell it but I think it's Posolitos, they are these super good things filled with meat and peppers and stuff. I had like 6 or 7 of 'em! But other than that it was a ton of turkey, they had 2 full turkeys! Also they had a bunch of rice, beans, and soda. Me and Elder Hayes got into an eating contest, which I won by a full half a plate! haha, but he is still pretty adamant that I cheated because I had to take a bathroom break. But it was super fun, they had a lot of family over, and they had a lot of food! Way nice experience. Ok, let's see... I brought a list of topics I wanted to cover so let me go to the next one on the list!

G-Brown! Hahahaha, this guy is super crazy! Haha, he's a member of the 7th day advocates. So they have church on Saturday. But he has an INSANE knowledge of the bible, and he spouts out scripture and doctrine all the time. But the other day he was talking to us, and we were trying to talk about the Book of Mormon and he wouldn't listen. So we let him talk because he wouldn't let us! He started talking about Mama and Papa Lucifer (basically, men and women who are OF the world) And how they are servants of Satan. He had us read an entire chapter from Matthew 25 I think? I don't remember specifically, but the whole time he's nodding along saying stuff like, "amen brotha!" "praise the lord!" All that stuff, and he's talking about how he has to love everyone. Being a commandment. So he's talking about loving mama and papa Lucifer, and us being Mormons, he says, "You're Mormons, you my brothas, but I still gotta love ya!" Then randomly while we're talking. Mid sentence he just stops us and says, "Lets pray brothas!" So we prayed right there, super weird! haha, next on the list...

Mckay! He's another Poly guy. Super cool, future missionary! I'm not sure when he's going to turn in his papers or anything but he's working on 'em. But we play basketball with him every P-day, and last week I beet him one on one and he's pretty darn good! haha, maybe he let up on me a little eh? Anyways, He is a super good guy with a real good testimony. Solid missionary for sure!

Then we have Pizza Street. This place is awesome!!! For 4.50 we can go here and have all you can eat, pretty decent pizza and it's real close to where we live! We have eaten there like... 4 or 5 times already! It's so GOOD!!!!!! Hey Don do you have one of those?? Hahahahaha... just kidding! But it's really good, and super cheap, that's why we like it.

Our ward is AMAZING! I feel a little embarrassed about our ward sometimes. Let me explain. These guys are ALL ABOUT missionary work!!!! Every single Sunday, and every time we talk to a member, they are always asking how they can help, and asking about our investigators. We have so many people who want to help us that we just don't have enough investigators! Haha, but we're definitely trying to get some more real soon! So, as far as our ward goes, I know that we barely ever had missionaries over there. I don't remember seeing them that often. But that doesn't matter. We are ALL missionaries! So my advice to you guys, is to really focus on those less actives that are in or around wherever you are. I can promise you that you will find joy and happiness in bringing those people to church. Not only bring them to church, but ward activities! I encourage all of you to bring or invite one person to church this coming week, and see the blessings that come from it! We can all do missionary work, even when we aren't serving.

AH! I almost forgot to talk about the Turkey bowl we had! Our ward and 3 companionships of the missionaries in our area got together to play football! There were enough to have 4 teams of 5 on 5 going. It was super fun! And I got to show everyone how fast I am, they were really suprised! I scored a lot of TD's! haha, Elder Hayes is a QB... or at least he was one in High school. So he was having a ball tossing to me. It was way fun, and I think we had a good bonding experience with the ward members.

Hm... I think that's about everything I wanted to cover. I love you all! And I really hope to hear from you guys soon! Don't be afraid to write me a letter! Haha, anyways, I love you guys, and I hope this week goes well for you.

Love,

Elder DeFreese

P.S. I'm trying to get some pictures, my camera doesn't work so Elder Hayes and I are trying to figure something out. I'll try to send them in another e-mail in a minute...