Wednesday, March 4, 2015

NOTE: 1 NEW PICTURE! CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO THE RIGHT TO VIEW THE PICTURE ALBUM.

So I’m at the library and I have about 1 minute to write you and I haven’t even read your letters yet. So I love you all and hopefully I’ll get more than 15 minutes next week. I will write on Monday.

Love you bye

Elder Sands

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So if you saw my last letter, that was a perfect example of me panicking because I had just about a minute to write (frankly I’m quite impressed I got that much down). The moment I pressed the send button, I was saying aloud, "Oh please send, send, send!" and as I’m seeing Google sending it, I see my time have about 2 seconds left. The INSTANT Google finally said, "Your message has been sent" my clock hit 0 and shut down, wow, that timing was incredibly close.

But anyways, on to the important stuff.

I can't believe I’m going to say this, but... I think... I...like Arizona.

Wow that hurt

Anyways, this place is actually quite cool (kind of cool, but mostly awesome). I do dread the arrival of summer though. I still hear it from many that it is a time to not be happy. We will see.

So I am currently at the library and wow, the library here is nice. The library card is really cool too, far better than the ones in Washington. But they work in 20 minute sessions for the computer and they said I would only get one session, but the computer's letting me do as many as I wish, so let's not complain about that. (This letter may come in a couple, or three so keep your eyes open)

So my area is all of Scottsdale, Phoenix, Glendale, some of Mesa, and several other areas around phoenix that I don't know the names of yet. So my area is really large, and most of my time (99%) is spent in Phoenix. I'll send pictures of my apartment, it's actually quite nice.

My companions when I first arrived were Elders Brose and Burr, but now it is Elders, Burr and Walker. Transfers were just yesterday, which is why I’m writing you on Wednesday, so don't worry, I’ll write you on Monday too (*cheers from crowd*).

The trippiest thing about this place is all the cactus. Wow this place has a ton of cactus. But the Temples here are BEAUTIFUL. Mesa with it's grounds make the temple really something to look at. The Fauna of Arizona is actually quite nice. The Phoenix Arizona Temple, which was dedicated in October, is the newest temple in the world and wow, is it the godliest thing I have ever seen. It is, by far, the best temple in the world (and has the coolest name, I mean, how cool is "Phoenix"? that is just an awesome sounding, and looking word).

So I just realized that Google has such a thing as drafts so...no multiple emails!! (*cheers from crowd*)

The way that the Friendship Park Branch works is very similar to how the deaf branch works. We meet in an old building, easily 60-70 years old and the branch has a combined youth program with the hearing ward right before it. I don't really know how that works, but it does somehow. There were about 20-30 people there on Sunday, and apparently, that was a decent number. I met several people there, and made a few friends. Some things about the deaf culture are that 1. They are too the point, and 2. Until they get to know you they might not completely trust you. They don't often take to strangers.

Probably the scariest thing that has happened so far is driving with Elder Brose. Wow, it's scary. So deaf people, for the most part, can't speak. If someone is signing, then they need to look. And if they're talking, they let go of the steering wheel. So if Elder Brose wants to talk, he lets go of the steering wheel and makes micro adjustments about every second, but even then, that's kind of concerning. When people respond back-that’s when it is really kind of...terrifying. They look away from the road while they're "listening" to someone. Granted, they're all really good drivers, and they never look away from the road longer than a second or two, but still...not fun.

Thanks for the sheet music. Actually, a few fun facts that I didn’t even know. I now have the record for the most special musical numbers played by a missionary in the history of the MTC. I preformed 9 times for the MTC in a variety of devotionals and firesides and for a few general authorities. I auditioned 27 times and played in sacrament meeting 4 times as well as being the branch pianist. Because of all of that, someone must have told my Mission President because the moment I landed, he had some music for me to play for our musical fireside and gave me 5 days to learn it. I thought I would be able to keep this a secret.

I did so much at the MTC that now I have more mail from the MTC than I do from everybody else. They just keet sending me so many letters for the different things I did. It was kind of crazy. The thank you letter from the Branch Presidency was very nice though :) I'm gonna miss them.

Ok, now I’ve really got to go, thanks for everything everyone and I will send pictures when I can!

Elder Sands