Colorado Springs: Where everyone has a dog, and a church.

Well, I made it in the Springs, safe and sound after what was absolutely the most nerve wracking 20 minutes of my life. Seriously, that flight from Denver to Springs was like a roller coaster. Good thing I have 2 years to calm down before I have to do it again.

So I apologize for the lack of e-mails last Monday, as I was traveling from 4:00 am until around 2:00 pm, and then we went to the mission presidents house for the rest of the day. I did call my house on Monday from the airport (apparently we are allowed to do that), I really wanted to call, and then leave a message as a prank, but decided that my parents probably wanted to talk to me or something. I dunno. So ya, we had a good conversation.

President Pfile is an awesome mission president, it's too bad he's only here for another 10 months, so yes, there will be a mission president change.

My companion/trainer is Elder Kilgore from Salt Lake, and he is an awesome guy. Looks kind of like Ryan Seacrest a bit. Haha. We have some good times together, and he's been out for 19 months so he's almost done. I'm his third boy, so he must be a good trainer.

My first area is the Mountain Shadows/Academy Wards in Springs, and the geography here is pretty sweet. I look to the west and see huge mountains and cliffs and rock formations. I then look to the east and see nothing but flat plains as far as the eye can see. People really were not lying when they said Colorado Springs was a beautiful place, because it is.

The members here are great too, really good about fellowshipping and feeding the missionaries (YES!). I feel so welcome here! There is about the same number of members in my area as Sherwood Park, so it really doesn't feel that different.

Another fun tidbit: Our stake president here is named President McConkie: The son of the late Bruce R. McConkie. So ya, pretty dang cool if I say so myself.

This first week we've taught a few lessons, experienced a few miracles, and met a crazy. We got a referral from a member about a Less active that had an unbaptized daughter, and so we went to her house. However, the directions were confusing and we were not sure if we had the right house. So we stuck a pass along card in the door, and right as we were walking away, a car pulled up: It was them! Perfect timing huh.

It's funny though, every single house that we go to has a dog. It's the Springs Doorbell. And every house it's "Oh no, I've already found Jesus and he's my friend". There is so many churches here it's slightly unbelievable. Also, Colorado Springs is where almost all the Anti publications are printed. So basically, there is a lot of anti sentiment here. Most people are nice though, actually we walked by one guy and tried to talk to him:

Guy: Nope, no J Dubs, I dont wanna talk to ya
Us: No we are Mormons!
Guy:...Oh Hey! You guys rock!

So ya, pretty much, we rock.

We were at church on Sunday after my first week here, and the other elders in the district were trying to make me believe that new elders don't wear their nametags on their first sunday. I wore it anyways, but found out that they wanted the deacons quorum to ask me to pass the sacrament. Which did actually happen. Yes, I passed the sacrament my first sunday.

Also on Sunday, some random guy walked into the church saying that his car had broken down just in front of the church, and he really felt like he needed to come inside. We taught him a first, and committed him to be baptized on the 26th of September. He ended up staying for the whole 3 hour block of meetings, and took notes. All was going awesome until we walked into gospel principles, and the topic was "Word Of Wisdom"......Which is a great topic for a new investigator to hear right off the bat. It's ok though, he seemed to like it, and then in Elders, we discussed the similarities between the primitive church and the current church. So ya, pretty cool.

Also, for the "crazy" story, some woman ordered a Finding Faith in Christ and Joy to the World DVD, so we went to her apartment, in the most ghetto area of town (we saw a guy in a purple suit, with a yellow hat, and a cane) and she told us many disturbing stories, and about how she was gonna kill the guy next door because he wasn't very christian. No wait, she wasn't going to kill him, her "people" in Springfield, LA and Chicago were going too. Also, her native American heritage switched like 4 times in 20 minutes. she went from canadian blackhawk to something else to mohawk. She also did this thing where she'd start to cry, put her face in her hands, and then 5 seconds later stop and look at us to see if we responded. She was a pentacost.

Also, some church has a "Save the Date: May 12, 2011 Jesus Comes Back!" on their marquee. Many laughs.

Well that's it for now, check ya'll next week!