Elder Joseph Janson, California Santa Rosa Mission: 11/17/14 New Companion--Elder Reeder

Dear Family and friends,

So my new companion is Elder Reeder, of course from Idaho, and he
loves potatoes, and I'm not joking. We had potatoes for dinner at a
members and he was freaking out. There's a picture of him and me at
the bishop's house for dinner on the blog check it out. He's from
Nampa Idaho near Boise. Everyone here thinks Napa when he says that
and it bugs him of course.

Anyways, we now have two areas to deal with, Peterson Lane North and
south. I only know south, and we are trying to get to know the
investigators in the south area. The only cool thing is we now have
two phones, two pairs of keys, more shower time, a lot of leftover
cheese, more room, two bunk beds for no reason, a nice study room, and
there aren't 6 bikes in our apartment. Aren't I good at pointing out
the good in things!? Yea I know. Our apartment was a bit small for 4
guys, but it was more exciting.

We taught Pamela again with her husband. It turned out to be a lesson
where they expressed all of their concerns about controversial issues
of the church. I find those not only hard to make a good answer for,
but also I have trouble even caring at all about that stuff. To me I'm
like... Ummm who cares!? But other people do and it's annoying. Elder
Reeder wrote down their issues, like what tithing is used for, and
polygamy (surprise), the 4 accounts of the first vision, yadayadayada.
For me that doesn't even do anything to diminish a testimony. That is
clearly the adversary just making stuff look bad, which you can do to
anything essentially. It's dumb! But we are going on LDS.org where it
has an explanation of sorts for all of these topics, which is pretty
cool. Honestly people need to get over themselves, but that's just me.
:)

So it's crazy to hear about my cross country team! To all of you, I am
not running, and yes it's because I am lazy, and yes, my excuse is
biking everyday, all day. Which I think is valid. Good job to my team!
Y'all are the best.

So the work is just kind of chugging along. The other day was awesome!
We contacted like 31 people, we just talked to a bunch of people on
our bikes, which is incredibly awkward, but I just get to the point
that I relish the awkwardness. Haha we just ride and were like,
"Heyyyyy" haha it's great.

It's starting to kind of get cold here, and our apartment has like
zero heat that works. Our apartment is usually about 59 degrees :)
it's makes me quite a bit more grateful for blankets than I have been
in the past in the land of muggy Florida. The weather is not too bad
here though. It's considerably mild. I've also been a little sick the
past couple days and it's terrible!! The cold doesn't help. One day I
slept in until like 10 because I felt like crap. I hope I can get
better quickly.

So we will try as best as we can here. It's going to be difficult at
first, but I know that President Alba puts certain elders together for
a reason. Elder Roper was kind of burnt out being in this area for 6
months, and I could tell and it was annoying. But Elder Reeder seems
like he will be able to help us go out and do work. I'm still figuring
things out, and it's weird talking to every weird person on the
street, but I know we have to exercise that faith to find, because
barely anyone knows what they are missing. I know this church and
true, and the more I read from the scriptures and prophets, the more I
see what the atonement of Jesus Christ really means. It's amazing how
much I didn't understand as a kid. I hope I can be able to express
that to those I teach, and be a vessel for the spirit for them. Thank
you all for the prayers and looking out for me!

Elder Janson