HUMP DAY!

hey family,

This past week has been great. It has been a rollercoaster of many ups and downs. we had a great sunday with an actual ward and i didnt have to teach or bless or tell anyone to do anything so it was good.

the heat is not too bad but i am always thirsty and even though i drink a ton of water i still have that urge for water. im sweating a ton though. the bikes are great though and the only problem is my crotch gets sweaty from sitting on the hot seat and then riding gets a little rough.

but we went on exchanges earlier this week with the other elders in the district and i got to reunite with south philly. i was with an Elder Hansen and he is a stud. we're basically brothers and get along really well. hes from wyoming, star valley and is about 6'5 270 so hes a big boy. i didnt try and wrestle him cuz he'd just sit on me and it'd be over. but we had a great exchange and taught great together.

South philly is so much better though than North Philly. the puerto ricans up here are really hard hearted and its has been hard finding people that want to do good in their lives and listen to us. yesterday was a great day. we had two lessons in the morning that i just wanted to slap the people because they were so stubborn and tried to contradict everything we said. then in the afternoon we met with one guy from guatemala who was rough. he tried to prove us wrong and make us feel stupid with his limited knowledge of the Bible. but he was trying to tell us how God only cares for the people who do good and that he distances himself from those that dont choose the right. he asked me if that was right and i said no, youre wrong God is a loving God and he doesnt care what you've done, he still loves you and is always there for us. he just kind of sat there blank starred and then started rambling about something else. but after i said that i felt that God really does love us and he is always there for us. it was an inspiring feeling to know that my Heavenly Father is there and with me in this work. so i know that God lives and that He loves each of us. I know that we can always repent and come unto Him and He will accept us with open arms. Im grateful for that experience and how my mission is so beneficial to me.

but funny story about yesterday. we went looking for mexicans in another part of town, mexicans are a lot easier to teach than puerto ricans, but we found this house by looking at their dish tv satellite and it had 3 prongs instead of 1 for spanish. so we go over there and knock the door and its a black lady. but we aske her if there are any hispanics on the street and she points to one across the street. we go over there and knock on the door. a kid in the window of the door waves at us like he knows us. so we're a little confused, but then the dad answers the door and hes Dominican. he opens the door and invites us in. we see a families can be together forever poster thing on the wall and finally figure out that theyre members. so after we got talking and getting to know them they got us some juices from the fridge. they gave me a fuze juice and my companion a glass bottle juice. i open mine and start drinking it, the dad goes back into the kitchen, i look over at my companions drink and see that it says Parrot Bay on it. i remembered seeing that somewhere and hearing about it but wasnt quite sure . my companion takes a swig and then i tell him i think that his drink has alcohol in it. we look at the bottle and its got 4 percent alcohol in it. haha we told the member we couldnt drink it because it has alcohol in it and he gets all embarressed and goes and throws it away. they had gotten the bottle from a barbeque they went to the day before and so they didnt know. but im glad i told my companion about that and knew what parrot bay was from the friends i had had.

but things are going really good and we are excited for this next year. its been a great year and ive learned the most in the past 12 months than in my entire life. thanks you guys and have a good week.

love

norman