Here is a little low down on a few things. A couple little bio's.
Elder Lewis: My companion. About 6'2'', soulless ginger. He is a spiritual giant of the group. He played football in high school and wrestling. So ya.. He is built. He is from Oregon and is hoping to walk on to a Oregon football team for college when he gets home. He is pretty determined type so it would not surprise me if he was able to. He is kind of a hick. He likes country music a lot. He likes trucks (But then again, who doesn't). He lived in a small town and did a lot of farm work as a job for a local farmer. Which is great because he has a good work ethic that I am thankful for. Elder Lewis has been out here for 4 months and turned 19 the same day I did. He just finished training when President made him train me.
Elder Buxton: Elder Buxton is companions with Elder Houskeeper who are over the area next to ours but we live in the same apartment. Our areas combined cover the ward boundaries. (About 6ish cities. Probably equivalent to Herriman, Riverton, South Jordan, bluffdale in size. Not exactly same population though.) Maybe bigger size. I don't know. I'm at loss here without mountains to guide me. Anyway, Elder Buxton is the scriptural genius. He can name tons of scriptures and quote most of them. Which is extremely good most of the time! He also does his hand to his head (finger on his temple) like Mr. Monk on the TV show when he is thinking really hard. It gives me a good ol' chuckle. He is an interesting one for sure. He has been out here for 7 months and is 19 years old.
Elder Houskeeper: My fellow Utah-ite. Which is an extremely bad thing. I hate admitting that I came out when I was 18 and that I'm from Utah. Some non members really hate Utah Mormons out here... Anyway, Elder Houskeeper is 22 and has been out here for a year. He is the oldest out of the 4 of us in both age and missionary age (Time been out here). Basically your age depends on the number of months you've been serving out here. So I'm the youngest of the group. Elder Houskeeper worked at Sea World and loves marine life especially killer whales. He is an interesting fellow at about 6'1" with dark hair. He is a swimmer but complains he is out of shape (After all, you're only fat on your mission once.) He fell away from the church at about 13, visited tons of different churches and was re-converted to the gospel and bam! Out on a mission.
The Lawrences: These are pretty much my favorite people out here. They are an older couple in about their 60's-70's. They are converts of about 20 years. They are so much fun. We help them out with their 2 acre of land a lot. Mowing, cutting down trees, etc. Then they feed us. So its a win win. They have a dog named Buddy who only likes males who hold the Priesthood according to the Lawrences. The rest of the males he freaks out at. They are the only people we can relax with and enjoy their company. They are huge influence on getting the ward to like us because they tell everyone that we are great. Even in their prayers at the pulpit on Sunday. Sister Lawrence gave us a scare last Thursday and was in the hospital. We had to go visit her and give her a blessing. Thankfully, I was blessed with being able to handle the E.R. without getting sick/dizzy/whatever. She is doing fine and it is just complaining that she has to adjust her diet now. They are funny though! They do some interesting things that I just chuckle at. Like we hold hands to "say grace" over dinner. Which is just a regular prayer though. And sometimes they bless the food in a mini prayer before they give it to Buddy.
We are still working on getting the ward to like us. We had a ward activity last Friday that was great for some of our investigators but for some reason or another the ward seemed a little off with us after that. But oh well. The investigators / our new member liked it. And I got a good opportunity to connect with some of the investigators.
A couple interesting things about New York:
Tons of motorcycles out here. Don't worry though, it makes me want to get one when I get home. Quite practical machines / good for gas mileage. Everyone here also drives a new car because old ones rust out really easy so everything on the road is 2001+.
Also all the houses are smaller here but everyone actually uses all the space. No wasted space. Makes me laugh at Utah and their "keeping up with the Jones" attitude. They seem to get by fine with smaller spaces here. But then again, everyone uses their garages as living rooms. It's weird. Their garage door will be open or the garage door is like a net/screen and they have couches/tables/etc in there. Everyone just hangs out in their garages.
You never have any idea where you are here. Every direction looks the same. Each street is a new name and the numbers just start at 1 for each new street name. No grid system. It's all about "What is your crossroads."
Corn is good. They gots some good corn.
Lots of town homes and duplexes in my area.
Everyone in my area is old. I swear. I'm dying for some potential investigators that aren't 60+.
Very strong catholics. Except they have no idea why they are strong Catholic. Born Catholic, raised Catholic, going to die Catholic and have no idea why. But hey, a good Catholic makes a even better Mormon! ;)
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