March 7, 2012

Hold on to your chair, fasten your seat belt and get ready for this!!! so... Elder Dowdy and Elder Ledee both are going home!! So there would just be me and the Australian elder... so they combined Chelsea and East Boston again... and Elder Pitcher will not be working here anymore!!! I will now be in Bridgeport, Connecticut!! Furthest place away from here that I could go!!! That's not all!!! They're "zebra-ing" the area where I'm going which means they combined the Spanish and Portuguese!!! I'll now be teaching the gospel not only in Spanish but also in Portuguese!! Now I'll be learning Portuguese too!!! My comp is from Brazil and is learning English. We came from the MTC together so we have met already. He speaks pretty good English but his Spanish is so so. It's going to help me learn Spanish and be a great opportunity to learn... ANOTHER language!! haha I'm going to be trilingual!! ;) I'm pretty excited!!! lots of change!! I'm excited and super nervous too!! I really didn't think I was going to move.
When I got up last Sunday and bore my testimony everyone knew that Elders Dowdy and Ledee were leaving and then I said I was leaving too and everyone was so sad. I'm really going to miss this ward. They're all so amazing and I love them. They were super amazing to me in my first area and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to serve here.
This whole week has been pretty packed with members having us come over and eat and everything. I've gained 6 pounds this week from eating. I weigh 180!!! hahaha I'm a fatty!!! Also I'm moving obviously so my new address is....

50 Ridgefield Ave. #111
Bridgeport, CT 06610

I love you all tons!!
Elder Pitcher :)

2/27/2012

First off I want to say thank you for praying for me!! I've needed it this week!! Its really been a nuts week!! I'll start with the whole baptism thing!!! So we were going to do the baptism 2 Saturdays ago but our guy got sick. Before that our bishop wanted him to do it at the singles ward so that he could get some friends and support there because he will be going there in a little while!!! We couldn't get that so we were just planning on doing it at our church again!! We changed the program and everything to how he wanted it and then on Thursday night our bishop texts us and says he wants him to do it at the other building so the singles ward could be there!! There was also going to be another baptism at the same time so he wanted us to call everyone and see if we could split the program so we had a speaker talk and the other guy had a speaker talk too!!! That wasn't going to work so we didn't know what to do!!! We were like bishop i think we just need to do it at our own building!! Long story short ... we talked to our zone leaders and told them everything and they called our mission president and told him everything and he had his counselor call our bishop and tell him how it should be!!
It was suppose to start yesterday right after church!! Well, the baptismal font is in the Relief Society room and they went over like 10 minutes after they were supposed to, which meant we were hurrying trying to get everything ready because everyone was there waiting!!! We're finally ready and then the Stake President says, "No, wait. We are waiting for members from the singles ward to come!!!" Then we didn't have enough space in the Relief Society room to fit everyone so we move into an overflow and the singles ward people finally get there and we finally start and do it all!! It was super stressful and lots of work!! haha But it was totally worth it!! :) I was a witness which was pretty cool!! :) He is finally baptized!!!! :) Lots of work but he is now a member!! :)
Now for a funny story!! haha The other day we were walking to the bus stop and there is this big black guy we see every once in a while and he calls us his brothers and he yells for us to come to him!! He's like, "I'm super drunk we need to pray!!" haha So he holds our hands and he is all dirty and stuff and its gross, so he prays in French!! After praying this guy is all over the place!! He's doing the splits in the middle of the road and dancing and hugging us and taking my comps tie and "showing" him how to tie it!! haha Then he kept his tie!! He was doing like karate and all this stuff and I was just stunned!! I didn't even know what to do!! Then we're like, "That's our bus we gotta go man!!" He goes, "No wait!!" Calls his best friend over and is like, "We need to pray again!!" So my comp prays and then he gives us hugs and then freaking kisses us on the cheek and i almost threw up!!! It was nasty!! It was super funny though!!! haha That's the funny/gross/weird story for the day!! :)

2/20/2012

This week has been great - a few disappointments though. We had a baptism planned for Saturday and were at the church and had everything ready when the kid who was supposed to get baptized called us and said he was super sick. He was throwing up and had food poisoning and couldn't make it, so we will be having the baptism next week... I hope!!
Yesterday we were able to go to the temple and it really was great!! I love the temple and the feeling I get when I attend!! The Boston temple is so awesome.
So here in Boston Spanish is kinda funny. I'll learn a new word or phrase and I'll say it to a person and they don't understand what I'm trying to say because they are from a different Hispanic country and they don't say what I'm trying to say in their country!! I guess you could say I'm learning Spanish and Dominican, El Salvadorian, Guatemalan, Puerto Rican, Argentinian, Mexican and a bunch of other Hispanic languages!!

Photos from the Last Couple Months

November 14, 2011

This week has been good. It seems really slow for the first week though - I don’t know - but it was a good week! I wish I knew more Spanish. Anyway this week we have found a couple new people to teach and taught some really awesome people. There is one investigator that is amazing. He reads the Book of Mormon and prays every single day. We scheduled an appointment for this last Saturday and he stood us up so he didn’t come to church this last week which was a bummer but we are hoping this next week he will come. He has a baptismal date set for December so hopefully he can be ready by then. :)

The members really like us and they are way awesome. We actually went to have dinner at a member’s home last night and it was so far away. We left an hour early to make it there in time. We really walked probably 4 miles and took the bus like however far but we were still 15 minutes late so they had already eaten dinner without us. When we got there they all came in and watched us eat. It was really kind of awkward haha but it was good. Let me tell you this, EVERY food here is SSOSOOSOSOSOSOO greasy. haha The food tastes super good but it’s so greasy. There are members that own bread shops and restaurants and they ask us to come over all the time and take bags of bread and stuff. haha Its nice because it’s unreal good! :)

Let me answer some questions for you. It was a good week. I still love my comp. We get along well. The ward is really nice and they are patient with my Spanish so it’s really nice. Lots of them speak English too, so I say all I can in Spanish and then they teach me the words I don’t know so it’s good. We only have one ward and there are tons of members but like 450 are inactive which stinks. We are going to try to see a lot of them this week.

Oh gosh laundry... laundry is so far away... it’s down the hall from my room ;) hahahaha We have one in our apartment which is way nice. The Portuguese elders come over once a week and do their laundry at our house. It’s so nice to have it here! :) Yeah, my apartment is really nice. Like its all hardwood and it creeks and stuff but it’s pretty nice. We have the other Spanish elders or Cambodians pick us up and we go with them to do e-mailing and grocery shopping. Today we are actually going to downtown Boston which I’m excited for!! :)

I love you!! :)
Elder Pitcher :)

November 7, 2011

It was great talking to you guys the other day!! I miss you all so very much. I wish I could have talked to Nate too!

But anyways all of your questions... It was a good flight. I tried sleeping the whole way. President and Sister Evans met us at the airport. I love President Evans and Sister Evans is way nice. I saw Elder Okelberry on Thursday morning! It was way nice seeing him and talking to him! He’s so awesome :) I hear he’s just tearing it up. I am serving in East Boston and Chelsea. They just combined them this transfer because they're both a little smaller areas. So it’s good! Combined I think I have seen like 5 or 6 other white people besides me and my comp. I’ve already met people from like 15 different countries and I was told I'll meet some from many other countries!
My companion is awesome. His name is Elder Dowdy. He’s from Mesa, Arizona and has been out for 20 months. I like him a lot. We are on foot... our area is too small for a car so we are on foot and then ride the bus everywhere (with our Charlie cards.) Almost all the other missionaries have a car though but I don’t mind walking around. Our apartment is pretty big because they combined the East Boston and Chelsea areas and it’s just me and my comp in there and it is one of the bigger apartments in the mission - so it’s nice.

How is everything going back home? :) I have some funny stories already! This drunk guy stopped us and was trying to telling us that Satan was coming next month and trying to tell us how God touched him haha so funny!!!
We had an investigator come to church yesterday... but we couldn’t stay very long because I left my wallet on the bus and we went back and they said I prolly would never find it! We called the bus station and they said it hadn’t been turned in so we said a prayer. Like 1 or 2 minutes later we got a call back from the bus station and they were like, "We have your wallet!" It was amazing!!! God answers prayers. It truly was a miracle. It’s a little more in depth but I’ll have to tell you the rest later.

It is really cold! It’s not bad when the wind stops but there is ALWAYS wind blowing and it’s just super cold!! haha but I’m good.
I wish I would have learned how to cook. haha The members feed us a lot but I wish I would have been better. haha But I'll learn :)
I gotta get going. I love you guys so much. Can’t wait to hear from you all soon! :) You’re all so amazing and I love you all.

Love Elder Pitcher :)

Sept. 21, 2011

Nate and Ryan in the MTC