October 23rd, 2008 (Email)

Hey!
Another week down and two to go! Yesterday a new teacher came into our zone named Hermano Cat. Hermano Cat just returned from his mission a month ago. Guess where he served?!?!? California Long Beach! He's so enthused about his mission. He said Compton's actually one of the safer areas cuz the thugs protect the missionaries. When we asked him if Hawaiian Gardens is safe too he kind of beat around the bush and just told us we'd have fun. He said all the areas are safe enough that we get to proselyte after six o'clock at night. Elder Kemp, Elder Clark and Hermana Choi are the other three in my district going to Long Beach. We're the only four heading there in two weeks but in December there's this group of eight going. We met a couple of them in the computer lab. Hermano Cat said that President Sexton is the most amazing and spiritual man he's ever met in his life. He said he's 6'5'' tall and he used to be a drill sergeant (I probably slaughtered that word. My English is gradually digressing) but he said you'd never guess cuz he's so soft-spoken and kind. He also said that Pres. Sexton only calls his best Elders to be trainers so he said we're guaranteed to be paired with someone amazing when we arrive.
I've only had to have one haircut here. It was awkward cuz you get to be separated from your companion and have some BYU girl cut your hair. I'm very self-conscious about flirting now. I generally don't talk to girls outside of the hermanas in my district. So naturally I didn't say anything at all to the girl cutting my hair cuz it seemed so wrong. So I guess I'm already weird.
This Sunday Sheri Dew came and spoke at the Fireside. She's an incredible speaker. She told us about the market crash that I guess is happening outside these 8 ft. fences and she reviewed one of the talks Pres. Hinckley gave at General Conference in 1998 about how important it was to pay off any debts. Modern prophecy!
Now Elder Kemp and I can teach lessons 1 and 2 en espanol. Next week's the last full week here so we'll be teaching all sorts of lessons to all sorts of Elders all over the place. I think we're supposed to teach over 35 lessons. We won't have too much class with Hermanos Pack and Tidwell so we'll have plenty of time.
I just had celestial biscuits and gravy once again. This time I cleaned my plate much to Elder Kemp's astonishment. I'm maintaining my 130 pounds pretty consistently now. I've started running again with a newer Elder named Elder Wood. We run two laps, do at least 30 sit ups, run two more laps, at least 30 more sit ups, two more laps, 30 more sit ups.
Well I definitely feel ready to get out of here. Long Beach is around the corner and I'm so so so so excited to REALLY be a missionary.
Much Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis