March 10th, 2009 (Email)

Hey! I'm still in Buena Park! Elder Frampton got transferred to Long Beach and now the new Zone Leader is Elder Huffaker. So I'll get to stay another 6 weeks to see the baptisms of Denny Ray Billy Shaw Stelly and Suli Crank. Bro. Stelly's baptism is this Saturday and Suli's baptism will be the 28th. Have I told you about Suli? I don't know if I have. Her family just moved into the ward. She's nine years old and her parents just got re-activated so they decided she needs to be baptized. She's already come to church twice and she likes primary and she's a quick learner.
We haven't seen Sam since that last visit but I think she's doing okay. She didn't come to our ward this Sunday though. I hope she went to the Single's Ward. She said she's going to start going there sometime.
Hey guess what we've got a cell phone now! I'm responsible for it so there goes my whole being excited about not having a cell phone for two years. It'll be really really useful though. We can't text so that's a plus. Elder Bliss used to be a text addict. That kind of sounds wrong.
I'm not sure how David and Dixie are doing with the rated-R movie thing. They haven't really brought it up. We haven't either. It's kind of a touchy subject but we'll have to bring it up again sometime. They're not married yet. Our next appointment we're going to set a goal.
So Hannah's going to have to watch the maturation film eh? How fun. And she's into crafts now? That's cool. What's the charter school? Is that that one school she almost went to a while back? She'll be fine going to normal school. I went to a different High School than the Wardies and I got through it just fine.
Bob Dylan's coming out with another new album?? Snap. That makes me slightly trunky. I'll get over it. Speaking of trunky we went hiking last P-Day somewhere in Whittier on some mountain and I saw trees and squirrells and it was so cool. It made me trunky too. But I got over it. We saw Long Beach, the ocean and L.A. from the top.
I didn't know anything about that Tom Hanks stuff. That's absurd. The apostles are probably going to dust their feet off at him and that TV show. They're gonna get cursed from on High. There goes a lot of my respect for Mr. Hanks. :( If he keeps that kind of stuff up he'd better make sure to be wearing a tank top, shorts and some flip flops when he's buried.
Whoa $1500 on my card now? I got that much tax stuff? How does that work? That's cool. Gracias!
I think Elder Bliss might be kind of mad at me because I made sure we had the full two hours of sacred study time this morning. We were running kind of late because of the transfers but I didn't think that was any excuse for not getting full studies. But apparently he does. That's too bad. That may cause some unnecessary contention. I hope not. Gotta be obedient . My second interview with Pres. Sexton made clear to me that we are expected to study two hours every day NO EXCEPTIONS. Those studies are sacred. So we had them today just like every other day. He'll get over it. Next obedience thing I'm going to work on is with our meal appointments. More and more of the members seem to think that we can stay for longer than an hour. The dinner calendar makes it very clear that that's not the case at all. One hour exactly and no longer. And when 6:00 rolls around we need to be working not eating. These rules would be so easy to keep if everyone would conform. Sorry I'm venting a little. I don't want to sound like a stickler I just want to do what I'm supposed to do. The dinner appointments have been the biggest obstacle for me out here surprisingly enough. I mean I'm grateful for the food but I HATE overstuffing myself. Makes me feel like crap. Dessert is a luxury not a staple to every dinner. Okay I'll stop venting.
Launa and Jackie send me letters pretty regularly. I'm going to write back to them today. Sorry this e-mail's a little short so I might write you guys too. I hope I have time. I'm going to try to do four letters today cuz I want to send some word to Tyson. The Assistants from the Anaheim mission attend the Spanish Ward in our building so we see them every Sunday.
This will most likely be my last transfer in Buena Park so I want to do the best I can and end it well. I want to fulfill my purpose here. It's very very rare for an Elder to stay in his Greenie area for more than 4 transfers. I don't think it's happened here actually. The Zone Leaders told me that I'm for sure leaving in 6 weeks. Until then we've got at least two baptisms and we're going to work hard for more.
I love you and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Tyler Lewis