First week in San Diego!

**Just a little side note, Ryan was VERY disappointed when he opened and call and found out he was speaking english. That boy has mexican blood, so he was hoping to speak some espanol! It just goes to show how the Lord works in all of our lives. It may not be on our timing or how we think it will go, but everything works out!!
Keep Ryan in your prayers as he is in a not-so-ideal area. But, he will be great! We love him lots!
-Whitney


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Hola La Famila,
Hablo es mucho gusto! My Spanish is raunchy but Do you see where I'm going 
with this???
Wed. morning before our transfers we had personal interviews with Pres. 
Donaldson and one of the first things he asked me was "so what did you think 
when you open your call up?" I said, "Well was kind of disappointed to an 
extent, I said I kind of wanted to serve spanish speaking. I told him about 
our mexican lineage and Uncle Buck, Uncle Russ, and Uncle Mike all serving 
Spanish-speaking so I was a little bit bummed when it said english-speaking 
and that I was kind of anticipating a Spanish-speaking mission but I told 
President that the more it sunk in; English-speaking, San Diego, 3 weeks at 
the MTC, I told him it kept sounding better and better each day. He said 
"Well, I guess those intuitions weren't just a coincidence. He said that he 
did alot of praying and he needed another Spanish-speaking elder and guess 
who it was??? (If you don't get this right I would shame myself) IT"S ME!!! 
I got switched to Spanish!!! I thought about not telling you and then 
bearing my testimony or talking to you in spanish on Christmas but freak I 
can't keep a secret! Especially one this big! So as of Wed.... Hablo 
Espanol.... Crazy huh!? There is a negative to this, actually there's a few. 
For one when we go teaching I just sit there like a retard staring into 
space while my companion talks to the people. And two I'm in El Cajon/Santee 
area. It's not a very good area where I'm at. Alot of mexicans, arabs, and 
blacks as well as alot of poor people, drug, people, and drunk people. So 
it's a real rough part of town and that's pretty much how it's going to be, 
so I've already had a few interesting experiences; been yelled at, flipped 
off, a lady said that she would make my night haha... a bunch of CrAzY 
people out here but it's fun. I've been into places that smell like a 
dumpster and that look like a dumpster too. When people get done with a bowl 
of something they don't wash it oh no that would be too much work, so they 
just leave it there and go get a new bowl. I wouldn't let a cow live in some 
of these places, but I wouldn't have it any other way. My companions name is 
Elder Law kind of funny Elder Law and Elder Lawter, it was ment to be. He's 
a really cool guy; he's from Idaho, loves sports, same personality as me, 
just real chill and lax so we get along really well. Just the experinces 
already are awesome to. I might be able to understand people when we teach 
but I can feel the Spirit and that's the best part and I can see it working 
on the people. I have actually taught a few times we get a young person that 
speaks both spanish and english so I'll get to teach sometimes but for the 
most part I'm just sittin there smilin away! It's like 95 degrees here too! 
That weather channel thing is full of crap! It's soooo hot! I guess I'm 
closer to the desert but still! Where I'm at too isn't pretty at all. It's 
dry and baron, worse than Utah even! I'm sure there's pretty parts like 
everyone said but I haven't seen em yet! Actually I take that back, when we 
flew in on Wed, the airport is right downtown and right by the ocean so that 
was pretty cool but that's the only part I saw. Ok now for a few 
experiences. First off today's my P-day so you'll get an e-mail every mon. 
btw. Anyways, Elder Law and I have a few investigators that have committed 
to baptism we just have to get them to the baptism. Satan works overtime on 
those people and its crazy to see. For example we have an investigator named 
Gabby (she speaks english so I get to teach her, Yea!) and she wants to go 
to church wants to be baptized but everytime she makes an effort to go to 
church something ends up happening. Last fri. her brother got pulled over 
just for a routine check, and he doesn't have his citizenship or a license 
but worst of all he had some creatine in a bag because he was going to go 
workout but the cops saw it, thought he was trying to impersonate the 
creatine for crack or something like that and so he got arrested and Gabby 
had to stay home Sunday to wait for her brother to call and the lawyer! Uh! 
Stupid Satan! So it's difficult to see these people just want to do go but 
bad things end up tying them down. Another investigator we have is awesome! 
His name is Edson and he's so stoked about the gospel! He speaks English too 
so there's another one I teach! (But that's about it as English goes) So he 
was going to go to church but he had to work and his boss said if he didn't 
come that he'd get fired. Just random crap like that happens! It's 
frustrating! So we've been pretty diligent with our investigators that are 
on the brink of baptism and we're constantly running all of the Santee area! 
I'm sooo exhausted when we get home! We have a car so that's good but we 
also have the largest area to cover in the mission because we're 
spanish-speaking and we've got alot of responsibility on our hands! But it's 
good. Busy is good. One more experience then I've gotta run; we've got 
shopping then B-Ball later on!!! So my first night here, Wed. night I went 
on splits with a member that spoke english and he's 19 so he was way cool, I 
told him all about you guys and Whitney and he was so theraputic (I don't 
know if that's how you spell it but you know what I'm talking about). But we 
were walking on main street contacting in El Cajon and we were walking by a 
bar and there was this man sitting outside that just wouldn't take his eyes 
off us. Then he said you boys missionaries? We were like uh yea!!! Then he 
invited us to sit down and talk to him and I have never smelled so much 
alcohol on someone, I'm suprised he wasn't already passed out. So we sat 
down, asked him how it was going and he said not good. So the more we talked 
the more he wanted to preach to us instead of the other way around. So we 
let him mumble and slur all over the place then we started telling him how 
the gopsel would help his life. He was in bad shape; his clothes looked 
dingy, he smelt, he was drunk, looked like he hadn't taken a shower in a 
year, but he did have a wedding ring on so it made us wonder. He wouldn't 
really accept anything that we were saying but he did say that we helped him 
more than we knew. He said that we were like his sons and that he loved us, 
I don't know if that was because he was drunk or what but he said that he 
was sooo angry and that he could strangle someone but we calmed him down, 
seems like I do that alot, I don't know what it is about me. But after he 
was done saying every name in the book and we were done giving him our 
number to call us when he sobered up he told us that we were truley sent 
from God to help him. His name was Michael and he was my first experience 
talking to a real person in San Diego about the gospel. It was so neat! We 
talked for like an hour and a half. An experience I will truely never 
forget!
So welp I better get runnin but I love you all, who ever is reading this and 
I'll be back on next monday to write some more! Hope you have a good week!

Mucho Mucho LOVE,
Elder Lawter