Thursday, August 27, 2015

The Email Where the California Weather Follows Me Everywhere

Hola!

I hope you all are doing fantastic! School is starting or just around the corner for a lot of you, and I wish you all the best! The good old' mission saying is that "the days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days." It definitely is true. I'll write out a sample schedule for a typical Monday:

6:30 Wake Up
6:40 Gym
8:00 Breakfast
8:30-12:50 Spanish Study/Investigator Lessons
12:50 Lunch
1:35 Daily Planning
2:05-5:35 Personal, Companion, Spanish Study
5:35 Dinner
6:20-9:30 Spanish Study
9:30-10:30 Chill at Residence Hall
10:30 Sleep

So yeah, we spend about 11 hours a day in a pretty small room. But thankfully my District is really chill and we all get along great. I'm the oldest, and sometimes it shows, but I really like everyone and how they have unique personalities that show up more and more as we spend all this time together. We definitely have a lot of fun in the day in order to keep ourselves from getting sucked into the daily routine.
Unfortunately, Elder Salmon was in real rough shape at the hospital, so last Saturday he was honorably released as a missionary and went home. Just because of the guy he is, I expect him to be back on his mission as soon as his health permits him to. But please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers. He's a great guy and I hope to see him in Baltimore in a few months when I'm there.

So...this weather man. The crazy amounts of wildfires in California/Oregon/Washington created quite the buzz here. All the smoke from those fires blew east, and the air here in this past week has been pretty bad. It gave a lot of people some interesting problems, and it looked almost like a heavy smog when you looked toward the Mountains/the valley. But thankfully it rained yesterday so that helped out a bit in cleaning things up.

It's crazy to hear of all the places that people are going for their missions. I met a group of missionaries that were headed to San Jose, and some arrived just yesterday that are going to Eugene! It made my day to hear that city again. I'm so glad I choose to go to college before my mission, and Eugene is one heck up a place. I got them hyped for their missions and told them to look out for a few people. It's just fun to hear that missionaries are headed almost everywhere in the world. It's a real testament of the fact that this Gospel is for everyone, and that people throughout the world have the opportunity to hear it and rejoice in the peace and hope it gives. The gospel brings families together, and the knowledge that there is a life and purpose after earth is just beautiful.

I can't wait to get out to the Baltimore mission and work, but I'll continue to prepare while I am here and build my Spanish. Please continue to write me, and I love each and every one of you!

Con Amor,
Elder Ball

Pictures:

The whole district/squad and the sick Captain Moroni painting on the wall


Blurry selfie with companions, Elder Skarda (Baltimore) and Elder Peterson (Long Beach,CA)

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