And it’s rained.....

YOU FOUND THE TEMPLE PICTURES..... Well I didn’t even know about those pictures, haha but it’s sad to say that I don't have hair anymore. I had another missionary that I was good friends with cut my hair and I told him to buzz it, but he cut it like that. So a few weeks ago I went and got my hair buzzed. So it’s all short again. When I get back I might try having long hair but it’s too much of a mess down here to worry about haha.

And it’s rained..... It has rained soooooo much the last few days I don't think the ground can take any more water. I thought that I knew rain in Utah... NOPE when it rains here it rains. and as why I’m not sending pictures for 2 reasons.... one is that the camera that I came out with broke like after 10 pictures so I kind of stopped using it and just stealing pictures from my companions camera. and the second reason is because were at the library right now when we email and they don't allow us to plug anything into the computers so for as long as imp here I won’t be able to receive any videos and also can’t send anything back home for the time being. But I get pictures just fine so feel free to send any pictures haha.

My new companion is GREAT, he came from Lehi Utah and has been out about 11 months so he’s old.... we get along super well. This week has been kind of crazy because we both were sick but we just had a lot of time to talk with each other and become better friends. His name is Elder Anderson if I didn’t say already. we sort of have to get along super well because there’s nothing really to do on p days other than volunteer somewhere or stay at home and talk/sleep. We have been doing good for the most part but were just out of money right now. Last week we had to do some shopping up in Selma after district meeting, were now just eating anything that we can. Yesterday we had nothing left really to eat so I made some boxed potatoes..... I didn’t see that they expired 2 years ago so I threw them away and had a cheese casadia.

Camden is great for the most part but it’s just small. I feel like I know everything about this place and it’s been a week now.... everyone knows everything so we just like try and see as many less-actives as possible. It’s different from anywhere in the world. Racism is still very real down here, there still a black school and a white school. There’s the black part of town called west gate and the white part of town. And a lot of white people still don't like black people. It’s a very hard place to be. The other day we went into dollar general and there were 10 black guys just chilling inside. and we walked in smiling and were like how y'all doing, they all just like half smiled half like what are you doing here looked and us and it was super uncomfortable. I feel like they trust "US" for the most part but it’s still just a weird middle ground. I know no one has gotten mad at us yet for smiling and asking them if they needed help yet.

We were trying to go were other missionaries have not been before so that we could try and do some tracking this week. So we have 3 towns in our area, Camden, Oak Hill, and Pine-apple. Pine-apple is about 20 miles away so we drove out there today and were planning on stay all day down there. As we pull into Pine-apple we were looking for a store of a place for us to part and we drove for about 2 minutes and we started leaving Pine-apple.

IT’S TINY!!!!! After 4 hours tracking there we met this old lady watering her flowers, she said something like. I bet no one has opened up yet have they. And not a lot had so we started talking with her. She then went on to tell us that Pine-apple is a dying town and only has about 230 people in it and about 30 houses are abandon. CRAZY we were thinking that it was going to be small but, not that small. they got nothing... the only place that they can get anything is in a place farther down called Greenville or back over to Camden. But they have no school no hospital, no nothing. CRAZY

We also started to work a little more in this area in Camden called West Gate "or where all the black people live" it’s kind of a mess..... We were there for about 2 hours and everyone was super high or refused to open the door. it’s kind of a dead end... there were a few people who let us in and let us teach them but they were so messed up I don't think they would remember us if we came back the next day.

So it’s different down here haha. The work is moving slowly. This week we were able to see about 5 less-actives and have a good talk and build friendships. We do a lot of volunteer work down here and have started helping out at the nursing home on Tuesdays, we go and sing and paint for an hour or so with the old folks. Everything is just moving on slowly haha.

Thanks for all the support and love y'all show to us down here.

Elder Landon Aldana

P.S. if I could get you to send me any recipes to me in email, anything easy to make haha that's a little bit different. :) thanks so much.

March Temple trip

How's Luna?

HEY FAMILY. How’s Luna? I was just telling my new companion Elder Anderson all about our family and such and having a good old time. It sounds like everything is just super quiet over there. Nothing too fun is going on I guess. As far as sending me anything like a gift card. There’s really nothing to eat out here haha. We have a Hardy’s ( Carls Jr.) and a subway. So we try and eat at the house or at a member’s house if we can. The only thing that I would really like to get is a ukulele song book just like a ton of songs that I would be able to practice and play when we get bored on P-day.

Camden might look about the same size as Columbiana, but we just have about 1/5 of the area that we had in Columbiana. When I was there we had 5 cities that we were supposed to be working with. Here it’s only Camden. And its tiny haha. But its super fun I’m loving it. It’s a 50 miles drive to the closest Wal-Mart, that's kind of an idea of what it’s like here. We were able to have out interviews with President Hanks with week and it was super great. He was like I felt like you were supposed to go there because we need that branch to be re-activated and we need the people of Camden to get a good opinion of the missionary’s again. so he have just been trying to do as much service that we could do and also trying to see as many people in the branch that we can.

Its different there is only about 10 people that come to church with us now and there all like just one big family so it’s kind of weird haha. That’s the thing about small cities is that EVERYONE IS RELATED... WEIRD. One of the people that I was talking with is like it stinks living here, when you want to ask someone out you ask for their name and if you're kin. Haha I didn’t even think that you would need to worry about something like that but I guess that you do if you’re in something that's this small.

It’s been a super different feeling out here. It’s like 70% black population but like a lot of people around here are still kind of racist. So it’s different. You have to like be careful where you’re going and stuff and like people just drive around with confederate flags on their car all the time. It’s different. But it’s a good different, this week has just been super long and like just trying to get someone started, me and my new Companion Elder Anderson got in at the same time so we both have no idea what’s going on.

This week were going to be trying really hard to get with the branch and try and re-active one person or get one person to come to church. I think that we can do it because the people that I've been talking with seem super nice just like a bit lazy so I think that if we can get them to get excited about coming to church again and not worry so much about the people at church it’s going to be super good.

That’s one of the biggest problems down here is that a lot of people are like puritans. like if you screw up its straight to hell with you.... so when people come smelling like smoke of have a tattoo its super like intense and kind of scary to be around, I keep feeling like someone’s about to jump up and start yelling in the sacrament. But anyway I’m doing good just enjoying the small town... as much as I can ha-ha.

LOVE YOU LOTS

ELder LANDON ALdana

This week has been pretty good I guess

Well I guess to start off this week has been pretty good I guess. I’m getting transferred so that’s something that I’m not looking forward to, but I’m super good friends with one of the AP's and he was saying that I was going to love my new companion and that he was a good bit younger than me. Sooo that’s something different haha. As far as me and Curtis we get along good I guess. He was going to BYU before he came out so we don’t really have anything in common, so most the time we just make weird noises with each other and give each other weird looks. 

It’s good to hear that everything is working over on that side of the world. One of the sisters in my zone is going home this transfer so she’s like going crazy from trying to pack going home and also just leaving this area, so also I guess I should tell you a little about my knee because I might have to go home because of it. I don’t remember what it called but my knee cap is rubbing on like the bottom of my knee I’ll send you what it’s called next week. but I’ve been taking 8 ibuprofen, a day for like the last 4 weeks and nothing has been getting better so I’m emailing the doctor to see what he wants me to do next. But other than that this week has been good I guess haha.

We have been doing a lot of tracking and then I found out that I am for sure getting transferred so I’ll have to send you my new address this week on Wednesday. I’m like sort of excited but then at the same time I’m kind of sad because I have been able to meet so many people this week. It’s just been super slow this week so nothing super interesting has happened this week. I guess there was this lady that I had met a few weeks ago and we were thinking that her son that we had met really wanted to talk with us so we had gone back a few times to try and catch him. 

This went on for like 2 visits but yesterday we were thinking of something to do so we decided that we were going to try and visit him one more time before I leave and so Curtis could get his address. So we pull up and we go over to knock on the door and no one is home so as were walking away from the door someone pulls up in the driveway. So we go over to talk to her and she’s just looks at us and is like, "I’m sorry y'all need to go buy a King James bible because you're lost" seeing that she knew nothing..... Of the Mormons we then tried to explain like we do to everyone down here that we DO use the bible. She then understood that and told us that we need to study it much more because we obviously did not understand it. 

Seeing that she had no desire or care to talk with us about anything we simply thanked her asked her if there was anything that we could do for her and walked away. That’s kind of how this whole week has been going so it’s not really anything that’s worth writing about.... but ya like I said, most of the people are nice, the weather is getting hot, my bike works super well. As far as the food we don’t really get fed at all so we have to do all our shopping. I’ve lost like 10 pounds because we never have any food, and we don’t have the money to go out and eat, so we just end up eating cheap or easy to make food like bean dip, eggs, and such. 

I’m just super tired this week so sorry for a little letter but I hope that everything works out with Isaac and the job, y'all will have to say hi to all the work guys for me. I found this hat at the house that says something like JESUS IS MY BOSS. I was going to send it home to give to COLE at work.  I think that he would find it funny haha.  Hope y'all are not missing me tooo much haha.

LOVE Y'ALL 

Elder Aldana

To Bishop Larsen-

Hey Bishop Larson, I hope that you’re doing good. I was just thinking about little old Mapleton 3rd ward and was thinking about everyone back home and how I should write to the old class it I could haha.

    But this week I was thinking a lot about preparing whatever is next in life. I don't know if y'all knew or not but coming out on a mission I had not read the Bible, Book of Mormon, D.C., or the Perl of Great Price. So coming out I've read NOTHING ON MY OWN!!!!! ;) You could say that I was prepared the least. I was thinking about my friends how some have put a good influence on my life and some have not. When I look back from where I was, an 18 year old working 40/80 hours a week playing video-games every waking moment, and only talking with family and other when I had to eat or go to the bathroom. Before I came out I thought that church was just church, I didn't need it, same with seminary. Little by little I had cut myself off from receiving revelation from God and guidance in what I needed to do. These last 3 months have been the HARDEST SLAP in the face I've gotten in a long time. I thought I was strong, I've worked 80 hours a week, but I had never studied the scriptures in my life. I thought that I would be able to go on a mission and come back and get right back into my half active (probably inactive) old self and enjoy what life had to give me.

    I would give you one piece of advice from a friend to another. PRAY EVERY DAY! Reading the scriptures is important; going to church is good, it’s all important. But before I left on my mission I don't think that I had ever prayed for reals. I hadn't ever gotten on my knees, cried out to my Heavenly Father and said, I TIRED, I'M SICK OF THIS, I'M DONE! And just laid there. I would ask you as you prepare for anything in this life that you would pray, pray with REAL INTENT. Real intent is where you plan on action on the answer that you get. I can’t say that I've got to see Jesus and the Father here but I've been able to see as I pray how much more I've noticed in my life. Not just on a mission but everything that's happened to me. I hope you all think about going on missions, not just for the church. But to save your old lives. I'm still the happy, dorky, video game nerd I was, but I have way more hope on where I'm going in like other than worrying about what’s going to happen in life.

Hope that you all are doing good bishop Larson, keep them kiddies coming to church and in the right place.

Thanks for everything y'all have done for me

ELder ALdana

This week has been a good week!

HEY FAMILYIA

So this week has been a good week I think for the most part. I don’t really remember what all happened this week, but I just know that it was a good week. As far as the ukulele I have started playing it a little bit, only on p-pays and when we get home and from like 9:40 to 10:10 I'll play it for a little. But I’ve enjoyed it so much haha. And I totally forgot but the bike works perfect!!!!, one question I was thinking about it because everyone has been talking about video games and such, hey pap, did you ever get to sell my computer? I was just wondering because I never really heard what all happened to it haha

But this week has been a super good week. We have been teaching this lady for about 6 weeks now, and she’s doing like SUPER GOOD, but almost like too good. She does soooo much reading and because of that I think that she’s learning more about the church like what she likes and such more than about how she feels. Last week she was digging in super hard into the church and like started watching the temple video online. And after a few minutes into it she realised that it wasn’t something to be like looked up on the Internet so we had a TON OF QUESTIONS. 

It was something else that I had not really expected to happen because she gets a book about the church and just like gobbles it up and has a lot of questions and such but she has been thinking a TON about baptism. when she talks about the church she always says "MY" church and like in "OUR" church, so she says she’s lost a lot of sleep over trying to make a decision but it’s good that she’s not just jumping in face first, and getting burnt but is thinking about it and really thinking about what she’s doing. She’s come to church about 5 times now so we have high hopes that she will come around some time. 

Well this week we were tracking in a pooooodunkkkkk place called Shelby. I think there’s like 10 people that live in the 10 mile city..... Anyway, were just puttputting along the road on our bikes and we decided to stop by this house where this fellow is rocking out to the old rocks songs like queen and such. So we walk over to the door and we're like HELLOOOOOO, and he kind of half yells back half stumbles over to this hole in the wall you could call a door. And he’s like OMGGGGG missionary’s come in come in. Sooooo we came on in and started talking with him. He’s got his vodka on the table with his bud light in his hand and something else in a glass on the table next to the vodka and he’s like "how’s it going". So we started talking with him, but the only problem is in the south, if you heard Boyd k packers talk on Saturday, everyone kind of sounds like that. So it takes you about 5 minutes of talking with them to figure out what there trying to say to you. But this fellow is super nice & we talked about all sorts of Jesus related topics and got him to pray with us. Super cool experience. 

After that we were able to go and watch conference later in the week and it was a super good conference I felt like, the only problem that I had with it is that I felt that it was talking soooo much about getting married and such, which kind of stinks because I got a little ways to think about that haha. But other than that I really liked it. One of my favorite talks was by Elder Bednar on fear. I just feel like any time that Elder Bednar talks he is always down to earth and is talking about a problem that the world is having at that time and I think that fear has been super big at this time in the world. 

It's transfers this week. I really really really don’t want to go but I'm getting the feeling that I’m going. It stinks super bad but deep down I just feel like I’ve met the people that I’ve needed to here, like I could stay here for the next 2 years and be just fine but I feel like I’ve been able to talk with a lot of people and get to know a lot of people, I hope that I can stay and see so many more people, there’s so much here that I haven’t got to go to because the area is just HUGE, but we’ll see. You might get a sad/half mad letter home next week or a super pumped and ready to go out letter.

LOVE y'all hope your safe

ELder Aldana