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.