New Jersey (Sep 24, 2008)

Dear Family,

I think that I will start this off with a little commentary about foriegn missions vs. New Jersey mission. So foriegn missions:
1. Don't drink that water 2. Watch for Bugs(ie bed bugs, cockroaches, large centipede creatures that bite ect.) 3. Becareful of watch you say( it could be a drug call) 4. Space is rare (usually 4 families to a house) 5. Religious Contention (Jews vs Christians)
So that is a typicall foriegn mission. To know what the Cherry Hill Mission is like refer to what a foriegn mission is like.

This place is amazing here and I love it. The top part may sould negative but it is not, its just funny. But it is true all of those things go on our here. We are supposed to filter our water before we drink it, our apartment has been under attack for bedbugs (we are pretty sure we have killed all of them now), and there are lots of Jews here. It is great. I didn't really even know bed bugs were in thwe United States but yep they do exist and they suck your blood when you are sleepying. We did a massive cleaning of the apartment though so we think that we got them all. Also there is a story of an elder here who got his tie lit on fire my a Jew. But don't worry that was in Lakewood not New Brunswick.

Things are going great here. We are working really hard and trying to teach as much as possible. Spanish is coming along and I am trying really hard to express my self in spanish and it is coming. It si really great to be able to teach people in Spanish and it is really cool to see them start to understand certain things as we go along in the lessons. The Hispanic people are really awesome. I am currently working on a plan to expand my stomach so that I can eat more, beacuse they do not believe in small portions and I don't want to insult anybody. I have eaten everything so far but we haven't gotten anything weird yet so I have been okay.

Missionary work is awesome even though some people won't listen. We got called liars and laughed at the other day, talked to a less-active who wrestled 'the devil,' and ran into a penacostal who tald us that we should ask for the gift of longues so that we could pray to God in His language. It has been really great. We bike every where so my legs have been pretty tired, and by the time i get home at night I plan, pray, and sleep. We are working hard to get people to church even though it is difficult because everyone works and and only a handful of people have cars.

We are working with two people who have baptismal dates next month. One just has to learn more, and the other one needs to get married to his 'esposa.' That is one interesting thing; most people have kids, live together, call eachother husband and wife, but they are not married. People do it for lots of different reasons, some are lazy, some don't have the money, and some just don't think it is wrong. But that is what we are here for; to bring them the truth.

Anyway I will finish with the countries that I have met people from:
Mexico( Puebla, Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Acapulco, La Ciudad)
Puerto Rico
Honduras
Brazil
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Venazuela
People from Honduras are really hard to understand. They just mumble.
Anyways I hope everything is giong well at home. Good job Tal with your game.

Love,
ELder Haslam