The Bagman's Gambit

Alex's Companion in the MTC.
Hey look! It a picture of me on the board.
Spanish speaking missionaries in the MTC.

Another week has passed. Transfers is tomorrow and Elder Johnston will be leaving us. He's been in this area for 6 months so I think he's ready for a change of scenery from the four square mile area we have. I'm going to miss him though. He's really chill and was always a peacemaker in the companionship.

Fun fact about my area: in the morning there are a lot of rooster sounds in the neighborhoods. Apparently cock fighting is a popular hobby in these parts. Elder Chipman used to live with somebody who used to be a cock fighter and he said he had some interesting stories about it.

All of our investigators and members like telling us about stuff going on in Mexico. Apparently it is absolutely crazy dangerous down there along the border. People just get killed and kidnapped as a matter of course. The drug cartels are basically in charge of most of northern Mexico and they just make life really stressful for the people who live in that area. It reminds me of the Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon with their secret combinations to destroy the government.

We've been mostly just teaching a lot of new people for the past week or two. I'd like to have more investigators who are actually progressing forward, but that's not what the Lord has blessed us with at the moment. The Lord also blessed us with freezing cold weather for a couple of days that meant that absolutely no one was outside except for us. It was miserable.

I'm including some of my pictures from the MTC with this email. The picture of the other missionary is Elder Valderrama, my companion. I also included a picture of my district and a drawing another Elder made of me. Finally, I included something to remember Elder Johnston by. It's something he wrote in our area book when he was really really tired. If you can't read it, it says "We wento to go over how the baptism goes and how its done and all over 11 Ne3." We're gonna miss him.

Love,

Elder Grasley