Howdy

August 12, 2013

Nobody has said howdy to me yet, but y'all is quite common.  I am in Plano, Texas!  I am in the wealthiest area of the entire mission in the entire state of Texas.  Most of our area consists of wealthy neighborhoods and nice apartments.  Sports cars and huge trucks are common.  There is a Ferrari, Audi, Lamborghini, and a couple BMW dealerships in the area.

Did I mention that I don't even get a car?  Elder Findlay and I ride bikes in the 90+ degree heat plus humidity every day!  Cars aren't the only expensive things around, most of the area Elder Findlay and I cover is high-end apartments and neighborhoods.  They say everything is bigger in Texas, and it is not a joke!  By the standards of Plano, our home in California is tiny!

I've seen incredibly gargantuan mansions in some neighborhoods, and with the heat and humidity of this area, the AC bill alone would kill most people's finances.  Air conditioning alone!  To appreciate the size of some of these mansions, take our church building, place a second one on top of it, then double the size of it all and put it on a yard the size of a football field -- I'M NOT EXAGGERATING HERE!  That is the size of an average mansion -- they get bigger than that.

Being in such a wealthy area does have it's difficulties, however.  Most of our area is not tractable; we cannot go around the wealthy neighborhoods door to door or else we get thrown out by security guards.  The same goes for the apartment complexes.  This leaves us with very few places to contact people.  Thus, the area I am in has the extremes of being the wealthiest area of the mission and on top of that the hardest area in the ENTIRE mission!!  Which is awesome!

Thankfully my trainer, Elder Findlay, is a great person.  He is optimistic, we get along very well together, and we have the best conversations - whether it be duck hunting or deep gospel doctrine, we always strike up engaging conversations.  Our ward is great, and the food they feed us is just as the legends describe.  I promise I'll be coming back much heavier and filled out than when I left.

We met a new investigator a couple of days ago.  Tracking out investigators is unheard of in Plano so we have truly been blessed to have found him.

I love you all.
Elder Hunt