WHEN WALKING...

Well, another crazy week has gone by! We had a really hot beginning of

the week, but then about Thursday we had a nice big thunderstorm to

cool things down a bit. At least that was the end result. I was on

exchanges with my district leader Elder Casey Spain from Rigby, ID

that day, and when we got back to the apartment the power was out. The

result: the most humid, hot, sweaty room you could imagine! There was

no possible way to sleep, try as we might. The power eventually came

back on at around 1 in the morning or so, and the air conditioning

kicked in. We learned something super neat though! If you are in a

bind, take a crayon (the kind little kids color with...and sometimes

not so little people color with too =), and put it upright on a plate

or something. Then light the top of it on fire. It will burn like a

candle for almost half an hour! The things you learn in Camden... ;)

Big news! My companion, Elder Killpack, is getting transferred!!! I'm

not quite sure how I feel about taking over an area after only six

weeks or so (especially when my Spanish is not quite 100% there yet),

but I know that with Heavenly Fathers help I'll pull through alright.

I sure have grown to love Camden, and the people here. They are so

humble, loving, and kind. This mission has already begun to transform

me. Sharing the Gospel every chance I have has brought me immense joy,

and a closeness to my Lord that I didn't quite understand before I

came out. I would never, could never, trade this for anything.

Got a new guy named Marcos we are teaching. He plays soccer

with us, and we were kind of waiting for him to just come to us. He

did on Thursday or Friday. He asked if he could talk to us along with

Rigoberto, his work friend and recent convert in the ward. He

basically said, "I drink. I'm addicted. I do bad things. I'm

miserable. I want to change so bad and at this point I'm willing to do

whatever I can to do that. I've seen the change that happened in Rigo,

and even though I'm not sure it's possible, I'll do anything I can to

do that." Ok, well here's the Book of Mormon. Will you be baptized?

"Will it help me change?" Ummm...YES! "Well than is that even a

question!?" Saturday night at around 9 when we talked to him, he said

he hadn't been able to read at all because he'd been at work so much.

That kind of worried us, typical excuse, been a few days...then he

came to church the next day at 12:30 (bought brand new slacks and a

shirt to come, half the ward still comes in jeans) and said, "yeah I'm

in 1 Nephi 20 now!" 20 chapters. For working Mexican who can't even

read super well. Super proud of him. Getting some good solid people to

teach, that's for sure.

The Fourth of July was fantastic! The weather was amazing, cool, a

nice breeze—a perfect day to celebrate the day that our Independence

was declared to all nations. The one down/upside of the day: all of

our appointments fell through. ALL of them. So we basically just

started walking! We covered some ground, too! The first guy we met was

a man named Tom, catholic, upper thirties. We were walking down the

road and he was standing on his porch so we started talking to him. He

offered us a drink of water right when we got up there and brought it

out to us. After about 20 seconds or so, he said, "Well, my friend's

here, I've got to go. But you guys just stay up here as long as you

want, have a nice break, and leave the glasses on the table when

you're finished." Then he was gone. Left the door open and walked off.

With two random white guys he'd never met before on his porch. In

Camden, NJ.  Needless to say we were just a bit surprised ;)

After that we ran into an interesting little drama party. Two guys in

their upper 60's were sitting on their porch and wanted us to come

talk to them. After  a few minutes, one had to leave (I swear he wash

Irish...just had that fire, ya know?). As he left, some guy came out

from the next house over and said, "no you come back here! I have a

question for you sir!" And started being extremely obnoxious to the

older man. A cop pulls up and gets out. "Jerry, you better get back in

your house right now! Just go to sleep man, you're drunk! You know

what's gonna happen next time right?" Then he leaves. Guy goes back

into his house. We are talking to the one other gentleman there when

three minutes later, Jerry comes back out. Cop comes screeching back

out of nowhere, "Jerry, what did I tell you!? Get in your house man!"

He leaves. 2 minutes later, Jerry comes back out (he was wearing a

different shirt every time) holding a can of white paint. He says,

"yeah next time Mr. policeman comes back I'm gonna dump this right on

his head!" My companion and I left fairly quickly after that ;)

After that we went and watched the Philadelphia Fireworks show with

the Vargas family. It was so much fun! And good time spent with

everyone.