Finally Transferred, and now he's Yao Ming!

Dear Family,

Okay so......they kept me in Mo-town.........

JK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am in Red Bank, almost as south as the mission goes, and I am right next to the beach!!! In fact, I think we are going to the beach later today to chill out on P-day!!!! How awesome is that?!?!?!?!?!?!! I've officially seen the Atlantic Ocean now, and pretty soon, I'm gonna go touch the sand :) My companion is........................................a dud.........JK AGAIN!!!!!!! My companion is Elder Beus, the one we met in the airport the very first day when we were checking in my bags to go to Mexico!!!!! So I just got a friend for a companion!! ;) It's great down here, I love it!! I love everyone that I've met so far, it is awesome to be here. The only thing I don't like is that it's a driving area....which it's tiny, it could be a walking area, but we have a really really nice 2013 ford fusion instead....oh well....and I can't use my door bands or pull up bar in the apartment because the doors are too small....but other than that, it's great here!!

My new address is:

59 Manor Drive

Red Bank, New Jersey

07701

This week was good, just weird getting to know new people and a new area. 99% of the people down here are Mexicans and some El Salvadorians. The people are really nice!! I still haven't met all of our members, but i've met enough that I kinda know what's going on haha!! We get fed a lot here too....but whatevs! Maybe it's my duty to get fat. We also play basketball on Thursday nights!! Let me tell ya though, basketball with Mexicans is NOT real basketball. It's like the most crazy thing in the world. They all play basketball like they play soccer, so it's like a crazy passing game, and then they just chuck up a crazy weird shot. And when they're on defense, they just slap and run into you!! It's ridiculous!!!!! And they never call any fouls!!!!!!! Like I got fouled 59078134891749 times and they called one!!!! The only good thing (and it's not even that good of a thing) is that I feel like Zach out there. No one is as tall as me. There's one guy that's close, but I'm seriously like the Yao Ming of Mexican basketball. I'm gonna be a baller when I leave this area.

Because we're right close to the ocean, it's really humid over here. And because it's so humid, it rains alot. E Beus said it rains like 2 or 3 times a week, but we've only had one big storm since I've been here. But it was big haha!! It just happened to be on our walking day (the day we can't use our car) so we got soaked haha! It was last friday! We had a dinner appointment at 4:30, a dinner appointment at 5:30, and then we were walking around for the rest of the day trying to find a lesson, and it started dumping on us at about 7:00. That was prolly the closest I've ever got to swimming besides that one time I was playing volleyball in Mexico. Our umbrellas didn't even help at all haha! Mine actually broke, so I might have to go buy a new one haha! But it soaked all the way through my coat, my pants, my shoes (they're still wet), everything! But it was still pretty fun!

So right now we have 3 serious potential baptisms for this transfer: Katy, Alicia, and Angel Cruz. Katy is a 10 year old girl who pretty much will get baptized in the next few weeks. Alicia is her mom, and she is married to a less active guy, Ivan, but she's willing to commit if he will commit to go to church. Then Angel Cruz is this way cool 24 year old guy from El Salvador! He is prolly one of the most sincere, genuine guys I have ever met. He defines "real intent" in the scriptures!! The only problem with him is that he talks more than mom does after church ;) But we are working with him, and he's gonna get work off next sunday to come to sacrament meeting, and he's gonna ride his bike there. He is dedicated!! But yes, those are the peeps we are working with right now!!

This branch is huge!! I guess there's only about 50% of the people come to church, but there's consistently about 80-90 people at church! Also, the branch mission leader called us last tuesday, five minutes after I got to our apartment for the first time, and asked me to give a talk on sunday....so I've already talked in church within my first week. But church yesterday was so crazy! It seemed like the Utopia of all branches in the world compared to Morristown haha!! I guess there's a bunch of problems, especially with drinking and the law of chastity (only about 20% of the people that come to church take the sacrament), but at least they understand the significance of that stuff, and there are people that have callings!! That's way more than we had in Motown haha! It's looking good so far!!

But that's about all for the week, just trying to figure out the area and meet all the people!! Glad to hear all is well back in L-town!! Can't believe summer is literally right around the corner....Crazy how fast time flies!! Love you Guys! :)
Elder Tanner Nelson