Email 01/30/12

Family,

This past week was alright. We have another baptism this coming Saturday. It is Axel, he is the husband of a member in our ward. His wife speaks like zero english so that is interesting trying to communicate with them. But so my first day we went to go see him (he had taken discussions in the past but recently wasn't progressing or sitting in with his wife anymore so the missionaries dropped him as an investigator) and as we were sharing a scripture with him he was like "I want to be baptized." I was like sweet. Axel feels he is already ready for baptism and wants to do it asap. So we started teaching him and have him ready to go for this Saturday. So that is pretty exciting. There is a pretty good spanish support for them and his ultimate goal is to go to the temple with his family so Axel is a rock solid dude. Luckily he prefers english so he doesn't have to hear my broken spanish. I was supposed to start translating sacrament meeting yesterday but the equipment doesn't work so I'm off the hook for awhile longer. I am not ready and I get the feeling that the spanish members get that. I sit in the spanish doctrine class and all, but it is pretty tough stuff. They speak super fast and everything blurs into one word. But the spanish members are nice to me and really patient with my lack of spanish skills. I though I understood spanish pretty well but, I was way off. But this is a crazy legit opportunity for me to get my spanish up and running. This area is about to be a spanish branch so we really need spanish elders here. I have realized more everyday how small this place is. The marshall branch too has like a bunch of other really small towns outside of it that we cover as well. I have never seen or been in these old school towns. Pretty neat. Being from Orlando, I don't understand how people can survive without a Publix or any civilization. There is a small town called Slater, we have a couple members in that area. But like the only place to get food there is a general store where they buy everything, a thrift store for clothes and "gifts", and 1 gas station. That's it. SO crazy. But not a whole lot going on this week. I need to study spanish more and speak it as much as possible.
Thanks for the prayers and support.
Love
Elder Roe