So I am sitting in the family history center of the Cherry Building right now Emailing you. I am in the Cherry Glen ward of the San Jose South stake.
My companion's name is Elder Parker. He has one transfer left and is from Georgia. He's been here for 3 months. We were both sent here to help clean up the area. There were some pretty bad things done here by previous missionaries, and it's killed a lot of the work. I can tell the ward was pretty excited to see that the Elder I replaced has been transferred. I'm a district leader here, and in my district, one of the other ward's was combined with Cherry Glen when the stupid stuff went down, and another ward that under performs. President pulled me in before transfers and talked to me about this assignment. We're doing pretty good. My companion is all about working and so we're doing great. Getting the other areas/missionaries motivated is the key and learning my area, since I only have 5 more weeks with Elder Parker before he goes home. I also have the Samoan sisters in my district, and they are great. They just had a baptism last night of a man who was in his 80s. On of the sisters that came in was the first sister called to speak Samoan in this mission. Up until now, President has had native Samoan speakers in the unit. Of course, while at the baptism, I saw a family that I know from Newark. Its a big small world with Polynesians. Elder Baldwin is my zone leader here so he'll be a good resource in helping clean up the district.
This week was crazy. We were moving into a brand new apartment this week. Wood floors and stainless steal appliances included. We live with the Elders from the Dry Creek ward. We share a car here and bike/ public transportation the rest of the week. We live right next to a light rail station, so it's super convenient. Our area is most of Downtown San Jose. It's a big change from any of my other areas. We are right in the heart of the city. It's pretty cool.
This area is actually more built up then my previous two when I came into them. We have a few people that are pretty close to baptism, we just have to push them over. We'll be inviting a lot of people to be baptized this week.
Now instead of being exiled to the south or the north like I usually am, I'm right in the middle. It's way different, but it'll be great. Have a good week.
-Elder James Richards