1st Week in Burley!

This email made me laugh a little. Being a missionary isn't always spiritually uplifting and rewarding, as this last email will show you. Landon is learning how to adapt to his new environment which I imagine is going to be hard. He's a dedicated missionary and wants to be effective and I know that he'll find a way to achieve his goals! He's being very well cared for in the dinner department. He also was able to see a friend from home who is also serving in the same mission. I'll attach that picture. The other pictures he attached to this email were also sent to me by the mission home and I posted those last week.  In the meantime, here's his last email!

They really don't give much time for email, so I able to respond to all of you individually! Also I can't write several paragraph responses to every email. I wish I could, but I only get 1 hour for all computer time. Anyways.

Thank you for the packages! To the Mcknight and Rossi family, thank you so much for all the food! Queso is pretty much my favorite snack, so that was perfect. To my own family, thank you for the camera, I needed it. Bad news, though. I just found out 2 minutes ago that the cord that came in the box is the wrong one, so I can't upload any of the pictures I have taken over the last week and a half :(. I have the correct cord at my apartment since I just so happened to bring a portable charger with the same cord, so I'll send those next week. I have uploaded a few pictures that were sent to me by the mission office.

I totally forgot to mention that we had Elder Christofferson come to the MTC to speak a couple weeks ago! And last week, Elder Ballard came! We missed both Elder Holland and Elder Oaks by one day, but at least we got to see the others. I had pretty much front row seats to both of them, it was awesome.

Saying goodbye to my district was pretty depressing. We had a very powerful testimony meeting and gave Priesthood blessings of comfort to all who wanted one. I gave 2 of them. It was very spiritual and many tears were shed. I'll miss them a lot.

So now I'm in Idaho! I'll be honest, this place is exactly how I expected it to be, except maybe a little bit hotter. The land is pretty ugly and brown and looks exactly like in Napoleon Dynamite (no offense to the people that think Idaho is beautiful, just a personal opinion). By the way, I am in Burley Idaho, which is a few hours to the east of Boise, and it is even uglier. It is a small town with a lot of factories and not much wealth. However, the people here are really nice and humble. I have had a home cooked dinner every night, and so far, none without meat and potatoes. People, even nonmembers, give us random $20 bills to buy food and they don't allow us to deny it. Between Elder Murphy (my new companion) and I, we have made $80. For reference, I have only spent $20 since arriving here on my food. There are probably more dogs and cats than people here, too. They are everywhere. Also, they are mostly the really small obnoxious ones like Chihuahuas. If anyone wants a baby kitten, you could easily just walk down the street and pick one up and no one would even notice it's gone. The factories here send off a pretty putrid smell, I almost threw up this morning from gagging. It smells like wet dog food and soggy burnt bread.

In other news, I saw Elder Stevens in Boise. We talked for a few minutes before I left for Burley. I would post the picture, but like I said, I can't upload the pictures quite yet. We also see many drug addicts in the streets, and I wanted to relate a certain convo I had with one of them that was odd.

Meth user: "Heyy, why do we have names? Is it like judgement day or something?"

Us: "Um, we have names because our parents gave them to us to --"

Meth user: "Yeah well why is parent with a 'P'?"

Us: " ... I don't know."

Meth user: "Yeah you do, you go to that expensive God school. Umm, *picks up handful of dirt* is this like God's fuel or something?"

Us: "Well, God made it,..."

Meth user: "I have to go. We shall continue this discussion another time, gentlemen." *runs away*

My new companion, Elder Murphy, is a fantastic missionary and trainer. He is very obedient, which I am very grateful for, because the Boise mission is apparently well known for its major disobedience. Apparently, I came at a perfect time when the new mission president started cracking down on the disobedience, since many missionaries decided to take advantage of the transition of mission presidents.

I have already seen 2 baptisms and met countless wonderful people, and am excited for what the rest of the mission holds. I only have 15 minutes left to email, so I'll close this and respond to as many personal emails as I can.

Elder Towers and Elder Murphy helping a member move.

Elder Towers was able to see his friend Elder Stevens. These boys come from the same town, ward and even quorum! Now they are serving in the same mission. 

Fun Fact! Our mission president here in the Jacksonville mission (which includes Gainesville) is from Burley, ID and owns a furniture store called Lee's Furniture! He is relatively new here. His name is President Brent I. Lee.
Another Fun Fact! We have two new missionaries in our ward and take a wild guess as to where they are from? Twin Falls, Idaho (right by Burley) and Boise!