Saturday February 16, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Surprise! I get to email early because Monday is President's Day and the Library will be closed. I am here in Sandusky, Ohio with my two companions Elder Riffenburg and Elder Bullock. Elder Riffenburg is training both of us. Elder Bullock is only a couple weeks ahead of me. They're both great missionaries. Riffenburg is from Phoenix and Bullock is from Logan. He actually went to Sky View, his first name is Cody and he says he knows J.J. from cross country. Everything is going really good! Before I forget, our mailing address is 106 W. Boalt St. Apt. 2 Sandusky, OH 44870. So, I'm in the Cleveland Zone, but I'm about 45 minutes from the City. Sandusky isn't really a big town, but it's really neat. We have Cedar Pointe in our area which is one of the biggest amusement parks in America or something like that. All I know is that it is huge, because all you can see is Roller Coasters when you look across the lake at it. Lake Erie is pretty awesome. It's frozen around the coast, but it is amazing. It's snowing right now, but it's not super windy like Wyoming, so that's nice. The apartment I'm living in was built in like 1924 I believe, and it's really cool. All of the homes here are super cool. They are all really old, it's kind of hard to explain. Some of them look like the houses in down town Evanston, but a lot of these are really big. Some look like castles. I'll have to send you some pictures when I get a camera. I've already met some amazing people. President Vellinga and his wife are so nice. I already love them. President Vellinga is from northern Utah and he was actually like a supervisor or something over our seminary teachers, so he's pretty familiar with Evanston. Kirtland is in our mission and I've already learned a lot about the history. I'll be going there soon, so I'm excited for that. I guess a lot of the missionaries will take investigators there and stuff, so it's really, really cool to have that in our mission. Sorry about everyone waking up super early on Monday and all that business. All of the phones got taken by other missionaries and then when I called from the mission home, they said we could only have 5 minutes again and we had to use President Vellinga's home phone. It was all kind of a mess. But don't worry I still have my phone card and I promise to call you from the Airport on my way to Brazil. I want you to know that I love each of you soo much. Mom and Dad thanks for being amazing parents and I'm sorry for taking you for granted. I realize more and more how blessed I am. We are extremely lucky to have the family that we do. Well, I have to run. We have an appointment right now. So, I'll be able to email again next week hopefully. I have to tell you about some of the amazing experiences I've had and the remarkable people I've met! Love You All So Much!!!

Elder Barker