Greetings From San Jose

Hello Everyone,

This past week was unusual and great. Perhaps the coolest thing to talk about is the hike that we took with our investigators. When I first got to this area my companion had been working with a young couple who were expecting a baby. The baby came along which made it difficult to get in touch with them and set up appointments. That kind of settled but then there were some health problems with a young niece in southern California so the woman was frequently visiting down there and we couldn't teach them. But finally everything is back to normal and we visited with them one afternoon and were trying to set up a time that we could come back and teach them and they were thinking later in one evening because they were planning on going on a hike and they were sort of talking amongst themselves but turned to us and said, "unless you'd like to come with us on the hike." And we were like, "Sure." So that Friday we went and followed them to a wooded place higher up in the hills and there was a hiking trail and they had their baby strapped in one of those kangaroo carrier things and we just walked with them and it was awesome. Awkward thing was that we were still in our shirts and ties and slacks. It was a warm day too so I got rather sweaty but it was cool just sharing that experience with this nice couple. We meant to sit somewhere and teach them but we didn't end up finding a spot and we were getting close to having to make it to our dinner appointment so we set up another day that we could just visit them at home and teach. So we went to our dinner appointment and that was really great. It was technically with our Relief Society president but her sister happened to be visiting and her and her husband offered to prepare dinner. So we got dinner made by our Relief Society president's brother in law who lived in Italy for 17 years and made his favorite dish which was a creamy cheesy pasta of some sort that was really tasty. Anyway, during the dinner conversation we talked about the hike we just went on and we admitted that we didn't really know exactly where we had gone for the hike so they were trying to narrow the possibilities down. One person asked if we came to an intersection with a restaurant at it and I said yeah I remembered that. And they said that that was Alice's Restaurant. And I was like "wait, like Alice's Restaurant from the song by Arlo Guthrie?" and they said that it was one-in-the same. So I may have to go back somtime and eat there just so I can say I did.

On Saturday we had a lesson with a lady and her less active husband who are from Seattle but they are Tongan and have relatives in Utah so naturally my companion knows them and is actually like good family friends with her brother. So my companion has high hopes that we can teach and baptize this lady. She seems really nice and two of her children have even been baptized but for some reason she herself goes to the Methodist church. The problem is that she seems more set on the influence coming from just socializing rather than actual belief and faith in what we teach. That works but it's not a true conversion that is necessary for someone to really be prepared to continue on in the faith.

Not much else going on I guess. We have some pretty solid people we're working with and are looking to get more always. Halloween might be pretty exciting. Apparently Willie Mays lives nearby and on Halloween he hands out baseballs. They're not autographed but still it might be worth trying to get one. I'll let you know how that goes. And my Dad's birthday is soon so heres a shout out for that. Happy Birthday Dad!

Sincerely, Elder Fletcher Miller