Greetings From San Jose

*This is Fletcher's email from February 6th*

Hello Everybody,

This week was great. The main event was the bonfire that we kind of helped put on. It was an idea the we generated to create and activity that might bring some of the less active and part member families out and socializing with the other members of the ward. We had a couple of ace bonfire party hosters giving us advice and setting it up so we decided to do it at a little beach that they said was relatively unused and sparse even on weekends. We had spent the first part of the day splitting up with other members of our district to try and concentrate on working in our area alone and scrounge up some further work there. Things have seemed to slow down all around so we are trying to force something exciting to turn up. But we got done with that and headed to the beach to set up only to find that there was a surf competition going on hosted by Volcom. There were like 6 canopies set up and a little stage to interview surfers and there was a bunch of people viewing the sport and no parking to really be found. Luckily this event overlapped with our activity for only about an hour and then the crowds dispersed and the canopies were taken down and parking was easy to find once more.

We had a great time. Tossed a football around on the beach and ate some hotdogs and sat around a fire. The poor part was that none of the families that we were really trying to get to come to the activity made it. We had one guy married to a less active member who was sick. He had been enthusiastic about donating some pallets that he had for us to burn and so we hoped to get him out to the even but he was sick still and didn't make it. We didn't even really want the pallets cause then you'd have to worry about burning them and leaving all the nails from it in the sand but we told him we really appreciated the offer just to use it as a commitment for him to come. And then there is a firefighter with a non-member wife and kids that we were really hoping would be able to make it. We should have invited him from the position that we needed someone to be the safety official and regulate the size of the flame and whatnot. Maybe he would have submitted to some sort of firefighters secret code to always make it their business to control activities involving fire. Maybe then he would have come but we failed to point it out that it was his duty to be present at our little activity. Either way it was fun though and a legitimate excuse for missionaries to be at a beach.

Aside from that our week was pretty tame and the usual trudge. Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which was pretty neat. There are some awesome members who drove us and another set of missionaries down. We had an excellent time and I took a bunch of pictures which I should try and send to someone to publish on my blog cause I don't think I've sent any pictures in a long while. Among the coolest exhibits were the jellyfish. Lots and lots of jellyfish to look at and be weirded out by. I also am a big fan of the octopus. There was this old guy there that I happened to be standing near at a couple of different exhibits and he was just going on and on with seemingly limitless facts about whatever animal was being observed. First I was standing by him and he was talking to some other people about wolf eels and then later on by the octopus he was talking about how the only hard part on an octopus is their beak and if their beak can fit through an opening then the rest of them can. We were looking at this big old octopus and he was saying the size of it's beak is probably about a half dollar, so it can fit though any opening that size. Anyway, it was pretty cool. I don't think he worked there cause he didn't wear a uniform like all the other employees, so either he's a volunteer or just a very knowledgeable man who loves to demonstrate his talent to all the other visitors. The open sea exhibit was perhaps the coolest and the one we spent a lot of time at. It's a large tank and houses the larger fish including two seaturtles that are huge and a couple of hammer head sharks and a sunfish. I guess a larger tank is nicer for the fish but it makes it too easy for them to hide and not easy to photograph. So the trip was awesome and I loved it. We got some free passes luckily cause I think it costs like 33 bucks to go normally. That town has a lot of history and it was neat how it started as a cannery capital and is now all dedicated to conservation of the animals.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Sincerely, Elder F. Miller