It is hard to believe that we are already a month out on our mission. Although we have only been in San Diego for three weeks. Sister McGuire has all the photos so I will leave that all up to her, but I will try to give my perspective on what is going on here. As we have talked with other missionaries and local members, it is apparent that the Church within the city of San Diego is struggling a little. Older members are staying and there is little infusion of younger people due to the high cost of living. This was evidenced last night as we went to a fireside that one of our wards held with the Poway YSAs. They had a good number of youth that came down, but we were not as well attended even though the meeting was in Balboa Park. There seems to be a vibrancy in the outlying areas that is not evident here in the city.
That being said, there is a desire on the part of the Institute to revitalize this area for the students coming to SDSU. The LDSSA lapsed last year and we are trying to restart it so that there is a good presence on campus for the church. We have located some active and enthusiastic students, some of whom are athletes, to get a new start. It is our hope that we can have the Mormon students become actively involved in supporting University activities and become a noticeable presence on campus. We are further hopeful that this will encourage many to come to the Institute and participate in classes here. The next few weeks will tell how successful we are.
One of the joys of the mission thus far is getting to know the YSAs better. They are fun to be around and it is great to learn about them and their goals. An interesting thing that we have noticed after going to church for several weeks is that new faces are there every week. We don't know why that happens, but it is certainly a fixture of the each of the wards. We find 10-15 new faces that we have to meet. There always is a core group that are regularly there, but there are the new faces that seem to rotate around. Maybe after we have been here for several months it won't seem like that is occurring due to our knowing them better.
It seems like everything we go do is within 10-20 minutes of our apartment. The temple is the furthest away, but most other sites that we seek out are 10-15 minutes travel. The two wards and the Institute are both within about 10 minutes, so it is really easy to get around. This is especially good since we have to go to both wards on Sunday. We are usually at church for about 7 hours each Sunday.
This past Saturday we have the first baptism that we have been involved in occur. Of course, our involvement was only fellowshipping, but we felt a part of it and the joy it is in this sister's life. Kathryn Baird was baptized by her boyfriend Nic Gonzalez. It was great to watch this fairly new convert perform his first baptism. He wants to go on a mission and so he may have many more! This Sunday we will see Lei Ma, a Chinese young lady, get baptized. We have been very lucky to have several conversations with her and see the joy that she is experiencing. Shortly before we came two South Korean sisters were baptized and so you can see it is very cosmopolitan here in San Diego.
Well this is more than I usually can write in any one sitting, so I will leave it to my wife to fill in all of the many other things she is feeling and noting. It is a wonderful experience for us to be here and feel that we are being helpful to the Lord in His work. We hope that this continues and we become better at it.
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