This week's letter from Andrew:
It has been a good first week for this transfer and it is going to only get better. We were able to have a really good lesson with this guy named larry who we have been teaching for a while now.  He likes to drink a lot and he wants to stop, so we taught him about how it is Christ's Atonement that will heal him and.... wait.... I already told you about him.... oh well... he has a baptismal date for August 18th. But we also had this sweet lesson with this guy named Bill, he is a new guy we picked up and he is awesome - really funny- used to be subscribed to Ensign.  He knows a lot about the church already...I think I told you this last week as well, but oh well.... We then taught him later in the week and he gets why there was a need for a restoration and he understood everything about the first lesson. We told him that we invite people to be baptized and he stopped us before we could really invite him and he said "the only thing stopping me from doing that is, that it is hard for me to believe the Book of Mormon cause there is no proof of it."  We told him he had to pray about it and know it through what God tells us. So we invited him to church and he came.  We got a ride for him and everything.  He loved it but couldn't stay for all three hours, next week he will be able to.  The other cool thing that happened this week was we got a referral from the spanish elders here in Petaluma for a Fijian guy.  When we went by the guy was home and we taught him, well Elder Ramasima taught him more because they were speaking in Fijian and I had no idea what they were saying.
     So there are a few cool things happening here. Nothing big and flashy but enough to know that what I am doing is good and that it is paying off. Elder Ramasima and I are getting along really well.  We teach well together and we are working hard at keeping this area going. He is a cool guy he doesn't talk too much, so that makes me have to do a lot of the talking in lessons and in the apartment.  It is hard some times to keep things lively- that is just not who I am.  I am more calm and relaxed, and I am out going in my own way. If there was one lesson I learned this week, it is how powerful being optimistic is.   It was a rough start this week.  I kept getting down but one thing I have taught myself to do, is to think of the source of why I am feeling down.  Most of the time, there is no good reason.  So I've learned that there is never any reason we should be sad, depressed, or angry in life because everything that we are put thru in life is for a reason. We just have to accept it and live with it. And that is why the Atonement is so awesome because when we pray for help, we receive that comfort and we get up and take the challenge by the horns and run with it and wrestle it down and come out on top. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way to happiness and if we live it and believe in it then there should be no reason to be down in life. I have also realized that when we live it and believe it, we are more of ourselves, that is the big thing I have been searching for on my mission - ME, who I really am, and I think I am getting closer and closer each day to realizing who I am and how I want to live my life after my mission. So I invite you all to look into yourselves and realize who you are and to be your self.   Trust me, it works and you have more fun in life.  Don't worry what others think of what you look like or how you act, just live life to its best. I love all of you and wish you the best. Elder Pelton