Hello!

Busy Busy!

So I am here in Sapulpa. About a half hour southwest of Tulsa. Been here about a week and a half. We cover 2 wards, Sapulpa and Jenks(Jenks may get their own set of missionaries soon, we'll see). Very nice people. There are some true hicks out here. It's crazy.

People are nice. But odd. I love how (for the most part) everyone out here has a very strong faith in Jesus Christ. Oh yeah, and ya know how people say that Oklahoma is KINDA in the Bible Belt? Well, Tulsa is the Buckle of the Bible Belt. It's really strange. There's just as many churches here as in Utah, except none of them are ours. haha.

We run into a LOT of Baptists. A lot of "non-denominationals" and a few Pentecostals. There is this Mega-Church in Tulsa called Victory. It houses about 15,000 people. Crazy, no?

You should look up info on a man named Oral Roberts. This guy is completely nuts. A lot of people think he is a prophet. He designed these towers that are like, based off of Noah's Ark and stuff. Tower of Babel, anyone?

My companion is Elder Chad Nielson, from Meridian, Idaho(about 4 miles south of Boise). He's a total dork. Quite resembles Scott actually, haha! He leaves in 3 months. He is our District Leader.

The craziest thing that has happened is on Saturday we Baptized a family of 4. Jim and Shelli Hattabaugh, and 2 of their kids, Jordan and Julia. Awesome family.(Dad, you're one day older than Jim haha). I baptized Jim and Jordan, Elder Nielson baptized Shelli and Julia. We did the Confirmations the same way. It was really super cool. I am going to try and attach a couple pictures that were taken to this email(i had forgotten my camera, sorry mom). I hope they work. The girl in regular clothes is another of their kids, Jenny. She is more hard-hearted. But we will get her baptized, dangit!

Our Mission officially Baptized 116 people in the Month of May. It is the first time the Mission had one over 100. It's pretty amazing. President Seal has been working toward that goal his entire mission, and he got it on his last full month as President. He leaves on June 29th. It will be interesting to see how much(or how little) things change with President Merkley.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Elder Bracken is my Zone Leader. He's awesome. A lot like me, actually haha. I will definitely try to get a picture with him.

We eat with members between 5 and 7 nights every week. It's awesome. The rest of the time we eat a lot of Ramen and Cheese Quesadillas.

Our apartment is itty-bitty. It's a converted garage that an awesome member family owns. The ward converted it just for the missionaries. A lot of work and love was put into it. It's nice. Just.... very very tiny. Its the smallest apartment in the Mission, according to my companion.

We are pretty spoiled. We drive a Chevy Silverado. And we have a cell phone(every companionship out here does). it's very very handy. We might have gone over on our miles for May though(oops!).

I'm starting to get into the swing of things here. I love teaching. I'm not a fan of finding though. I'm not good at going up to people and talking to them. Of course, if missionary worked the way it was supposed to, we wouldn't have time to do anyting except for teach the people that member's referred us to. But that isn't the reality, sadly.

A Camaro? That's awesome! I would love to come home and see one in the garage! Get Bumblebee-Yellow!

My allergies are pretty bad, actually. Well, about the same as they are in Utah. But they're awful in Utah haha.

Virgina is moving? crazy! I hope we get some sane neighbors!

Isn't it crazy that Ben is in the MTC now? I kind of know what he is going through right now. It's fun to think about. The MTC is awesome. He'll have a blast!(as long as he gets along with his District).

It was really sad not getting any letters last week. But it was really nice to see so many this week! Thank you!

I hope Grammy is okay. Send her my best.

It's really strange here. Before, I was just a normal kid. Member of the Church. That was great. I liked it. But nobody much pays attention to you. Now, I'm a Missionary. Everyone knows who I am and what I'm doing. They all rely and depend on me. It's crazy.

I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers! So much!

Send everyone my love!

Love,
Elder Bracken