Hello, parental units and others who are reading this! I’m going to give you guys a summary of our missionary activities today! 
We’re staying in a hotel-quite a change from what some of our other mission mates are used to! It’s rather nice, a little noisy at night, but we’re seriously spoiled this time. On past trips, the missionaries stayed in crowded church basements. The Days Inn is quite nice! 
We got up at 6AM (5:30 for some people) and had a lovely breakfast at 7, did some Worship and Devotions time, and headed off at about 9. We drove to the more downtown part of St. Louis, and arrived at a Church called the Bridge, where homeless people could grab breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and relief from the sweltering heat in between.
We divided into 2 groups; the one I was with went on a tour of some of the local sites, courtesy of a lovely worker at the Bridge named Patrick. He showed us a few sobering scenes and told some stories; one of them about a homeless shelter so filthy that they had to sleep outside on the sidewalk-which was discovered by the Police a few days later and blocked off. There were cockroaches, bats, urine and feces in the building and the street. It sounded so disgusting.
He showed us a private park that had its benches removed, so that people wouldn’t sleep on them. Another thing he told us was that gangs of kids would pick on any homeless person they could find; beating them with baseball bats and, believe it or not, tazers. One last thing he said was about drugs. War Veterans with mental issues as a result from the battlefield, people who can’t deal with addictions and would get high on drugs and drink until they’re intoxicated, and in most cases, lose the home they previously had and wind up on the streets. It was such a sad environment for those down on their luck. 
On the other, brighter hand, we saw churches, old apartments, and buildings that took in the homeless and provided for all their needs! They would be given two years to stay and find a job, support themselves and pick their lives back up off the asphalt!
When we finished the tour, we had lunch in one of the homeless refuges and talked to them, met some nice people and enjoyed playing Bingo with them afterwards! It’s a lot of fun to be the caller-your voice cracks at random times.
Well, this is getting long and the Hawks game is on…I’m going to say good night, all of you! Have a great evening and we’ll get back to you soon.
-Julia H
Post Script: Mom, Grace, Sam, Josh, Dad, and Bitsy-I love you all! Thanks for the encouragement and being so awesome!
