Special California Fast

Uhm, I don't think I am that humble...I guess what I have been trying to do is think about myself less. Although it is tough, I can tell that it helps a lot. When we are out working, or teaching, or finding people, and I am not thinking about being tired, hungry, or about what is going to happen after the mission, time seems to go faster and easier. It also is easier to be obedient. This week I realized that all the things I need to improve on (being bolder and being exactly obedient) all revolve around being humble. So I continue to work on this. 

Mike is doing great. He is 21 by the way. We met with him this Sunday after Stake Conference. He really is doing great and we showed him the font and talked more about his baptism. He tells us that, just as he expected and was warned, life is getting tough the weeks before his baptism. He says there are a lot of things going on, but that as he reads out of the Book of Mormon and prays, it all goes away. 

Our recent convert, is a great teacher and friend to Mike, as they have similar backgrounds. He talks a lot about getting sealed, and just a couple of weeks ago, his wife and him started attending the temple prep class. They are very excited, as neither of them have had their endowments before. If they get sealed in the Sacramento temple, then I will be able to go, but I definitely want them to get sealed wherever they want. 

Nothing that interesting happened this week, just the usual. The First Presidency authorized a state wide fast in California for rain, so everyone on the state will be fasting for that this coming Sunday, which is pretty cool. It was stake conference this week, and we were invited to attend the Saturday night adult session, where our mission president and his wife were invited to speak. It was a great talk, and at one part he had all of us missionaries stand while he talked about us, so that was cool to see all of us spread out throughout the congregation. I am hoping that with these talks about missionary work, that the members will get more excited.

There is another new temple movie?? We may need to start writing these down on the list of movies I need to see when I get back, at this rate there will be a whole trilogy out by then. 

Our new DL up here was companions with Elder Porter right after me. He told me that now Elder Benedict is companions with Elder Porter! Haha kinda crazy how that works out. [Michael was Elder Benedict's trainer, and was companions with Elder Porter right when he got to Palo Cedro.]

Wow, that was a year ago? It doesn't feel like that long ago...Crazy! [This past Sunday, a year ago, was Michael's farewell.]

On a slightly sadder note, this week I found out that a member I knew in Chico who would come to lessons with us, passed away recently from cancer. It was weird because he seemed fine when I knew him. He was a great member of the church, so I am sure he will be fine. 

Super Bowl Sunday, I have fond memories of that. I hope you all have a fun time. Also at Stake Conference this week, one member of the Stake Presidency gave a talk about how we need to keep the Sabbath Day holy in order to have more missionary opportunities, and then he talked about sports on Sunday. It was very interesting for us as missionaries to listen because it obviously wasn't directed to us, yet I got to ponder what decision I would make in order to honor the Lord's Day...that was an internal battle in my head, and much different than I would have expected...haha anyways!

Oh, so I love the protein powder, it is great. Another blender would be nice, or even just a blender bottle, because most of the stuff I use doesn't need to be blended, but I don't know. Thank you so much!

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe week. I am glad to hear that everything is going well back there. Thank you for everything!