I kept thinking about you guys on the beach this week. I
also am looking forward to that next year, it sure will be nice!
Hopefully the new mission president will start making
changes soon. The AP's have been
together for a couple transfers, so most of us think that one of them will drop
this upcoming transfer, and they will call a new one. I am sure that will help
President Marston do things more his way, because honestly for the last 3
weeks, the AP's have been running the mission. We saw them on Saturday and they
looked exhausted!
This summer has definitely been a challenge as far as the
work goes. There was a huge drop in number of baptisms in our zone from May to
June. We also are experiencing that. The family still hasn't come to church, so
they can't get baptized any time too soon. Most likely it will be after I get
transferred. It is fun though; the people here are nice, usually. On Saturday
we went to a lesson that fell through, and so as we were driving to the church,
we took some pictures of the area that I will have to send home. It is much
different than my other areas, but fun none the less.
I am glad to hear that Zach hasn't regretted anything on
his mission, especially coming home for school. It is definitely what I want to
do, so we will see how it goes when we talk about it next week. Thanks for all
the help with it, and I will keep you in the loop.
So because of the calling my companion and I currently
serve in, the stake president invites us over to his home for dinner once a
month to discuss the work in the stake (in our mission, 1 stake = 1 zone). When
I called him last night to confirm our appointment, he said that it would work
great, but that he was going to be busy tomorrow evening. He then asked me if I had ever been a part of
setting apart a missionary before, aside from my own. After I told him that I
had not, he invited me and my companion to join him after dinner to set apart a
missionary going into the MTC this week. We are pretty excited for that
tonight, it should be a cool opportunity.
I hope
you had a good birthday! I
appreciate your thoughts for me.
I saw some pictures on Facebook of the Alexander’s
running, and I thought of you. I didn't expect that you would run though! That is
awesome that you were able to go so much faster, I am sure the lower elevation
was a real advantage for you guys. I remember running in the MTC and feeling
really tired, and then when I got out here with Elder Coburn and went running,
I felt a lot stronger at first. The advantages of living at a higher altitude I
guess. I hope that you are feeling good, and can keep running.
This past Friday we got a phone call from the mission
president informing us that he was going to take one set of missionaries from
our zone and move them into the next zone north, and that they would be moving the following day. He asked us to make sure they got everything they needed up
there. So we spent most of Saturday packing their stuff into our two cars, and
then driving them up to Gridley. The previous missionaries who had lived in this new
apartment had given the keys to another set of missionaries in the zone, and we
couldn't get a hold of them for an hour. While we were waiting, we did find a
window that was unlocked, although it was a pretty small opening and most of
the elders I was with were too big...so guess who got to climb through the
window? Luckily it worked out and I didn't get too dirty.
Yesterday we were asked to help a couple of less active
members move apartments after church. I expected to see other members from the
church there, but it was just us along with this part member family who invited
us, and the less active members who were moving. On top of that, nothing was
packed yet...luckily they weren't moving far, so we got it all into boxes and
made it through the whole place in like 3 hours. The best part was, we got to
do service all day with a family, and the father is an investigator. Hopefully
that helped build our relationship there, because we were working with him the
whole time. They are an awesome family, so we have a lot of hope, despite the
fact that he has been taught by missionaries for years.
I am attaching some pictures of one of the daughters of a
new member. This is probably THE
happiest baby I have ever seen! The people live in a...well rough situation,
with very little money, and lots of problems, and God sends them this little
bundle of joy, who I swear never stops smiling--ever!
Anyways, that's how the work here has been going. I hope
you all had a fun trip and continue to enjoy the summer. We have been enjoying
some cooler weather the past couple days, so we are excited about that. Let me
know if I can do anything for you guys!
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| Baptismal Interviews |
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| Drive-by sunset |
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