Mike's Baptism

The baptism was great. I was really surprised because usually right before the baptism it is a frantic scramble, but this one went perfectly. No snags or anything. I was very surprised. I guess that just means that The Lord was really in charge of this one. I put some pictures in the mail today. Sorry you will have to wait a couple more days to see them, but you will get more of them.

Half-way Mark!

Downhill?? I don't know about that! But it is exciting to see that I have made a dent in the time out here. So far I am pretty satisfied with how things have gone so far. At first I thought that I would be disappointed with only having 3 baptisms so far, but I feel like I have done what I was supposed to and worked hard. Plus it is hard not to be satisfied with the fact that I was able to keep up with Coburn for the first 4 months. 

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. 

Palo Cedro for Another Transfer

So yea, I am not getting transferred. Luckily I will still be here for Mike's baptism!  Mike is doing great. He had to move out of his apartment this week due to some issues with his roommates, so he is living with some members for the next 2 weeks. It is amazing to see what he is willing to do to get out of a toxic situation and move towards his goal of baptism. It has been exciting to see.

New Mission President Announcement

Sorry for the confusion, but transfer calls don't come in until next Sunday. Sorry to kill the excitement. 

We had a mission wide conference call this week to discuss the new mission president (it was really weird to hear the web-ex music I am used to from dad's conference calls again). We will talk more about it during Zone Conferences in February. 

Heavenly Father Will Provide a Way

We did have a great New Years. Unfortunately we barely made a dent in uploading information to the iPads.  I spent 2 hours just on one person’s teaching record. It all worked out though. Last week we did have pizza 4 days in a row. It was hilarious....and I never want another piece of pizza again! Okay, well thank you so much for all your help with the keyboard. I am sure he will love it. [Michael had us send Elder Geisler a Bluetooth keyboard as a late Christmas present.] 

Post Christmas

I loved getting to Skype to you too. I don't know what you mean about being deep into my mission, but as long as that’s a good thing then great! Yea, opening presents that night was awesome, it turned out well. Thank you so much for everything. I loved the journal thing!!  That is so cool! Thank you for that, and if you get a chance, please tell everyone who took the time to write in it that I really appreciate it!! It made my week! I felt like getting off was 100 times easier this time than it was in May. Thanks for all the support and making it easy. The members would ask us how long we talked with our parents for and were shocked to hear that we only talked for 40 minutes. I think most people don't know that is the rule. But it was nice to immediately go to work, because then we didn't have time to get distracted. I am really glad we didn't have the day off. We went out and delivered all of those cookies, but I think for every dozen we gave out, someone gave us 2 dozen! We are so fat!!