Week 31

My new companion is Elder Villa Quevedo and he is from Glendale, AZbut moved there when he was 10 from Mexico, so he speaks both Spanishand English so that is good. He is a lot different than my lastcompanion and he is pretty quiet, but I don't mind that. We get alonggreat, so nothing to complain about that. He is a good missionaryalready and really wants to learn and be better. I'm going to takeadvantage of being with a fluent Spanish companion more than when Iwas with Elder Malo. We are going to have a lot of success togetherthese 3 months I think. We only had 1 investigator at church this weekso that was disappointing, but we did all we could to get peoplethere. We went to go see President Gelwix speak at a youth firesidelast night as we had an investigator go and it was a really good talk,he is fantastic public speaker, I need to ask him how he does it! Sothis week, nothing too big is happening, just going to bike all dayand find new people to teach as our teaching pool is down right now,as we dropping faster than we can find. Can't think of much elsehappening this week. We have L. Tom Perry coming on the 9th so lookingforward to that. So the new training program is really good, I'mlearning just as much I think from it, the extra hour of study isdefiantly worth it.

Thats great news about the baby, its a boy!! Well, thanks for all the emails, sorry I can'treply to them all, but I do read them all, and I will try and reply nextweek or write a letter. Thanks for everything, love you and miss youall.

Week 30

Well it has been another great week and very exciting. We had a baptism yesterday (Alma Mata) who has been taught by missionaries over a year and finally decided to be baptized. It was a great service as we had a lot of people there and it was only 30 minutes so it was quick and people like those better than the hour long ones! There is no better feeling than leaving a baptism, if only all the time we could feel that way. We also had a couple other investigators there and we are working towards getting sergio baptized, he wants to and he has been to church for 3 weeks now, but his parents haven't given him permission so we will work on that. This week we really need to focus on finding new investigators, that is the most important thing, so that is what we will be doing this week. This past Wednesday, we had president interviews so was able to talk to him for about 5 minutes, don't get to see him or talk to him much because of how big the mission is and how many missionaries there are so it was good to talk with him 1 on 1. After the interviews, had an exchange back in Reedley with Elder Covey, who replaced me in Reedley and was with me in the MTC so that was a lot of fun. So we had transfer calls on Saturday, and I got a call from President Gelwix on Saturday afternoon asking if I would be a trainer, and I said yes so the next 3 months I will be training in Kingsburg. So I don't know who my new companion is until Thursday, but I am really excited for it, but at the same time I'm nervous because I still feel like I'm learning. Also we have L. Tom Perry coming next Friday for an all mission conference in Fresno, haven't had one of those yet, but everyone from the mission is going to be there so it will be fun. Then a month later we have Christofferson coming to our stake conference so we will have our fair share of apostles coming to visit. So this upcoming week I will be in Fresno staying at some other missionaries apartment on Wednesday and then on Thursday we have a meeting and then go back out and work. The new training program is a little different as you have 2 hours of companionship studies every day so will have 4 hours of study instead of 3 and then you stay with your trainee for 3 months so I know that I will be here in Kingsburg for at least another 3 months which is awesome because I love this ward and we have such a big potential in the work right now.

Thats great news about Don Jr. giving his first kick, is everything good with them? But, I gotta get going now, I love you all and look forward to hearing from you next week and talking to you in May!

Week 29

Well, not too much exciting happened this week. We were busy this week with a lot of meetings and activities so we weren't able to do a lot of finding or teaching, but it was still a fun week. We were able to have some good lessons with our investigators and we have a baptism this Sunday and its super solid so were excited for that. We are struggling to find new investigators right now so we need to focus on that this week. The hardest thing about missionary work is no doubt finding, we struggling with that right now. We had a church activity on Saturday, it was a valentines themed thing and it was a talent show, not much talent, but it was entertaining. This upcoming week we have president interviews and then we have transfer calls on Saturday night so it will be exciting to see what happens. I'm pretty sure that I will be staying and Elder Hardy is leaving since he has been here 6 months, but anything can happen. There is talk around the mission about our mission being split because it is one of the biggest in the church, we have over 230 missionaries compared to most in California that have about 120, and Elder D. Todd Christoffeson is coming in April so we will see what happens, just speculation right now. Well, I can't really think what happened this week, but everything is well with me and loving it.

Week 28

Thanks for all the emails. So this week flew by and looking back not too many exciting things happened, but it was still a good week. We have a lot of solid investigators that we feel are going to be baptized this month. We have Alex who is a friend of one of the recent converts and he has come 3 weeks in a row to church and we meet with him pretty much every day as he works down the street from where we live. He is very sincere and he said that he thinks he has his answer so we meet with him tomorrow so hopefully that means he's getting baptized soon. We also have Sergio, who came to church again and he is only 13, but he wants to be baptized but his parents said no so we will try and figure that one out too this week. He is so funny, he is like 5'3 and like 250 pounds already but he has a heart of gold and is a social butterfly and everyone loves him at church so he loves it. We have a bunch of other investigators right now, but those are the most promising out of the bunch. We haven't been biking much as we have seen more success recently from walking as it is easier to approach someone when your walking and not as intimidating. We've been trying to find a lot of people in Kingsburg, but its hard as it is a very rich area and no one really wants to talk to us, but we've been working through the members and finding with them. We did a lot of service this week and I am now feeling the consequences of that, my body is so sore. And to add to that we played basketball on Thursday night as we thought that would be a good way to get investigators to meet new people and we had 3 investigators come and they all loved it so that was good. The weather has been awesome here, its been 70's and 80's so life is good right now, shorts and tshirt weather. Nothing much is happening this upcoming week, we might have a baptism this Sunday so if we do, I will send some pictures home.
Thats good that you had a missionary experience despite being in another ward, thats too bad. Thats cool that you taught from PMG in RS. So I'm curious, what is the goal for baptisms in the Jones Falls Ward this year?? Thanks for sending another package, I haven't got it yet, but thanks. Well, I better get going, but I love you and miss you tons, talk to you next week.