week 45

I'm now in Auberry which is up in the mountains and it's an all car area and its out in the boondocks so its a lot different. It was hard the first couple days but I'm getting used to it, the members are good so that will help. It's an English area. I am with another elder who has been out a year, his name is Elder Furness and hes from New Jersey, hes alright, just a little prideful but I can deal with it. We live in a trailer that is super nasty and theres a frog every morning in the shower so I make him get them as I won't touch them. I'm not sure how long I'm going to be up here, but to be honest I hope its not long as I want to be in the city and contacting people instead of driving around all day.

week 44

So got a bit of bad news, its kind of old news as it happened last Monday but had to wait til today to talk to you. Right after I emailed you last week, I hurt myself playing basketball. I jumped up to get a rebound and when I came down I landed awkwardly on someones shoe and I heard a pop and since then I haven't been able to walk on it. I thought it was just a sprain but its a week later and am in more pain than when it happened. I went to the doctors on Thursday as I couldn't handle the pain and was getting a little worried because my toes are black. I took an xray but I got a call the next day saying that my foot was too swollen so they need to do another xray and maybe an MRI. So needless to say, this week has been very different as I've been on crutches all week but we still had a lot of success. We found 7 new investigators and 5 of them are member referrals so were excited about them and they said they will be at church so thats awesome. I think I should probably take it a little slower this week as I think I'm not helping myself recover from the injury by working all day and then just icing it and elevating it at night. So all Thursday was spent at the hospital as they don't know whats wrong, and then all friday was a zone conference so that was really good. Saturday we went to a baptism from the other elders in our wards baptism so that was awesome to have two weeks with a baptism in the ward, hopefully it will get the ward excited to do more missionary work. This upcoming week, I have a district meeting tomorrow and then I'm going back to the doctors either Tuesday or Wednesday to see whats up with my foot as I'm in a lot of pain and not taking any medication. Was planning on doing a couple exchanges this week but not sure how good they will be as I'm kinda slow right now.

Well I would like to keep going but my time is up so got to get crutching away, I sent some pictures of some random stuff so hopefully you enjoy them, especially the one of the fat foot!

Week 43

 Don't have much time as I went golfing this morning and about to go play basketball now so keeping busy, got to do as much fun stuff as possible on Mondays! We went to a really nice golf course this morning with one of the members and it was really fun, I played really well which is surprising because the last time I played was with Granddad this time last year! I miss golfing so much, this could become a every Monday thing. Well we had James's Baptism this Saturday and it went really well, there was a meal after so that was good too. It was a great spiritual experience and then he was confirmed at church yesterday. He is going to be such a good member.  Yesterday, there was another baptism in the district so went to go interview them and we also have a baptism with another companionship so everyone will have baptized at least 1 person this month, besides the senior couple. I've been on the phone a lot since being District Leader and it mostly takes up your nights after planning so I don't have any time at night for myself but thats alright because I like doing this kind of stuff. This upcoming week, we have a zone conference which will be good as haven't had one in a while.

week 42

It was great to talk to you yesterday, although wasn't able to talk to Emily, but I did get her voicemail so got to hear her voice! Sounds like things are going great back home and things are going great on this side. I'm very pleased to be staying in Kingsburg because I'm very comfortable here and love the members in this ward, it's going to be hard when I leave this area. I'm on track for 4 areas on my mission! Although I think Laura had less than that! I'm really excited for this upcoming transfer and it's really going to push me to become better than I am now. It's been interesting being in a trio this past week but I know why we work in twos. The other elder is in the bathroom about 2 hours a day pooping so will be glad to have more time when he leaves on Wednesday, he blames it on the Mexican food, but that much pooping is crazy, he has a problem. This upcoming week we have James baptism on Saturday so am looking forward to that as we have been working really hard, but not seeing the success that we would like to see. I hope this jumpstarts us and the district to baptize more.

Thanks for sending the pictures. All the projects look really good, I think that the office looks really good and is in a good location.  Same thing with the kitchen! It looks a lot more modern. Appreciated the fat faces too! I did one the other day so thats funny you just sent those. Was that one of Jess's senior pictures?  I don't have much time today as were about to go to Home Depot and get a giant whiteboard so I can stay organized this transfer with everything. I will send pictures next week as I have a few that I haven't sent yet. Well, it was great talking to you yesterday and am glad that everything is going well with everyone. I miss you all and love you.

Week 41

Had a great week this past week. Wasn't in my area much as I was doing exchanges with the Zone Leaders and then with the District Leader so it was a lot of fun and learned a lot on how to become better. We also have a solid baptism on May 19, James committed to that date so its awesome news but transfers are the 16th so might miss it but hopefully I'm still here. I think I'm leaving but I think that every transfer because I've been in my areas so long but I'm hoping that I stay. We've been doing a lot of finding but no one too solid has come from it yet, a lot of people will let us come over and teach but the part that involves them doing something is the hard part. So this upcoming week, Elder Cruz is leaving after he extended his mission a month this Thursday so his companion will be with us for the week until transfers. His companion is a little strange so it should be interesting doing everything with 3 people instead of two. I've served with Elder Cruz since my second transfer so we've served with each other for the past 9 months so it's sad to see him go. We have transfer calls on Saturday night so will let you know in the phone call if I'm leaving or staying. With the phone call,  It will probably be more 2ish because we have dinner at the bishops at 4. It feels not too long ago that it was Christmas! We also found out some great news this week, were having another apostle coming...Elder Ballard is coming on June 16 so thats crazy to have 3 apostles in 4 months, I'm not sure theres many that get more than 1 so its defiantly exciting to be here at this time! I also started not eating fast food and I'm on week 3 of not eating fast food (In n' Out doesn't count) and I've felt a lot healthier since and lost 5 pounds so I'm going to keep going with that. Now I just need to start working out good each morning.

Well I better get going, but I love you and look forward to talking to you all this Sunday!!

Week 40

So we had a great past week, keeping really busy but nothing too eventful. On Wednesday we met with the Father at the local catholic church and he was really really nice, a little creppy though. We had a good discussion and he was interested in the Apostasy and wants to know exactly where we believe the authority was lost so we need to do a little more studying. His last question was "Where and what is kolob?" so that question does come up sometimes. On Thursday, we had volleyball which we do every Thursday night, we started it like 2 months ago and we always have pretty good attendance with members and investigators. On Friday the ward put on a date night and we were the servers and then they just played couples games so wasn't too friendly for us, but we had 3 investigators come with their spouses so we were pleased with that. On Saturday we had Helping Hands, we went to the pioneer village and redid the landscaping and painting and doing the floors so it was a good project. On Sunday, we had 5 investigators at church and one of them was James who is very close to baptism. He is already living everything, he just wants to come to church more, he is already paying his tithing so he's ahead of the game. We then had a linger longer after church and then we went to James' for dinner and he said he will baptized before May 16 because thats when transfers are. I am hoping that I don't get transferred but it might happen so got to make the most of these next couple weeks. 

Well thanks for all the emails and your support, get to talk to you all in less than two weeks, I will get the details for you next week. I can't think of anything else that I need or want right now. Everything is good. Love and miss you all.

Week 39

Thanks for all your letters. This past week has been good, we've been doing a lot of tracting and seeing pretty good success with it, about 1 in every 8 or so doors gives us a return appointment so we've been doing that as thats the best use of time as not many people walk as they all have cars. Something that I've noticed recently with doing all this tracting is that most people are not interested in religious or spiritual things as we will be talking to people casually and then we eventually bring up the gospel and then they aren't interested and say that they are busy or got to get going. It just is something that I've noticed this week, people are more interested into the things of the world than in the gospel...I think that I need to work on making the gospel sound more appealing and make these people see how it can benefit them because most people are only going to do something that will better them. We had a good week as we had 5 investigators at church, were just struggling to get a baptism. It's hard because I'm being the best missionary I've been on my mission and yet I'm seeing less success than ever so it's hard so see the results go down when I'm putting in the most work. Yesterday morning we were asked to go to a funeral and dedicate the grave so we go there yesterday morning and it was just a small family thing so there was only 20 people there but when we got there she asked if we could give the eulogy too so my companion did the dedication of the grave and then I gave a 10 minute eulogy. It was hard as I've never met the guy who died but just talked about the plan of salvation so it was good, It was a good experience. We then went to go do service at a members and we had to take out three tree stumps and took like 4 hours and I forgot to wear sunscreen so needless to say I got burnt pretty good, I will add the picture on the email. We got to go to the temple today so that was awesome as we only go every 4 1/2 months, I wish we could go more but were doing the work for the living, not the dead. So tomorrow we have an appointment with the catholic priest in town so that should be a good experience, it took a while to meet with him so I'm excited we finally get to talk to him. I'll let you know how that goes. Also this week we have Mormon helping hands on Saturday and the night before we have a date night ward activity and were going to be the servers so no date for me!