Letter #68

Shout out to Rebecca who said that my emails suck and need to be better.  Thanks for putting them on a blog mom.

Our new mission president got here on Thursday, so that was really exciting.  I guess we got 122 new ones all over the world, and ours was one of them.  I will meet him officially on Wednesday, but we got to hear him on conference call last night, and he seems pretty cool.  I felt like I should be intimidated by him, and then after I listened to him talk, I realized that he's still a n00b at this and he should be intimidated by me.  Just kidding.  But really.  So yeah, I like him so far, and it'll be great to meet him for real this week.  He's letting us wear shorts when we play sports outside for p day (the Weavers stopped letting us do that for some reason), so he's popular already.

We also got to say goodbye to our old mission president this last week.  He was pretty sad to leave us all, and he wanted to tell us all to be on our best behavior for the new Mission President and all that.  We also got a letter from the First Presidency changing a few things about the way that we teach, so that was interesting.  Nothing too wild, but we are supposed to teach the first 5 lessons before they get baptized now, instead of 1-4 before baptism and 1-5 afterwards.  Also, they want us to stay in touch with our converts for a whole year after their baptism.  Then the Weavers gave us coins (I guess it's a military tradition), and we hugged and said goodbye.

We almost got an investigator this week.  We had an appointment with this one referral from the Chimacum missionaries, and then right as we got there, they were pulling out of the driveway with a pinky promise to call us back.  They haven't.

Also, we were in charge of sharing time again this week.  The kids were a little rowdy and not that interested in family history, so it was decent, but not the best.  The leaders were all thrilled that they didn't have to do it, and told us that it really didn't matter what we did, because the primary kids just love missionaries anyway.  So they all told us we did well.  It was pretty crazy in there though.

Well, the text is way magnified on this computer, so this letter looks pretty long already.  Also, I can't think of anything else interesting to say, except the story about how I got sassy with someone on a doorstep earlier, which I usually don't do, and I don't think anyone on the other end of these letters would be impressed.  So the end.

Letter #67

Okay, well this week was pretty good.  We've been working up to getting our new mission president this week, and the time will finally be here on Thursday, so that's pretty suspenseful right now.  The Weavers have been trying to get around to see as many people as possible before they leave, so they will be our favorites still when the new guy comes around.

So we had an exchange on Tuesday this week, which was pretty early in the transfer to have one.  Usually they happen around week 4 give or take depending on the district leader and how many exchanges they have to do that transfer.  This is probably the earliest in the transfer that I have ever done an exchange.  So I went with Elder Muro for the day, and Elder Hendricks went with Elder Davidson in Poulsbo First for the day.  So that was pretty nice.  We got to talk to Sean, the recent convert that moved in across the parking lot from us, so that was cool.  He usually has some pretty funny things to say, but it was a more somber visit than normal.  We also did some tracting and stuff.

And then we had a zone meeting this week, which was pretty great as well.  It was a weird last minute sentimental introspection training that the Weavers wanted us to do to change our lives right before the new mission president came, so it was a little bit unorthodox, but I got to see the rest of the zone, so we still had a fun time.  I have a pretty good zone, so it was nice to see everyone.  Most of the people in our zone are at least a year out, and so my companion is the youngest by far.

We also had park day this week, so we weren't allowed to use our cars on Thursday.  We did a lot of walking, and we live on a hill, and everyone else lives on different hills, and so we did a lot of walking up and down hills.  And Elder Hendricks got to meet Christa, so that made my day a lot better.  She is a little bit different, and Elder Hendricks was a little surprised at the encounter.

The Weavers took our zone out to lunch on Saturday, so that was super nice of them.  We went out to Round Table, which is a pizza place in Silverdale.  We got pictures with the Weavers and free food, and with travel time included, we had about a 2 hour lunch, and plus we got to see the entire zone again, so we had a fun time with that too.  We are having a "mini-zone conference" (aka goodbye party) with the Weavers tomorrow, so that should be the last time we see them officially before they go home.  So that will be a blast.  It will be interesting to see when/how we meet the new mission president.

And that's pretty much everything interesting that happened this last week.  So yeah, sorry there aren't any cool missionary stories.  We talked to some people, and we had a few pretty interesting rejections.  So that's about it.

Letter #66

Well, this week was the first one since transfers, and so it's been pretty wild.  There were some big changes in the district, so it's been weird getting used to so many new people again.  And my new companion looks like a 30-year-old version of Elder Rasband, but he's actually only 25.

It got rainy again this week, which I was kinda hoping we'd be done with for another month or two, but no such luck.  It started raining a bunch on Thursday, and then it's been fairly rainy since then.  We talked to someone on a porch the other day, and after talking to him for a while, he asked for a pamphlet, and my companion didn't have any with him, but I like to keep one of each in my bag for just such an occasion.  So I went to pull out a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet (he talked about getting a Restoration pamphlet about a year prior), and I noticed that I only had The Law of Chastity and The Word of Wisdom left.  And neither of them seemed all that fitting for a first encounter, but he was smoking a fat cigar, and I didn't think he would be having too many chastity issues, so I just handed him the WoW one.  And I thought it was a pretty awkward/funny moment.

This is President Weaver's last full week in the mission.  So yeah, that's pretty weird.  We're having "mini zone conferences" aka goodbye parties this next week before they leave so they can say goodbye to all of us.  The Blatters will come in a week from Thursday, and they will officially be the new royal couple as soon as they get off the plane.  So that will be interesting to see how things change with that.

Someone asked me if I would dedicate their home tonight, and I have no idea how I'm supposed to do that, because the white handbook is pretty vague about it, so I guess I'll have to ask around on that one.

Um, yep.  I don't think I have that many great stories from this week.  We did a lot of tracting and got really wet and walked a lot and talked to a few people, and prayed with a wicken and climbed a bunch of stupid hills.  And that's about it.

Letter #65

Sorry this has been the worst 2 weeks for emailing ever :(  I'm like the only one who actually cares about it, so we kinda have a hard time getting around to it... But I'm going to be the only one of the 4 of us staying here, so I guess we probably won't have that problem as much anymore.  And we might be getting another car here, so we wouldn't have to share one anymore, which might also potentially make that easier.  I am staying and getting Elder Hendricks, and I don't know him that well (he's only been out 1 transfer, so I will be follow-up training).  So I'm about to go pick him up in about an hour and a half.  Also in my district, I'm going to have Elder Muro, who is the missionary that came out with me who Lisa Burns knows really well. Yep, I did get my money.  They mailed me a new card last night, and I tried to use it, and then realized that I didn't have a PIN for it, and then I realized that I probably should've at least tried my last PIN.  So I'm going to see if that works next time I get to pay for something.  Okay, well, we're running late for reals now, because we have to get to Tacoma still, so I have to end this now, but I love you tons, and I hope to have a better emailing session next week!