Letter #71

Okay, so transfer calls are in, and I will be staying with Elder Hendricks for another transfer in Poulsbo.  So that's exciting.  Not many people got transferred this transfer.  Almost everyone who is moving is either going home, or filling a place of someone who is going home.  There's only one person moving out of our district (she's going home) and the sister who is staying there is training this transfer.  I'm way sad that I don't get to go to transfer meeting, but I do like most of my district for the most part, and the ward here is really awesome, so I'm glad I don't have to leave these people yet.

Oh, so yesterday was my 17-month mark.  I'm about to be a year and a half old in less than a month now.  I'm getting way old.  But that's cool.

We got invited to go to mutual this last week, which was exciting.  We had a campfire on the beach (of the hood canal, not the ocean, so it was kinda a fake beach) and talked about missions.  A bunch of the youth just got back from trek, and Camp Helaman (a weird missionary camp thing.  I haven't heard of anything like it anywhere else.), and so a lot of them had cool experiences from that that we talked about, and so that was cool.  We even had a non-member there (from the other ward, unfortunately) who should really be baptized, cause he went to all these things too, and is more solid in the church than some of the other young men we have.

We got to do some yard work for a less active member this week too, which was nice.  It's so weird talking to RMs who don't go to church any more.  But he is nice to us and everything, because he was a missionary too at one point.

Oh yeah, and we just barely got a call that Poulsbo 1st won't have a car anymore.  So we'll be sharing with them again this transfer.  Which is kinda sad, but whatever, I guess.  Days go by a lot faster without a car, cause travel takes so much longer, and you can't get as much done.  But it's not all bad, cause you get more exercise, and everyone thinks you're working a lot harder, cause they see you around more.

Well, this email is super non-substantive, but I've always struggled to describe my life as an inventory of events.  I hope everyone is well :)  Love you all, bye

Letter #70

Well, I don't have that much to talk about this week.  It was a pretty normal week.  We had district meeting this week, which was super nice.  It's actually the second one we've had all transfer with all of the extra meetings we've had with the new mission president coming.  And the last one too, since we have zone meeting again this next week.  District meetings are the funnest because they're pretty laid back most of the time, and you get to see other missionaries and stuff like that.  Oh yeah, and talk about missionary things.  That part's always super awkward though, because we never have any investigators to talk about.  Except we just got one now, so that was great.  Everyone was so proud of us.

Anyway, transfers are coming up this next week, which is wild.  We will find out about transfers this Saturday, probably, unless President Blatter decides to change that.  I guess we'll find out soon.  We have interviews with him on Saturday, so that will be exciting.  It doesn't sound like they're going to be super intense, so that's good.  I'm pretty excited for that.

On Thursday, we got to help out with a service activity in Kingston.  We moved a piano for a member out there.  And then he fed us some pizza.  We also got to help Rebecca with some service on Saturday, which was also super wild.  We were cleaning up her deck/veranda so she could sit up there without being surrounded by deadly spiders.  So we got to clear away a bunch of spider nests and mildew and stuff until it was beautiful.

And we had our first sit-down lesson with an investigator that we've had in a long time this last week.  And that was really nice.  Hendricks claims it's the first one that he's had on his mission, but I think there are some that he's had in Port Orchard that he isn't counting that he should.  But the point is that it's been a while.

Oh, and the Taco Bell workers told us that Ed Sheeran has a new album out, and now I just really want to listen to that.

Well, that's everything that I can think of from this week.  Having a new mission president is starting to feel a little less like President Weaver is on vacation and coming back soon, and more like we're going to have President Blatter forever.  Next week should be a little more exciting, so hopefully I'll have a better letter then.  I'll try to video journal more!  I love you all, and I'll talk to you later.

Letter #69

Well, I am short on time already, and so this might be a short email, but I'll do my best to get something good out.

So we got to meet our new mission president this week, which was pretty exciting.  He seems like a pretty great guy so far, so I'm pretty excited.  We have transfers in about 2 weeks, so that will be interesting to see what he does with that.  He's already conducted an emergency transfer in Gig Harbor, so it sounds like he's not afraid to make changes.  So we'll find out how that goes next week.  We met him officially at a meeting in Silverdale this last week, and I think he's pretty overwhelmed/intimidated still over the idea of being a mission president, but his family made an introduction video about him, and they all seem to like him alright, so that's a good sign that he's an alright guy.

So fun fact about Poulsbo:  The 3rd of July is actually a bigger holiday than the 4th of July.  We were at an apartment trying to visit a less active, and someone who was outside having a barbecue said, "Come on guys, don't you know it's the 3rd of July?" at us, but not really to us.  And there was a lot of fireworks and drunk people and stuff.  And the next day was a fairly normal day.  There wasn't a parade (I guess they have one for Memorial Day, but not the 4th of July), and we had to go all the way up to Port Gamble to find anyone celebrating.  We were supposed to be in by 8 that day, and we spent most of our time with members in the ward who don't get out that much, so that was actually pretty fun too.

Anyway, I'm about out of time now, so I'm going to have to end this email now, but I love you all!  Talk to you guys later.