Letter #75

Well, this transfer is almost over.  We are just starting week 6 today, which means that we should be getting our transfer calls on Saturday, and then moving to new areas will take place the following Tuesday.  So that should be interesting to see what happens.  We will be getting 4 new zone leaders in the mission and 1 new AP, so it's pretty exciting to think about what's going to change coming up.  Apparently the mission president called all of the zone leaders to ask for suggestions for leadership this coming transfer, since he doesn't know everyone in the mission super well yet.

Anyway, this week wasn't super exciting.  I got to go on an exchange with Elder Muro in Poulsbo 1st ward, but we both ended up having meetings at the church, so we saw each other quite a bit still, and everyone in Poulsbo 1st dropped our appointments, so it wasn't that great of an exchange.  I slept in Elder Davidson's bed about 1 mile away from my own.  And we had dinner with the Spears, who I already knew pretty well because Brother Spear doesn't like going to Sunday School.  Other than that, it was a whatever exchange.

Oh, church was interesting.  We were waiting for our ride after church when the Kingston ward got out of sacrament meeting, and someone about my age came up to me and asked me where I was from.  I said I was from Idaho, and she asked if I was from Rexburg (I said yes).  So yeah, turns out that she (Angie Head) graduated from Madison 2 years before me, which kinda surprised me, because you don't really expect to find people that you know in Kingston, Washington.  Not that I actually knew her, but she recognized me, which was cool anyway, cause that made me feel famous.

And the person that we have been teaching lately is still planning on getting baptized, which is good.  We're all pretty excited about that.  And we have another person who we've been talking with lately who is also a pretty good candidate for baptism, as long as his health improves.  He could pretty much drop dead at any moment according to him, but we gave him a blessing, and we're optimistic for him.

This last week, I've been studying mostly out of the beginning of Mosiah still and chapter 10 out of Preach My Gospel, which is about improving our teaching skills.  And then I've also been reading through some conference talks.  This next conference is just over a month away, so I'm excited for some new material to read.

Anyway, that was my week.  Oh yeah, PS, if anyone hasn't seen the Mormon Message called The Hope of God's Light (http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001) yet, it's super good.

Letter #74

This week was really long and tiring, but a lot of good things happened too.  We were walking like pioneer children all week long.  But I am officially turning 18 months this week, which is pretty wild.  Also, this transfer will be over in another 2 weeks, so it will be interesting to see what kind of changes happen coming up.

Well, the most exciting thing from this last week was probably street contacting at art fest.  And exciting just means that we got to see a bunch of really cool art from local vendors while everyone got mad at us and told us we should leave.  But there is sooooo much great local art around here.  I'm always impressed with that.

I have been reading the Ensign lately for studies.  I can't believe I never read the Ensign before my mission.  Well, I guess I can, but I actually do like reading it now.  There's some interesting stuff about marking your scriptures in different colors, and dating.  Plus some other cool stories that are fun to read.  And in my Book of Mormon reading, I've been finishing up Jacob and Enos, Jerom, Omni.  Those chapters are pretty different than most of the Book of Mormon.  And my Preach My Gospel reading has been all over the place.  I recently noticed that when other people ask me about Preach My Gospel, I pretty much know where almost everything is in there.

And we finally have an investigator who is going to get baptized!  We haven't had a baptism in Poulsbo since I've gotten here, so we're pretty excited for it.  It will be happening the week after transfers, so I might not even be here for it, but our ward is pretty excited about it.

Haha, oh yeah, and we had a run-in with some Kirby vacuum salespeople yesterday.  They were pretty cool.  We talked about knocking doors and stuff.  And we got a tracting treasure too yesterday.  It was this painting of Jesus on a piece of metal.  We're going to hang it up in our apartment.

Well, that's about all I can think of to say right now.  I miss you guys!  Love you, bye.

Letter #73

Well, today was a day to learn valuable lessons.  For example, Elder Hendricks learned this morning while I was in the shower the difference between "Dishwashing Soap" and "Dishwasher Detergent," and why we only use the latter when loading up the dishwasher.  I've never seen someone make that mistake in real life before, so that was gratifying in a way, since I didn't actually have to clean up the mess myself.

I drove barefoot today for the first time in my life.  Not my favorite way to drive.  I almost hit a woodpecker that was in the middle of the road, but then I noticed it and stopped so it wouldn't get hit.

Well, I've been going back to working hard to write good normal journals, but I forgot to bring that to see if I had anything interesting to talk about this week, so I guess I probably didn't.  We had a zone activity today on the beach way up in Hansville (which is way in the middle of no where).  We pretty much just played ultimate.  It was pretty fun to see the rest of the zone.  We have Zone Conference tomorrow too, so I'll get to see them again then too.

Well, Elder Hendricks and Elder Davidson both had birthdays this last week.  Elder Hendricks turned 26 and I think Elder Davidson turned 21.  Their birthday was on the same day, which was super silly.  We had ice cream, and ice cream cake during district meeting, so that was a wild time.

Well, we got a super late start emailing, and so I'm going to have to end this now.  Love you all, bye

Letter #72

Well, this week was pretty good.  We didn't have the car, so we got to do a bunch of walking, but that's nice, because then everyone sees you a lot and thinks you're working really hard, even though you actually are getting way less done.

This week, we had exchanges, which was nice.  I got to go to Poulsbo 1st for the day with Elder Davidson.  We didn't do anything too exciting, but being with someone who isn't your normal companion has a way of making things more upbeat.  We didn't have anything too out of the ordinary happen, but it was a pretty good day.

The weather has been super sunny lately.  It was kinda humid too this last week, which made it pretty bad, but besides that, the heat isn't really much to complain about.  It's way sunnier out by Seattle than it is closer to the ocean, and this has been a pretty long summer for the area, so it's been really nice for quite a while. 

Well, we got a few new investigators this last week, and I recommitted myself to journaling, so that was all good stuff.  And I'm out of time, so I need to finish this up before the computer kicks me off.  Love you all, bye :)