Received Monday, September 10, 2012

**FROM THE MOM: I usually ask questions to Zak in my letter. He answers them. In this letter, he opened right up with answering my questions. Also know that I am leaving all of Zak's sweet language and spelling. It's just another reason why we love him!  Here you go:

QUESTIONS:

Tell us the greatest thing you ate this week.
ummm it's hard to remember. Basically everything is really good. Yesterday we had enchiladas with rice and beans which was really good. Someone also made is really good steak a few days ago and gave us brownies with ice cream for dessert; that was probably the best dinner appt of the week. Also I found one thing I still don't like. Bananas. Someone gave us this banana pudding dessert thing and I really had to force myself to eat it.

How fast are you running now? How far?
Since achieving my goal I've lost a lot of motivation to work super hard running. Today 1 ran 2 warm up laps, stretched, then ran 5 laps under 1:40 each. Also I'm going to change my workout routine, I think from now on I'm just going straight to the weight room on monday-friday and spend all of Saturday running instead of doing some of each every day. I'm falling more into the work out frenzy my whole zone is in, I even bought some whey protein today to start taking every morning

What are you doing for P-day?
Nothing huge. the regular shopping/emailing. Elder Wilding got a package from someone with cookies and decorating frosting and he's worried if he doesn't frost them and take pictures then the package/letters well will dry up and I'll probably help him with that, even though I don't plan on eating any. Also Elder Beck and I bought stuff to make chocolate chip cookies with so we can give them to investigators, so we'll make those today. Also, especially since last p-day was busy, my desk/room area has become pretty disorgainzed so I'll fix that up, then write a letter or 2.
Next week our DL wants to do something with our whole district together, so we called him and said we wabted to play football, and he said he would, so we're looking forward to that.

While in the car, do you and your companion just talk? You certainly don’t listen to the radio.
we basically always have music playing, usually hymns. (allowed music: anything produced by the church, hymns, classical/instrumental, anything MoTab. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we're silent. Elder Beck is not that talkative, and I'm not always either, so if there's not something specific to be talking about we're usually just listening to the music

How do you like grocery shopping?
it's just whatever.

While out and about, do LDS members see you and honk/wave; treat you somewhat like a famous person?
We hardly ever see members randomly like that. The few times they did, they just wove. The Alders, who live right next to us, randomly gave us cookies once.

What songs did you sing in church yesterday? We sang: Carry On; There is a Green Hill; More Holiness give me
I'm trying really hard to remember but I can't. We had a all Young Women's program yesterday which was interesting, 2 girls even invited friends. Elder Concha usually translates the talks into Portuguese into a headset thing and that people if they want/need to they can get another headset thing and listen, but he just kind of started laughing this week because all the girls we're talking to fast and quite so it was too hard.

One thing I've been wanting to say, but I always forgot is to ask you to tell Sister Hagan thank you for the letter she sends me every week, I enjoy it a lot. She writes on the church program every week and updates me on some things going on in the ward. I really like it. Also I use the hymnbook she gave me after seminary all the time.

About the Rams: Who are their starters (on offense and defense)? One time someone (he was like my age) was talking about football and I told him I was a Rams fan. He mocked me a little but then said he admired that I could stick with a team even when they do badly, just like he does with the Patriots. I just that that was funny because I had to wonder what "doing badly" means to a Patriot fan.

There was nothing especially huge this week. it's been pretty good though I'll go through my daily planner and say the biggest things we did each day
mon: told you last email
tues: email, football with the YM and finished the day teaching lessons to two of our really progressing investigators
wed: we talked to one member family about talking to their neighbors about the church and after much encouragement and a few rold plays we got the daughter to agree to invite 2 friends to the YW program on sunday (she did, the friends ended up not coming though, but I think 1 of them probably will this week)
thurs: weekly planning (every thursday. it takes like 3 hours), and we went by a lot of inactive members houses. We ended up finding 1 lady (she is innactive, her husband is a non-member) who we got a return appt with and she wants her 9'ish year old son to get baptized, so that was a great find.
fri:we had a Zone Meeting which was really good. Also we met with the Elder's Quorum president about how we can help, and we got a pretty good list of less active people/potential investigators we didn't know about that we should try to work with. we've already meet with the bishop, a former bishop, and did the same thing and will be meeting with the other auxiliary leaders pretty soon.
sat: we mowed the EQP's lawn (he hurt his foot the day before). Had correlation meeting, and went by more innactive people's houses.
sun: church. We taught a lesson to Chris, an 18 year old investigator, he might not be super-duper sincere about progressing towards baptism, but we've already helped him quit smoking, which is great.
monday is today.

I am not surprised Kylie made volleyball. I would easily bet someone she also will make the soccer and basketball teams when she tries out. She is athletic enough and plays hard enough that, especially if she plays with confidence, it should be no problem. Volleyball especially is really mental, because you are going to make a lot of mistakes but you can't let yourself get embarrassed about it or anything.
Quinn and Kylie sound tied for the "most exciting stuff going on" award
Christopher still has a firm grip on "most interesting fashion news"
I assume you are all still tied for the "I'm a n00b without Tim Tebow on my team" prize

I just mentioned singing hymns to people at their door and Elder Beck did not think it was a good idea. we'll see. Would Steven just ask "well, can we please sing a hymn?" I've never heard of that before but honestly sounds like an interesting idea. I've found that as a missionary talking to someone, the worst thing that can happen is that you'll never see them again, so you might as well try some awkward/embarrassing stuff if it might help.

What does everyone think about the beginning of school so far? What classes are people in? (that question applies to everyone but Steven/Heather I believe)

That's everything! Thanks for all the great updating! Love you all!