Pictures we got from Zak's Mission President
Here is the whole group. Ok, he is hard to see... he is kind of more on the center RIGHT
about 4 or 5 rows up...in front of the guy with the big, wide, white headband
Wow, this has been
the craziest email news week ever
Did you get any mail this week?
Yes. I got
letters from you with many funny emails from nana and Bumpa. Also a few other
people in the ward, including a separate letter from all the Jensens from Lydia down.
Benjamin included a picture of a gross yellow slug in his.They were fun to get,
From griffin: do you get any money so you can buy stuff?
yes. Every month we get a whole 144 dollars we get to use to buy
food and "stuff". When I buy clothes and other
non-missionary/essential stuff we use our own money from home
Still giff: What do you eat?
Food. Duh!
Tell us about your thanksgiving day.
in the morning
we played soccer with a few families in the ward, which was pretty fun. not
nearly as competitive as the turkey bowl, but still fun to do some sporting on
thanksgiving then we went
home and showered then we went
to The Spearin's for thanksgiving meal #1. They had all 6 missionaries plus
another couple from the ward and 1 less active member (and their own family of
11). They had all the regular thankgiving turkey and ham and mashed potatoes
and gravy and yummy food. Lots of pie. I ate some apple pie with ice cream and
cool whip. No cinnamon rolls. Sister Spearin asked me if there was anything
missing that I normally have at home for thanksgiving and I talked a little bit
about your rolls and she said she might try to make them some time if you gave
me the recipe.
then we went
to another members house for meal #2. I didn't eat near as much there. They
also had most of the regular thanksgiving food, plus some Cape Verde
stuff. It was all good. After that Elder Beck and I went of to the Simpsons and
helped them with a computer thing and talked to them about some of the less
active members we visit with them. It was a good day.
I'm surprised
I didn't hear more stats/personal accomplishments from the Turkey bowl.
how much did the Oldersters win by? did Dad play? who scored the TD's? were
there just not enough athletic/old YM to win even with Christopher gone and
Chase gimpy?
That really is
a bad day to get sick. At least he got that sweet job. What is an easy
description of what Chase does/will do? is it just a coincidence he's ending up
so close to home?
I feel like
the Steven/Heather Cole Family will be so different when I get home. 2 (at
least partially) walking talking babies by the time I get home! I bet Jayna won
the prize for most exciting thing to be grateful for.
For us it was
mostly another solid week. A few people who we thought would finally come to
church didn't which was a bit of a bummer, but there are more sundays to come.
I still
haven't sent home my flashdrive full of pictures. hopefully today.
Last week we
were all supposed to report if we needed any furniture or anything for the
apartment, so we requested a table and 4 chairs and got them, which was cool.
Also we got a mini Christmas tree and put a bunch of junk under it (weights, a
volleyball Halloween skeleton) to look like presents. It even came with lights,
so that's cool
We have one
investigator, Miranda, who I think may be willing/wanting baptism soon. She's
been meeting with missionaries for like a year, but she's now reading and
praying every day and keeping all of the commandments. The only tough thing is
she's 16 and has no real family support, so she would have to be strongly
converted to really stay with it.
We still are
spending a good amount of time with Chris, and he's learning well. He should
get the Aaronic priesthood in the next week or 2.
We continue to
spend a lot of time with less active/innactive members, which is good, but i'll
really be excited when they start coming to church/making tangible process.
It's important to try and see the long term vision though.
We just visited a
family yesterday, where they aren't sealed in the temple yet because the father
was just baptized a year ago, after 12 years of seeing missionaries. Now he
loves the gospel and will get to the temple soon.
Early this
week we were visiting people on the ward roster we didn't know about, hoping
they would still live there and let us in (this is often what we do with time
we don't have appointments. also we'll tract around the houses a little too)
and we talked to this guy on the street who really praised us for what we do.
He said he was Muslim but really appreciates that we actually live what he say
we believe and go out to preach it. He took a book of mormon and said he would
have it finished in 2 weeks because he loves to read. His name is rob. we told
him we were looking for Bill Swan and Rob said that was his neighbor and
introduced us with him. We then had a pretty good meeting with Bill, who seems
to have a testimony but hasn't been to church in forever. Before we left Rob
came back in and gave us a Red Sox jersey he says he doesn't use anymore!
(Elder Beck and I will roll dice for it). We'll be back later this week to see
both Rob and Bill.
Hopefully I'll
have a good update on that story next time!
Love you all,
have a good week!