Monday, January 21, 2013

Received Monday, January 21, 2013

Zak, enjoying a Nectarine...


QUESTIONS:
Did you get my hand-sanitizer package?
yes! i think i got it 1 day after going to the store and buying hand sanitizer though. I was just coming out of the depths of my sickness

Feeling all the way better?
probably 85-90%. I still have a gross sounding cough and am a little congested. it's not a huge deal. My voice finally started sounding normal a day or 2 ago. We're scheduling a full regular day though, not taking it easy anymore.

Worn your new ear muffs yet?
yes, they worked great. I've worn them a few times with my scarf. We're not ever outside that long, but it was nice to have them, especially when not feeling 100%.

Do you think you got anyone sick??
well Elder Beck and Lopes both got sick too, and it very well could have been through me. Also one day when Elder Beck and I just went to like 2 appointments because I was recovering we decided not to go to a dinner appointment because 2 small babies would be there and I didn't want to infect them. When we didn't show up she was a little upset and had the other guys call and demand we come. She makes good food and I was feeling ok'ish so we dashed over. She has since gotten sick. We tried!

What about a flu shot...was it ever offered...I guess it is too late now.
yea, if we want to fork over like 30$. Sister Packard texted us encouraging us to think about it/look for places to get it for free.

Are you eating the same, old stuff?
I've eaten a lot of chicken noodle soup in the past week. I also open a can of chicken and put that in. I've eaten a little bit of ramen noodles too, which I had been trying not to do. I'm kind of getting tired of oatmeal in the morning, but I'm not sure what else to eat. I was craving grapes while sick and have been eating those a lot too.

What are you doing today?
feeling tired. our dinner appointment today was at 5, we were able to push it back to 5:30 though, but it still cuts things a little short. After that we were asked to go to this Single Adult (as in, not young) Home Evening thing.
There's a lady that works at a breakfast place who was friends with the Staples (senior couple) that we've been needing to follow up on so we went to her place for breakfast. We didn't get an appointment or anything, but it was good to make contact again and it was a yummy brexfix.

Hear any talk about the Inauguration?
This email if the first I've heard of it. I can't believe how extreme the opinions are of the president. 
I did hear about "the game" though.

 I was sad to hear The Pats lost. I didn't know Pitta caught the TD though, I had completely forgotten about him. Elder Simpson pointed out this morning that it's the brothers coaching against each other. The Harbowl should make the NFL people happy. I also think Matt Ryan vs Joe Flacco would have been interesting because they were drafted together. I wanted the patriots though.
btw, did any Rams make the probowl? Is there anyone besides the Rams starting on the NFC roster?

Have you used your dart guns again?
we've shot them at each other just a few times, but that's it.. I think the betting line how many more times i'll really use it would be 2.5.

[I wrote in my letter to him:] Ok, I am pooped! Must go to bed. Nice chatting with you. Hope you feel good and able to do the work you want to do. Let us all press on!!

[his response:] I am pooped too! I feel extra tired today for some reason.

Someone just called and told us it is supposed to snow a lot tomorrow and asked if we would help shovel out the church parking lot. That should be interesting. I've never had to do that before.

Right now I feel like it's pretty cold. It hasn't been terrible the past week but it just got a bit colder; but I think what i've been complaining about has been around 30! not the single digits of provo. Sounds like the Jimmer Generation at BYU has to suffer more for to make up for their previous blessings.
Someone told us yesterday at church that in about a week it's supposed to dive down to single digits though. I hope it doesn't really happen.

I think the biggest accomplishment of the week has been getting healthier. I hoped after I got antibiotics I would get better quick, but it's still been slow. I finished that book by Clayton Christensen I talked about last time. We got to talk to a few families about the things we learned from it. I like it a ton, I wish we had a bunch to give out to all the members. We've committed a few people to look at the website too (everydaymissionaries.org). One of those people was the Elders Quorum secretary and vented on us for a while about people not doing their home teaching/especially not reporting it. There's not a ton we can do about that as missionaries, and it's always kind of weird when people vent on us, but at least I vowed to him I'd do it when I got home. I guess we didn't do a great job with him making doing missionary work sound less intimidating or impossible, because he didn't really want to talk about doing that so much, but he did say he'd continue to introduce himself to someone he doesn't know every sunday, which is also a very good thing.

I lost my daily planner, which was a bit of a bother. I don't know where it could have fallen out of my pocket or something. I have an extra one luckily. We were able to set up a lot of things for this week too, which is really great. A lot of people around here have been/are sick. Maria (who was baptized about a month ago) spoke last that Sunday we were home sick. It was good for her, and we heard she did a great job, we were bummed we missed it.

Also there is a youth temple trip for baptisms early in February we're going to try and get her and Chris and a few other people ready for. The less active people who we were expecting came to church yesterday which was exciting. Some of them have come a few weeks in a row now.

Our ward mission leader was just released and pulled into the Elders quorum presidency, which is too bad because he was really enthusiastic We're not sure who is the new one yet. It will be a good chance to start fresh with no precedence and do things better.

I'm excited for an appointment this week with an older sister who asked us for a book of mormon to give to her friend. She said she also has many friends who have wanted to come to church with her. we gave her an extra BoM, but we're going to see how we can help her help her friends. Also she let us know she just ordered a new book all about member missionary book, and it happened to be The Power of Everyday Missionaries! (we call it PEM for short), so we'll talk about that and study it a little together.

Good job to Quinn for teaching a lesson. In a year he'll probably be called to be a teacher in his singles ward, and now he'll be very prepared. It gets easier the more you do it. and good luck to Beebachu [Kylie] in 2 weeks. Did kylie get a letter from a pen-pal person here? someone told me they wrote a letter? it was a few weeks ago, she should have gotten it by now.

Also, on LDS.org they have stuff about helping youth in the new curriculum all the time.

does anyone use my ipod? is there a spare one in the house? I just had a thought, if i got an ipod I could download the music they give for free at lds.org/youth and listen to it in the car and stuff. I may request that in the future, if it is available.

I think that's about everything. I'm going to keep complaining about the cold even though I'm the warmest person in the family outside CA. I'll keep doing some happy things as well. I hope people aren't too depressed to meet with us after their patriots lost.

Keep doing good things!
Love Zak


P.S. also I forgot to ask, what color are Griffin's hands? back to normal yet? they should have him teach primary, just like his siblings teaching classes


P.P.S.also one last thing. I really liked the email we all got today from President Packard. I'll copy/paste it here incase you're curious to see what kind of stuff he sends us.
Also about kylie, what math is she in? I thought she got an A every time in every class


From Julie/Mom: The letter Zak refers to from President Packard is excellent reading! I was grateful to have read it and enjoyed his perspective on MLK. In his letter, he also includes MLK's "I have a Dream" speech  So, where to put all that so you can enjoy it?? I have put it on another "page" on this blog, you can get to it by clicking the link below. Here's hoping it really works. It is worth your time to read it!
http://elderzak.blogspot.com/p/dear-elders-and-sisters-today-is-martin.html




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