Received Monday, April 29, 2013

Here is Zak right after reading his Mission Call Letter.

He was happy then; he is happy now. Nice.

I might have to be pretty quick today, sorry!

Talk about your new companion!

Elder Stevens! he's great. only been out 6 weeks, so I'm finishing his training. There's only been a few little things where there's that odd adjustment when I don't do things exactly the same as his first companion. He's from Ogden UT. 20 years old. 7 kids in his family, but he's #6, so he didn't have to endure being the middle child or being left behind the Big Red Boat, like me. Doesn't love sports, but doesn't hate them. Took Ballroom in high school  so maybe he'll become famous then win Dancing With The Stars.

How are the driving duties now...shared, or are you still the main guy?

I'm still driving. We asked once (with Elder Holt) about shared driving, because I don't care and he wanted too, and they said they call Designated Drivers for a reason so the driver should always drive. Also I think it's funny they call them designated drivers, as if the other companion has been drinking or something

How is your garmin working? Does it have all the streets? (Like does it need an update?)

working exactly great. Excellent Christmas/birthday gift.

Do any missionaries in your mission ride bikes?

yes, especially since there are so many new missionaries coming in but not a ton of cars. It usaully happens when an Area is split, and one companionship will have a larger area with a car and the others will have bikes. Also they can coordinate together about it.

How much do you pay for a hair cut?

I had Elder Holt cut it twice, including right before he left. He did not charge.

Are you doing a fun activity (sport) today?

Exciting answer this time. So apparently in the elders ion our district's are there is a family that has a very big and exciting back yard. advertised were: a big "real" obstacle course, basketball court, volleyball court, mechanical bull riding thing, and 1 or 2 other things as well. The whole Zone is going down there today. [EDIT: It took several readings and Quinn to figure out what Zak's first sentence is! The word, "ion" is really supposed to be "in"; that helps. He also didn't need an apostrophe on the word district. He obviously had lots of thoughts and words to get out and he just added too many letters!!]

How are the necks of your white shirts?? Dark, grey, yucky? Steven said that he always just sprayed them with spray N wash pre-wash spray, then washed them and they always turned out great. Don’t let them get too bad, or it is harder to make them be clean.

not too bad, but not perfect. I had been using some wash n spray type stuff most of the time, and it's done a pretty good job.

How is your sock stash? Do you have enough?

Good. Elder Holt had a ton of stuff and didn't want to take it all, including a bunch of socks.

What did you eat for breakfast today?

bowl of: yogurt, frosted mini wheats, frozen berries, oats. gourmet missionary breakfast.

What do you do for service? Like are you supposed to have so many service hours a week? Just wondering.

There's an old couple who have a big property we do service for each week. The ward likes us to go help them out. We're going to start doing some community service in the next couple of weeks though. There is no specific hours requirement or ceiling. I think 2-8 hours was recommended by President Packard, depending on how busy you are. Also there is a lady at church I feel kind of bad for because she always comes to church but none of her kids or husband are members and may be slightly antagonistic. I think they give her a hard time but we found out she has a couple service things we can do and I'll enjoy being able to go over there and help.

Sorry we got to run soon! it was a weird week because of transfers and everything. We went to a lot of inactive members homes who we felt had higher reactivation potential. Not a ton of luck there, but just talking along the way we found 3 people who wanted to learn more! 1 was from MA, but we got his number, so we'll call and set him up with elders over there. The other 2 we have appointments worth this week, so hopefully they hold up on it!

also, Bishop asked us to come to BYC and help out with that which was great. I love the way he runs it. Each group there have specific assignments/goals they want to fulfill in the month. Most have to do with less/inacticve members. Some are about service and inviting friends and things as well. Bishop had us come so we kind chirp in our ideas/viewpoint and, most importantly, follow up with all of them throughout the month and help them actually accomplish the tasks (which has been somewhat of a struggle in previous months). I think it is a near perfect example of the vision for how missionaries can be used. It is lightening the Bishops burden, helping with something he thinks about. Helping build Zion in the ward in a real way.

The phrase president Packard likes to use is that the missionaries should become part of the "very fabric of the ward". There isn't this separation between missionaries and members doing different things, or even a you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours; but all of us working together to achieve the same goals that will bless us and those around us. When Elder Ballard and Christensen came to the mission they really liked the phrase and started using it too. Elder Christensen (In the presidency of the 70. different than Clayton) said he expects it to be used all over pretty soon.

so, I really enjoyed the BYC experience, a bit different than what I've done. Plus, you can tell a lot of the kids there really want their quorum's to grow, so we'll talk about how they can do that, we talked a little big about a family we're teaching that includes a 14 yr old son and the teachers quorum president said he really wants to come next time we teach. it was good.

ok, time to go. I love you all!