April 6, 2009

The work is going great! Time is going by so fast! It's all turning into one big blur! Well, let me tell you about this past week! We found 4 new investigators last week! That's pretty good! The first is named Alonzo Dial. He was married to a member until she died about 4 years ago. Back then he was taking the lessons and was about to join, then his wife suddenly died and he dropped off the map. But we're working on him again. I think he will be very promising. The next two are Frank and Jessi. An inactive member is living with them, Alex, who is frank's brother. Frank and Jessi are married with a super cute two-year-old, Martin! They are very interested in learning about the church! They are maybe in their late 20's early 30's. We taught them twice last week! The last one is Pepe. He is originally from spain, but speaks great english. He is also very interested in learning about the church! They are all very promising investigators! So I'm sorry if this letter isn't in chronological order. It's all a jumble to me! Some thing I know when and some things are just kinda thrown into the mix.

Tuesday night we taught Eric and Alyce a super fun lesson.. the law of Chastity! Yay... super fun... not!! Haha! I hate having to teach that to an unmarried couple! Blah! It was going good until we told them that Eric couldn't get baptized until they were married. That made Alyce cry... and here's why... Alyce's son, James, turns 8 in I believe June. Well, they wanted Eric to be baptized first, receive the priesthood, and baptize James. But they are planning on getting married towards the end of the year (well, at least Eric is planning that... Alyce doesn't know he is proposing soon) So the fact that Eric might not be able to baptize James made her cry a bit. But they understand and accept it. The lesson actually turned out really well because he asked questions about the temple and we talked all about that, the spirit world, proxy ordinances... all kinds of stuff about after death (which was extremely beneficial because of events that happened later in the week... I'll talk about that in a second)... okay, it's been a second, Hahaha! I'll tell you. Well, Friday night around midnight Eric's brother died in a motorcycle accident. He died instantly on impact. Eric was super sad about it. He went with his family for the weekend so he wasn't at conference. So yeah. That's what happened with them that week.

A member of the Hickory Hills ward gave us an address of a new member in the ward that only speaks spanish. they asked me to go by and tell her about conference and the spanish ward of the stake. We went by one day that week and I was a little nervous because I haven't really used my spanish in a while but I actually id pretty well! I impressed myself! Haha! Wednesday was District meeting and I talked about finding. It went good. I'm assuming because everybody found new investigators that week! After district meeting we helped bro. shriner clean up the fallen branches from his yard. that went pretty fast.

Sometime during the week we went to Bro. Chambers house. Bro. Chambers is a fireman but he is also a licensed Massage Therapist and he has a massage room in his house. We went here to see if he could do anything about Elder Murie's headaches. (yes, he's still having them often) He gave Elder Murie a massage to help loosen up his muscles. His head ache was gone by the end of the massage. Then I got a massage for some muscles that have been bothering me. It felt very nice! Haha! I talked to Bro. Chambers a lot about being a massage therapist. That is something I've always wanted to do. Elder Murie's headache came back the next day, sadly. We are pretty sure it's chronic tension headaches. Poor guy!

Saturday was General Conference! Woot! It was so awesome! I love Conference! It's so uplifting and enlightening! I took a ton of notes! Bill came to the priesthood session and Bill, Jesse, Joyce, Lily, and the Bumatays came to the Sunday morning session. That was awesome! I really loved Elder Hale's talk about provident living! I saw ways I can improve myself. I get $150 a month and I always run out before the end of the month! That is a horrible habit to have! I am not going to be that way for the rest of my life... living paycheck to paycheck! So I will force myself into good habits while I'm on my mission so I'm not failing when it really matters! When I have others depending on me! So I'm putting myself on a budget for each month. At the beginning of the month I'm going to take out $15 signifying tithing (even though I don't pay tithing right now... it's the principle.) Then I take out another $15 signifying 10% of savings. My dad taught me "10% to the Lord, then 10% to myself in savings"... I'm going to start applying that now! Although, the money I save up on my mission that way will be given back to the mission when I'm done! Haha! But I will have learned an important life skill... saving! I've never been good at that! It's already been tough! I've already had to tell myself many times that I can't afford it! Haha! I love M. Russel Ballard's quote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it!" So true! Priesthood Session was awesome! President Packer had a funny saying... "young men speak of the future because they have no past, and old men speak of the past because they have no future." Haha! I love that old big-eared man! Haha! Pres. Monson said something Sunday morning that I really liked... "the future is as bright as your faith!" Amazing! I just really liked all the talks! I'll probably have more to say about them when the Ensign comes out with the talks! Between the Saturday morning and afternnoon sessions a member took us to Costco to get pizza! MMM! I love Costco pizza! I also got myself Milk, bagels, and nacho cheese from there! Yum! Haha! I haven't been to Costco in SO long! I love Costco! Haha!

Saturday night after priesthood session a lot of the men from OP1 went to Sherridan's Frozen Custard! We went as well! Bro. Laudi (who has a twin brother in Lee's Summit that was in my ward... I wrote a little about him a long time ago) said he would pay for us! He's way awesome! He is one of the few in Mo-ville that isn't going to Chiropractic College. Instead, he is going to dental school! Haha! While at Sherridan's I felt like I should ask him a question. I felt like asking him if he needed any patients to practice on. That's kinda a random question, so I hesitated until right before he left to go home. I asked and then he immediately got a big smile on his face and got excited then said, "Yes! I actually do! I have boards son and I haven't found any body ot test on! That would be GREAT if you two could do that!" Haha! So that worked out perfectly! Maybe the spirit told me to ask him that! So we are going to get our teeth worked on for free!