22 Sept 2014

How's the whole Fam Damily?

Yeah, the snow really sucked but it warmed right back up and is now a perfect 75-80 degrees, all day everyday, so I'm not complaining. For PDay, my companion and I are going to go chop wood with a member and then go fishing. This member is freaking awesome! He’s a wildlife biologist specializing in fisheries sciences so he knows all the good fishing spots in the area.  After chopping and fishing, we are having dinner with he and his family and then we're staying for FHE, so we’ll be spending the whole day with them. Fine with me because they are a really cool family. Hopefully by this time next week I will have some pictures of me holding a delicious bass and I can say “SEE, BASS" (Animal Crossing).

My bike is fine now, I got it fixed at a bike shop..I had to get a new crank but everything else was fine! The bike repairman found why my handlebars where all screwed up..one of the Elders who helped me assemble my bike put them in upside down..how do you manage to do that?  I’m casting no stones however, because I didn't notice either. 

Thanks for all the packages and such, it's fun to get them.   All the Elders in my district are jealous of all the stuff I get. I always share what you send me with my companion, of course.  One day we were talking about our houses and we drew simple floor plans.  They tease me about being “rich” because  I get cool packages from home and have “the nicest house.”  I’ll never hear the end of it now, but at least they can now tease me about something other than being skinny :) So yeah, thanks for all your support.   I'm always excited to see if there is stuff in the mail for me. It's pretty much a highlight of the day…4:00 pm is a great time!

That's so crazy that Marc Summers is coming home from his mission and weird to think that Cort has been home for over a year now.  I know it’s a ways off yet, but I would love if Marc and Austin could come over during my Christmas call.   Would it be possible to Skype a Skype and link Jacob in too?  Ha!  

Yeah, I heard about the new iPhone from Dad. So is the new iPhone basically an iPad mini? I'm telling you phones keep getting bigger and thinner every time a new phone comes out. Soon phones are going to be bigger than iPads and as thin as a needle! Crazy people!  Can't even imagine what the new phones will be like by the time I get back. 

Anwers to Mom’s Questions for the week:

 1. The area I live in is perfect….it is right next to the church so we walk every Sunday.   We are about a mile from "Downtown Sheridan” which is pretty much the size of Jordan Landing shopping center…maybe even smaller. Makes me laugh when people say, “I'm going downtown today.”  It's like, no your not, you're going to the only place in town with shops and it's one street! haha! People out here really make me laugh because of the things they say like, "There is so much traffic out here!…I had to wait at a stoplight for 2 red lights before I could go!" I just put my hand to my forehead and think…"If traffic were like this at home, I would never again get angry while driving" (except at 4 way stops, because no one ever knows how to operate at those things).  We only have to drive to Walmart…we could bike, but ain't no thinking man trying to bike up that huge hill with groceries to get back home.

2. Breakfast…I just eat cereal most of the time. I actually do eat eggs quite often now—about every other morning—helps keep me more full and I gotta have enough energy to get me through the day. I have biked up more hills since being here than the rest of my life put together.  I'm gonna have T-rex legs by the end of my mission. Oh, and don't know if I ever told you this, but my mission president doesn't care if we wear backpacks so..I bought one at the Walmart for $15.  It’s is a lot better than the shoulder bag while biking though I do wear the over the shoulder bag to church and meetings, so it still gets used.

So Bingham won their homecoming game huh? No surprise there..how are Noah's trophy shining classes going? Copper Hills won?!? What is the world coming to? Heaven forbid!…they never won anything while I was there. 

We are working with two new investigators.  They are doing really well and are enjoying what we have taught them so far.  Two younger kids, but they pick up on things so fast and are understanding things very well.  Last week in church, our bishop talked about repentance. I can't remember which of the general authorities he quoted, but it was one of the best talks I’ve heard.  He talked about how Satan works on us and tries to get us to not feel worthy and not good about ourselves. In 1 John: 3:20 it reads, "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things." This scripture really helped me out.  Often times the people we work with think missionaries are near perfect and that we don’t make mistakes. And for a long time, it was hard for me to get pass things that I had done, I was telling myself that I wasn't truly forgiven or worthy.  In a sense, “my heart was condemning me” like the scripture talks about, even though I had been forgiven. I now know that I have been forgiven of those things in my past and feel that I can finally move on. I am truly grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ!

Saturday we did a ton of service! We woke up at 6:00 and by 6:40 we were out doing service. We helped spread gravel for a member (after shoveling up the load of gravel and packing his truck bed with a load of bricks at Home Depot). We first had to prep the ground by pulling all the weeds in the area and then worked to evenly spread the gravel.   After that was finished, we went to a house and helped a member load up boxes of stuff to take to a storage unit. We then went to another member's house and helped them lay sod for their new yard. But wait, there’s more….we then went to the food bank and unloaded a truck of food.  After that, we went to a member's house and mowed their lawn for them. These items took the whole day..there is nothing quite like service!  I am enjoying the blessing of working along side these good people.

Well, I love you guys a ton and hope you have a great week! I miss you and love getting letters from everyone! Thanks for all of the support. I'll send more pictures soon!