Christmas Post!

Merry Christmas everyone! Ho Ho Ho!

 

Yeah Christmas as a missionary is an interesting thing. The holidays aren't very fun times for missionaries since everyone has hectic plans and usually is either sick or out of town. We only had 3 people come for sacrament meeting between the two wards. Oh well. It'll get much better once everybody starts coming back. I'm sure you're all wondering what I did for Christmas. While I don't like how the season makes everybody's schedules hectic I always love Christmas no matter what. 

 

Christmas day started with the Spanish Elders coming over to the Connolly's (which is where we're living) and helping us make a fort. That's where we had our studies. After the fort we opened presents. I am extremely grateful for all the gifts I got considering that I wasn't expecting very many this year. I got:

• An EFY CD (Thank you Becca)
• A lot of healthy food and peanut-butter filled pretzels from Trader Joe's (Thank you Dad)
• Long pajama bottoms and gloves (Thank you Grandma & Grandpa Boothe) 
• A mountain of candy (Thank you Connolly's, Mortimers and Grandma Barbara)
• A gift card to Carls Jr and McDonalds (Thank you Connolly's and Grandma Barbara)
• 3 awesome ties (One came from my zone leader, Elder Bouwhuis, one came from our newest baptizee Aussie and one came from Elder Mortimer)
• A hand-knitted scarf by some members in the Black Hills ward
• Stamps and envelopes (Thank you Grandma Barbara)
• And a whole bunch of other random crap like a slinky, a backscratcher and a finger skateboard. (Believe me I got more than that but it should give you an adequate idea of what I've got right now)

Needless to say I came out like a bandit. Our room right now is super messy because we have so much junk. I'm giving some of my presents away because

 

a) I have too much stuff and I don't want to carry it all with me

b) I genuinely like giving people things and I have a lot to give.

 

I also got two huge stockings from Elder Mortimer's family and the Connolly's. Elder Mortimer, my companion and my trainer, loves Carl's Jr. and got about 60 - 90 dollars worth of it in gift cards. Yeah he's pretty happy right now. Since I also got a gift card to Carls Jr guess where we went? Yeah big mistake I don't even like Carls Jr.

 

Afterwards I got to call home. Man it was awesome talking to Ryan, Garit and Dad! I loved every minute of it. Afterwards we went to Angela and Aussie's. Angela is a recent convert who was baptized right before I got into the mission field. Aussie is her daughter and it was her baptism that was on December 18th. They are so awesome and I always love coming to their place. I think I can honestly say that I love these people.

 

Anyway after going there we stopped by several people's places and absoultely stuffed ourselves silly. I'm sure I gained weight from that.

 

Before I end my post there's one more thing I'd like to bring up: TRANSFERS! Today is the day where we find out whether we're being transferred or not. Elder Mortimer and I are so nervous since he's been up here for about 10 months and he keeps telling me that I'm going to take over the area. Yeah that's a scary thought! I hope he gets to stick around for another transfer but I have no control over this. This will be my first transfer! It's amazing how much I've grown since the time I first got here! And that's just 6 weeks!  The next transfer goes from December 27th (tomorrow) to February 7th.

 

Well that's it for me. I love you all and pray continually for you.

Love,

Elder Boothe

A Long Sunday and Calling Home for Christmas

Dear family,

      It's great to hear from you all! I've kept every letter that's been written to me and I re-read them when I have time. As of Thursday I've been out on the field for an entire month! This is the last week of the transfer. Elder Mortimer's been doing a lot of "transfer speculating" meaning that he's been wondering about who's going where and who's going to stay and all that. 

     Speaking along the same lines as transfers one of our zone leaders, Elder Bergeson, got sent home on Saturday. He finally finished his mission. Things have been a little hectic since his companion Elder Bouwhuis (pronounced "bow" as in to bow down-his so bow-his) hasn't been assigned a new companion yet. He's been moving around a lot. Sometimes Elder Bouwhuis will be with the Elders in Sedona, which is southeast of here, or sometimes, like last night, he stays with us.

     Sunday was pretty interesting, even for us missionaries. There are three wards that meet in the building that I'm going to right now. I only have to go to two of them and usually I'm only attending sacrament meeting for the first ward (a.k.a the Black Hills ward) since PEC for the second ward (the Mountain View ward) starts during the second hour of the Black Hills ward. Since Elder Bouwhuis covers the third ward there guess what: We had to attend all three wards today. So basically I attended three sacrament meetings with Gospel Principles and Elders quorum in the Mingus ward. I was at church from 7:00 - 4:00. Yeah I was wiped out by the end of that.

    The highlight of this week was the baptism on Saturday. We baptized a 14 year old girl named Aussie Marie Carter. Her baptism was a spectular event and very well attended too if I do say so myself. We set up about 40 chairs and I think they almost all got filled up. Elder Mortimer did the baptism. I was one of the witnesses and I gave the missionary presentation along with Elder Bouwhuis. Hopefully I can get the pictures to Dad who can send them to you all. The Spirit was incredibly strong though, which is always nice to feel.

     I've received letters from Dad, Ryan, Grandma Boothe and a Christmas card from Aunt Cindy. I received Grandma and Grandpa Boothe's package on Saturday and I am very thankful for it. I especially like the pants since I didn't bring any long pajama bottoms with me and I only have shorts to wear for bed. I've been keeping warm though because I have a lot of blankets. I still haven't received any of Dad's packages yet.

 

Bytheway if you want to send things to the Connolly's go ahead. However, my only concern is that I might get transferred since this is the last week of this transfer but you do what you want. Sooner or later I'll get the package. 

 

On Christmas I get an hour to talk to you all. We're going to be calling you at about 1:00. To make things easier I'd prefer calling one phone and having people switch off when it's their turn. I'll probably be calling Dad's phone since his number is really easy for me to remember. I don't know what I'll do with Ryan since he's in Michigan. I might call him, I might not. It depends on the circumstances. Christmas is going to be interesting this year.

 

Well, I love you all and hope you all have a Merry Christmas. With much love from,

Elder Boothe :)

Brace Yourselves! It's a Long One!‏

Dear family and friends,

 

I cannot fully express the joy I feel from hearing from all of you. It feels great to hear your voices, if only through writing. Each passing week feels slow yet satisfying mostly. I'm sorry that I freaked you all out about being dehydrated. Don't worry I'm better now. I have good news about some things and bad news about others.

 

Thursday is when Elder Mortimer (my trainer) and I have our weekly planning session. In our last weekly planning session we realized that we were going to be baptizing weekly in January! Man I was so pumped up for that! It felt incredible! However Satan has been pushing very hard and since that time that dream has been blown out of the water. On that very same night one of our investigators with a baptismal date in January said "I don't want to do it anymore," especially after she'd committed herself the night before. Super lame! Then to make matters worse the recent converts that the girl was living with (they were her cousins) got into a big dramatic argument with her right in front of us! The Spirit took off and I left the place feeling down.

 

Now here's the really freaky part: I got really sick on the same night all this happened. Really sick. Sicker than I've ever been in my life. (Now I don't want anyone to freak out about me. I'm 100% better since then which is why I'm telling all of you about it. Breathe easily if you need to) I couldn't work at all on Friday and I thought I wouldn't be able to work on Saturday, but the Lord strengthened me. While I was sick Sister Connolly waited on me hand and foot. When you all have a chance I would like you all to thank her for taking care of me. She fed me the things that would make me feel better, did my laundry and even called the other elders every half hour and told them about my condition. I made sure to thank her personally but that simply won't do. If you have any ideas about ways I could properly show my appreciation I would be glad to hear them.

 

Tomorrow we have splits with the Spanish Elders again only this time one of the Spanish Elders (Elder Posada who's from Colorado) will be exchanging with me. Then on Wednesday I'll be exchanging with the zone leaders. I'll be taking over the area for two days! We'll see if Elder Mortimer has taught me well.

 

Back to the baptismal topic we have a baptism coming up this Saturday! Her name is Austin (known as "Aussie", her mom really wanted a boy) Marie Carter. She's 14 years old and a very cheerful girl. She used to be very shy but since that time she's really opened up and it's awesome to see how the Gospel's blessed her life. I'll make sure to take pictures.

 

On Monday we had an awesome FHE in a member's home! We brought this family that we're teaching with us, the Valdez family, and they loved it! We committed Francis, the mother, to baptism on January 8th! We extended the same commitment to her daughters but they said no. They're taking this very slowly which is something we have to work on since they're mother is so gung-ho about it. The father, Edson, likes what we're teaching them too but he's never home since he's always working. They all came to church though since it's a big step. Right now we're praying about whether to just baptize Sister Valdez alone or wait until the rest of the family has committed as well. If we wait for the rest of the family then that means the date will need to be pushed back. At this point I'm freaking out that we won't be baptizing anybody on January!

 

So Grandma Boothe and Dad asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I've come up with a small list. I never feel like I want much and considering that I have everything I need in abundance I'm not surprised that this list will be very small:

 

1) Ties. My favorite colors are orange and darker shades of blue. Remember no logos or insignias.

2) CD's. Motab, EFY, hymn arrangements. That's it. Feel free to burn CD's and make copies for me.

3) Pants/sweaters. I don't have very much warm clothing.

4) Baked goodies. I love snickers, Reese's Pieces (not Reese's cups) cookies and fudge. My favorite kinds of cookies are chocolate chip and pumpkin cookies.

 

Oh and just to reiterate don't feel bad about e-mailing. Yes I love getting mail (and I frequently get excited about it everyday) but there's nothing wrong about e-mails. What matters most to me is that I'm hearing from the people I love the most.

 

With deep love from,

Elder Boothe

First Zone Conference, First Companionship Exchange, First Dehydration

Dear family and friends,

 

         Thank you for the comments. Ryan forwarded them to me and I am very thankful for what he does. It's nice to hear from you. I was a little surprised that Dad hasn't e-mailed me/sent me a letter yet. I got the pictures from him and they are awesome! I'm very thankful that Dad put those pictures together for me. This week has been very interesting for me.

 

        On Tuesday I went on my first exchanges, with the Spanish Elders. Elder Hair (yes that's his actual last name) is a really cool guy! He knows a lot about the Gospel and we stayed up late talking about the Gospel. He gave me this really cool quote from Elder Hinckley (the former President Hinckley's son) which reads:

         

         We should be so obedient that we don't even realize that they are rules. If we feel like we are chafing from rubbing up against the rules we need to take a step back. We shouldn't have all the rules memorized either because that's being obsessive and over-the-top.

 

       I think I've been a little to strict and obessive about the rules. Elder Mortimer's trying to get me to laugh more and have fun. I'm still trying to figure out the boundary between being too casual and too strict.

 

       I couldn't understand very much since it was all done in Spanish. Hardly anyone was home when we went tracting.

 

        Wednesday was the first zone conference I've ever been to. I can see why the other elders were so excited to go. It was a fabulous experience. There were several musical numbers (all of them Christmas carols) that were sang by some talented members of our zone! One of them even sang and played the piano. President Beck talked about how he like to read scriptures pertaining to the Savior's birth from the Book of Mormon. Then he gave us all Book of Mormons and told us that we are to highlight all the references about Christ and about his mission. We aren't supposed to start this activity until January 1st. We even have specific reading assignments for each day. After that we went to the Mesa Temple and did an endowment session. It was a spirit packed session and I learned a lot from the other Elders inside the celestial room. Afterwards we saw the lights in the Mesa Temple. I enjoyed the wonderful array of different lights and the presentations of the Nativity. I only wish that I remembered to bring my camera. On the way home we got In-N-Out Burger. That's the first time I've had In-N-Out for a long time which made the food all the more tasty.

 

     Right now we're still struggling to get new investigators. Anytime we set any appointments with them they always flake out! It's frustrating to say the least! Two of our recent converts have pretty unstable lives and are struggling to come to church. Our only investigator with a baptismal date said she didn't want to be baptized but Elder Mortimer is confident that we can resolve her concerns and still get her baptized by December 18th. 

 

     Last night I got a massive headache and wasn't feeling too good. Elder Mortimer gave me a sweet blessing and I think that I was dehydrated. I'm a lot better now but I still think that I won't play any sports today. i know what I said about having physical letters, but at this point I really don't care. I just want to hear from my family and friends that's all. By the way have Dad, Garit, Isaac and Grandma Barbara received my letters yet? 

 

Love, 

Elder Boothe