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