Post Christmas Post

Dear family and friends,

 

Christmas was wonderful! It simply went by too fast. There was quite a bit I liked about it and I'll share what those things are. Keep in mind that I already told most of you this during my call home yesterday.

 

          As I've already explained to some of you, we had a baptism on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and a confirmation on Christmas Day. Holly's baptism went through, which is a HUGE blessing. So on the day of the baptism, around 8 am, Holly's mom gives us a call and says that Holly's been puking her guts out the night before and that we might have to call the baptism off. Elder Adona and I freaked out and hauled it over toward Holly's house on our bikes in 40-something degree weather and gave her a blessing, accompanied by a member of the bishopric who was also the man who baptized her. We gave her the blessing and then told her to call us if she wanted to still go through with it or not. Just prior to the blessing Holly told us how she and her mom were arguing last night at 3 in the morning about cancelling the baptism. Holly was against the idea while her mom was trying to get Holly to cancel due to her sickness. Holly pulled through like the amazing trooper that she is, to our greatest relief, and we had a wonderful baptism. Her older sister told us afterwards that we were "miracle workers" because she did not believe that her little sister could ever be baptized. Hee Hee Hee! I love hearing stuff like that. 

 

       While we set up for Holly's baptism Henry, our other investigator with a baptismal date that I've been telling you all about, was getting his baptismal interview. He passed! And not only did he pass but Elder Stephens (our district leader as well as the missionary who interviewed him) also pulled us off to the side after the baptism and told us how impressed he was about Henry and Holly's interviews and how he was going to bring that up during our next district meeting. That was really cool and very gratifying to hear. Just before Henry's interview (so this is on Friday) we had a lesson with Henry and at the end of our lesson he tells us that he has a surprise for us. He leads us to this room in his apartment and in the middle of this room is a blue 45 gallon drum. He opens the lid to the drum, which is stuffed to the brim with shoes! Oh my goodness he has more shoes than most women do! That's impressive! He then told us to pick any pair of shoes from that drum. Naturally I went for the orange shoes with Asian calligraphy. They perfectly fit my feet too! Yeah they were obviously destined for my feet. The zone leaders who live with us were very jealous when they first saw the shoes. They even texted us during the middle of a lesson with Fred "Hey where are our cool shoes?" Oh that was hilarious! 

 

       Speaking of hilarious there's another story I forgot to tell you all that happened a couple of weeks ago that Elder Adona (my new companion) deems as "an epic part of our companionship". One of our members took us out to an Asian buffet that had baby octopi. Well for those of you who don't know, I hate seafood but I wanted to be adventurous and try it so I could tell you all that I've had octopus. After all, I have tried sushi before in Surprise and I still lived through that so why should octopus be any different? Well it didn't look very appetizing to begin with but what made it worse is that it's head was slit open and it's brains were gushing out. Still determined to perservere I cut a tiny bit of one of its tentacles and ate it. UGH! THAT TENTACLE WAS NASTY! I could barely choke it down. That became the straw that broke the camel's back. It tasted rubbery and fishy and gross! I couldn't even finish the other food I'd taken. I caught some kind of a bug soon after although it wasn't from eating the octopus tentacle. I'm all better now but I felt miserable after that. Elder Adona cracked up when he saw my face after eating the tentacle and now he gives me a hard time about it whenever I bring up something he doesn't like. It doesn't bug me now and I'm grateful that I have another cool mission story to share with everyone. 

 

             A common theme that came up with everybody I called was my new area and my new companion so I'd like to bring it up just to help clarify everything. As Dad pointed out I'm not living in a real ghetto, it's just a very poor area. I keep saying it's a "ghetto" because that's what everybody else told me. I've never been afraid for my life since I've been down here and I've never heard any gunshots, or seen any gangs, around here. However, it's still very poor and I would not want to live here after the mission. It's about 42-45 square miles (this includes the sister's area but our area is far bigger than their area) and it's what President Taylor would call a "bike/bus area" which means that we ride bikes but also use the bus whenever we're doing a lot of traveling. Many of our investigators don't live in houses, and they struggle to pay their bills so it's hard to get in touch sometimes because their phones die. One of our recent converts sell plasma for money and most of them don't even have a car which means that we have to provide a ride for them to come to church. That's the biggest pain since the members have crazy schedules so coordinating the rides isn't fun. Fortunately there's someone in the ward whose specific calling is to set up rides for people. Once we work with her more that will be a HUGE relief off our shoulders. Speaking of all that we had 5 investigators show up to church yesterday. FIVE! That's amazing considering that getting people to church is our biggest struggle. Elder Adona and I are excited for the new week, as well as the New Year.

 

I hope you all had awesome Christmases. I love you all and pray for you every day.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Elder Boothe's Christmas Post

Dear family and friends,

 

            This week was pretty cool in terms of the stuff that's been happening. Since we had stake conference two weeks ago it felt like forever since we were in the church even though it hasn't been all that long. Holly passed her baptismal interview! She's getting baptized on Christmas Eve! Man that's what I'm talking about when I say "White Christmas". She's come a long way spiritually speaking. She came to us originally and claimed that she was going to church "because her mom made her" now she loves church. I only wish she didn't work the graveyard shift so she could've given the interviewing missionary a super hard time like we'd been plotting for weeks. Oh well! She passed and that's all that mattered. She barely quit smoking too which we've been trying to get her to do that since the second lesson. She's awesome though and I'm glad I met her.

 

          We have another baptism coming up on New Year's Eve and he's ready to go too so not only will we be having a baptism but also a baptismal interview! Man those are the best two Christmas presents a missionary can ask for. The man that's getting baptized on New Year's Eve is Henry Gobah, who is a professional soccer player for the state of Arizona. He was born in Liberia and played soccer on the Asian circuit. He told us to go look him up, before we explained our rules to him. He introduced us to this interesting cream soda/fruit soda called Vimto which is from Quebec. It tasted pretty good. We went through the baptismal interview questions with Henry and he totally aced the questions! He even gave some hilarious responses too! 

 

           Outside of these two life is still pretty darn awesome! On Friday our mission had it's annual all-day Christmas zone conference/endowment session at the Mesa temple. The Christmas conference was wonderful. We had a companionship sing "Angels We Have Heard On High" in Tongan which I thought was amazing! Both of the elders did a great job of singing too! It felt good seeing lots of missionaries that I knew there. It makes the conference that much more meaningful. I met most of my MTC district which was really cool! Apparently I'm the only one who's lost weight since I came out. One missionary was surprised when he learned that I lost 30 pounds. As part of the conference the Taylors had their son Brayden dress up as Santa Claus and all us missionaries got to sit on his lap. That was funny. The endowment session was neat, I love the overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort one that I get from going to the temple. That feeling of peace and calm and holiness is fantastic and is proof of God's love for us all. Afterward we walked around the grounds and saw all the Christmas lights which again was a wonderful sight to see. Sister Minton, the member whose basement we live in, just gave us a fake tree that we set up. Yes it looks funky which was what we were going for. 

 

           I received a lot of Christmas packages this week and I'd like to thank Dad (for the Pizza Hut gift card which I am extremely grateful for), Grandma Barbara and the Modesto Fourth ward for their amazing gifts and for the love and the thought that was put into them. It truly makes Christmas that much more special! Speaking of Christmas I am looking forward toward speaking with you all this Sunday! Wow! Time flies by so much! For this call I want you all to think about what you want to say to me so the call will be the most effective it can be.

 

Well I love you all and HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

30lbs Since the Beginning of the Mission

Dear family and friends,  

 

              Another crazy week passed and I'm wondering what the next one will bring. Elder Adona and I spend most of our time looking through different various lists for the names of some potential investigators. Our high priest group leader gave us a huge list that we're going through right now. Other than that we're trying to stay afloat with all the advance planning that's required to get members to our lessons and investigators to church. It's a massive pain in the rear because both investigators and members alike flake out on us all the time! I'm still working on patience and reacting to people's mistakes with Christ-like love because I'm not much better at it now than when I started out here, granted I'm not pouting but there's improvement to be made. We had stake conference yesterday which was not welcome at ALL since it's way out of our area and there's so many people there. All our investigators, except for one, need rides to church so it's hard enough getting them to the normal building as is but getting them to a building way out of the area just isn't going to happen. In addition to that it's been a struggle getting these people to come to church. Two of our investigators have baptismal dates coming up: One on December 24th (Holly) and the other on December 31st (Henry). Holly's baptismal interview happens this Saturday. She's been sick with the flu so at least she has a valid excuse. Elder Adona and I gave her a blessing yesterday. Henry had two random soccer games happen on Sunday and he refused his ride to church (I really hate it when investigators do that) yesterday. We were blessed with another investigator by the name of Mischa though. She's a middle aged black lady with a crazy ADHD proscribed son named Josh. She's gone through a lot and all of our lessons have had major distractions but she accepted a baptismal date for January 28th. She's got a few hurdles to overcome but her heart's in the right place and things are looking up for her. We buried her dead dog on Saturday as an act of service. It was strange but I'm glad we could help her.

 

                The pizza I mentioned last week was breakfast pizza and I made it today without Elder Adona's help! I cooked the pizza right which is why I feel like a big boy right now. I'm starting to cook more than I did before and I've already looked through Elder Adona's cookbook for some ideas and there's three recipes I'd like to try this week. I've been eating TONS of pasta lately. Speaking of food I weighed myself when we were teaching Fred Massengale on Thursday and I now weigh about 182 pounds! Do you know what this means? I've lost 30 pounds since I've been on my mission! Man that was really good news that made my day! My goal is to stay in the 170's-180's. I've been eating smaller portions and I'm still averaging about 20-26 miles of biking a day, granted I also ride the bus a lot but we still get around. 

 

                 This week's the mission Christmas conference so next week you'll be getting some goofy Christmas-ey pictures. Oh and I'd like to thank Grandma and Grandpa Boothe for their amazing Christmas package! I use and abuse that sweater vest a lot which has allowed me to tie HUGE knots and get away with it (hee hee I love doing that) and for their awesome bags of trail mix and mac and cheese. I could really use help on planning in advance since that's the goal Elder Adona and I set since we've been a companionship. Oh and I could also use prayers on finding new people too.

 

Love from,

 

Elder Boothe

Elder Boothe's First Time Baptizing

Dear family and friends,

 

                  I feel like this week's been yet another fun and exciting whirlwind week down here in South Phoenix where there's never a dull moment.

 

                 For starters I have a new companion! Elder Casey Adona from Nampton, Idaho! He's been out for 16 months and this is his third area! He is my fifth companion, just like I'm his fifth companion. Elder Adona hasn't been here for very long and he's already got a bunch of ideas for baptisms! With the rate we're going our area will truly become a fruitful field and we will start seeing weekly baptisms! Elder Adona loves to cook and pulled out two cook books and started flipping through for ideas on what he's going to make. Well I like to cook and I'm out of ideas for new things to make so I struck up a deal with him where if I bought some of the stuff for the recipes he'd teach me how to make some of the stuff so off we go! One of the recipes we're planning to make is...dun,dun,duuuuuuuuun, spicy pizza! That's right folks one of the first recipes I'm going to make is a pizza recipe that was listed on the back of a sausage container! Did you really expect anything less from me? We're also planning some other things to make too. Oh man my mouth is watering right now so I'll stop. 

 

                 Speaking of baptisms Fred Massengale was baptized last Saturday by yours truly and he was confirmed yesterday. I've never personally organized a baptism before so this baptism was pretty unorganized. It started half an hour late! Fred didn't even show up until five minutes after the baptism was supposed to start! People down in South Phoenix are pathetic at showing up to baptisms on time. Zenaido's baptism started 15 minutes late. Yeah I was not happy about that at all! The important stuff though did get taken care of. Verl Farnsworth, Fred's best friend since childhood, gave a phenomenal talk on baptism. It was the best talk on baptism I've ever heard and I felt the Spirit wrap around me like a warm blanket. The Spirit was very powerful throughout the entire event. Just like I mentioned earlier I was the one who baptized Fred. I've never done a baptism before and I was very nervous about the whole experience. I did fine though since I didn't mess up on the prayer and I didn't have to redo the baptism. 

 

                If I were all of you I'd remember the name of Verl Farnsworth because he's going to be running for President in the upcoming election. He said that he wasn't going to jump in until the end of January since he's running on the Independent ticket and he doesn't have to worry about going through the primaries. The weather here has been super chilly as of late with the temperatures running in the 50's and lower. On saturday evening Elder Adona and I biked in cold heavy rain that was beating down on us for three hours. We went from house to house looking for potential investigators and finding some names that our High Priest Group leader gave to us. That was not fun at all! We were drenched to the bone and we were shivering afterwards! Elder Adona got sick from that but he's fine now. 

 

             Before I finish I'd like to bear my testimony to you all: I was extremely nervous throughout Fred's baptism and Heavenly Father knew I was going to have my nerves nearly shot so He helped me out by sending the Holy Ghost to calm my nerves down. Seriously it was a similar experiece to when I was called and set apart as a missionary. The Spirit of course is one of the greatest feelings in the world and to have the Spirit testify to one's soul is a magnificient feeling and I can testify that I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and that this is where I'm supposed to be. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God that was called to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ back on the earth. I can testify to you that I know my Savior lives and that His atoning sacrifice is the greatest thing that's ever happened in my life. With Jesus none of us could get anywhere and there would be no point to coming down to earth. I love Him very much and everyday I stive to do His will. I love you all very, very much and you are in my thoughts and prayers.

 

 In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Leading in the Area

WHAT THE HECK IT'S THREE WEEKS ALREADY?! What on earth happened to time? Elder Snook's gone now and I'm taking over the area. Every exchange, except one, in this area results in people canceling their appointments and me figuring out what to do and where to go. Although I try to space out the appointments so that they're close to each other we usually end up biking one end of the area to the next. Usually whoever's my companion nearly dies of exhaustion. So like I said before Elder Snook is gone. He said farewell to everybody at church, which ended up in the heartbreak of many individuals because Elder Snook's been in South Mountain for eight months. Yesterday was not p-day because it was transfer week so we had a recent convert come out with me. He has asthma and is NOT in any good biking condition at all! The poor guy couldn't take all the biking that happened today. All our appointments and visits fell through yesterday so we had to bike around a lot! The recent convert wants to serve a mission too. Well he got a pretty good look at the reality of missionary work. I hope I didn't kill his desire to go.

 

     Fred Massengale passed his baptismal interview on Saturday! HOORAY! Starting off the new transfer with a baptism is the way I'd like to start things out. His interview took forever. Seriously we waited a whole hour for it to be done, which for missionary standards one hour is an eternity when it comes to interviews. 45 minutes is considered to be very high, but an hour just doesn't happen. The important thing is that he passed though. Fred said that he's leaning towards having me baptize him which will be very exciting since I've never actually performed the ordinance for someone myself. We also have two other investigators with baptismal dates. One for Christmas Eve, the other for New Year's Eve. This will be one incredibly awesome Christmas season if both of those go through! They're both making progress right now so I'm confident things will pull through.

 

So here comes the explanation of the newest pictures:

                      Last p-day Elder Snook decided to pull out two couches and a TV for our p-day activity. He also asked everyone to bake, or buy, something and bring it. We had sausage, cheese, and crackers, several different pies, Oreos, chips, etc. We also tried watching "The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd" in Russian because one of the sisters in our district is waiting to get her visa so she can go to Ukraine where she was called to serve. It sounded really weird in Russian. We also tried watching "The Testaments" in Japanese and that didn't sound very good either. The zone leaders came to the activity too. Needless to say it was one of the best p-day activities that I've ever done. After district meeting I took a picture of me with Elder Snook and me and the zone leaders. On Sunday we took two pictures with the sister missionaries who work in our ward. The one on the far right is the visa waiting sister missionary. Later on Sunday evening Elder Snook went to say good-bye to a member who happened to own a Roman sword. Naturally I couldn't pass up the opportunity to hold it and get a picture of myself holding one. Before Elder Snook left we took a picture with the Spanish missionaries.

 

I'm hanging out with the Spanish missionaries right now, who are both being transferred tomorrow. This means that I will have been living in the basement for the longest time out of any missionary there, once they leave. This week has been very eventful and crazy for me and I will continue to need prayers and help as I'm taking on the responsibilities of leading in the new area.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

It's About Time

Dear family and friends,

This week went rather well and there were some cool things that happened!

First things first: WE GOT TWO BAPTISMS! Zenaido and Genesis were baptized this Saturday. It was a fantastic spiritual experience! We had some testimonies by Brother Lavu-Lavu (the ward missionary who conducted the service since our ward mission leader baptized Zenaido) and Zenaido himself, we had some little girls singing and I felt the Spirit powerfully when Elder Snook and I gave the presentation. The baptism started fifteen minutes late but it was still an awesome experience. The South Mountain ward did a great job welcoming and fellowshipping Zenaido and Genesis. I can tell that they will be well loved. Elder Dye, the missionary I replaced, came back to the baptism because Genesis specifically requested that he baptize her. We managed to get two of our investigators to see the baptism. One of them was Fred Massengale.

Fred Massengale is the first investigator that I met in this area and he's such a tender hearted guy. I love him a lot! He cried at the baptism and said that it was a powerful experience. He's very honest and sincere and it's obvious that he's been prepared by the Lord. He's soaking in the gospel about as fast as we're giving it to him. He currently has a baptismal date for December 3rd. He didn't believe that he could be baptized by that date but he believed that I knew what I was doing when I extended it to him so he went along with it anyway. Our biggest problem with Fred was getting him to come to church. He came to church once before I got here and he didn't come for two weeks in a row which really worried me but not only did he come to the baptism on Saturday but he also came to church yesterday! His interview's coming up this week so we're prepping him for that. He's been taught almost everything so I'm not worried at all in the slightest. When we were teaching him on Thursday he said that I "was possessed by the Spirit". I cracked up at that. I've never had an investigator claim that I was "possessed" before. 

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Brame, the missionary in the pictures. He's a goofy guy but I love him! We had a lot of fun on that exchange. One of the reasons why is because he has a crazy area! We stopped by this one guy's ranch and I saw an ostrich behind the front gate! I've never seen a real ostrich before so I took a picture. This one definitely looks different than the ostriches that I've seen in books. Right after that we contacted a model named Azelle and then talked to a wacky homeless guy riding his bike in the middle of the street. It was fun. 

On Friday we had another exchange, only this time I took over the area. I can tell that you've all been praying for me because I was able to get around everywhere just fine. I knew where everyone lived and had no problem getting around. Unfortunately all our appointments fell through but that doesn't matter.

Elder Snook has only one week left before he goes home. HOLY COW! That means I'll be taking over the area for real this time around! I've gotten to know a few members and I can get around just fine but I still feel like there's something I'm missing. I don't know what that is though. Elder Snook's taking it really hard right now. Poor guy. He's taking it way harder than Elder Bell took it before he went home. It doesn't help that every missionary and member that he talks to (except me of course) is giving him a super hard time about it. One of the Spanish missionaries that lives with us even stated that Elder Snook's "so easy to make fun of". If I were him I'd probably be going psycho-ballistic on everyone as well.

I love you all and I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Boothe

Crazy Elder Snook, Splits and Zenido and Genisis

Dear family and friends,

 

        Thank you all for the love and support concerning me and the new area. That was a common theme amongst all the letters and the e-mails that I've received. I've made significant progress in learning where the streets are and I've gotten to know all the investigators that we're currently teaching at the moment. The reason for that is because almost all of the investigators that we've seen we've picked up since I've been in the area. The only exceptions that I know of is an old veteran named Hans Jacobsen and a man named Zenido along with his daughter Genesis. Speaking of Zenido and Genesis they passed their baptismal interviews this week! They're going to be baptized this Saturday. YEAH BABY THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! They're both ready to be baptized as well. Zenido's really humble and I can tell that he truly wants this for not only himself but also for his children. Genesis is Zenido's 9 year old daughter. The funny thing about Zenido's interview is that the missionary who conducted it said that he did it in "the best language ever: Espanglish". I had a good time with that. Most of the other people in our teaching pool, including Hans Jacobsen, are really hard to get in touch and usually don't show up for their appointments which is both sad and frustrating. 

 

       We found 5 new investigators this week which came as an answer to our prayers. 2 of them are leaving for Albuquerque this Wednesday, but we're still going to teach them and we can still bring the Spirit with us. The way I see it this week was an improvement from last week. We got more investigators to come to church, which is something we're struggling with, and we found a few people that look like they're going to be pretty solid. I'm excited to see what this new week brings! We're going on several exchanges this week and in one of them I'll be taking over the area. Oh boy here it comes! Right now I'm trying to learn more about the potential investigators and the referrals, along with where things are in relation to each other. I know how to get onto the major streets and use that to go different places, but now I'm trying to learn more about the distance between different places (i.e. how long it takes from one end to the other. Things like that) Plus I'm trying to figure out the whole bus situation, (i.e. their schedules and their routes) along with getting to know the members. Splits works out phenomenally when it comes toward getting to know the members and I think that I've laid the foundation for a good relationship with the Elders quorum presidency since I've gotten to know both el presidente and the first counselor and both times I've gone out with them were good experiences. 

 

      Elder Snook's getting crazier and crazier as the time for his departure approaches. Yesterday, which was his birthday, he forgot the phone, his planner, the keys to the church, one of his nametags (the one that didn't go on his suit) and the baptismal record for Genesis. Another interesting thing to note is that his bike frame cracked so we walked home and he spent 3 hours and 45 minutes putting everything on his old bike back to his new one. He's crazy awesome when it comes to bikes. The reason why the frame cracked is because he's been in two accidents involving cars and he's fallen off of a mountain. Yeah everyone gives him a hard time for that. The sisters in our district, who also cover the same ward that we do, gave him two birthday cakes in one day and told everyone at church on Sunday that it was his birthday. I didn't get him anything for his brithday because he looked like he was going to kill me if I did plus I'm trying not to give the poor guy a hard time since everybody else he comes in contact with does. The reason why he had two birthday cakes is because on Thursday we went to a Thanksgiving potluck that put on by a recent convert and the sisters told the recent convert that it was Elder Snook's birthday. Considering all the stress and pressure that he's going through I'd go crazy too.

 

Anyway thanks for the love and the prayers. I pray for you all too,

 

Elder Boothe

Fire Obsessed Missionaries and Street Spanish

Dear family and friends,

 

          Like I mentioned in my last e-mail I've been transferred half way through the transfer to South Phoenix, a.k.a the ghetto. This area is seriously the polar opposite of my last area. In my last area everyone had huge multi-story houses, nice lawns, and man-made waterfalls. Here most people don't even live in houses and if they do they're extremely run-down. I have plenty of opportunities to speak Spanish to people out on the streets and I rarely see a white person. I, however, am PSYCHED! This area rules! Seriously we get so many referrals that we don't even have enough to visit them all! Plus we have so much work that we don't even have to bother tracting. Yeah I love this place already! We only contact people on the streets. We currently have 7 investigators with baptismal dates and we have a baptism coming up this Saturday. We also have 2 of our investigators getting baptized on the following Saturday, the 19th. Elder Snook said this week was rough, given the emergency transfer and the leadership meeting that lasted all day on Wednesday. However, a rough week in this area means 7 with a date. Granted, none of them showed up to church yesterday but a rough week here is still a hundred million times better than a good week in my last area. DID I MENTION THAT I LOVE THIS PLACE? IT'S COOL! 

 

         Speaking of Wednesday while Elder Snook, my new companion, was in a meeting that lasted all day long I went out and worked with two elders: Elder Peterson and Elder Dye. I took three pictures of us together because I think they're pretty cool missionaries. Elder Dye's the one on the far right with the red tie and I of course am on the far left. Elder Peterson, obviously is in the middle. Something I should bring up is that before I left my last area Elder Ware and I exchanged ties. I got his really nice purple one, and he took a tie I received from Brother Wayne Bob in Cottonwood. He's wearing the purple tie in the pictures I took with him. I am wearing his tie in my pictures with Elder Peterson and Elder Dye.  Elder Dye is the missionary I currently replaced. He was in this area for ten months and because of the unexpected transfer everybody in the ward's in shock over him leaving. In addition to the transition from Elder Dye to myself President Taylor split the area and gave the South Mountain ward an extra set of missionaries. The new set of missionaries are sisters too, who of course are worshipped by everyone except for me. All the members are super excited for the sisters to come in which kind of dwarfs my appearance into the area. Be that as it may though I know that with the Lord's strength I can overcome these challenges and gain the trust of the members and continue to build on the hard work that Elder Dye and Elder Snook began. Bishop Osbourne, the bishop of the ward I work in, is an amazing man who's ON FIRE with misisonary work. The goal of the South Mountain ward is to become a "Zion people". That's pretty cool in my opinion. I should also mention that my new ward mission leader is also pretty cool too. He gets the job done and gets the job done right.  

   

            Right now I live in a huge basement underneath a member's home. This basement is far bigger than anything else I've ever lived in while on my mission. I live with another set of missionaries, Elder McCauley and Elder Larsen. They're Spanish missionaries and they goof off a lot. Also in my basement is a bench press and weights. Exercises are vastly superior now that I can actually work out. My current area, though three times as big as my last area, is still a big area so I should be losing weight and getting in shape. Speaking of that everybody here's been telling me that I've lost weight. That's pretty weird seeing as how I don't feel any different but when I checked my weight on the scale I realized that they were right! I've lost about ten pounds, probably more, since the last time I was on a scale! This is definitely an encouraging thought! 

 

            Before I finish I should mention a thing or two about Elder Snook. He's from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has three weeks left on his mission and he's been here for eight months. He looks Asian but he's actually Native American. He's the strangest companion I've ever had and he talks even less than Elder Ware. Elder Snook is also very laidback but also gets easily distracted. The other missionaries that I live with, including Elder Snook, have a strange fascination with fire since Elder Snook plays with a torch all the time and the Spanish elders frequently play with a lighter.

 

I love you all very much and I need prayers right now that I'll be able to learn my area quickly because I've only got three weeks left.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

 

(P.S. Congratulations on the wedding Garit and Lorena)

P-Day and Other Pictures from October 2011

Emergency Transfer to Phoenix!

Dear family and friends,

 

I have really big shocking news: You ready? I'm being emergency transferred! Don't worry, I didn't do anything wrong. I can explain: There are five brand spanking new missionaries from the MTC that are coming into the mission who are visa-waiters. They're going to the Ukraine and I'm not sure how long they're going to be here. Elder Ware's going to be one of the trainers! HA HA to him I so totally said he was going to be a district leader trainer and I was right! I'm moving to an area known as South Mountain, which is actually in the city of Phoenix and from what I hear is the complete opposite of my current area in terms of wealth. Supposedly it's a humble, yet very rough place to be in. According to Elder Mortimer, who was there sometime after I left him, "that place is on fire" so I'm looking forward to all the baptisms that should be coming up. Another notable thing to mention is that my new companion, Elder Snook, is going home in three weeks! According to Elder Beeston, the only missionary that Elder Snook's trained, he "acts Asian", has terrible flatulence, horrible luck on a bike and loves anime. I think I'm going to get along with him swimmingly. I'm a little nervous at the prospect of having to learn the map of my area within three weeks given that in the past it's usually taken me about three months before I get the hang of my current area. It happened in this area and it happened in Surprise. However, I'm not that scared and if there's one thing that my mission's taught me (and I can assure you all that it's taught me a heck of a lot more than that) it's taught me to confront my weaknesses and the current problems at hand and it's taught me how to deal with them so I'm not too worried. Ether 12:27 also comes to mind:

 

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

 

Gosh I love you Moroni. That scripture's accurately defines what my mission's been about and it's a good way for me to reflect on what it's meant for me this past year, which by the way I hit my year mark officially last Thursday. Yesterday we had to stay in all day because p-day ends at 6 pm and we were supposed to be inside by 6 pm due to all the trick-or-treating that came about. It was pretty boring since we had nothing to do. I decided to celebrate hitting my year mark by ordering a pizza. A few hours later I got a call from President Taylor. My line of thinking at the time was "Gee I wonder why he's calling us" and then he dropped the bomb on both of us and as a result Elder Ware and I are in a state of shock.

 

Elder Mortimer (a.k.a my old trainer back in Cottonwood) just became my zone leader and I never got to go on exchanges with him, the Carpios started coming back to church and we received two mormon.org referrals. It seems like every time I leave, I leave right when things are going good again. I hope that doesn't happen in South Mountain.

 

Another thing worth noting is that on Friday we met with Shanna and Christina again! In case you've all forgotten (which I'm guessing means all of you) Shanna and Christina are less actives that we've been working with since I came into this area. When we met Christina she was super timid. She wouldn't answer questions or talk during the lesson unless Shanna, her mom, forced her which even then she still didn't talk that much. They both worked on Sundays so it was a huge issue to try and get them to come to church. Finally Christina was able to work out those scheduling conflicts and she was able to make it for a couple of Sundays. Then after that we were able to get her to go to the YSA (young single adult) ward and she seemed to enjoy herself. Then she headed back up to college and we thought we weren't going to see her again. Since Shanna's schedule wouldn't let up she still wasn't coming to church and she was doing everything else that she was supposed to be doing so we stopped visiting her until she came to church. Well she came last week although she disappeared after sacrament meeting and we never saw her again she texted us and told us that Christina was going to visit her this last Friday so she invited us to come back. I have to say that I am utterly amazed at the change that Christina's gone through from the day that we met her till now where she: 

 

1. Doesn't work on Sundays at all.
2. Attends four institute classes and is on schedule to graduate from institute in the next semester after this
3.  Regularly attends FHE's. On a random not her mannerisms are eerily similar to Tristine's. I think you two would get along. She owns a cat named Mira and she likes cats too.  
4. She started a crochet club.
5. She knows what we're talking in terms of the scriptures
6. She's going to get her temple recommend

We took pictures with her after the lesson. She's the lady in the middle with black stringy hair. I honestly thought I was smiling when I took those pictures. No wonder Shanna told me to "change my smile".

 

I went to both of the trunk-or-treats in my wards and one of the other less active ladies that I'm working with, Sister Darne, showed up. She dressed up as "Dog the Bounty Hunter". I had no idea that such a show existed before I came out on my mission. I've been wanting to change the picture on my mormon.org profile so Elder Ware and I took pictures which is why there are two pictures of me in p-day clothes. Oh and in case you couldn't tell Elder Ware cut my hair again.

 

Well that should be enough news for now. Please don't tell President Taylor that I brought up being emergency transferred. Oh and could someone please nag Garit into e-mailing me? I know he's been busy with the marriage thing but I need to hear from him.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Get ready to read 1 Cor. 13 and Moroni 7‏

Dear family and friends,

 

This past week was still rather uneventful although I've had some interesting thoughts about a couple of subjects that I'd like to share with you. Before I begin I should explain that the pictures that you're all seeing were taken about three weeks ago when I participated in the Daisy Mountain hike. The other missionary I'm with is Elder Vaughan, the goofball from South Carolina who taught me how to fish sharks and hunt alligators.

 

I'd first like to direct your attention to 1 Corinthians 13. In this chapter Paul gives his famous discourse on charity. The first part of chapter 13 mentions how that even when he does all these great things, or possesses Christ-like attributes like faith, if he "has not charity he is nothing". I've often wondered why that is and now that I'm out on a mission I think I understand. If you don't have charity for the people that you're working with nothing else matters. If the investigator feels like all you want is a baptism they shut down. If the members feel guilt and not motivation they're not going to do missionary work. Even if we are master teachers, super obedient missionaries or even good with people if we don't have the pure love of Christ motivating us to do all that we do we might as well give up or not even go out. That's what I've been missing this whole time: charity. I realize that I've only been doing things on a mechanical level and that I haven't been putting my heart into the work, which is why I've been feeling down these past few days. I've been really impatient with the members and with the investigators and that's not right. I need to love EVERYBODY regardless of what they do or do not do. Impatience and frustration only leads to grief and discouragement. So right now my big focus for this transfer is developing charity and patience (yes I know it goes with charity but it's still worth bringing up). I believe that I've come to a greater understanding of verse 7 which says:

 

 "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

 

Moroni 7 also gives a good look at charity.

 

       "If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity."

 

We are taught from both Paul's account and Mormon's that charity "endureth forever and faileth not". Mormon goes further and tells us that "whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." This is something I'm earnestly praying for and striving to work harder towards being. It is my hope and prayer that you're all doing well in whatever it is you are doing. 

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Sticking Around

Dear family and friends,

 

Once again I'm staying in my current area. October marks month # 6 of me being here and month # 10 of Elder Ware being here. The next transfer won't be until November 30th so I"ll be here for Thanksgiving. This will be the last Thanksgiving on my mission.

 

Something cool happened on Sunday that I'd like to share: This part member family showed up to church after what feels like an eternity of us nagging them to do it. We didn't literally nag them but we have been encouraging them for a very long time and even though they only stuck around for an hour Elder Ware and I felt so much joy and gratification at seeing them there. I didn't think it was possible that they'd ever show up but they did. They might get married in November but it looks like they're going to push that back a bit. I wonder why I'm still here. Hopefully we can find someone to baptize or otherwise this will be a long transfer.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Power-Hiking and Six Months with Elder Ware

Dear family and friends,

 

This week went rather slow for me but there were a few cool things that happened. The first that comes to mind is that just prior to e-mailing you all my zone took a hike at Daisy Mountain. The Wrights called it "Daisy Molehill". Elder Vaughan and I beat everybody up the hill and down the hill. We both have a lot of energy and I like hikes. I've always been able to hike fast and this hike was no exception. We had a testimony meeting after everybody came up to a three-way "fork"(what do you call it?) in the road. It was cool. President Taylor and his son Brayden were there. I took a picture with him but I won't be able to send it to Dad before next week. I'm typing from the mission office right now and I don't have my camera with me. It's cool seeing maps of the mission. Elder Ware had to put his bike in the bike shop on Friday. On Saturday we walked everywhere. We didn't get any work done. The next transfer is coming up next week which means that I'll be sending my next e-mail next Tuesday. Elder Ware and I have been together for six months. Both of us are sure that at least ONE of us is going to be transferred on October 19th and Elder Cecil said that President Taylor intends to "whitewash" (I'm allowed to use the non-politically correct terms in my e-mails to family) a lot of areas within the next three transfers. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll leave and be transferred but you never know.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Three New Pictures and a Quick Report

Not much to report on this week. After district meeting we decided to take a picture of us. Elder Cecil, the missionary on the far left with the glasses, wanted to make a "First Presidency" picture. I just wanted to have fun, Elder Beeston, the big blond missionary to the far right, wanted to look like a visionary man and Elder Ware just didn't care. The picture of me with the lizard happened two weeks ago but I forgot to download it last week. We had interviews with President Taylor this week and when we weren't in interviews we played "the manners game". Obviously such an idea was constructed by Sister Taylor. It came in response to a call President Taylor received about some missionaries who exhibited terrible manners. I hope it wasn't us. Elder Ware and I usually do pretty good on that. Another important thing to note is that we now have someone else living with us. His name is Nick Suwyn and he's the son of the second counselor to the bishopric. He's about to turn in his papers. He's 18, he can play 12 instruments and he can sing. He's an awesome guy and I'm glad he's living with us. I could still use a lot of prayers about us finding and teaching more people.

General Conference

So how did you all like General Conference? I liked it a lot! Being on a mission helps you appreciate General Conference so much more because you're more in tune with the Spirit and you're definitely going to be thinking about the things of the Spirit on a far more frequent basis.

 

      Right now I think my favorite talk was from Elder Christopher Waddell during the Priesthood session of Conference. I liked how he talked about how the one missionary only baptized one person during his mission in Spain and how even though he felt like he was a failure the son of his only convert reactivated him. I can relate to that missionary since times are going slow but I think it's another indication that I need to quit the pity party and go back to work. I also felt the Elder Cook's talk in the Sunday morning session was inspirational.

 

          Chris Brown, my last investigator who got baptized, watched at least the Sunday afternoon session of Conference and the priesthood session because I could see him since I was at the stake center for every session of conference. When Elder Yamashita spoke about his conversion experience and how investigators never forget missionaries Chris turned around and looked at us. Oh man that was such an awesome moment! It's moments like that that make everything I go through on my mission worth it! He later said that he felt the same way as Elder Yamashita in that he'd never forget us. When he asked for the phone numbers of the YSA elders and for me and Elder Ware's number he said that he refers to us as his missionaries. That was also another heaven-sent moment that I'll never forget. It made me feel really good inside about why I'm out here and what kind of difference I'm making.

 

        So I noticed that there were several themes in Conference. I noticed that a lot of talks were generated toward the youth. Elder Bednar threw a curveball at me when he spoke about getting children involved in family history work. As a youth I wasn't (and still am not) interested in family history all that much so for him to say that threw me for a surprise. Elder Holland definitely got in the faces of the youth when he spoke about serving a mission. I also noticed that either repentance or the Atonement was being brought up on a frequent basis by many of the General Authorities. Usually after they call people out on something they generally bring up forgiveness and repentance. Elder Christofferson and Elder Cook come to mind as the heavy hitters when talking about the Atonement during this Conference.

 

I can see Elder Richardson's talk being frequently brought up by either President Taylor or by other missionaries because everything he spoke about is what every missionary talks about during any of our meetings be they district meetings, zone conferences or interviews. He also literally said "teach people not lessons" which is probably the most repeated phrase in all missionary work. Seriously I've gotten annoyed at times by how frequently it gets brought up because that concept gets drilled and drilled into you but now I'm grateful that they did because it's helped my teaching A LOT!  

 

I also noticed that Elder Ballard and Elder Perry spoke about mormon.org. I knew that the General Authorities would bring it up but I thought it was going to receive more attention and that it would probably be more announced than it was. It was cool though that Elder Ballard repeated President Packer's statement for us to not refer to the church as "the Mormon church" although he did say that it would be appropriate at times for us to refer to ourselves as "Mormons" since the mormon.org campaign's happening. Speaking of mormon.org today's the first day of the campaign! I'm excited to see what kind of results it will bring. I saw Ryan's profile and I'm impressed! He did a great job on it. Another thing I noticed is that Elder Escobar's mission president has a video profile on mormon.org! I got so excited when I figured it out. http://mormon.org/me/2F8J/ Here's the link. I wonder how Elder Escobar feels about his mission president being on mormon.org. Here's my profile: http://mormon.org/me/3PCN/ Ryan's already read it. I'll probably re-edit it since I learned afterwards that I'm not supposed to say that I'm serving in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

Well those are my thoughts about conference. I look forward to seeing what Garit and Dad's thoughts are about Conference since Ryan's already told me his.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Excited for General Conference

Dear family and friends,

 

We still have nobody to teach. We actually got a member referral for a change but when we had the lesson the lady got scared when we extended the baptismal date. According to the member who referred her to us she probably won't invite us back to teach her again. Eltoniesha showed up for sacrament meeting then left. President Taylor's been pushing the idea of extending baptismal dates and he's created a list of two people per companionship that we're going to baptize in October. We're trying to avoid tracting all the time so we visit members. This upcoming week is going to be crazy! General Conference is this weekend (I'M SO EXCITED!) Elder Ware and I will be going to the temple on Thursday, interviews with President Taylor are on Wednesday. CRAZY! Anyway that's all I've got for now.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

A Downer Week

Dear family and friends,

 

           This week's been a bit of a downer week for me. Eltoniesha decided she wasn't interested in getting baptized AFTER SHE PASSED HER BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW! She could be baptized any day of the week but no, she just decided that she didn't want to be baptized. She won't even tell us why. There's a lot more to the story than that but suffice it to say I don't think Eltoniesha's getting baptized. That's the fifth investigator with a baptismal date that we've had to drop since I've been here. That's depressing. The referral from the MTC also texted us 10 minutes before her appointment and said that he didn't want to be baptized anymore after we tried to contact her throughout the entire week. What on earth is wrong with these people? Why can't they ever get baptized? It seems like no matter how golden they start out they somehow change their minds once the baptism comes up. We have nobody to teach right now, although Brother Maznio (Eltoniesha's fellowshipper) actually gave us a referral! Oh my goodness do you all know how long I've been waiting for a referral from a member? It could not have come at a better time! According to Brother Maznio she says that she's been "feeling a void in her life". She sounds golden but time, and actions, will tell how sincere she truly is. I believe that this experience is showing me how I need to stop relying on other people for my happiness and how I need to take charge and become more emotionally stable.

 

                  I think I've also learned a valuable lesson on loving people (even if they make really big mistakes). This experience is also showing me a thing or two about patience (my mission has been really good at that). Faith, and guarded hope as Elder Bell called it, is another valuable lesson I'm learning. 

 

         Stake conference was this week. The stake presidency got released and now the Glendale North stake has a new stake presidency. There were two members of the Seventy there, Elder Villareal and Elder Malm. Elder Malm's a really good speaker. President and Sister Taylor were also at Stake Conference. Brother Wright (one of the members I'm living with) suggested to President Taylor that I'd go well with Elder Adona, another missionary who's been in their home. President Taylor actually liked the idea, according to Brother Wright. I wonder if I'm going to be transferred on October 19th (that's when the transfer ends). The Wright's kept making jokes on Sunday.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Four-Square, Adoption Papers and Indecision

Dear family and friends,

 

        A lot's happened since the last e-mail and I am a tired missionary so I'll try to do my best to explain everything. The first thing that happened is that the post office is suffering from "operational and financial cutbacks" so if you write to the mission office it will take longer to get to me. I still like letters and will try my best to write back to every one. Unfortunately today we had a zone activity so my p-day's been eaten up. I'll still try my best to get back to every one.

 

       Okay so as far as transfer news goes Elder Ware and I are staying for an extra transfer. This will be my fourth transfer (soon to be fifth month) here in the Glendale North zone in the Mountain Ridge/Sierra Verde wards. Eltoniesha passed her baptismal interview on Saturday but we've heard some scary stories of how Eltoniesha still doesn't feel like she's ready! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! That girl is so darn frustrating! We found another lady via MTC referral and set a baptismal date with her but she didn't come to church this last Sunday and she's not answering her phone. I seriously need prayers that these people will get a massive knock on the head that will wake them up! The Carpio family is also very frustrating right now! We need some solid investigators who want to jump in the font immediately or else this transfer will stink! At least I'm grateful to be Elder Ware's companion for yet another transfer. Sister Wright said "I already got the adoption papers filled out". Uh-oh! I may never leave Arizona! 

 

       Today during the zone activity we mixed ice cream salts together and ice and put them in a zip-lock bag and then threw the bag back and forth. It was supposed to make ice cream but I got milk shakes. We played A LOT of foursquare which is a really fun game. I have not played foursquare since the MTC. Sister Crabtree randomly showed up to church. I'm praying that this upcoming week will turn out much better than the last one. We need to get Eltoniesha dunked! She already passed the interview so what should be holding her back? I've gotten all your letters recently which has been an amazing refresher lately.

 

                                               Love,

 

                                         Elder Boothe

Carpio Family, Dog and a Possible Transfer,

Dear family and friends,

 

           The other missionary companionship in our district (the one with the car) decided to pick us up early today before we get transfer news so I cannot tell any of you whether I'm leaving or staying. I'm crossing my fingers that I'm staying since the work is going great! This week we had an appointment with Eltoniesha and we sat down and gave her the baptismal interview questions. If that were a real baptism interview she would've passed! She's still good for her baptism for September 17th. The funny thing is that it's during Stake Conference. Our stake presidency is getting released this upcoming stake conference, which starts on the 17th. Elder Ware and I were unaware of this when we set the baptismal date with her. We'll probably have to do it during the morning and we'll have to do the confirmation at the baptism too. Our stake is pretty big so they have to coordinate who's viewing stake conference in what building. There's going to be a broadcast of it in the other building. Most of the stake will be jam packed into the stake center. It should be a great opportunity for our investigators. There will be two members of the Seventy there which will be a neat experience! 

 

          I finally had to retire my shoes! After ten months of service (plus some time before I came out) I finally had to throw them away. I was hoping they'd last all the way toward October but they didn't. I had to bust out the other pair, which I'm breaking in right now. Also got a new bike lock and a new Camelbak bladder. I've been needing those for a while. 

 

          Here's a random story that happened this week. Elder Ware and I were on our way to our tracting location and we come across this random guy on the street. Well we contacted him and he said that he goes by the name of "Dog". We talked with him a while and he said that his truck ran out of gas and that he was looking for a gas station. There wasn't one close by and we offered to help so he gave us money for gas and we biked over to the nearest gas station, bought a gas container and filled up about a gallon of gas for him. It was a cool act of service that normally doesn't happen very often and it was a neat story. 

 

            The Carpio family's going through a rough time right now so they're going to be needing prayers. They're not going to be baptized on the 24th. They're not ready. They also don't feel comfortable going to Mountain Ridge so we're trying to work on getting them to go. 

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe

Very Different from Last Week

Dear family and friends,

 

          The last time I e-mailed you all I said that I was having a crummy week. Well this week that I'm e-mailing you all about was the polar opposite of the last week that I wrote about. For starters WE HAVE 5 INVESTIGATORS WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE! Oh my goodness I don't think I've ever had that many before while I've been out! I've talked about having them but now I can actually say that I've got 5 investigators with baptismal dates! I've never gotten 5 before in one week! It's pretty darn amazing!  Keep the prayers coming because obviously they got answered! 

 

        The first 3 investigators came from a family that the AP's gave us. We were supposed to meet them two weeks ago but the family cancelled on us which really bummed me out. I didn't want to talk about them until we started teaching them. They're known as the Carpio family. There are three kids in their family. Two of them are baptizable ages plus the parents. Their middle child wasn't there when we taught them on Tuesday but we were able to commit both of the parents and their oldest toward September 24th. The mom, Nina, and their oldest daughter, Priscilla, seem pretty golden but the dad, Alex, doesn't seem so sure. They want to know everything before they make the commitment and Alex said that "this Restoration stuff is like telling me Mom and Dad aren't Mom and Dad". Alex grew up in the Catholic church then stopped going years and years before. We had a scattered lesson because Alex kept going off topic. We have an appointment with them tomorrow so I'd appreciate prayers that all will go well. Hopefully the baptismal calendar will work for them. Their middle daughter, Jayleen, will be there tomorrow so we'll get her a baptismal date for the 24th as well. The Carpio's didn't show up to church yesterday so we're going to have to work on that, but I get the feeling it won't happen again.

 

        Another little bit of good news is that Eltoniesha's back! For those of you who forgot Eltoniesha was an investigator that had a baptismal date for August 6th but pulled a houdini act and disappeared for about a month. Well now she's back and we decided to help her foster mom, Gina, make Eltoniesha's bed, dresser and nightstand. It took 2 hours on Friday. Both Gina and Eltoniesha were fairly touched by that act of service. It's about time I get a positive experience when it comes to service! Eltoniesha now has a baptismal date for September 17th. We already taught her the lessons before she disappeared so we're figuring that we can review them with her and then get her dunked soon! I do worry though since Eltoniesha doesn't seem as enthusiastic now as she once was. Eltoniesha has a ton of support from the members though and her foster mom's encouraging this so we shouldn't meet too many problems with the baptism. Gina's going to be feeding us this Thursday and hopefully we'll be able to set up a bunch of appointments before her interview on the 10th. Gina and Eltoniesha finally showed up to church yesterday and they stayed the whole three hours despite the fact that Eltoniesha was sick. I think that's a good sign. 

 

      Another really cool event that happened this past week were the two appointments we had with some less actives we've been teaching: Shana and Christina. Shana and Christina are less active people that we've been teaching since I've been in this area, so about four months. Shana is in her 40's and is also the mother of Christina. They were both born and raised in the church but quickly fell away. Christina stopped going after she was baptized so she didn't know anything about what we believe in. She's also very timid and shy and wouldn't answer any of our questions. It's been hard to get them to come to church because they both work on Sundays. Then at the end of July Christina came to church! After that she started going to the YSA ward. She's been there three times now. Christina's in Flagstaff right now back in school again. Shana wanted Christina to take the lessons because she wanted Christina to know what we believe in before Christina went back to school. Anyway this was Christina's final week before she left so we wanted to end with a bang. Our first appointment was on Wednesday, when I was on exchanges with Elder Bird, who is one of my zone leaders. We couldn't get our normal fellowshippers to come with us so we got Brother James. Brother James is originally from Pakistan. He also served his mission in Pakistan and he's a very interesting individual. We told him that we were going to teach Shana and Christina about temples and he bore a POWERFUL testimony about the temple. He related the story about how it changed his dad and the temple made his family happier. Oh my goodness we could not have gotten a better fellowshipper! The Spirit was incredibly powerful in that lesson! You could totally tell it was there! Even Shana started crying as she exhorted Christina to get a limited use recommend and experience the temple (outside of the visitor's center) for herself. Christina said she'd talk with her bishop in Flagstaff about getting one. After that really amazing lesson, on the following day, we taught a short lesson on enduring to the end. Then Christina fed us with ribs that she took with her from the restaurant that she works at, Famous Dave's. Those ribs were good! Then afterwards we had homemade cake which was followed by a box of Krispy Kreme's donuts. 

 

       As I hinted at in the previous paragraph I was on exchanges with Elder Bird, my other zone leader. Elder Bird's from Idaho Falls and he's been out as long as Elder Ware. Elder Bird's an amazing missionary and he always finds ways to uplift and inspire me. We also dropped David Howell, if anyone still remembers who he is. Thank you all very much for your love and prayers. Right now I could really use prayers that our investigators will continue to stay strong and steady as they head toward their baptisms. Also the week after this one is transfer week which means that my e-mail will come to you on Tuesday instead of Monday. I should know by then if I'm getting transferred or not. I'm hoping and praying that I don't so I can continue to work on the people that the Lord has placed in our path.

              

       Love,

 

     Elder Boothe

Bacon Flavored Root-Beer

Dear family and friends,

         I wish I had some cool story or neat experience to share with you that happened this week but unfortunately nothing special happened. Sister Darne came to church again. Today we had a double district activity. We played volleyball and knock-out. One of the crazier elders, Elder Zollweg, pulled out two bottles of bacon flavored root beer with cups and invited us all to have some. Bacon flavored soda is DISGUSTING! Seriously it's the worst kind of soda I've ever had! Another important thing to note is that the other companionship in my district gave us a yellow "suitcoat". I don't know where they got it or why they gave it to us but they did. They called it a suitcoat as a joke which is why I have quotation marks around the word. It didn't fit Elder Ware, but it fit me so it's mine now. Sister Wright thinks I look good in it. Please pray that Elder Ware and I will find new people. Currently we're in a teaching drought. We've been in one ever since Chris got baptized.

Love,

Elder Boothe

Hair-Cut, Non-Golden Investigator and Free Cinnamon Sticks

Dear family and friends,

 

       It's great to get mail again! Garit, both sets of grandparents and one of my MTC teachers have written me this week. Life is good! There have been a few things this week that have made life interesting that I would like to share with you all. 

 

       The first little bit started with last Monday after p-day ended. Elder Ware and I were biking on our way to an appointment and we get pulled over by this random car. My first thought was that it was a member probably asking us if we needed a ride then I was hoping she'd be a golden investigator again. It turned out that it was a member named Aimee (who I've never seen before so I'm guessing she's in a different ward than the ones Elder Ware and I cover) who happened to work for Domino's Pizza. She asked us if we had a dinner appointment. Believe it or not this was one of the few times during the week that we didn't have one so we said no and she took down our orders. After that she asked for our address and said that we'd only have to pay a $5 tip to the driver and that was it. So after our appointment, which I'll talk about in a minute since that was actually pretty eventful, we each got a free large 3 topping pizza plus free cinnamon bread! Elder Ware doesn't like sugary stuff so he gave his cinnamon bread to me which means that I got TWO free cinnamon breads! That was awesome! I totally wrote about that little incident in my journal! The appointment we were on our way to was an appointment with a part member family that our bishop recently contacted. The husband's a non-member and the way is less active. They are known as the Howell family. We set a baptismal date with Brother Howell for September 10th. Unfortunately Brother Howell's not golden. In fact he's the polar opposite of golden. He smokes, drinks, doesn't believe in the Joseph Smith story and slipped four disks in his back which makes coming to church difficult. He doesn't believe that he can be baptized by September 10th. We've got our work cut out for us don't we? I haven't dealt with a non-golden investigator who committed to a baptismal date. Usually my investigators either get baptized or they get dropped. I'm not looking forward to this but I have faith in the Lord. 

 

         Another interesting fact about this past week is that I went on exchanges with two different missionaries for two days in a row. For those of you who aren't acquainted with missionary work we missionaries switch companionships every now and then so that we can learn from one another. What will usually happen is that one missionary will go into the other missionary's area and the missionary who's staying plans all the activities for the day. Exchanges only go for one day each. So I took over the area for 2 days in a row! That was pretty fun! Allow me to share some insights about the missionaries I went on exchanges with:

              On Friday I went on an exchange with Elder Cecil. He's from Santa Cruz (Yeah another California missionary!) and he's been out for 16 months. His first area was Cottonwood, just like mine (except back then it was known as Cottonwood/Sedona; by the time I got there Cottonwood had two extra wards which were the wards I worked in) and he was companions with Elder Mortimer, my trainer. Elder Cecil, like me, is a bigtime fantasy enthusiast (to say the least) so we had a lot to talk about.

 

                On Saturday I went on exchanges with Elder Barrett, one of my zone leaders. (For those unacquainted with missionary work let's just say that he's a missionary who's also one of my leaders.) Elder Barrett is from Alberta, Canada and he's also 26. He already had his career lined up and his own place when he left to go out on his mission. He came out right before I did in mid-September of 2010. As far as I know we have three missionaries from Canada in our mission and he's one of them. He loves the great outdoors and he did a lot of hunting before he came out. The scouting program doesn't exist in Canada but he got the "Queen's Venture" award which is the equivalent of the Eagle Scout. He got most of his guns and bullets in the mail. I thought Canada had stricter gun control laws, but apparently not all of their laws are so strict if he can do that. I once asked him if went through a culture shock when he came down here but he said the only major difference in cultures is that everybody here uses WAY more ranch dressing than in Canada. Interesting. 

 

              Chris Brown's been sick this week so he haven't been able to see much of him. Ricky's been going to the YSA (young single adult) ward so we don't get to see him much anymore. He says he's looking for another job since his boss is overworking him to the max. We've been working a lot with the YSA elders because both Ricky and Chris are single plus one of the less actives that we're working with is single as well. (She's living with her mom in one of our ward boundaries that's why we've been teaching her.) We're still trying to coordinate our teaching visits with the YSA elders so that both Ricky and Chris get the new member discussions with someone from our ward and someone from theirs. It's been a little bit of a hassle but it'll get done. The YSA elders have been to both of our baptisms which is neat so Elder Ware and I have gotten to know them a little bit. They're neat missionaries. 

 

             So I got my haircut today and guess who cut it? Elder Ware! I wanted Sister Wright to do it (she normally cuts my hair) but Elder Ware wanted to and got offended when I made a joke about not trusting him. He did a pretty good job of cutting my hair actually and right now it's pretty short. Elder Ware and I have been pushing a lot of member-missionary work. We've been in a lot of homes with a bunch of different people in both wards. 

 

                So if you want to pray for me here are some things I could use help in:

1. David Howell feeling the Spirit and us having the Spirit help us when we teach him.
2. That the members will be able to feel the spirit of missionary work and that we'll be able to help them feel excited.

Love,

 

Elder Boothe 

Pictures from Chris' Baptism

Habubs, Signs and Chris' Baptism

Dear family and friends, 

 

        This week we had a baptism! On Saturday Chris Brown got baptized. The baptism was well attended by the ward. The entire Wilhelm family came and there were a lot of people from the Young Single Adult ward that were there, including their ward mission leader whom I mistook for some kid who barely got out of high school. Chris Brown's parents showed up too, not only for his baptism but also for his confirmation. The baptism seemed to go by really fast. The important thing is that the Spirit was SUPER STRONG! It was an amazing feeling! Tali, Chris's girlfriend, and her mom both gave talks and they an excellent job! Chris actually bore his testimony after he got baptized which was really cool! Elder Ware couldn't make it to his confirmation because he was in a meeting with the stake president. The confirmation went by really fast too. It's great to see how much Chris has grown in the past month since we've met him. It's always cool to see our investigators grow. 

 

           Sister Darne, the less active lady that I gave my pants to so she could deliever them at church the week before Sunday, came to church again along with her daughter Delilah. Sister Darne talked about how as she was doing laundry somehow a temple garment came across the load and she felt like it was a sign that she needed to prepare herself to get ready to go into the temple. She made a goal to be ready by the time the new Phoenix temple's built. It was really awe-inspiring because Elder Ware and I have been working on them since mid-July when they stopped us over and said they were "missionary deprived". Another less active we've been teaching is an elderly gentleman by the name of Phil Schvanevelt (pronounce the v like a w). Apparently this guy's been a tough egg to crack because when we told the members that we were teaching him those who knew him were amazed! I liked that because I'm planning to use this as a way to show the members that we mean serious business and that they need to give us referrals. 

 

             As it stands right now we're being fed dinner at least 5 out of the 7 days of the week. One of our wards cover the even days (except for Sundays and Mondays) and the other ward covers the odd days. Sometimes nobody will sign up on a specific day so we'll go without a dinner at a member's house, which doesn't bother me since food doesn't mean that much to me anymore. Yesterday nobody signed up for dinner and today we don't have someone signed up either. I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised because now I've been in the routine of just going over to someone else's house that not having dinner feels weird to me. Elder Ware and I decided to follow Garit's advice about trying to get a less active/investigator over to someone else's house and it's been going good so far. We've got the Wilhelms inviting someone over (they would have done that anyway) and we've got another member family inviting the Darne's in about three weeks from now. It feels great to involve the members more in the missionary work. I guess the saying goes "If you want something done do it yourself". 

 

           I've heard several comments from people about how the dust storms and the fires are affecting me and some people have wondered why I haven't talked about them. The reason why is because for the most part I haven't been affected by them too much. I've only had to ride through one habub (it's an Arabic word for dust storms) which made riding really difficult but Elder Ware got to our appointment on time and the habub left afterwards. Since then I haven't had to worry about dust storms. There've been no fires anywhere near me, they're down in Mesa from what I've heard. Once July hit we've been in the "monsoon" season. That means that the humidity increases and sudden bursts of lightning and minor amounts of rain happen. Nothing serious has happened yet. Recently the temperature's gone back up but at this point I don't really care one way or the other. 

 

           Elder Ware and I could really use some help getting the member's more active in missionary work. Please pray that such opportunities will happen and that we'll be able to recognize them. We could also use some prayers to find more people. I love you all and I am very grateful for my awesome family.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe