Grandma Barbara told me that she hadn't received my latest post in her latest letter that she wrote on Monday, which freaked me out a lot. I was really scared that myldsmail.net had goofed up another e-mail. Fortunately by the sound of it I'd have to say that the e-mail was sent successfully because normally I'd get an e-mail saying that it didn't get sent and I didn't get one so YEE-HAH! It is a great blessing to hear from the family. What did everyone think of the pictures? Did they like them? I have more waiting.
In case anyone doesn't know I'm staying with Elder Bell for his last transfer! That will make it three transfers now (18 weeks by the beginning of May)! He goes home May 3rd. Elder Bell also got called to be our district leader. For those who don't know what that is ask someone who's served a mission before because I have no time to explain. Elder Bell's never been in a leadership position before so being a district leader has put a lot of stress on him. Fortunately he's receiving a lot of strength from the Lord and I'm doing my best to help him.
This week was fairly uneventful but there is an experience I'd like to share. We had lunch at a member's home on Wednesday. The member (a.k.a Brother Fischer) wants to be a voice actor. He's currently doing a gig for the Sundance Film Festival. He's more specifically going to be the guy that announces the videos. He says that the voice acting industry isn't a cut-throat one and it pays well. He let us listen to his demo tapes that he sends to all these big voice acting companies. He did some pretty good ones too. He set up his own voice acting studio in his home and showed it to us. There's a part of his studio that absorbs sound like a vacuum. It's kind of freaky actually. I took pictures of it so you'll see what I'm talking about. This guy also has an N64 and a Sega Saturn (it's a really old game machine and it looks AWESOME!). In addition to all of this he has a theater room with a screen that's just as big as the ones in the Joseph Smith building in Utah (like the one where we watched the Testaments with Mom for the first time Garit). He has EVERYTHING when it comes to movies! I love coming to his house. He knows all the latest stuff about movies (he told me about the third Batman movie that will come out).
On Friday we had lunch at someone else's house. This someone else was a less active member whose last name was Gruwell. He was an old guy who's basically been all over the country and has been a teacher, principal and superintendent. His wife wasn't a member and wasn't interested in learning unfortunately. At least we got to see their house. Brother Gruwell likes to collect clowns. Kind of weird but whatever. This guy's also been to Japan. Really cool.
Just yesterday President Morris (the first counselor to President Beck) came over to one of our wards and gave the combined Relief Society and Priesthood a member missionary lesson. He's really good at pumping people up and getting them encouraged on things. He had us do a role play of members inviting us over to their friend's houses. It was short but it got the point across.
The weather around her's been weird recently because there was a storm on Monday of last week and for most of the week it's been in the lower seventies. The breeze feels fantastic! It's supposed to pick up this week and get hotter. Oh and I don't know if I mentioned this in my last e-mail but last week I taught Gospel Principles. It was on the Millennium.
Well that's it. I love you all and pray for you continually.
This week has definitely been an interesting one for me and I feel like I have a lot to talk about so let's get started.
My district leader, Elder Beard, is leaving for home today. We went to his going away party on Monday. that was pretty cool. On Tuesday Elder Bell and I had lunch with Brother Kobel (see the last post for details about his awesome life). Like the last time we went out with him we ate lunch at a fancy sit-down restaurant that makes Asian food. Only this time we ate sushi. I decided to actually try some along with scallops since we were at a fancy place that made Asian food. It's not everyday that a missionary goes to one of these. Even though I nearly threw up three times I was able to force myself to eat the sushi this time. I did the same thing with scallops since I wanted to try something new. Yes that's right family Elder Boothe intentionally ordered sea food, and ate it all. This is a really big accomplishment for me since I HATE seafood and guess what? I still do! The only difference is that at least I tried it some more. This experience once again affirms my disliking of seafood. Our chef, as you can see from the pictures, is a guy named Chieko. He was really cool and he made our food in front of us. He did all sorts of tricks right in front of us, one of them being that he flipped egg yolks without breaking them. I felt like a man's man after forcing myself to eat all the scallops, even though my stomach hated it for the rest of the day. I could see me in my mind's eye climbing Mount Everest in the future.
That same day (this was Tuesday) we had dinner at the Pearsons. The Pearsons are an interesting family their youngest daughter is a less active member. They look old but they act young and hyper. Oh and they aren't afraid of speaking of inappropriate stuff in front of the missionaries, but we won't go into that. They have a really huge dog by the name of Magnum, and a gray parrot that didn't talk when we came over. We're going over there again to teach their wayward less active daughter, who looks and acts like Kacy Smith.
On Wednesday and Friday I went on exchanges. I took over the day both times. On Wednesday we biked the entire day. Elder Bell estimated that we biked about 30 miles. On Friday I went with my zone leader, Elder Angelos. He's a fantastic missionary who gave me a lot of great hints and tips about missionary work and how I can improve.
On Saturday Elder Bell and I taught a less active family known as the Hein's. The Hein's, as you can see, are really big into fantasy and are very creative people. I LOVE their house. It's so full of fantasy stuff! Sister Hein made us taco's with a homemade deep fried shell. It was fantastic! We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them (the new onw that's an hour long) and we invited their 9 year old daughter Lynzee to take the lessons. She hasn't been baptized yet. We'll probably have to re-baptize their 19 year old daughter Lonnee. Then the following evening I went to the other stake's stake conference. Why you ask? Because Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was there. It was quite a special occasion. I went there with someone I'm teaching.
Not a whole lot happened this week. We had interviews with our mission president on Friday. That was really cool. President Beck seems to innately know what I'm thinking without me even saying anything. He helped me out a lot and I'm super glad that he's been such a big help since I need it. My district leader, Elder Beard, is going home March 22nd. This upcoming week is his last one. In one of our sacrament meetings (the sacrament meeting that starts at 2) we had a return missionary speak. Guess where he served? Cincinnati, Ohio where President Beck lived. President Beck's house is so huge and ornate that the missionaries there all called it "Beckingham Palace". That just goes to show what kind of a mission president I've got. The RM said something I really liked. He said: "The mission is the biggest bipolar experience I've ever had." I can testify that this statement is very true.
Before I end this post I'd like to bring my birthday list up in case anybody was wondering, seeing as how it's coming soon.
Ties. Orange and blue are my favorite colors. No logos or insignias. Sorry those are the mission rules.
Pizza makings. Sauce, cheese, pepperoni/salami.
Mac & Cheese boxes
Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD's.
Letters/money
Gift cards to Taco Bell, Subway, Panda Express etc.
I'm sorry that I've exaggerated the lack of e-mails. I actually feel like I get a lot of them. I'm sorry that I said that Garit didn't e-mail me. He did. I must have had a brain fart. Right now I feel very supported by everyone in the family so great job. You can relax. Myldsmail.net hasn't given me any more problems so things are going good on that note. It's great to hear from you all on that note and I know some elders who don't get that many e-mails which reminds me of all the love and support I get from my family so I'd like to thank you all and I'd like to encourage you to keep it up.
The first thing I have to say about this week is that I HAVE AN INVESTIGATOR WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE! Raven Stern's getting baptized April 23rd! OH MAN I'M SO EXCITED! She is really golden too. She's been accepting everything we've given her and she's keeping her commitments! I haven't had an investigator with a baptismal date for a long time now. It feels really good! This will be my first transfer where I didn't have a baptism taking place. I may not like the feeling but who cares? I've got Raven Stern and that's what's keeping me going! Raven showed up to church 20 minutes early! I've never had an investigator do that before! She even brought her two kids with her too! One of them's nine years old which is fantastic for us! Hopefully her dad will be supportive of her getting baptized. The last time we stopped by Raven's house she gave us food! She's a really thrifty lady. She saves coupons and uses them a lot. She says that she's gotten $50 worth of stuff down to less than a dollar because of all the coupons she's used. That's impressive! Most impressive! She stocks up on food so she had plenty to give. I was moved by her sacrifice.
The weather over here is really heating up! It gets into the mid-seventies during the day and at night it's usually about 68 degrees. There go the jackets. I really liked wearing my suit but I also like not getting overheated. If you're going to check the weather check it in Surprise not Phoenix. They are two different cities altogether though I am definitely appreciative of all the thought that gets put into it.
Raven Stern isn't the only one being generous to us. On Friday one of the members took us out to eat at a restaurant called Pei Wei's (pronounced pay-ways) which is basically a fancy sit down version of Panda Express. He invited us out to lunch but then he forgot, which freaked me out because I thought he stood us up. He came late and paid for our food. This member (a.k.a Brother Kobel) sets up the sound systems for the concerts of all the major artists. He's done Michael Jackson, David Archuleta, Josh Groban, you name it, he's set up the sound for them. He even showed us pictures of all the people he's worked for. THAT'S CRAZY COOL! He doesn't like it though when people ask him to get autographs or signatures from other people. Nevertheless this guy has officially made it to my uber-awesome list. He also wants to take us out again to some sushi place (I'd love to see the look on Ryan's face) and not just any sushi place this is supposed to be real, authentic, legit, the works.
Another act of generosity that happened to us this week is that one of our investigators used her food stamps to buy us groceries. She paid for everything! That's so awesome! No we didn't take advantage of her and here's why: Her super lazy husband/boyfriend (Hard to tell now-a-days unless you ask) finally found a truck and so he flew out with her to pick it up. He flew out to Missouri to pick it up and they're driving back today. So since he's getting a job they're not going to qualify for food stamps anymore which I think is why they were okay. This lady (whose name is Denise) looks, acts and sounds like Aunt Laurey. It's really, really scary. I could see Denise and Aunt Laurey being best friends really quick. Denise has even worn clothes that Aunt Laurey or Molly would wear. She's even about Aunt Laurey's height! I have yet to tell Denise of this coincidence.
Just before basketball today Elder Bell and I went out for breakfast from this old couple who help teach mission prep. classes. We went to the Village Inn which in my opinion is basically a fancier version of Denny's. The food was delicious though!
So in addition to Raven's awesomeness another cool thing happened this week: We had 7 new investigators! 7! That's so awesome! I'm really excited about finding all these new people. Now whether or not they show up for their appointments and stick is another matter entirely but at least some of them have to stay. We even found someone when we were going out to visit the list of names that one of our bishop's sent us. This new investigator also has family who are members of the church. I am reminded of when the Savior told the apostles to cast their nets on the other side of the boat and the apostle's had so many fishes that their nets could not contain the fishes. That's how I'm feeling right now. I just hope that feeling continues.
