Elder Boothe Turns 20

Okay everyone probably wondering what I did for my birthday and if I got my presents or not. I got everybody's presents/packages/awesomeness except for Garit's and I'll probably be getting it some time this week.

 

 THANK YOU ALL FOR THE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!

 

I got Grandma Barbara and Sister Schofield's packages on Tuesday. Thanks for the ties!!!! I love them! Thank you for the mac & cheese Sister Schofield and the girl scout cookies. The other elders were jealous so I had to share with them. It is the Christ-like thing to do after all. Thank you for the chocolate bars and M&M's Grandma Barbara. On Wednesday I got Grandma and Grandpa Boothe's card. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Boothe!

 

On my actual birthday I got Dad's Quizno's card. Thank you Dad! I already made Elder Bell let me buy him a sandwich. It hasn't happened yet but we're definitely going to do it before he goes home. I also liked your card Dad. I didn't get it at first but I had a good laugh when I did. Then on Saturday I got Ryan and Becca's Subway gift card and by the way I like your card too. Then today I got mail from Sister Ricks, my freshmen seminary teacher. Oh my goodness she is a saint! She's been giving me birthday and Christmas cards ever since I was in her class! Gosh I love Sister Ricks. SHE'S SO COOL!

 

Now to my birthday. Elder Bell totally wanted to do something for me but he's already awesome as it is and he's our district leader so I didn't want to burden him with me. The thing is though we had a surprise exchange (no that's not meant to be a corny pun on the name of the city that I'm serving in. Nice try) with the zone leaders so there's nothing he could have done anyway. The reason for the unexpected exchange is because we were originally going to go on exchanges on Saturday but the zone leaders had too many appointments on Saturday so they called us Thursday evening and told us the news. Elder Bell went to Elder Angelos's area and Elder Turner (our new zone leader who got transferred into this area as a zone leader) went into my area.

 

Elder Turner's from Washington state like half of the other elders in our zone, including Elder Bell. Elder Turner's from Tri-Cities. Was in your area Dad? Elder Turner said it was in the eastern side of the state so maybe not? Before anyone says anything no his first name is not Will. Trust me he gets that a lot. Anyway when he found out that it was my birthday and that pizza was my favorite food he drove us around until we could find a pizza place. Pizza places are scarce in Surprise but we eventually found a Domino's pizza and he paid for two pepperoni pizzas. We decided to get two since the other companionship that lives in my apartment was taking their lunch hour and we decided to celebrate my birthday. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me and I pulled out the Root Beer that I bought since it was my birthday week. 

 

Last week when we went shopping I decided to splurge and I bought myself pizza makings, root beer and ice cream. That's basically what I've been eating this whole week. French bread pizza, pizza with a Boboli's crust, root beer floats and Sister Schofield's mac & cheese. The only exception to this rule was Sunday when we had a dinner appointment (it wasn't a set dinner appointment the family offered to feed us on the spot which was a really cool yet unexpected surprise) and lunch consisted of french bread non pizza sandwiches. The pizza stuff was delicious but expensive so I'm still wondering if I should do it again or not. 

 

We didn't go tracting on my birthday, not because it was my birthday, but because we were literally so busy we didn't have too. We spent the morning looking up genealogy stuff for my study guide (We missionaries have study guides that we're supposed to do for our personal studies) then visited part member families. We had an appointment with a less active family after lunch that went on for two hours since the member we brought as the fellowshipper turned out to be PERFECT for this person. Then we visited a former investigator who came home from Iraq. It turned out that she was celebrating her son's birthday. I thought I was the only one born April 8th. Anyway she let us have some pizza and we set up a return appointment with her. Then we contacted two referrals and then we had to go on splits.

 

 Poor Elder Turner had to teach another less active family while I was at the "Daddy Daughter Dance". Before anyone says anything Elder Bell planned that that way and personally I would've rather taught the less active family. This "Daddy Daughter Dance" was set up to be this big event in one of our wards and I was told that usually a lot of non-members go to that. Yeah right. There weren't any non-members and only one less active guy. I only got to talk to him after the activity ended. I kind of made progress with him but to be honest I felt like the event was an awkward waste of time. It was awkward because they played music that I normally would've danced to but couldn't since I'm on a mission. 

 

As for the rest of the week: I've been so many splits/exchanges that I can't even count them all, nor do I want to bother making the effort. While Elder Bell was in district leader council I went with a member to give a blessing then taught a potential investigator alongside the other two district leader's companions. Basically we taught the guy Lesson 1 in a trio. It was fun, but weird at the same time. The lesson by itself went well though and the guy said that he would read the Book of Mormon. We tried to set up a return appointment with him for next week but the dude's busy so we'll have to give him a call. 

 

I've noticed that everyone (except for maybe two people including the guy I just told you about) we're teaching right now is either a less active family or they're in a part member family. Hmmm...I wonder if this means that I'll be bringing a lot of families to church then. Speaking of that it's a little frustrating how our investigators can't come to church. Everyone is ridiculously busy. However we are busier though, even though we still have no progressing investigators or very mmany member present lessons.

 

Well I love you all and once again I appreciate all the love that was sent to me.

Love,

Elder Boothe