Short Mother's Day Phone Call

Dear family and friends,

      I've just learned that the Mothers Day call will have to be between 35-40 minutes, not an hour like it was during the previous times. Fortunately it's my last call home so I won't have to worry about it. An hour seems super short but 40 minutes max is ridiculous!

       The work of the Lord inches forward as Elder Buttars and I spend the majority of our time finding. The Spanish missionaries referred someone to us and we set a baptismal date with him for May 26th! YAY! Let's hope the date can stay that way. He's got Word of Wisdom problems and he didn't show up to church yesterday so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. At least we have investigators! Our problem is that we set up return appointments with people and those people are never there. However life as a missionary goes as follows from the words of a song in The Prince of Egypt:

 "There can be miracles when you believe, though hope is frail, it's hard to kill..."

         Half of the sacrament meeting passers were the Bailons. It was cool! Our ward had fifth Sunday cookie time after church. That was nice. Anyway not much else to report on.

Love,

Elder Boothe

A Hot Week in the Life of Elder Boothe‏

Dear family and friends,

 

      As you've all observed the temperatures here in Phoenix are rising to their legendary Arizona height. And it only gets worse from here. I heard from someone that Wednesday was supposed to go down to the 80's. Just like last summer though, I'm in a bike area. Fortuantely I ride the buses A LOT and they're air conditioned very well. Time to bust out the Camelbak bladder again. I'll probably get sunscreen too again. Boy this brings back memories from last year. Trust me I'm going to be praying for the weather you're all getting because 100 - 117 feels like a living inferno. Esta bien! I'll be fine and taken care of. I've already been through one Arizona summer. I'll be able to last another. 

 

      This past Sunday seems to be a Boothe speak fest because Dad, Becca and Ryan all spoke in sacrament meeting and so did I. Elder Buttars and I spoke in church yesterday. As I mentioned last week my topic was on the power of righteous judgments. I thought for some weird reason that we were going to speak for 20 minutes but when we asked Brother Santiago, the second counselor in the bishopric, he only said 10 - 12 minutes. I spent a lot of time cutting things out since I could've easily spoken for 20 minutes. I timed myself three times during the week. I even went to Tommy's house and gave the talk there. Tommy and McKenna gave a lot of helpful advice and I rewrote my talk Sunday morning. Overall, I felt like I did well not only in delievering the talk along with the material and the delievery, but I also stayed within my designated time allotment. The members appreciated it which made me feel even better, one of the members being the bishop. Elder Buttars spoke on forgiveness and people liked that talk too. Bishop Osborne came up afterwards (I spoke first then Elder Buttars spoke. There were no youth speakers.) and reiterated what Elder Buttars said. He also showered us with praise which at least gives me the impression that he likes us if anything. Our gospel principles teacher (a phenomenal recent convert who's on fire with missionary work by the way) used both of our talks in her lesson today about "The Final Judgment" after the second coming.

 

        During Elders quorum Eric and Edward Bailon received the Aaronic Priesthood from their father, Zenaido Bailon. Holy cow! That was an amazing experience! The Spirit wrapped around me like a warm blanket and the experience strengthened their family. Right after Zenaido conferred the priesthood to Eric Bishop Osborne invited Eric to stand in the circle as Zenaido was about to confer Edward the Aaronic Priesthood. The Bailon's are all excited about passing the sacrament, Henry is excited about passing the sacrament (and coming to church. He came back from being out of town. He liked church a lot)! Overall, our recent converts are doing fantastic! In addition to that our Elders quorum lesson was on Elder Bednar's talk on "the power of the Priesthood". It couldn't have been better timed! That had to be one of the best Elders quorums I've ever had! 

 

         Well I need to sign off. I know you're all praying for me and I'm praying for all of you.

 

LOVE YOU SO MUCH, 

 

Elder Boothe

Bike Problems and Eric's Baptism

Dear family and friends, 

 

           Eric Bailon got baptized on Saurday! YAY! We've been waiting for this moment for three months now! Both Eric and I felt relieved once it was all over. He's been ready for this moment and he knew it too! The baptism was organized much better than some of my past baptisms (like Fred's) but it still started 20 minutes late. I kicked myself for telling the members the actual time of the baptism as opposed to telling them that it was half-an-hour earlier than it really was so that they would show up on time. Elder Adona and I did that a couple of times and experienced success with it. I felt the power of the Spirit as the talks were given and as Eric's home teacher (his family were assigned home teachers ever since his dad got baptized last November) baptized him.

 

            Next Sunday should yield a lot of good fruit! Bishop Osborne asked me and Elder Buttars to speak in sacrament meeting. My topic is on "the power of righteous judgment". Eric and Edward will also be receiving the priesthood along with Fred Massengale. In short three of our recent converts will be receiving the priesthood next week. Man I was so happy about that when I heard Bishop Osborne talking about it in priesthood! 

 

            One of the cool things about Elder Buttars is that he owns an ENORMOUS binder full of different talks by the GA's (General Authorities). We went down to the church and he copied at least 20 different talks for me to read. I'm almost done with all of them and there are some wonderful and amazing things written in them. A few of the talks that I've enjoyed so far are: "I Stand All Amazed" by Elder Holland, "The Bitter Cup and the Bloody Baptism" by Elder Holland, "Remember Lot's Wife" by Elder Holland, "Forget-Me-Nots" by President Uchtdorf, "An Educated Conscience" by Stephen R. Covey (not a GA but it was still a very informative talk on the subject of revelation)  and "A Tale of Three Kings" by Spencer W. Kimball. I don't have the time to go over all the awesomeness given in these talks but there are many wonderful insights gained from all of these. 

 

             We've had a lot of bike problems this week. Thankfully Tommy's been helping us with that or otherwise the bike trouble would take a bigger toll on us. The handlebars on Elder Buttar's bike were experiencing problems, the axle on my back tire broke along with the gears. Tommy already fixed my bike problems and from what I've heard he's fixed Elder Buttars' handlebars. Elder Buttars already changed at least three tubes on his bike. Yesterday we walked everywhere (our area is sixteen square miles if you multiply the width and length) and rode the bus. Thank heaven for the bus! It makes our lives so much easier! 

 

             On Wednesday we had interviews with President Taylor (who chastised us all today in his weekly e-mail to us). This interview was by far the shortest one ever conducted between me and President Taylor. Elder Buttars claimed that President Taylor told him that I've made significant progress these past few months. YAY! 

 

             Thank you all for the presents and the cards! They were wonderful! I pray for you all and I am so grateful for your love and support!

 

Love,

Elder Boothe

My Companion Is Napoleon Dynamite

Dear family and friends,

 

         I am now 21. I don't feel any different from being 20. 21 isn't a big deal in the church since we don't drink alcoholic beverages anyway. Oh well. My Easter Sunday went by fast. The Bussino's invited us to their Easter family get-together on Saturday and I made sure to stuff my face full of funeral potatoes. It was a great experience and I enjoy being around the Bussino's. On Sunday our High Priest's group leader invited us to dinner at his place at the last minute. The food was good but I ate too much and gave the appearance of being sick. Fortunately that didn't happen. Our Relief Society president (a.k.a the High Priest group leader's wife) made us cookies and left the plate on our doorstep which we found Sunday morning. Our EQ President gave us a basket of candy that same day. Elder Buttars and I went to town on that basket of candy and rest assured it did not survive the night. 

 

          Elder Buttars is now my new companion. YAY! He got released from being a zone leader in the Phoenix North stake just prior to being my companion. He is now the district leader and the senior companion. He came out with Elder Adona so right now he's been out for 20 months. Once again, I'm the junior companion and I've been out for less time than my companion. Big whoop right? Anyway Elder Buttars knows what he's doing. He's very intelligent and you can totally tell that he's been a zone leader for forever from the way he talks. He's a phenomenal teacher and he gave me an extensive list about building trust with members. His voice, when he's naturally speaking, sounds identical to Napolean Dynamite's. Literally. This guy sounds like a walking Napoleon Dynamite impersonation. He actually did when a Napoleon Dynamite impersonation contest at his school in Logan, Utah. Speaking of which that's where he's from: Logan, Utah. He's my third companion from Utah. Half of all my companions have been from Utah. Is it just me or does Elder Buttars kind of resemble Austin Lee and Garit?

 

           The axle on my bike broke this week but Tommy's helping me fix it. Tommy's phenomenal to have in a tight situation. One of our investigators, Eric Bailon, finally got off probation! He has a baptismal date for this Saturday. He passed his interview on Saturday, which didn't take very long. He really wants to serve a mission which is really cool to see! Everyone's been keeping him excited about that.

 

            We've got interviews with President Taylor this Wednesday. That should be interesting.

 

      Love you lots,

 

      Elder Boothe  

 

(P.S. I don't know if my birthday's ever fallen on Easter before. I think it has but I'm not sure.)

The Oldest Member in My District

Dear family and friends,

 

        The zone leaders just got off the phone and....  I'M STAYING! But Elder Adona is getting transferred. WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING TO ME? I'M LOSING MY MINI-ME TOMORROW! I've been in this area for 6 months now, which has been more than Elder Adona, who's been in this area for 5 months. We are both sad and shocked since both of us were willing to put money down that I was going to get transferred. Now I'm "the oldest member in my district". I've seen a lot of rapid changes happening in this area. This will be the second time that I've taken over the area. I know I'll be able to do it, with the Lord's help, I just hope my new companion can help me pick up the work because this area is moving very slow right now. 

 

         Elder Adona and I have played a lot of Uno this past transfer. The current score right now is

• Elder Boothe: 65
• Elder Adona: 62
• Elder Catlett: 8

          The reason why Elder Catlett's score is so low is because he didn't start playing with us until way later. He still got his butt whooped though. Here's what he said to me once after I kicked his butt for the umpteenth time (remember that this is a joke and that he wasn't being serious):

 

              "I made a pact with the devil and he still beat me, I formed a secret combination and conspired against him and he still beat me, I threatened to John Wilkes Booth him and he still beat me. GOSH MAN! SUCK FACE! This kid always beats me!" 5 of his 8 wins occurred last night.

 

           I personally LOVED General Conference. There's too many awesome talks to describe since I loved the whole thing but I'll give a few examples of some talks I liked:

• Elder Oaks' talk in the Saturday morning session of General Conference about sacrifice. That talk makes you (in general for Latter-day Saints) proud to be a Latter-day Saint
• Elder Ballard's talk in the Sunday afternoon session about families. I loved the statistics that proves that families are important and that families are crucial to society.
• Elder President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar's talks during the priesthood session were amazing! These two seem to follow each other very well. The big theme of the priesthood session of Conference seemed to be a smack down on the brethern for not doing enough.

Overall themes noticed:

• Importance of the family
• The doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, etc.)
• The Atonement

My favorite speakers in General are Elder Holland, President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar's talks. They're bold, straightforward and very powerful. That isn't to say that the other GA's aren't. They are, it's just that I've gravitated towards these three.

 

         Right before General Conference we asked the Bailon family to read the first six chapters of Mosiah. This was a big undertaking for them since they don't like to read but they did it anyway. They all argued over who really did the reading since they all said they did. It was hilarious listening to them argue about it. It was also a huge moment of joy to hear that all of them read so much. They truly have come far in their spiritual journey.

 

Love,

Elder Boothe

 

(P.S. My birthday's in 5 days! Can you believe it?! I'M TURNING 21! HOLY COW!)