Five More Weeks

Dear family and friends, 

      Meet my new companion: Elder Beck. He's from Seattle, Washington. He's been out for 7 1/2 months, this area is his second and I'm his third companion. He's the youngest of 5 and he's the hardest working missionary I've ever come across. Keep in mind that he's my 10th companion out in the field so that's impressive. He's definitely got a vision to get this area up and running. Because our area's dead (sigh) he doesn't have a whole lot to take over at this point. He just needs to get to know the members and he'll be good to go. 

     I forgot to mention that Elder Kelley and I ate with the richest man in Arizona last week. His name is Jerry Moyes and wouldn't you have it he's LDS! He's a really humble guy too. Everyone reading this could fit their house/apartment/whatever you have in just one of his rooms! It's beyond ridiculous. He also has an Olympic size pool with a winding staircase. Like I said, it's impressive. 

    Well Peoria's still really hot, it won't cool down until I leave. Fun stuff huh? Anyway I look forward to seeing you all again.

Love,

Elder Boothe

Me and Elder Kelley

An awesomely nerdy family in my area called the Winceks.

 Me and Elder Beck

Six More Weeks

Dear family and friends,

       This week is transfer week, and the news just came out: I'M Staying but Elder Kelley's getting transferred! We both figured that this was going to happen. Elder Kelley's been in his area for 7 1/2 months. Plus the way everything's been going my last 3 companions prior to Elder Kelley were all 1 transfer each. Apparently they can't find anyone who can put up with me for that long. Ha! Ha! Oh well. This is my very last transfer on my mission! HOLY COW! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S COMING! This is both exciting and terrifying! I wonder who my new companion will be. Anyway about this week:

 

       Ryan Alexander finally got baptized! We held his baptism on Sunday so nobody would forget and we had the room packed to full capacity. It was almost a standing room only because there were so many people there. Elder Kelley was a great companion but now he's gone. I will also be missing Elder Gerber since Elder Gerber's getting transferred as well. I really got attached to them both. That's all I have to report for the time being.

 

 I love you all so much!

 

Elder Boothe

These are the pictures of Ryan Alexander's baptism! I included one of his family. His mother was a very happy woman!

Getting Closer to the Edge...‏

Dear family and friends,

 

         This week consists of an interesting swirl of ups and downs for me. One of our investigators attended Standards night and felt the Spirit so strongly that he told Elder Kelley that he wanted to be baptized. He passed his interview yesterday so he's good to go! We also got a car since Elder Kelley's knee still hasn't healed. It's sick! It only had 500 miles when he first got it! It also has some pretty cool features to it. Elder Kelley can hook up his external hard-drive and his USB drive to it. We've been listening to some good stuff! Plus we can talk to people through the stereo (kind of like Dad's bluetooth back when he had the Acura XL). Elder Kelley's acquired so much awesome gospel related stuff on his USB and his external hard-drive that I want that I bought a USB drive (last week) and before e-mailing you all I bought a 1 terrabyte external hard-drive. IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME! I figure that I'll be needing it for college after the mission so it was a worthwhile purchase.

 

          Our stake had an emergency preparedness fair this past Saturday. It went really well! Elder Kelley and I helped the Andrews, the people that we live with, set up their booth (ha ha). They primarily dealt with food storage. The booth consisted of a "food storage calculator" which is an Excel spreadsheet that Elder Kelley put together that calculates the cost of a year supply of food based on the dimensions of your family. It's pretty darn cool! It was a popular feature. Other parts included eggs coated in mineral oil. Did you know that if you did that your eggs could last a year without refrigeration? We also gave handouts for how to get a year supply of prescription medications. It is possible. It was really neat! While I was there I came across a lady that I previously worked with back when I was in North Glendale about a year ago. It was awesome catching up with her! It felt really good to see her again. I've seen quite a few people from my area in North Glendale here in this part of Peoria since it's so close that neck of the woods. 

 

        I got a lot of mail from 4th ward this week and I am extremely grateful for all the love and support. Any member of the 4th ward that may be reading this will be interested to know that yes I am coming back to Modesto and you will all be able to listen to me give my "homecoming talk" (I hope so anyway as opposed to a homecoming testimony). Thanks for the support! 

           Love,

       Elder Boothe

Interesting and Not So Interesting‏

Dear family and friends,

 

     The most interesting part of my week happened on Saturday when Elder Kelley ran into the back of a parked car. His knee broke the tail light and he crashed to the ground. He really bashed his elbow and his knee until he wasn't in any condition to ride a bike. We're probably going to get a car. We just got back from the chiropractor's and he wrote us a note telling us that Elder Kelley needs to stay off the bike. Oh well I guess this should make up for all the lost time caused by him trying to recover. Two days ago on Sunday I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Gerber. The reason why is because Elder Gerber's companion, Elder King, was sick so me and Gerber had companions that were out of commission so we went on exchanges. Elder Gerber and Elder King are Spanish missionaries and since their ward hadn't started yet I tagged along with Elder Gerber and went to his ward. As you all know Sunday was Fast Sunday and I felt prompted to bear my testimony in the Spanish ward. Elder Gerber came up with me because he thought I was going to need him to translate. I told him that I was going to speak what Spanish I knew without a translator. I got up there, bore it, and then sat down afterwards. All the people there said I spoke good Spanish and that they could understand me just fine. I felt really proud of myself for that. 

 

       Not much else to say other than the fact that the members are saying things like "Oh you're just about to go home". Oh my gosh I hate it when they say that.

 

Love,

 

Elder Boothe