Mid-January! 18 Jan 2011

Hola My Beloved Padres!!!                    18 January 2011  

    Well I guess I will start and answer the question that is weighing heavily on your mind, and that is why there was no email yesterday..... Well since it was a holiday, I don’t really know which one because I am not exposed to that. I think it was like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day or more appropriately Civil Rights Day. Because of the holiday, the places that we usually email from were all closed, so as a mission we changed our emailing time to today. So don’t freak out. Your email is coming.



Am I A French Fry?



Well this week was another extremely good week here in Hurricane. I am really starting to enjoy my time with our investigators and my companion. Two of our really fun investigators are Mino and Tony Flores. Their parents are less active, so the boys were never baptized. There are 12 and 10. They seemed cautious about talking with us and learning. But we have been going over there three times a week for the last three weeks and they are beginning to open up to us. Last Monday we spent the whole evening over there. We had dinner with them, and then taught the lesson. It was about the Plan of Salvation and I was able to use the pictures that you laminated for me Mom. But we stayed after our lesson and had a game night. We played a game where we had to guess what card we had on our head by only asking questions. (See the picture of us with the headbands and cards on our heads.) It was pretty fun. And….I was the winner of the game.  J

The WEATHER here has been pretty up and down. It went from snow to like 55 degrees in a week. It is pretty random. I think that my emotions are sometimes tied in with the weather. When it is cold and overcast, I don’t really want to do anything but be inside and do nothing. It is fine when we are inside teaching lessons, but it sucks to have to leave and go back out into the dreary scenery. On the other hand, if it is sunny and nice outside, I am usually pretty happy and content with everything that is going on. Even if our day isn’t successful, I still enjoy the weather outside.

Our missionary work continues to be better in most aspects, but we still are struggling to find new people to teach. We seem to always be going to the same people week after week. This would be okay if everyone we taught would want to progress and do the things we asked, but there are only a select few that do anything we ask. We have been trying to change things and try different ways to find people, but I am sure it will all happen through diligence.

Well the one funny story I have this week is that I almost went to jail. The story goes like this:  we were parked on the side of the road waiting for an appointment. The Sister Missionaries in La Verkin teach the sons of some of our investigators and they were in a lesson. So not to be rude, we waited patiently on the side of the road to talk with the sisters. While we were waiting, this lady drives by and pulls into her driveway across from where we were parked. She got out and opened her garage, but didn’t pull in. She backed out drive past us, then turned around and drove past us again. Then about 5 minutes later she comes back by drives into her garage and then comes out with her husband and they are pointing and talking about us. She starts to walk down the driveway while on the phone, calling the Police, and then heads our way. I roll down my window and she asks, "is there a problem?" I was like"ummm... no. We are the missionaries and we are just waiting for an appointment at the next house." Then from that simple statement, the situation completely changed. Only in Utah will the words "we are the missionaries" get you out of a crazy dilemma!!!

Lately it has becoming harder and harder to tell which day is which. They are basically all the same with a few different parts in them. The only days that are any different are Sundays and Mondays. So unless its one of those two days, the day feels like any other. Thank goodness I have a planner that keeps me on schedule! I never thought that I would say that I was happy to have things planned out for me.  I have always liked to just go with the flow and take things as they come. But things change as a missionary I guess.

Well I was able to watch a movie about Thomas S. Monson this week. It was extremely good. It is called “On the Lord's Errand,” and I strongly recommend that you watch it.

I do have some bad news this week too.  Ricardo, who was supposed to be baptized next month when he got off of probation, will have to wait a little while longer. He has to wait until April to be completely done. That means I will most likely not be here to see his baptism.

Yesterday was extremely good! I was able to go to the St. George Temple for the first time. I enjoyed it a ton. Experiencing different Temples is always fun for me, I think I am up to about 6 different ones now. We also spent most of the day in St. Geezy. We went to Deseret Book and the DI. Let’s just say I am about 6 ties richer!! I am slowly but surely getting closer and closer to 300!! So if you want to send me some ties, I would appreciate that very much!!!



Elder Davis and Elder Hernandez



Elder Hernandez is really bringing out the best in me. He is making me more obedient and a better missionary. And you finally get to see him. (Second Picture attached) He really is a short, skinny, Spaniard. So you can write him a letter, his first name is David. (We asked Chad for his companions first name so we could address a letter to him!)

Nice to hear about the (Columbia Burbank) basketball team's big win over RV. That is always a nice thing to hear! I do miss basketball and all those little things, but I am also enjoying my time out here .  I will be able to enjoy all the rest of those things when I return! Well this letter seems extremely long, but you only get one chance to hear from me a week!  I love you and hope that your week goes extremely good!!!

Live it, Love it, Preach it!!!!      Tu Hijo,      Elder D