April 26th, 2010

Hey family!

I love these emails, the best updates every! Sounds like dad's working hard on the yard and same with you mom. I did some service for one of our investigators John Aslomi (60's Muslim) and it was the best thing ever, got to do some edging, prune some shrubs and cut the lawn. Great day of service that's for sure, I miss being in the yard. Thanks for the advice about the talks dad and I totally agree, all about making them interested otherwise people just fall asleep and you can see the difference.

So were to start with my week. So the first week of your second transfer (a transfer is every 6 weeks) you get to go downtown and tour the museum and the conference center with all the other Elders who are in the same boat (wild MTC group). That was a highlight of this week for sure, I got to leave my cage and do some exploring. All of us hop on the tracks (LRT) and buzz down to temple square with the assistants. Now this was a sad feeling for the most part because we walked the exact paths as our family walked. It was so weird to think I was here with my mom before, I couldn't believe it. I would stare where we sat on the grass listening to conference and just picture all of us it was a super strange feeling. But I loved it and that conference building is unreal so many cool things about it, we couldn't go on the roof because it was raining but we looked at it through windows. The fountain on the roof is directly about the pulpit because it represents like fountains of living water, hard to explain but I'm sure you all get it. So loved that tour and I can't wait to get home and study the life of each prophet in detail since Joseph Smith. I'm sure I'll collect a mini library of books or something.

Before I move on and forget I am also wearing my retainer every night, I wore it for a full week all day and it's working good. So I won't have messed up teeth when I come home!
Let's see I'm going to have to cut a few stories because I don't have time, but I'll fill you in on this real quick. My landlord, Bro. Smart, had surgery on his rotator cuff about 3 weeks ago, and has been in rough shape. We gave him a blessing prior to the surgery. But just this week he stopped breathing or had a shortage of breath! So he called some people and they said GO TO THE HOSPITAL! He asked for a blessing from us right before he left, well we did and it was great. He was in the hospital for 2 days and they figured out he had 5 blood clots in each of the lobes of his lungs! I guess it's a 50% chance of living with his case, if that's true but he did. It was a little scary and weird, no one home in the house and both of us just worried for Sis. Smart. But man he is so faithful and he arrived home two days later and is all good, we love them and they sure do teach us a lot!

OK man the Elders here are going to want to go any minute!!! NO we are at the Library. Alright so Sis. Christenson this women we are teaching is just the greatest. She is in her 70's and she is getting baptized on May 8Th for sure! It was May 1st but she felt she needed some more time so bumped it back a bit. It's the day before mothers day so when she talks to her grandson on mothers day who is serving a mission in Chile she can totally surprise him! Sis. Christenson lives in the basement of her daughter and son in laws house, the Rossendolls. They are unbelievable people, and they just love us. I look forward to every lesson there because it is so spiritual. Mom Sis. Rossendoll reminds me of you big time! It's so funny and there son Chase is the one on the mission, SHOOT! There is so much more I want to tell you, I could go on forever about Sis. Christenson and how she reminds me of Grandma Lynne. Other missionaries have attempted but never came close and Sis. Christenson said it has made the biggest difference in here life.
Poop Scoop I wanted to share so much more! I wanted to talk about Jim Kerr and Emily (his gf) and how great its going! Man Justin's dad just popped up behind us, the pigeon man! He's solid guy!

He's going to give us a ride! So I got a few more minutes! OH I totally forget to mention, we have been truckless for 6 days! It's no fun at all. Not going to lie our work has slowed down a lot in the last week, number of lessons went down from 14 to 8, no new investigators ALL because half the work we do is so pointless. It takes us hours to walk from one end to the other end of our area and it's all on a hill. So we try get as many rides organized as possible but its hard, no one is retired, of course a male has to be present. The check engine light kept going on so we took it in and they found something wrong with the transmission, they just got the part they needed so we should get it back real soon. But that has definitely been a challenge this week. My two talks yesterday went unreal, one of our investigators heard about how great my talk was through his friend and could actually tell me what I spoke about! I love public speaking but there's always room for improvement. And holy cakes my scripture study has got so much better, and they are getting pretty marked up but you know me, super organized not messy at all.

Alright well times up I better go. Although I always think about home and how great it was there, I love it out here. We are still working hard, it's going to be really weird "killing" Elder England but these last few weeks with him will be great. I can't wait to mothers day to talk to you and I love all of you. Bye bye.