Things are slow...

So, to get to the question about why I don't email consistently at the same time every Monday is because last Monday, on p-day, we had to clean. And our apartment was super nasty! We were sweating and cleaning for three and a half hours. That was really nasty, so now we can email more regularly about 12 o'clock. Today, we went and got haircuts and then went to the church to email on the iPad because the library is closed for Columbus Day.

The whole time I was watching “Meet the Mormons” I always thought of you and dad and about what you would be thinking when you saw the different things. Like, maybe the Navy football coach… that would be so cool! And I knew you guys would be crying about the last one when the mom found the church and sent her son off on the mission to South Africa. I knew you guys would get really touched by that. (This was going to have very little punctuation, also, because it's on my iPad again. yay yay!) All the proceeds of the movie will be donated to the American Red Cross, and it will help spread the news about what we believe a little bit more so that people will be more open when missionaries knock on their door and come in contact with them. This'll be a great missionary opportunity for everyone. So, invite all less-actives and non-members to go see it. It is a great opportunity. The church has spent a lot of money to have this out there, so invite all you can to go to this movie.

Right now we’re just trying to get a lot more people to investigate the church. We’re trying to invite all our members to go see “Meet the

Mormons” and get the word out there. Right now work is pretty slow. We’re just trying to Street contact everyone we see outside. It's crazy because people are actually starting to come out a lot more. In the summer you'll never see anyone outside, but now you see a few people every once in a while. To go up to people is weird because I'm actually kind of liking to go up and get to know people; just talk. It's not something I would normally do, but the Lord is really helping me with church and stuff.

Today, we’re going to go get a car wash for the car that we got because the Elders before us never cleaned it at all. So that's going to just be a fine time.

Weather is getting to be really nice now. It might get up to 90, but it's mostly in the 80s all day. Feels super good to just be biking in or walking a lot better than 100! This is the time when people actually like to live in Arizona. This is why people live in Arizona--- for this weather---from about now till the end of May it will be about 70° to 80 all the time.

The other day we were walking and we saw this guy walking home. He was a black fellow. We found out his name was Derek and he spells it like me DER R I CK. That's the right way to spell it. He says he just got out of prison here in Arizona and had parole in Arizona. He was from California and has tattoos were all up and down his arm. He's African-American but said that he's super interested in learning. He says he's learned the difference between LDS and FLDS from his girlfriend so he knows a little bit about it, but weren’t able to go over there. We are able to call or text him next Saturday when he's off of work. We caught him walking home from work, so hopefully we’re able to teach him. He's super interested…at least that is what it sounded like from my perspective. So by the next email we will contact him and I'll have a lot more information on that for you guys. Other than that, we’re going to have a lesson with Marie. She's been meeting with missionaries for three years now. So with the new ward we are going to take one of the new converts from the Grove first word that we converted. He was Catholic before and Marie's Catholic now, so on Thursday we’re going to go over and have a lesson and hopefully he has something to say that really touches her, and we'll see what happens.

The ward members that we've met in both wards are really awesome super into missionary work, and they try to, at least most of them, they try to get to know their neighbors and try to share the gospel.  Right now they're mostly planting seeds, and hopefully will see the road to us being able to teach him, but the work right now, as far as teaching, is pretty slow. Work is definitely run by the Lord, out here on a mission, because we ran into one of our recent convert’s dad. (Which he was super happy to give us water.) I had no idea that he even lived around here. For the recent convert he has a mission call. He will be leaving to California on November 5… on his birthday… he’s super excited.  We were able to talk to his dad for maybe a half an hour. He actually threw out his back. In Arizona you have to cut your lawn really short and reseed it for the normal time of the year, and so we're going to be able to serve him and do that for him.

We, also, were able to do that for another recent convert family when we were on exchanges. Most people around here are really nice and will talk to you, but on occasion you will get the profanity and door slamming in your face. Those are pretty fun. Most of the time it makes me laugh. It's just sad to see that people are so willing to settle for less than their potential. I can see how the gospel will really help them in their lives.

Oh, sad story:

So, the family that we were teaching…Robert… I sent you a picture of him. We could contact or text Robert, but he would always have an excuse not to meet with us. I thought, for the longest time, for the last 20 days

or so, that he was just trying to avoid us. But we ran into him today.

He was on his way and in a rush, but he saw me and pulled over for a second. We talked to him on Friday for maybe one minute or 30 seconds. It turns out that Carrie is now in a mental institution and had taken everything from him. Now he only has a mattress, or a bed in his room, and that's all. He said it was pretty sad and kind of scary. He said it happened about a week and a half to two weeks ago. She freaked out and took everything. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but he said that his life is turned upside down right now. So I'm going to have to just try to pray and pray and pray for Carrie, and hopefully will find out more of the situation. Right now it's really not looking too good. We got word that we were able to go to the Phoenix open house for the new Temple. We could go up there one time with an investigator, and we were really planning on going with Robert, but things are not looking very good at all for that right now. It's really sad, and I hope we are able to get in contact with him again and catch up and see more of the situation. Things are not looking good at all for them.

Looking forward to meeting with Derrick pretty soon here within the next week. That'll be really cool. And I hope he's going to move sooner.

We’ve been looking for some leaders that are really confident. And we are praying that all the companionships will be able to baptize this transfer. They've talk to us and said that we have the members, technology, the area, the vehicles…. we have everything we need to do it, we just have to trust in the Lord and have him help us with that. So we're just resting right now and doing all we can to have him be able to lead us to where we need to go find those hearts that he's opened to receive the gospel.

I'm just gaining more of a testimony every day that this is the only true Church. That is what Jesus Christ set out for us to do. I have a testimony of the priesthood and of all the auxiliaries and of profits with Gen. conference and everything.

We're just trying to do the best we can and do everything. I know that when the Lord feels it's necessary, he'll give us someone to teach, and when he does, hopefully we’re ready and able to teach them exactly how we need to.

I’ve seen the effects of the gospel on families out here. So grateful that I was raised in the gospel because out here you see how the world really gets to families and destroys them, but the gospel really strengthens

families!

Since the elders moved out of our apartment, there are only two of us in there. So my companion and I are able to combine everything. So right now I really want three mattresses…. it's probably not the best for your back…but last night I was super, super tired because we have two wards now. We have six hours of church and it got me so exhausted. I went to bed at 9:00, but when I jumped in bed I laid there for two hours and could not fall asleep. It was ridiculous. Usually I'm out in five minutes. Last night I wasn't, and it was not fun.

Other than that life is good out here.  I hope to see a lot more pictures out here. It was weird to see Nancy kissing a cow, but other than that, it's pretty okay. But more pictures next time.

I am writing a lot longer letters, and it will probably be a more consistent time, but things come up on p-day, and I have to do different things every

day.

So, Love you. And will see you in a long time.