August 3, 2010

Hey mom and dad!

So the baptism didn't happen yet. It got postponed to this Saturday because of the District Conference and then we had to postpone it again to next Saturday because we didn't get her interviewed in time. So its going to be next week and thus....

.....I will not be there to see it. I'm getting transferred to Bogo Zone. On Cebu. So now things are kinda like, woah. Did I do everything that I could have in the area? I'm glad that I can say that I did. It was a really hard area and I gave it my all. Its interesting. I was looking at some of the BR pages that people had written me so far in this area and almost all of them had something about my optimism and me facing adversity head on. I was pretty proud. Thats a good quality to have I think. I'm glad that that is one thing that people see in me.

So sounds like everything is good back at home. Gualala was fun, Ben has esopholagitoditisitonadmous, school is back up again, life is good.

So things this week were pretty awesome. I started writing in my journal every night so I can remember everything. Lets see...

So Elder Akina slapped a kid this week. Its an awesome story. It wasn't a hard slap. It was kind of "check yourself before you wreck yourself" slap. This kid called him Joe because he wanted to look cool in front of his friends. So Akina told him to come back and say it right in front of him. So he came back and tried to be tough by saying it again...and Akina slapped him. We saw the kid yesterday. He goes "um......good afternoon!" It was awesome. One less Joe-caller in Calape!

We were running low on Support last week so we skipped a lunch. We showed up at the church that afternoon and people asked if we had eaten lunch. We said no and they asked if it was because of money. We kinda tried to dodge the question but then they asked if we overspend. We said no. And then word exploded in the branch that we had no money and no lunch. hahaha. So the branch came together and prayed for us. We ate a meal of noodles and spaghetti sauce for dinner that was bomb! The crazy thing is that support came TWO DAYS early!!! We were shocked! The prayers on our behalf really do work! It was awesome.

We had our District Conference this last Sunday which was really good. President Hansen came since he's over all of the districts in the mission and he gave some really awesome talks. We were the choir. We sang Our Saviors Love and Children of Our Heavenly Father. The congregation was in tears because we sounded so awful. But I think it was because the Spirit covered up our voices and it sounded alright. haha. The best thing that happened was that Sister Hansen was giving her talk about the scriptures. She starts talking about the iron rod and how its the word of god. She said, "Nephi asked the angel what the iron rod was and the angel responded--HALLELUJAH!!! HALLELUJAH!!!" Somehow the microphone got turned off and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came on from the back room at the EXACT PERFECT MOMENT!!! It was so awesome.Especially since we all thought that was part of her talk. I turned to Elder Akina and said, "Wow. Quite some preparation on this talk. haha.

Wow. So two more days in Calape. Its going to be hard on me. I have grown very close with most of the members. I have a lot of people here who love us and are really getting excited to help us. We got a LOT of referrals this week. I think the Lord sent me here to learn patience and use my work ethic to prepare this place for someone to harvest. Good luck to them.

So I know you wanted a list of things that I would want for my birthday. To be honest, the list has shortened. I really want money and THAT BOX OF TIES THAT GREG GAVE ME FOREVER AGO!!!! You know the ones that we all thought were ugly? Yeah. Its really awesome. And thats what I want more than anything. If we still dont have them at the house, I want a whole bunch of ugly old man ties. I know you think thats crazy but I do. As many as you can.

I could also go for some IcyHot. haha. And a Costco bag of Sour Patch Kids. And anything else that sounds pretty good. I don't know. The ties are my biggest want/need. I need some good bargaining value. Tie trading is crazy here. I really hope you still have that box. I have prayed every night the last week you still have that box and didn't give it to DI. Could you let me know if you still have it?

Thanks. So much.