Hey everyone!
We've had quite the busy week! Stake coordination meetings were this
week, so we spent time preparing for that. We've really been better at
preparing packets and information in advance and not waiting until Saturday
night. This week we had quite the scare. There's a flash drive that contains
all of the paperwork for us as zone leaders. It's gone. Not a clue where it
went. I opened the compartment in the truck that it;'s kept in and my stomach
leaped up into my throat. We still can't find it. We had to start over and make
all new packets for our stake presidents. Yeah, that was fun! I was pretty
stressed at first, but we did it. Everything worked out. We did a few exchanges
and a few blitz's. The one I did with Elder Walpole was a hoot. He rides his
bike really fast and ate it while we were riding home. He skipped up the curb,
over a tree root, swerved into the gravel and crashed into a bush. He flew a good
four or five feet over his handlebars and landed in the gravel. He's ok, he
just scratched his wrists and elbows a bit. We were both laughing pretty hard
about it. I wish I had a video of it. Both of his arms were outstretched in
front of him and he looked like Superman as he flew through the air. Like I
said, he's fine now and we both joke about it. In all seriousness though, if I
had a video I could have won $10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos!
Also, the Allred formerly known as Elder (now Thatcher
Allred) came back to visit! So good to see him again. I can't believe it's
been four months!
We had a great lesson with the Strong family this week. Elder Jones and
I tracted into them a few months ago on exchanges. She's an
inactive member of the church, and the only in her family. Her husband has
become quite interested, and her 14 year old daughter has latched on to a few
girls in the ward. She goes to mutual every week and even wants to go to Girls'
Camp. They invited us over for dinner a few nights ago for some homemade
lasagna. We taught the Restoration of the Gospel after dinner and the Spirit
was very strong. Their daughter is very intelligent. She understood the
apostasy and restoration more than any other teenager I've taught, except
probably Victor (who by the way, is still doing awesome). We'll be having
regular weekly lessons with the Strongs and I'm already looking forward to it.
Remember Heather, the sister that Elder Wood and I taught in
President Allen's home a few weeks ago? She was baptized on Saturday night. She
looked so happy. She had quite the support from her ward, and Sister Allen even
sang a beautiful arrangement of "I Stand All Amazed." I still
feel intense amounts of gratitude for the prompting that Elder Wood
had to accept President Allen's invitation to his home that evening. We even
cancelled another appointment just to go. The Spirit was working that
powerfully to tell us that was where we needed to be...even if we didn't find
out exactly why until we got there. Saturday evening was filled with peace as
Elder Wood and I sat in the back row of Heather's baptism. I thought you'd all
like to hear that.
On Friday I had a fun experience at the church. Elder Juchau and I were
on exchanges and had to use the bathroom at the church. When we went inside, we
saw a cleaning cart outside the bathroom. When we got closer, the door opened
and out walked Chris and Bro. Crockett! Bro. Crockett was cleaning the church
and asked Chris to come with him. It was neat to see Chris there doing service
in the church even though we'd only taught him here and there. Now, I need to
take a moment to glory in the awesomeness of our ward leadership. That
same night Bishop McLaws called us asking what we could tell us about
Chris. Chris is being taught in the Crockett's home in Copper Canyon,
but technically lives in West Point
ward. Bishop was going to go to a lesson with us the next day, but
suddenly had to cancel. We drove to Bishop's house and explained a little bit
about Chris. Bishop McLaws was pretty upset that he couldn't go. He thought for
a moment and said, "Hey, can you call them right now? Let's go see
them." We called Bro. Crockett, and sure enough he and Chris were still
together. Bishop dropped everything he was doing, changed into a shirt and
tie and off we went to introduce him to Chris. It couldn't have worked out
better. Bishop is such a great example of priesthood and servant leadership.
The whole time we were driving there and back, he was always teaching. It
really helped me see the importance of those little teaching moments that
unexpectedly come up. Yesterday during Copper Canyon
sacrament meeting, the speaker talked about how his dad taught him all the time
and the little ways he did so. I wrote down some impressions that came to my mind
and I look forward to using them. As President Beck would always say,
"Elders and Sisters, learning is not compulsory."
Things are great out in the barren deserts! I'll be sure to try and
send home some pictures next week and I'll keep you updated on anything new. I
love you all and can't wait to hear back from you. Take care and be good.
shoutout
Much love,
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