First off thank you so much for all the Birthday packages
and wishes and all that jazz! That was pretty dang awesome! It made me feel
pretty special and the week went alot better because of it! Haha my birthday
was good! It was just another day at work and really didn't feel much like a
birthday but thats ok! haha I think that's how they are suppose to feel on the
mission! I think because of that I didn't get home sick or anything like that!
Haha on my birthday I was in Caldwell Idaho for leadership training and
President Cannon made me stand up in front of everyone and have them sing happy
birthday.. I did not want that AT ALL but it was ok :) haha I guess it was
kinda like a missionary bday party because I got to see a bunch of my friends
from around the Nampa Idaho area. Being 20,now I feel a complete increase of
knowledge and maturity... :) or something like that ;0 haha actually I feel
pretty much nothing like most bdays!
Anyways this week we didn't get as much teaching done because
we were gone all day on Thursday and most of Friday too... But the Training was
super fun! We learned a lot of pretty basic things! It was cool though because
it was only the leadership so there was a bunch of really experienced
missionaries there! haha I know we aren't suppose to compare but I got called
on to do a role play in front of everyone with my comp for the day Elder Cellua
and we pretty much killed it! haha ofcourse everyone sounds like a really good
teacher in a role play. Teaching a real person with the guidance of the spirit
is a whole other ball park! anyways so the meeting was fun and I learned
a bunch! I got to see Elder Bloomfield!! holy cow I've missed that guy!
After the training we went on mass exchanges to kinda get a feel of what
other missionaries do in their areas. I went to Marsing and Homdale Idaho! haha
those are 2 extremely redneck little towns lol! I went out with Elder Cellua
and Nelson. E Cellua is freakin awesome! he's from Figi and he plays for the
Figi national rugby team! Holy cow he's a spiritual giant and is seriously one
of the funniest guys I've met! haha when he first came out he called deer American
sheep lol! anyways it was fun and I learned alot from him! Elder Nelson is also
a super nice guy and a very hard worker. So ya we worked in that area all day
on Thursday and Friday morning we met back up and talked about all of the
things we learned and our experiences. Haha and then we drove for 3 1/2 hours
to get back to Lagrande... The Zone leaders picked us up half way so it was fun
to get to spend some time with them! I met Elder Urmsten the first day in the
field and he's going home in 2 weeks! time fly's!
Well as far as other things this week we had some good
lessons for sure! haha we had a really good lesson with Tulley on Tuesday and
we taught him the restoration and how to pray. He said that he always goes over
his day at night before sleep and asks for things about tomorrow anyways, he
says he's just been kinda throwing it out there hoping that someone is
listening and cares!!!! so ya we taught him about prayer and he was super
excited to try it out!! He came to church on Sunday to!! Haha after the lesson
we ate a birthday cake Anne made for me lol she's so funny! it was pretty
awesome to have someone actually remember and care about ya, sometimes people
just see missionary and don't take the time to get to know you as a person.
Anyways we had a really good talk with James about baptism
and what he needs to do to get ready. Right now he's just scared about what his
family will think. We challenged him to pray every morning and night for
strength and to fast on Sunday for answers.
