Emails Feb. 27, 2012

How did things go this past week? What are your plans for today?

I guess I was busier this week so it seemed like it came by faster ha ha.

I can't even remember what we did this last week, except for Saturday. We had two appointments with our investigators and a dinner/birthday party to go to. Our first appointment was with the couple that needed help. The husband is really progressing. He's read what we gave him to read and really enjoyed that. We taught them 3 lessons already. They came to church 3 times now. He cut his hair because it was long and he wanted to wear church clothes but he didn't have a tie. I gave him one of mine and he really liked it. We asked him if he wanted to get baptized and he said he would like to but wanted to know a little bit more before making the decision. The wife is a Baptist and she said she doesn't want to change but he really doesn't like her church. She'll get baptized after her husband gets baptized.

Our other appointment was with the guy that asked for the Prophet Biography book. He is loving the book.

I'm not sure what we'll do today.

I watched some of the videos you sent.

Why did you walk down a one lane dirt road? I didn't see any houses. Were there supposed to be houses back there? I would have thought you would ride your bikes.

hahaha, I tried to make it funny as possible. There was one house, the one where we were at. I didn't film it because I was trying to be funny because I said something about it at the beginning. The part that I showed the Penske truck there's a subdivision behind it. We locked our bikes there and tracted in the place for a bit before going to that one house. It was a less-active member.

Emails Feb. 20, 2012

I got a calling today....Cub Scout leader for Wolf. You think I can handle that?  ha ha

Actually, I can't believe as big as the wards are here that we are combined with the Meadows Ward for cub scouts. There's only 8 boys - 3 are Ridgecreek.

I've been telling people my youngest is almost 22 and coming home from his mission in June....it's been awhile since I helped in cub scouts, but it should be like "riding a bike" as they say.

But I was never a cub leader....officially.

I guess it's been 11 years since you left cub scouts, but why does it seem

so much longer than that? It just seems like forever ago you were that little.
Wow, that just blows my mind, because 11 years really isn't that long.

So how was YOUR week?

I think you can handle that. It comes from the Lord.

A lot of stuff happened in those 11 years. So it seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that it happened.

So this is what happened during last week. So two Sundays ago we kind of "chastised" the ward about dinners. So this last week got filled with dinner appointments and this week as well. But this past week we've been getting a lot of phone calls...not just for dinners but for appointments and other stuff like that. So I've been pretty stressed this whole last week. Yesterday didn't help at all. We had a zone conference with Elder Gavarrett of the Presidency of the Seventy and the day seemed to take forever. I don't mean to put down a general authority but he was monotone and he had a thick Spanish accent and we were there for four and a half hours, it was hard for me to concentrate. Other people spoke as well it was just a long and boring day. We got lost driving through Atlanta...oops  ;D

Emails Feb. 13, 2012

How did your week go?

It went alright. One of our investigator’s aunts died and he was pretty upset. We saw a less active lady who knows my companion. Her sister is in the Monroe ward and that's where my companion served. He's good friends with that family in Monroe. The Less active sister even took us out to eat, which was pretty cool. We told the family that and they were shocked. They said that she's never done that with any missionaries, she won’t even answer the door when they come by. We also saw a couple that’s investigating, kind of. I would say now they are. They came to church last week, didn't make it this week because of health issues. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and the husband was really excited about it. He told us that this is what he wants. It was pretty cool but that was basically all that happened.

That must have been fun, to babysit your grandson on your birthday, I'm glad you liked the birthday card I sent you. Man, all these people that you guys are meeting are all from Georgia! Ha ha. I did get your last letter and I was going to reply in an email.

I was asking if you gave out my address because a friend sent a letter directly to me and I didn't know how she got it, unless I did, but I don't recall doing such a thing. Maybe the PO is returning mail on purpose and the system is not messed up. I think we're at "war" with them ha ha. We were told that the PO was going to stop forwarding mail. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe because they're going down the drain and losing money, then we were told we're within our rights to get mail forwarded.

That's funny because I do feel like I've been forgotten, not necessarily from the ward. Friends have stopped writing and I mailed John and Johnny back but I haven't got anything. I did get mail from a couple ward members and I wrote them back. But I just don't really get anything anymore. I don't really care I'm coming home in 3 and half months ha ha.

So you got the letter from the mission. I thought they were going to send it out beginning of next month. Were you still planning on coming down? I'll still be a missionary if you come down and tour the mission. I just figure it's easier to get released then come back then we could go other places.

So, Daniel's new companion is from Roy, UT. My companion now and my last one, their family moved to Roy. He moved from Ogden.

My companion wants to know if his name is Kyle Stanger? Well that's kind of funny how both our companions are from the same town ha ha.

No, Daniel says it’s not Kyle.

As much as I would like to come out for your farewell testimony meeting it will probably be better to wait till July then, then we can travel and see more of Georgia.

Stanger’s were in my companion’s last ward. He says that there is a bunch of Stanger’s in Roy.
Well supposedly the wards letters got sent back, so I don't know.
Yeah, it just seems like a better deal to just wait a little bit. I'm pretty sure I can get buddy passes to come back to Georgia so the trip out here would be free.

Emails from Feb. 6th

(We're trying to comprehend the distance to certain places.) Ceres to San Diego is about 7 hours.

That's what I couldn't comprehend when I got here. How small the state is. Before the dedication of the Atlanta temple members were going to Alabama and South Carolina and I thought they were all crazy to drive that long but it's only like 3 hours one way.  It's takes us 30 minutes to get to Ellenwood, it's on the other side of the ward.

I really didn't care who won the Super Bowl, just watched mainly for the commercials. I didn't think any of those who super great either.   It was a good game though, scores kept going back and forth, but the Giants finally took over at the end and they won 21 to 17.

The last time they played each other at the super bowl was 2008 and Giants won 17 to 14.

How was your week?

No one down here likes the Patriots; everybody was going for the Giants. Also, did you know that "Gone with the Wind" was about Jonesboro, GA? They have a museum about it and everything down here.

The week went good this time. On Saturday we had two good appointments. In the morning we went to see that couple who needed help. Bishop was also there. We taught the Restoration and it was pretty awesome. We invited them to church and they actually came. I asked them how they liked it and they said they wanted to come back next week as well. We also saw the investigator who we had trouble getting to church. Now it's not really a problem because he's getting up and he came 3 times now. He has a super strong testimony and he wants to start having a Family Home Evening with his kids. He's really working on changing his life around, it's pretty cool.

Awesome! Sounds like you might have some more baptisms before you leave.                                 That's funny that they're for New York, but I guess they're happy now.                                                  
I didn't know that. I knew it was near Atlanta or in Atlanta. Did you ever watch "Gone With the Wind"? I don't remember you watching it at home. I have the two VHS set, I don't know if I even opened it yet.

Yeah, hopefully. The one investigator wants to get baptized on Feb. 18th but he's on probation and I know most probation you can't get baptized until after it's over but he didn't do anything serious. I need to talk to P-Dub about it.

Yeah, especially since both are northern states. Patriots are more north I guess.

No, I never watched it but it's big down here.  After I got here and heard about it I want to watch it now.

It's funny how they say that the Post office is practically going out of business and they're going to cut people and all this stuff. The Post office isn't hurting down here. All the ones I've been to in my area is always packed.

I went to the Riverdale PO and I think I sent a package Friday or Saturday and they said it would get there Monday and I thought that was pretty fast maybe that's normal. Just to let you know the Riverdale PO is out of the mission...oops, oh well.

Haha, it's the closest one to us and it's right on the other side of the boundary line.