PRETTY GOOD WEEK

SUZIE Q

Yo what are you doing in Cali! I am 95 percent jealous that you are watching tennis right now. We live right next to 6 tennis courts and it has been warm lately, and there are always people playing. I want to go over there and make a deal with them. If I beat them in tennis then they have to listen to my message. I think missionary work is supposed to be like that. right? Oh well, we can't play today because its 20 degrees outside. But hopefully next week i can play with my ward mission leader. Do let me know who is at the tournament. If federer or roddick or nadal are there i am going to lose it.

As far as my companion goes, he is getting a little bit better, especially with members he is actually starting to talk now. But he is still a little bit green and getting over being extremely sheltered. I learned that he has never had salmon, pasta salad or Elk. We went to a less actives house just yesterday and he had the best habanero elk jerky, dad would have been craving that stuff. It was the best thing i've had in a while. And the coolest fam in the ward bought me some beef jerky because they know that i love it, and they also let me use their golf clubs when i went golfing last week. So here is what i am thinking. Their little daughters all have their birthday within a month of each other. So i was going to buy them like a cake or some kind of presents. Do you think that you could send me like 15 to 20 bucks so i can do that? please. I think they would really appreciate it and after all that they have done for me i think that it is the least that i can do. So please let me know.

This has been a really good week actually. The baptism did go through and it was way awesome! Brandi's parents that are non members came to the bapt and they were listening so intently to what was being said, and when me and elder shepard were teaching the restoration, they ate it up. They don't live in our ward but they live in elder aamodt's ward so i will definately tell him to go over there and set up an appointment because when I asked them what they thought about the baptism, they said they loved it and they were touched by it and their was a great feeling and peace there. BOOOYAH!! haha. It really was a good baptismal service though, her husband aaron was so nervous to do it because they are both really nervous people but when he said the prayer you could just feel the spirit so strong. One thing that we screwed up on thuogh, we forgot to tell them to bring towels, haha so we had to wait a little bit and we filled in the time by sharing a message while someone ran home and grabbed a couple of towels. woops. I wish i would have got to confirm, but aarons uncle did it.

Yesterday at church it was pretty cool, We were studying at the church and i had a feeling like I should invite an investigator to church that day. SO i just asked her (shes a 15 year old and her mom is a member but she is CRAZZZYYY and has lots of medical problems) but we asked her if she was going to church with her dad or if she could come with us and she said she would come. Which i really didn't expect because she had been to church before and she had a terrible experience because she said that all the girls were texting and she just didn't feel like it was church and everyone was disrespectful. But she said that she would come. So i set up a ride to go get her and she did come. After church i saw her and asked her how it was and she said that it was way better than the time before and she liked it a lot. So hopefully we will be able to teach her and she can progress because all of our other investigators right now are really stagnant and are not progressing at all. That is why i hope that we have encouraged te members and they give us more people to teach.

As far as the talks go and the 40 day fast that we are working on, we really have seen a lot of blessings from it already. We had The investigator at church. We had contact and shared a message with a less active that we have knocked on a hundred times and never answered before but he answered yesterday and he said that he wants to come back to church. We had our relief society president make good progress with a less active lady and she actually set up an appointment for us. WHICH IS HOW iT SHOULD BE!!!!! Things in the ward are definatley turning around and i like it. i like it a lot. So i guess my spiritual message could be on the importance of fasting and prayer. And how it truly does work through our faith. Remember to fast for a purpose and not go hungry. Someone in my last ward had a quote that said. "fasting without prayer or purpose, is like having a letter all ready to go but you don't put the stamp on it." and it is true, its like we are doing something good, but without a prayer or purpose, their is no reason for fasting, we are just going hungry.

Anyways, I hope you have a great time in Cali. I'm jealous, please do send me some pictures, send me more from home too :) Also don't forget to think about the 20 dollars, it would mean a lot to me. BY the way, next time you see a homeless guy taking a dump on the side of the road stop and ask him if he would like some help wiping, What would jesus do? haha i'm sorry, i shouldn't have said that but that is absoletely gross and hilarious. let me know what you guys do in California! I love you and hope that you have a great week! PEACE. LOVE ELDER GNEHM