VACA!

THIS WEEK

This format of email seemed to work well while I was in the MTC. So I'm going to do it like this again today.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was preparation day. We went to Twin Falls. It was kinda rough because we had to go with some other Elders and it took longer than expected. But we did get all we needed. I will send you pics. 

Wednesday:

We went to Oakley! We got lost trying to find dinner and got the Cruze stuck in the mud. We are going to ask for the RAV4, anyway, I found some dead brush and stuck it under the wheel and we escaped. We had dinner and then went to visit a less active family to see how they were doing. We got lost and almost went to Utah. But we didn't. We went to go visit some other families but nobody was home. I don't remember what day this happened, but we also ended up behind the Oakley reservoir, I got pics. I'm fairly certain we visited Walter today too. He is a legend. He is from Peru, he was a shepherd and plays the saxophone. We invited him to the Meridian Temple Open House 

Thursday:

We went out to Oakley for dinner. We had street tacos with a family. Then we went to visit some other families, went the wrong way but I got some good pictures out of it. Later that night we visited an investigator family. They told us that they were Catholic but wanted to talk to us. We went in and told them about the church and being missionaries. They gave us street tacos too. They were good. I ate three of them and when I finished she put three more on my plate. I told her that I was full. She said OK and took one of the tacos off of my plate. They were a very kind family. Really everyone up here is VERY generous and polite. They won't tell us if they aren't interested. They will just say that it isn't a good time or that they are busy. When we ask when would be a better time they just say "anytime". That is pretty much the hint. Also there was a cow in the road. We told him that God has a plan for him and that he could just enjoy life. He liked our message.

VACA!

Friday:

I don't remember most of what happened this day. I should start bringing my journal with me to the family history center. The one thing I do remember was that one other day we were looking for an investigator and knocked on the wrong door. But the lady who opened the door told us that she wanted to get baptized. This caught our interest. She said she had a daughter who was a member who told her that she needed to talk to the missionaries about being baptized, and we were at her door. So she told us to come back on Friday at 8:30, so we did. While we were in there, there were a lot of people in the kitchen making fry bread and saying things that we didn't understand. We asked her if she had a Book of Mormon and she said no. So we went to the car and grabbed a Libro de Mormon and a Book of Mormon. I asked her if she wanted English or Spanish, and she said, "English, I don't want Spanish... We're Navajo." That explained pretty much everything. She kept telling us about how she was going back to Arizona soon but she wanted to come back up here to be baptized. We gave her the first lesson and she was pretty excited about the Book of Mormon (mostly after reading the introduction). Anyway, we told her we could get her a Book of Mormon in Navajo and send the missionaries in Arizona to her as well. It was interesting. We didn't get back to Burley in time to do exchanges so we did them in the morning instead.

Saturday:

We did exchanges today. Elder Hodge went with Elder Sparkman and I went with Elder West. It was good, Elder West is good at not being awkward. Not that Elder Hodge is awkward, he just can't overcome my awkwardness. Elder West has about 6 months left, he is from Fresno, CA. I was talking to him about what he wants to do and he told me he was in between wanting to be a CPA and an Orthopedic Surgeon. So yeah, we're opening a practice together. Anyway, we visited several people in the YSA because English and the day was pretty good. I also got to drive today, that was really fun. I hadn't driven in over 2 months. Elder Hodge had fun with Elder Sparkman too. (They got cussed out at a door)

Sunday:

We had a meeting at 7:00. We woke up earlier than normal. It was like 24 degrees outside and 59 in the house (we have the heater working now, we asked the owners about it and he basically turned it on and off again, now it works, who knew rebooting works on furnaces too?). After the meeting we went to church. Elder Hodge gave a talk. His talk was good. There was a little kid running around on the stand near the end and nobody wanted to chase him down. We came back home and visited with the member family we live with. Apparently they haven't had Internet since Saturday because a truck hit an important magic internet box at the end of the road.

Monday:

Today is Preparation Day! I get to do chores today! Things are going pretty well. Spanish is improving, I feel a little bit less awkward.

One little note is that we occasionally take bathroom breaks at the church building. I like these because if I don't have to go I can play the piano next to the bathroom.

Love all of you!

Elder Hazeslip