I'm in Declo with Elder Livingston feat. Muchos Milagros

I'll tell you what. It has been a long week.

On Monday we had a really awesome preparation day activity at the L's house again. They took us up the hill on their side-by-side and we got some really cool views of the whole area. We weren't even at the highest one, but you could still see from Rupert all the way over to Albion. So this is pretty much our whole area plus some in one picture:

After that we went into their game room. It turns out that the blue chalk stuff does actually make you a better pool player.

Tuesday was a pretty slow day, we were very anxious to find out what was going to happen with transfers, but we found some stuff to do to keep us from worrying too much. We had dinner at a restaurant called Joy's Place out-to-malta. Their signature dish is a FAT steak. They don't weigh them, they just cut it and serve it.

I somehow managed to eat all of the fixin's plus more than half of the steak. The rest of the cow was taken home and awaits becoming a steak quesadilla.

We then got transfer calls...

I'M STAYING IN DECLO WITH ELDER LIVINGSTON!

Really not much of a cliffhanger since I put it in the subject line. But I'm really excited about this transfer!

Wednesday was the goodbye day for Elder Blashill, so we spent it visiting with everyone and telling them that he was leaving. It is a day I will dread when my turn comes, but I'll try to put it off for now. 

Thursday, everything changed. We went to Twin Falls for transfers, I helped load up all of Elder Livingston's stuff (including a decent amount of weights, so hopefully I get ripped this transfer) and we went back to Declo. 

What has happened since Elder Livingston arrived in Declo has been a miracle in and of itself, composed of several small miracles. We restarted the area, everyone who had been contacted in the past, whether or not they were interested, we are trying to contact them again. We have been able to see people that I have never met before, and we haven't hardly had a minute to sit down and take a break.

Timing miracles:

·  We went to go see the Bishop of one of the wards. We got there as he was leaving for a baptism, so we set up another appointment with him.

·  We went to see a less-active member, he wasn't home, we came back that night and he pulled into his driveway right behind us.

·  After a meeting with a Bishop, we saw some fireworks outside the house of a family we had tried to contact twice earlier but weren't home. It was almost 9:00 but we followed the fireworks anyway. Sure enough, the family was home.

·  We went to a family who had pretended not to be home in the past. They weren't home. We were driving in the area and felt like we needed to try it again. The man was standing outside with his dog and we were able to talk with him.

These aren't even all of them...

I've noticed that as I write these miracles down, they happen more often. This has been week 1. Needless to say I'm very excited about this coming transfer.

Here are some other pictures that I took this week! I love all of you!

-Elder Hazeslip

Q & A 

1. What do you need for winter? I hear it’s coming...

Idk yet, probably earmuffs. That was the only thing I regretted not having last winter.

2. How’s that new retainer? Are you wearing it regularly?

Yes every night. It is cool, they took pictures of several angles of my teeth and 3d printed a model of it. Then put shrink wrap stuff over that. Apparently I have a tongue thrust, so while the retainer will keep the teeth straight, because of where I put my tongue my top teeth have as a whole moved forward quite a bit. Also, my bottom retainer is doing something strange too. The tooth right behind where it ends on the right side is moving inwards.

3. Another transfer in Declo! What do you know about the other areas? Do you have a Dream area of the mission you want to serve in?

I'm excited, we have a ton of stuff to do here now. Elder Blashill went to Buhl as a DL with Elder Farr, Elder Gaston left Kimberly and is a ZL in Burley, Elder Arbon is a ZL in Jerome, Elder Blaisdell is a DL in Burley, Sisters took over Jerome Spanish, Half of Burley, and Acequia. I hope I get to serve in either Malta, Sun Valley, or Boise at some point. The odds are good that I will go to at least one of them but who knows?

4. Tell us about your new Comp. How long has he been out, where is he from, where has he served, and what is your favorite thing about serving with him so far?

Elder Livingston is from Ojai, California. He has been out for 7 1/2 months. He his 23 years old and has gone to 4 years of college and since he decided later to serve a mission, he is very serious about it. But not too serious either, he likes to have a good time. But his people skills are great and we can contact anyone and have success. The only area he has served in so far is Buhl.

5. Best day this week?

Sunday was really good, we were SOOOOO BUSY I thought I was going to die. We have a new person being taught!! He is a ginger Mexican from Sinaloa who is up here for the potato harvest. So Declo is now a Spanish area again!!!

6. What did you learn this week?

Lots of things: 1.) If you expect miracles to happen, they happen more often. 2.) Elder Livingston is awesome

7. Any songs on repeat worth recommending?

hmm. God's Greatest by the Moleni Brothers is pretty good.

8. Best meal this week?

That steak was really good. The shrimp with it was also really good!

9. Any questions for me? 

Could you send me the Wikipedia article about the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the quark one was really interesting.