December 20, 2010

Merry Christmasssss! I can't believe Christmas is this week! I feel like there's so much I need to update you on and I probably can't remember everything. You both look SO good! You look so happy and you're glowing for real. You definitely have the light of Christ in you! I love it. It also looks like you're having a wonderful time in Hawaii. I'm jealous but at the same time not because I love the mission. You know this. I'm excited to talk to you on Christmas. It will be great. I'll probably call in the afternoon so you can be up. Maybe around 9 or 10 AM your time. Man I can't believe it's already time for me to call you again. Mother's Day seems like it was just yesterday. Crazy. Alex Crook is going on a mission!? That's awesome. Tell her I say congratulations and tell me where she's going when you find out.

So this week was good. I said goodbye to Elder Packard on Tuesday when we dropped him off in Longwood. Then drove down to the mission office to pick up my new companion. I was standing outside the door and someone opened it quickly and almost tackled me haha. It was Elder Summers! Man it was so good to see him. He's doing awesome. Then I met my new companion named Elder Whitworth. He's from Provo. He lives out kinda by Geneva Rd and Center St. He's a good missionary. Out here for the right reasons. We're doing very well together. The first thing we did after we dropped his bags off was went tracting. And guess where we tracted...grandpa's street. His next door neighbors almost ruined it though! We contacted them and they were like "Oh yeah we know all about the Mormons. Our neighbor Vic Altamore (grandpa) is a member. He has told us all about the Church." So I was trying to rush them and I just gave them a pass-along card and said see ya hahaha. Then I had to lie to Elder Whitworth and tell him that Brother Altamore lived on the other side of the neighborhood. So we got to grandpa's house and and the prank goes down. Same thing he did to me. It was so funny! We got the whole thing on my camera. Elder Whitworth had no idea. Good times.

Thursday we had another appointment with Tom and Jessica. They haven't come to church the past two weeks...bummer. And she doesn't want to set another baptism date. Some people are hard to work with. They are great though. It's just hard to help people realize that waiting to get baptized is like telling the Lord you don't want blessings right then and that you'd rather wait. One day I will invent a chip that I can download all of the information in my brain to and plug it in to people's heads so they can understand the things that I understand about the gospel. One day. Then we got a call from a member in the New Smyrna Beach ward and she gave us a referral for a lady that was in the hospital because her water broke and she was only 20 weeks pregnant. She wanted us to go and give her a blessing. We did and it was a really great experience. The Spirit was so strong in that room. We had the opportunity to share the gospel with them after and give them some Book of Mormons. It was a spiritual experience.

Saturday we had the ward Christmas party at the church. It was fun. Such good food. They put on the nativity and sang some songs. The theme was "A Night in Bethlehem" so everyone came dressed up and they made the gym a little marketplace. They actually did a really great job. It looked real. I wore those cool pj's you sent me to it haha. I love those! They are awesome. Elder Whitworth wanted me to thank you for them as well. He's a lot shorter than me but they fit him alright haha. Oh and thanks for the pants too. That's EXACTLY what i was talking about. And they fit great. But Jeremy and Pam came to the Christmas party and brought a friend also. They had a really good time.

Sunday they only investigator at church was Pam. She'll be getting baptized on 1/1/11. I just got a phone call that she fell down some stairs at work and hurt her foot pretty bad. So pray that she can still get baptized on the first haha. Thanks. That family is so cool. We're going over there to eat tonight. They are making a bunch of green food for Elder Whitworth hahaha. Shh...secret.

So that was my week. Hope you're having a bunch of fun in Hawaii. Love you! Talk to you soon!

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Elder Austin Gable Engemann aka dubEE fresh