11-3-13

Family,

Sounds like y'all had a good week. I feel super bad for Cody, though. I hope that you can work out a way in which he can get better before his mission. He will definitely need that knee before he goes and I think the fastest he can go out on his mission, the better. What was the plan again? Was he planning on going to one or two semesters at BYU-Idaho before his mission? My opinion is that he should do one, but that's just me. Let me get on to my week and then we'll see how much time I have to elaborate on yours.

So this was a week full of miracles. So on Monday, we had to play sports at the stake center. Ironically, the gym at the stake center was smaller than the Westlink building so it wasn't as fun. But we had a good old time. That night, we had a lesson with a new investigator that has shown interest in meeting with us for quite some time now. She is a friend and co-worker of a member of our ward and goes to the Assembly of God church. She had lots of questions and we did our best to answer them. I feel like if we just share the entire restoration with her, her questions will all be answered (other than those about the after life). She said all she wants to do in meeting with us is find out what the church is about. I feel like next time we should really lock down and invite her to make and keep commitments like baptism and coming to church. For our purpose isn't merely to teach people what our church believes, but to invite others to come unto Christ and partake of His salvation. So just some revelation for me before we had to go home and have our weekly conference call with all the zone leaders, AP's, and mission president.

Tuesday was a super busy day. We did service in the morning by doing more priming and painting the interior of a newer house. It was pretty boring but we got it mostly done. I enjoy scraping the cement floors, though. I just scrape off any dry paint spots. At 2, we had an appointment that fell through and another one that fell through at 3. So so far, our goals did not look like they were going to be fulfilled that easily. At 4:30, we went to the member home we USED to stay in and moved everything out of the room we were staying in. The accumulation of 2 years worth of missionary stuff was quite the project. But we got it done. The member later told us that it took her over an hour to clean the shower. Sorry, I didn't know how to clean it. I know that's sad to say but whatever. The housing coordinator guy that was helping us was ticked that we hadn't packed any of it. I hate packing and stuff because it takes time away from proselyting.

After the move and making the room look nice, we went to dinner and then the lesson I was looking forward to all day. This lesson I will remember forever. The spirit was stronger in that room than in any lesson I've had in a long, long time. She wanted to commit to baptism at the start of the new year but after much praying and guidance by the holy ghost, she knew what she had to do and accepted a date for November 16th. That is when my next baptism is. Elder Johnson and I were so pumped especially since this will be Elder Johnson's first baptism on his mission. She feels guilty because she doesn't feel like she's repented of her sins. We assured her that she can be. At the end of the lesson, she had a personal prayer for like 8 minutes straight. That is when she knew it was right to be baptized on that date. So that was an awesome experience that I will always remember.

Wednesday it rained like crazy. When I mean rain, I mean rain with hail. It was coming down hard. As we knocked at a house where we had an appointment, it was crazy to see the rain flowing down the street like it was. The appointment fell through and I'm glad none of my clothes got ruined  It was cold, too. We had an appointment fall through that night, too. The church had a trunk or treat that night that we caught the very end of. It was super cool to see some of the costumes that some people came with. The sister missionaries serving in our ward wore mustaches.

Thursday was Halloween. Also on this day, an Elder in the zone got emergency transferred out to Garden City. I am pretty sure I know why, I just don't want to tell anyone. So we were with another Elder all that night and for the next few days. I didn't mind that because he is super cool. Let me tell you how busy we were that night: at 5, The Maize 2nd ward Elder that we were with had an appointment that ended up actually being 5:30. We had dinner at 5:45 that we arrived at 6 and then we had a meeting with the stake president at 6:30 that we arrived to at 6:40. Then we had FHE at 7 back at the bishop's house: the same place where we ate dinner at. So it was a super busy night. There was a sister in our ward that got her mission call too. Our stake president showed us a picture of her holding her call. The anticipation was super high. We tried calling her twice without her answering her phone but she came to FHE and told everyone that she was going to (wait for it.......) Carlsbad, California!!! I was stoked! Yesterday, I told her all about her mission and what it's like. I also told her about the vista stake center that has 2 stories and 2 chapels with a full sized basketball court. I'll have to look at her mission map because I'm not sure how close that mission gets to ours. Do you know if the Poway or Del Mar stakes are in that mission? I'm pretty sure Escondido is. But anyways, I was super excited for her. I also told her about how there are lots of Samoans in Oceanside. She got a kick out of that and is super excited. She enters the MTC on January 15th. So look out for someone from Wichita, Kansas! She's coming! I know we live in the San Diego mission but our stake borders that mission.

There were lots of trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood where we were. That night, we had an appointment with a less active of ours and invited her back to church. She said she would but didn't show yesterday. Hopefully she's doing okay. It may have been because we forgot to text her some scriptures to read, I don't know. Hopefully she can come to church sometime.

On Friday, we did the zone mileage report before attending a district meeting. Then I went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders! I was super excited to speak some Spanish. The first appointment we went to, they were talking so fast so I didn't know what they were saying and then all of a sudden, my exchange companion looked at me as if it was my turn to speak. Let me tell you, that was tough. I didn't know what we were talking about and then it was my turn to speak. I just bore my testimony, pretty much and invited him to come to church. I don't think I made sense but was glad to get that experience. After another lesson with some Spanish people that I could understand a little better, we went to dinner with a family where the parents only spoke Spanish but the kids spoke English. So that was a little better for me. We then did some biking and by that time, I was worn out from speaking all the Spanish and biking everywhere in the cold weather. I'm not complaining because it was fun; I am saying that it would be tough to do another day of that. That was super fun to be able to be a part of that.

Saturday we helped move another member in the Spanish Branch before going to a correlation meeting with my regular companion in English. I was tired but it was good to be able to get some progress in the ward and dinner calendar. In fact, we had dinner with them that night and had a good time telling stories about sleep walking and stuff. I told about how Cody once peed down the stairs. Good times. Good times. We stayed super late, though. I regret that. We'll do a better job next time, I promise. Before we went home, we were quite limited on the mileage use for the day. But we went to see one of our investigators anyways because I knew that they needed what we have for them. When we got there, it was 3 teenage girls (18-20 years old) doing their nails before the male came home from getting something. We had a great conversation and invited them all to church. There was 4 of them and they all said yes. I was pumped about that. They all did come too! They may not have been too reverent during the service, but they came. I was in the other ward when they came. Elder Johnson said we have some teaching to do with them. The investigator that we taught on Tuesday bore her testimony, apparently. that was super exciting. I feel like she's more solid than the most recent baptism that we had last month. Speaking of her, she hasn't been to church for a very long time and I am very concerned for her and her RM boyfriend. I will be praying for them. Yes, I did bear my testimony too. It was about the work of salvation. Sorry, nothing about Cody's patriarchal blessing. After church, we had a linger longer then saw a little bit of the boy scout broadcast celebrating 100 years of scouting in the church while at dinner. I thought it was cool to watch. That night we watched the CES broadcast by Russel T. Osguthorpe: Sunday School General President. it was a good talk which talked about using our will to become our Father in Heaven's will. It was way good. After that we just concluded our day and week. So that was our week full of miracles!

Okay, I have time to elaborate on your e-mails. ACL surgery, huh? Have you set an appointment with the surgeon to get that fixed yet? Hopefully you can soon because there needs to be some way that Cody can heal quick enough for stuff. Dang, Jayson. Only 9 pounds of candy? Oh well. You can do better next year. Did Caitlin bear her testimony? If so, then we all did! Woo! Where in Ohio is Dallin moving to? Is it Akron? Do you know what mission that's in? I was just wondering because Whitney might be serving there. Oh I keep wanting to tell Caitlin about something. So apparently Billy has a cousin that lives in Queen Creek (I think it's a cousin) that you (Caitlin) hang out with a lot. So there's a member of the singles ward here where his last area on his mission to Tempe, Arizona that served in her ward. Named Elder Phillips. So you should ask her about him. There's one connection to family that you didn't expect, is it? haha. Anyways, I best be off. Y'all have a great week! Ours will be great! We have zone conferences this week with Elder Nash (1st quorum of the 70). It should be a great meeting. This will be my second general authority visit of my mission. The other was Elder Gavarret back in January. I love you all,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "Can I stay with you?"

"Huh?"

"Can I stay with you...please?"

"Of course!"

"Really?"

"No."

"Oh c'mon! You have no idea what it's like out there being a freak! Well, maybe you do. But that's why we gotta stick together. Just let me stay with you, please?!"

"Okay! but one night only."

"Ah! Yes."

"We'll stay up late, tell some manly stories and in the morning, I'm making waffles!"