1/23/2012

Hey Everyone!

Wow, so this week was extremely insane! a lot of wonderful things happened along with some sad things as well. But first off, it was great to hear about home! That is pretty neat and odd at the same time that Marisa and Nathan are in our ward now. At least I'll know someone in the ward when I get home. Thanks for giving Matt my address, Mom. I've been wondering how he has been doing, I haven't heard from him since I left home. Oh, and thank you for giving Jade my address, who is this Valeri person you mentioned? Thanks for doing that for me, be sure to encourage my friends to write me still. Page Rook sent me a letter a few weeks ago, I need to write her back, that was nice of her to do that. That is really awesome to hear about the primary class wanting to write me. I'll be looking forward to those letters! That is nice to hear about the snow, we haven't had any for a while, but there has been quite a bit of fog, it's really strange. Ah man, don't even get me started on football, guys. People have been telling me a bit about it off and on. Surprisingly, there are not many pro football fans out here, mainly college. Man I hope the Giants win... To answer your question, Mom, I haven't been as tired lately, I think what it going on is that we have been working so hard during the day, come night time we are so tired, I crash within ten minutes of being in bed and wake up pretty refreshed! I did speak with my mission president a few weeks back, but I never got a reply back, but it's okay. Yeah, it is pretty nuts how fast time is going on my mission, It really hit me the other day about how fast it is going. This only makes me want to work even harder and harder with the little time I have left. I told Elder Payne about that last night and he said that if we work harder then we are now, then we will die. Oh, speaking of my companion, we are both staying here for another transfer. So I'm pretty happy to be serving in this wonderful area for another six weeks.

So like I said before, this week was really insane! To start off with the beginning of the week, Did I ever tell you that every Monday night we go to a cowboy bible study? I don't think I've told you guys that. It's really cool, they start off with some music for a few minutes then they normally read a chapter our of the bible and then explain it, then at the end, there is more music and food! I've made a few friends there, a few people have become investigators!! Neat huh? Remember those two people that I was talking about that want to be baptized? well, we met with them and we talked about the Restoration. Tears were running down both of there faces and almost mine. The spirit was so strong in there, we mentioned baptism and they both still wanted to be baptized so set set a date with them for the 18th of February. They accepted and this is only a goal for them to reach, so nothing is set and stone yet, but if they cannot reach it, then we can always move it around. That was probably one of the best lessons that I have ever taught. So spiritual! We also did some service for a older man and help split some wood. Thank heavens that he had a wood splitter, he has a lot of wood!! I was exhausted at the end. The mans wife came out to see us, she told us that a member of our ward passed away this week and I knew her. She was a older lady that hadn't been to church for a few years due to health and her age. It was sad to hear about that, but at least she isn't in pain anymore, right? Bishop picked us up and we went to her funeral on Saturday, It was hardly a funeral, she was cremated and her earn wasn't even there, it was more of a gathering. Her non member family held it, so our church was not a part of it. Strange huh? we were only there for about 20 minutes.

So on Thursday, we went to another investigators house, and we talked for a while, she has some cats and she is a assistant veterinarian so she knows a lot and wanted me to grab her cat by the back of the neck to hand him to her to show us something. Well I grabbed him by the higher part of the back instead of the neck, I thought it was good enough, well no! the stupid cat freaked out and turned his head and bit me like four times on my left hand. I was more amazed then in pain to see this cat actually do it when this happened. As he was literally biting me, I looked at him and thought to myself: "Wow, this cat is actually biting me, this has never happened to me!" Then I realized that it is starting to hurt so I dropped him and he took off. I almost said some choice words and threw him at a wall as hard as possible, but still, I was in shock. Pretty stupid of me, right? well our investigator pulled me into the bathroom and put some special soap for reasons like that while she was cursing at the cat. All in all, it was pretty funny. We do service every Friday morning at a thrift shop and I told the man that works there who also talks to me about football, and I told him about what happened and showed him the marks on my left hand and he laughed so hard, I thought he was going to pee his pants. I hate cats so much...

So due to safety, I'm not mentioning any names in this story. The other morning, we received a text message from a less-active man. I lent him a book of mine and he told us to come and pick it up, his girl friend is cheating on him and he is leaving town in the afternoon. We immediately went to his place to see what is going on. His girl friend is in a different town for work and he found out that she has been cheating on him and also has been doing drugs again. He practically snapped. The whole place was a mess, as if a bomb went off, all of her belongings, mainly clothes were thrown in the backyard. It was a disaster. We asked him if there was anything that we could do, but there wasn't, so we left and called bishop and told him about what happened. He already found out and was going to see him in a few minutes. We met with Bishop later that day and he told us that the police came and arrested the man and bishop didn't know why. But he did see the police go in and some were wearing white rubber gloves. My first thought was drugs, well we found out the next day that it wasn't drugs, but he killed his girl friends dog by putting him in the washing machine. How demented is that!? and I was only two feet away from the washer! being mad is one thing, but to actually do that? no way. That is no excuse.

I forgot to mention, at the thrift shop, there was a huge stuffed gorilla for sale there, it's one of those that you get at a carnival, well I asked the manager about it and she sold it to me for only $7.00 when it was originally $20.00! I bought it for the girls, If I cannot send it, then I'll just return it. Other than all of that my week was terrific! a whole bunch of spiritual experience happened. We have a fantastic bishop in this ward, he and his wife recently returned from a mission in Kenya in July, so he is still very much gung ho about missionary work. The three of us really work hard together for the work to continue to progress. We were able to see a investigating couple that attend the Bible study, there hearts are defiantly soften for the gospel, so we are going to work with them more and more. The Field is defiantly white out here. D&C:4. Well I think that is all that has happened this week. When I get off, I'll remember something else, it always happens. I love you all! and Thank you for all of your support and all that you do Mom!

Love,

Elder Daniel Stuart