December 8, 2009

Hey everyone!
About the Christmas phone call, I have no idea how that will be working yet, but I'll let you know when we get that figured out. We actually have a home phone for our fax machine, because the mission office faxes us stuff, so I don't know if using that is an option or not. We'll probably end up doing calls at one of our Ward Mission Leaders houses.
Hey! Brother Butler is the new bishop! Yay! He'll do a great job. And there is finally a new bishop in the South Shore ward! The suspense is over! Tell Brother Butler that he's awesome for me. :-) He'll be a great bishop.
AND WHY DOES IT KEEP SNOWING IN TEXAS WHEN I'M NOT THERE?! Darn it! lol. That's pretty cool. No snow in the valley here, but it rained all day yesterday. I know that doesn't sound significant at all, but we are in Arizona. I've only seen it rain that much one other time in the past 15 months. (And it was when I was on a bike in Mesa!) We actually went tracting in the rain yesterday-- that was fun. :-) Good thing I had a rain coat.
The slide show sounds cool. I'll have to see it when I get back.
The Piano recital sounds like a success. And Kaydee, playing in front of Prof. Boyd and what's-his-face (the younger guy that really critics you) never really goes well. I'm sure you did fine. And your teacher is actually the one who gives you your final grade.
And Alex's friend not coming to dinner-- that happens a lot. But keep trying. :-) That actually reminds me of a story. . . So we were going to have a baptism this week upcoming week. . . . Samantha was suppose to get baptized. We had an appointment set for Friday so that we could go over the interview questions with her and then the interview was on Saturday. Well, she didn't show up for the appointment on Friday. We tried and tried to call her, but no luck. Saturday she didn't show up to the interview. It looks like she randomly went out of town. Hopefully nothing's wrong. Anyway, the baptism will have to be pushed back to the 26th of December.
I got to do a couple of baptism interviews this week. I did one for a lady named Patty last night. She's really awesome. We had a great interview. She was really nervous, so I read with her Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 ". . . All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church." From what she was telling me, she really is looking for more peace in her life. She's having a lot of things happen to her and her son right now. But I was glad that I had the chance to add my witness to the missionaries that taught her, that the Gift of the Holy Ghost that she would be given after baptism by one holding the authority to act in God's name, would bring that extra peace that she's been looking for.
The holiday season in already taking a toll on our zone. When we got the numbers in from the district leaders Sunday night, it showed that the number of lessons we're teaching has gone down quite a bit from where is was last trasnfer, even though we have two extra companionships now. Elder Seaborn and I are struggling to get lessons in during the week. But we are still finding, and the work is still moving along.
The mission temple trip was great! And the Christmas lights that night were also amazing. Our Zone did amazing. Everyone worked really hard, and according to the sisters at the visitors center, it was the best night so far at the lights. Best of all, everyone had a good time. I'm really glad I'm in this mission where we have the Christmas lights and the Easter pageant. It's a lot of fun to change things up a little bit and see some lights, watch a play about Christ, etc.
And I STILL haven't gotten a letter from Joe. :-P You should "ask(A.K.A. compelled(A.K.A. forced at gun point)) " him again, lol. Maybe not the gun point thing, I think Officer Tammy might frown on that. :-D
Well, that's about it for this week.
Love you all,
Jason
P.S. Oh yeah, and I played Elder Seaborn at checkers last night and I beat him like 4/5 times. So tell Rachel Watts that she may have won before, but I'm practicing!