March 23, 2010

Hello Family!

So guess what's new and exciting in the big AZ (A.K.A. the Oh-No)?

If you couldn't tell, I'm emailing later on in the day than I usually do. Anyone want to guess why? Yes, it was transfers today. And yes, I was just transferred to a small village somewhere in the middle of Africa! I'm sitting in a small hut with a laptop and wireless Internet via satellite. . . . Not really. I'm actually still here in Mesa. (Still not up north. . . . ) But my companion changed. Elder Dursteler got transferred to east Mesa in the Superstition Zone. So now I have a new companion: Elder Coltrin. He's from Idaho and has been out eleven months. This should be a really good transfer. Hopefully he likes to work hard. :-)

I don't know if I told you about the mission split, but the New Mexico Farmington Mission is being made in July (Which is when the mission presidents change-- I'll hate to see Pres. Bassett go!). The new mission will take in all of the reservation up north in AZ, so any missionaries in that zone in July will no longer be in the Mesa Mission-- they'll be in the New Mexico Farmington Mission. There is almost zero chance of me going there, because I'll only have 3 months left when the mission splits off. I don't see why they'd switch me over. But either way it's pretty neat. So, in case I didn't tell you, now you know. One of our Zone Leaders here just got sent up there, so he will likely end up in the new mission. We'll all miss him if he does.

Now that that is out of the way, the most exciting news should come first: We have a baptism this Saturday!

Robin, his wife Serena, and their daughter Jillian will all be baptized this coming Saturday. They are a really amazing family, and I am really excited for them. They had their baptismal interview this past Saturday, we planned the baptism yesterday, and now they're all set to go. I'll let you know how the baptism goes. And if your lucky I'll even send pictures! :-p I still haven't sent you pics of the last baptisms. . . . .

We went on exchanges last week with the Zone Leaders, and some neat stuff happened. Elder Porter came to our area with me, and we set a few baptism dates. We had one lesson with a 17 year old girl that we are teaching named Elvia. We read 3 Nephi 11 with her (if you haven't read it recently, please do). There is a special power and spirit that comes from the book of Mormon, especially when you read the words that the Savior taught to the people here in the America's. Can you imagine being there when Christ descends out of heaven and declairs to the people what he just did for them in Jerusalem. As we read it, Elvia was really seemed to grasp the concepts that the Savior taught. She asked some great questions about the things that the savior taught about baptism. At the end she asked what we need to do to be baptized the same way. Yesterday we had a lesson with her about the plan of Salvation and we set a baptismal date with her.

We've been really blessed in our area, and in the mission in general.

Love you all a lot.
I gotta go, but I'll catch you all next week. Love you all!

Oh! Tell Grandma Mace thank you for me! I need to write to her, but I don't know when I'll get to it. She sent me her conversion story that I had asked her for.

And to grandma Baldwin, Thank you so much for writing me every week!

I love you all.


Elder Jason Mace
The cool Oh-No missionary.