Bucket List

May 15, 2012

This is Joe's baptism.  Joe is on the left, and his brother Willie is the other guy in the jumpsuit.  Everyone else in the picture are missionaries that taught Joe.  The guy in the back met Joe almost three years ago when his siblings were investigating the Church, and all the sisters have taught him over the past two years.  Even President Olson came to his baptism.  We were all very excited for Joe.

 

This is my companion Sister Davis with Sister Hill and Sister Carrizalles.  Our ride one day drove a convertible, and Sister Davis was super excited about it.  She said that riding in a convertible was on her bucket list, so she was really happy to get the chance. :)

 

We are teaching a twelve-year-old girl named Michelle.  She is absolutely amazing!  She helps out her parents and siblings so much, and she knows how important it is to be a good person.  Her parents are kind of watching her example to see if they want to investigate the Church, and I know that she will be a great example to them.  Hopefully we will be able to start teaching her parents soon, and that way they can start progressing towards the temple and becoming a forever family.

 

On Monday, Sister Davis had training at the office, so I went with Sister Hill and Carrizalles to study.  Another new missionary, Sister Skidmore, was there as well.  So the four of us had companion study and just discussed the things we had learned in personal study and then read some General Conference talks together.  I feel so lucky to be able to read them as often as I can.  The member that they live with bought us pizza for lunch.  She got a regular pepperoni one, and then a taco pizza.  It is the new flavor that Papa Murphys is advertising.  The pizza had refried beans for the "sauce" and then all of regular taco toppings were on it.  It tasted a lot like a taco, and I am not sure I would ever buy that kind again, but it was fun to try something new.

 

We went on this different type of exchange on Wednesday-Thursday.  Once a transfer, we switch companions so we can see how other missionaries teach and what not.  We also have this different exchange where one companionship goes and joins the other.  So Sister Davis and I were both in South Weber, helping out Sister Hill and Sister Carrizalles area.  Because of that exchange, we were able to help out with some service in Ogden on Thursday.  It is an annual service that all of the missionaries in the Ogden area do to help out a local garden plot thingy.  Basically, we were wedding and mulching and spreading new dirt and picking up trash and what not.  It was a lot of fun to be able to help out, and we got to eat at Chick-fil-A afterwards, which always makes me happy.

 

On Sunday, I talked to you guys!   It was so nice to be able to talk to the family and to hear how everyone is doing.  It was wonderful to hear your voices.  I also made chocolate peanut butter brownies on Sunday.  They turned out pretty well, and I am going to keep on trying to improve the recipe to find the perfect combination. (But not a secret combination...I am reading about those in Alma and man, the Gadianton robbers and secret combinations sure brought a lot of destruction and apostasy to the Nephites.)

 

Random story from teaching:  We were teaching a cute little nine-year-old about tithing, and we were telling her how everything we have is from God, and that tithing is our way of giving back the Heavenly Father.  We were describing the physical act of giving the tithing to the bishop, and she asked how the tithing got to God.  It was so sweet.  She thought we were literally giving the money to our Heavenly Father.  It was awesome.  Teaching people about Jesus Christ makes me so happy.