January 24th 2011

January 24^th 2011

Well mother, I think you would be happy to know that instead of putting my cruise control at 10 -15 over I now put it right on the speed limit so no more tickets for me. I actually laugh when I see cops now because they can't give me tickets and I love being in the front of a long line of pissed off people ha! Everybody goes fast but I don't want another ticket and I can't afford it either... So this week was a good week. Some good things happened and things were nice.

On Monday Elder Buttars and Elder Bowman came over and we made some Salsa. It is actually really good. Elder Buttars named it "Hotter than Bawls". It is pretty hot. It has 5 habaneros in it and 4 jalapenos. But it sure is tasty. The rest of the day we didn't do much. We drove around a little bit trying to find things to do. We went to a couple of stores and just looked around and didn't buy anything because none of us have money. We had dinner with a nice family I'm sure but I can't remember who. I also can't remember what we did the rest of the night. I'm sure we visited someone.

Tuesday was a good day. We had a good morning trying to visit people that weren't home. After lunch we went out to visit a couple of people in Ione. We are really trying to find people down there because they feel neglected when were up in Jackson working with Rudy and his family all the time. So we visited a couple of less active families and had a couple of nice conversations with them. We went down to Camanche which has a lake and saw a few people. Upon returning home we noticed a sign saying lake this way so we took a detour and got some really cool pictures of the sun setting on the lake. Then we went through a huge puddle in our truck. It was cool. We had dinner that night with the Fronks. It was really good. I love it when people cook us delicious meat and then give us the luxury of having A-1 to put on it. You all know how much I like that stuff. We talked a little had our spiritual thought then they had us try out some cool puzzle things they had. It was fun. Afterwards we went to Rudy's house with a member of the bishopric named Brother Johnson (He served with Adam in Chicago) and the lesson was a hit. Two weeks in a row we had the right people come with us. They related to Dusty so well and really helped her progress. It was a great lesson. Oh we baked a cake on Tuesday as well. It was Funfetti cake with Funfetti frosting. We waited till Thursday to eat it though.

Wednesday was a day and a half. Man. We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went down to Lodi to be with Elder Manukailea. He is Tongan and is from Long Beach Cali. Didn't go too far from home. We tracted all day long. I'm not even exaggerating; besides lunch dinner and the few people we visited afterwards we were tracting. It was great though. It made the whole day go so much faster. We taught two amazing lessons and got a load of returns, especially for the Spanish Elders. It was fun. We are good friends already because we served around each other down in Stockton and he was Zone Leader with Elder Carlson, my friend, later on. We had a good day but I sure was glad to get back to my truck!

Thursday was kind of a boring day. We went over to Elder Buttar's and Elder Bowman's area for district meeting. It was real good. President Jardine came over a few days before and talked to Elder Bowman. I guess he has been having a lot of struggles in his past with his family and getting hit by a car on his mission and everything and driving around all day gives him too much time to think about it all. So president decided to ET (Emergency Transfer) him to the city so he will be more busy. He only has like six months to go so he is trying to finish out strong. So Elder Buttars will be getting a new companion. After that we came back over to our area and visited some people. There are a lot of nice people up here in the sticks. We had dinner with the Stewarts. We were late because I was going the speed limit but they understood. We had a good dinner of enchiladas. They were good but not as good as my moms. I sure do miss her cooking. We went over to visit Brother Gonzales the ward missionary in Ione because our plans for the night fell through and we hadn't seen him in weeks. We shot BB guns at a target and I got a couple of Bull’s-eyes. It was fun and we got to talk to him about some of the things we were trying to do in his area. After that we went home.

Friday was a great day. We had weekly planning in the morning then at 1:30 we went and did service for Brother and Sister Watson up in the mountains. They had us help them haul some dirt and barrels and stuff, things they can't do due to health problems, and it was really fun. We helped them move some fertilized dirt into a garden area and helped them transplant some carrots and garlic then we dug up their potatoes. They thought they had all rotted but most of them were still good so they were excited. We left there about 4:15 after having a diet coke and trying to catch a fish with my hands in his above ground pond. We got showered and stuff then went to dinner with Brother Zuniga. His wife is an active member but he is not but they wanted us to come over for dinner. We had these little mini tostadas and they were amazing! He made this sauce to put over them that was just divine. It was tomatoes blended up really fine with dill pickle juice and oregano. It was tasty. I stuffy myself with seven of them and he said I did a good job on eating. He was funny but has no interest in being baptized. After that we tried to visit some Part member families in Ione. Then we went home and went to sleep.

Saturday was a boring day as well. We were both tired so we kind of lugged around getting out and then weren't too urgent going to people’s houses. No one was really home the whole day. Oh we were tired because we had to wake up early to meet with Brother Roberts our Ward Mission Leader in Ione, to discuss the missionary efforts in his ward. He said the ward is trying hard to find people for us to teach which is something a missionary loves to hear. We weren't able to see Karey that whole week so we are going over tomorrow. It was a good meeting though.. We were supposed to have dinner with Sister Skujins but we decided we wouldn't because her husband died last Sunday and the funeral was early on Saturday so we thought it would be best to give her some time. He had cancer. It was a super sad story. He retired in June of last year and then started complaining about some soreness in his throat so in October they checked it out and he had Stage 4 lymphoma cancer. He wasn't going to recover from it but they thought he'd live a little longer but the last couple of weeks he really took a dive. We had dinner over there just a month ago and he was up walking and talking and looked not quite fine but ok. You could tell he was sick but not that bad off. It was some startling sad news for the whole ward. We went over to Rudy's because we knew they would have some food for us. They did and they always do. Let’s just say A-1 doesn't taste good on everything, like rice and corn. But we visited with them for a while after dinner and made sure everyone was coming to church. Eve spent the night at a member’s house and would be coming to church with them.

Sunday morning we went to church. It was awesome. Rudy's whole family was there for the first time ever. Olga never comes but decided to this time and she really really enjoyed it. Eve came with the Uhri's the family she spent the night at and Dusty came with Sister Crowley an old lady she does in home care for. She is a member and told Dusty she should be at church and Dusty said she couldn't go cuz she had to take care of her so Sister Crowley said well let’s get me ready and go ha. She is really old and it’s hard for her to even walk so it was nice of her to sacrifice so Dusty could come. Rudy, Tristen and Jr. all came with Olga and it was real awesome to have them all there. Church was great. We went over to the Zunigas for lunch. They wanted us to come over again but just for company, I mean we are really cool guys so everyone wants to hang around with us. We had sandwiches. They were good. Then we went to Rudy's house for dinner and had lemon chicken with pasta. The chicken was really good but I didn’t enjoy the pasta as much. When Elder Byrum wasn't looking I put most of mine on his plate and he didn't even notice ha. I told him afterwards about it. The rest of the night we visited a few members in Jackson and encouraged them to make a profile on Mormon.org. Which is something all of you at home should be doing as well. All you need is your membership record number and you can get that off your temple recommend if you don't know it or ask one of the clerks or the bishop. They can get it for you. We went to bed right away last night cuz I was scared of evil spirits.

So that was our week. Not too exciting but we tried to stay busy. We are still trying to find a few people to work with. The mission goal in February is "Families our Forever February", so they want us to complete Part member families. We started visiting them before the mission told us that was our goal so we know both us and the mission were inspired. It’s neat when it works out that way. Well I hope everyone at home is doing well. I hope you enjoy reading me ramble on about my week.

Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett