April 25^th 2011

It sounds like you had an eventful week mom. You should have ran the guy over. I would have... But you think a little more before you do things than I do. So this week was really good. We had a few ups and then some downs but everything is working out just great. Monday night we went and taught Clara then went to see the Childress'. Brother Childress is over 400 lbs. His wife is a member but he isn't but will be soon. Every time we go over there, no matter what topic we start off talking about, it always ends up that we talk about food. They love food and aren't bad at cooking either. It’s always a good time when we go over there. I forgot my planner again so I probably won't remember anything else for the rest of the week. Tuesday we did a lot of contacting people on the street and tracting. We have been blessed this transfer with super elect people that get baptized but it takes time out of the day to find new investigators. So we have been concentrating on that so our teaching pool just doesn't die when we baptize Kendra and Clara. On Wednesday we had district meeting. It went pretty well. I really like district meeting. We learned some good things about how to teach our investigators about repentance and faith in the atonement. Our zone has been doing really good with hitting our goals in teaching contacting adding new investigators and things like that so instead of them teaching us on those things they can teach us how to help others more. It’s great. Then we went and did some more tracting. We had a great lesson with Kendra and prepared her for her interview the next day. She was supposed to get baptized yesterday but I’ll tell more about that at the end. We then went to Clara’s. She has been doing real well. She was scheduled for this Sunday but she drank Coffee on Monday and has to be clean from all stuff for a week so we have it scheduled for the 30th, this Saturday. On Thursday we did some more finding activities. My allergies have been getting me pretty good so I have to take Benadryl and Sudafed to help me out and it makes me tired so I downed a mtn. dew to get me going in the day. We talked to some nice people all week and got some great return appointments. That night Kyndra (that’s how it’s really spelled) got her interview. She did great and her mom even signed the baptismal record so it’s great. Friday we had weekly planning. We planned some great things in. Then our zone leaders came over and shared with us our transfer reports. I grew a lot this past transfer but I definitely need to keep working on some things. We went out and saw a feel people the rest of the day. We had dinner with someone nice I'm sure but I can't remember. Then we switched up for exchanges with Elder Campbell and Elder Baumer. I went with Elder Baumer in his area. Saturday was fun with him. We taught a lesson first thing in the morning then we went and got some wings for lunch. It was tasty. Then we saw a bunch of random people in his area. We had another lesson with a couple of recent converts. They were pretty cool and reminded me of some of my friends back at home. Then we went to dinner with a member. Their son was super negative and annoying but the people were really nice. Then we went to a second dinner which we didn't know would be dinner. These hard core Jewish people invited us over to have their Satur or whatever it’s called. It’s supposed to be for Passover around Easter. Well it turns out it is a big ol dinner where they eat a bunch of Jewish food that symbolizes some of the things their people went through. They go through it for like two hours and it takes a long time so we just ate and talked about the symbolism then we had to leave. Some of the food was interesting but most of it was really good and it was super fun to hear more about their religion. They have a lot of similarities to ours with some of their rituals and stuff. They were super nice people and I enjoyed visiting with them. Too bad Satan is covering their mind about Jesus Christ being the savior of the World. Then we switched back up from exchanges. It’s nice to take a break from your own area and stuff but I was glad to be back with Elder Hock and in our area. Sunday was a roller coaster. We called Clara in the morning and she said she wasn't coming to church and that she wasn't sure she wanted to join anymore... we were so shocked. So we talked her through it all, had her pray and ask God what he wanted for her and then we had a friend of hers who is a member give her a call to reassure her. She ended up coming but way early with a member who sings in the choir so I went early to sit with her while Elder Hock went to pick up Kyndra and Aunieshia with a member. We were super stoked for Kyndras baptism after church. I got bored so I ended up going and helping the choir out and practiced with them. They needed help. Trust me. Not every ward can rock like ours and with Brother Coffin as the new director I’m sure they rock even more. Well Elder Hock didn't show up for a while so I called him and he said Kyndra wasn't coming to church... if she doesn't come she can't get baptized so I was straight trippin. Her mom ended up calling us during sacrament meeting to tell us she wanted to move the baptism back two weeks so more family and friends could be there which I am all for. But that would have been some information that would have been better brought to my attention yesterday. (Name the movie, Jackie can't answer cuz she knows it for sure) So that was a bummer on Sunday. To top it off, no one signed up to feed us on Easter Sunday... but it was a good day overall. It was great singing with the choir and we had some great testimonies of people that the bishop selected. I taught the Gospel Essentials class on baptism, something I’ve learned a lot about, and it went well. We got to help out in sharing time again in primary and it was real fun. I love little kids. That evening we had a blitz. It was real good. We walked a lot and it was for the Spanish ward so I didn't say one word to anyone the whole time cuz I know no Spanish at all. It was fun though talking with the missionary I was with. Then we had a goal setting meeting and then we went home. This week was good and I can see great things coming up with in the week. Hopefully I get to stay another transfer with Elder Hock. I won't be emailing till Tuesday next week because of transfers. Also let me know what time I should call on mother’s day, I have church from 1 to 4 so probably not then, so just let me know what time and what number to call that day. But if I get transferred then it might be different so we'll see. I'll let you know for sure next week. Well I love you.

Bye

Love Elder Tyler Pete Arnett