March 19^th 2012

I'm sorry for not emailing too much last week. We were meeting up with two other zones to play football and we had a good long drive to meet at the turf fields we were playing at and we didn't want to be late being the zone leaders of one of the zones and all. I am glad we were on time too because the zone leaders from one of the other zones showed up like 30 min. late and everyone was griping about them. It was fun though playing football. One of the zones was really big so we played our zone and another vs. the big zone which happened to be North Sac, where i just came from. They had probably 8 more players than us and we were killing them. Elder Fitt is really good at QB and we were getting a lot of interceptions so we all decided to split up into four teams and have a tournament. We won our first game and lost the second. But it was still pretty fun. So that’s why i was so rushed to email fast. After the sports we didn't have time to email more cuz we wouldn't be near the computers and stuff. So yeah that’s the reason why. It sounds like everyone enjoyed their break. I think it was spring break for a couple of schools around here but it sure was a crappy one if that’s the case. It rained all week long. We got plastered on Friday and Saturday and it was on and off pretty good yesterday. We did stay pretty dry and i held out pretty good until today. Elder Fitt starts getting sick if the heater is running and i start getting sick if it’s too cold while I’m sleeping so we switch on and off each night but the past two nights it was freezing and we forgot to turn it on so we woke up to like 55 degrees in our apartment. So i got up at 4 this morning and turned it on. Believe you me i won't forget to turn it on tonight. But i am not sick, I’m just congested. Like you know the area behind the nose and mouth where the two meet? Well that’s where it’s sore which usually means I’m starting to get sick but i can catch it with this much notice. Also, luckily the forecast shows for no rain so far this week and it will be getting up into the mid to upper 60's so that’s good. My temperature tolerance has changed quite a bit. Back home i would put a sweater on if it was in the 60's now i where my short sleeved shirt if it’s 63 or more! So hopefully i don't become a wimp to the Arizona heat. But yeah so i have wanted to say this for a few weeks but i keep forgetting. My new camera broke... i took a picture of me and another missionary and the strap was around my finger and when he took it to look at the picture my finger yanked it out of his hand and it fell to the ground on the open lens and then it wouldn't work because it said it had a lens error. That probably could have been fixed pretty easy but i tried to fix it myself with force and now there is a bad lens error... So i don't know if it had a warranty or anything? It should be less than a year old depending on when you bought it so maybe it can be replaced. I figured out how to get my old camera to take pictures pretty good but the new one is clearer still. So yeah i have forgotten to say that for like a month. Also mom, we have been going to Safeway because it is close to our apartment and i use your Safeway club card and you now have 3 gas rewards saved up which means you get 30 cents off a gallon! If you fill about 15 gallons that’s like 4.50! So yeah you have that. You probably knew and stuff but i just wanted to make sure it doesn't go to waste. So there’s that. So Elder Perry and Elder Maynes did visit us last week. I totally forgot to even mention it in my email last Monday. It was pretty dang cool! Elder Maynes had a really good talk and so did Elder Perry. Elder Perry talked about some things they are going to be working on with the wards and they want our help. They want the ward to rescue 10 less active families with a priesthood holder in the home and they want the missionaries to teach the people. They said we are the best teachers they have and a lot of these families have unbaptized children. So that’s going to be cool. He talked to us about the church and how it has been set up and organized since the beginning of time. He also talked about the international recognition the church has been getting because Mitt Romney is running for president. He said we are going to be getting asked a lot more questions about what we believe and that if we stick to the doctrines in the scriptures rather than things we might have heard from someone then we will never go wrong and never be confounded. So that was really cool. One of the coolest things though was when i saw an old friend there! The whole Sacramento mission was there as well as half of the Roseville mission. Well when i was walking through the chapel filled with around 300-400 missionaries i heard someone yell out "Petey?!" which i don't hear too often and i turned around and one of my friends i hung out with a lot my Junior year with Jordan Banner was standing there! His name is Dexter Van Lueven. I don't know if that’s how you spell his last name. But he is in Aaron Allen’s ward. Honestly i didn't even know he was on a mission! He had to wait a little while but he is out! He has been out 17 months so yeah that was cool. He thought i had finished but i haven't but it was super cool to see him. It was like the stories in the Book of Mormon when Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah meet up and they are super excited because they are all still in the faith so strong. That’s how it felt. He came to my Farewell but i haven't heard from him since then. So it was pretty cool. It was fun to see him and to know he is out here. So that was super exciting. This week was good though. We found out that Matthew the miracle find lived in a different ward so we talked to him yesterday about it and he knew so he won't be getting baptized into our ward but he will be getting baptized this Saturday. So that was a bummer but it’s still great that he is getting baptized. Rose is being bad. She is super disobedient and she is rude. She loves talking back to her parents and she doesn't do what they say so they said it will be awhile till she gets baptized. So that was lame. She is so close but so far. We weren't able to meet with Angela at this week which was a bummer. But we will visit her this week so we can get her prepared for her baptism on April 21st. We were able to add a new investigator this week too which was really cool. Last December the stake president challenged the stake to get 100% home teaching well our ward did it so he has extended the challenge once again. So our ward has been working hard at that. One of the guys in our ward named Cody Hill was visiting one of his ladies and she wasn't home but in the retirement home was another lady who worked there and she asked what he was doing and they had about a 45 min. conversation and she was pretty interested and has a lot of questions so he set up an appointment for us to go over with him to teach her. So we did and it was great. Her name is Debbie and he mom was a member but her dad didn't want anything to do with the church so the kids were raised Baptist or something. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was pretty excited. So yeah that was cool too. I love when members do the finding for us! So this week was really good. Hopefully the rain stays away for a good time and that it warms up soon. I hate rain. So yeah that’s it. I love you. Have a good week.
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Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett